A trip down memory lane...

We got up early and jumped on the M6 (again) and headed for Raymond MacPherson's place, near the Scottish border. We only made one wrong turn, and intelligently ignored the GPS's suggestion to drive into a field, landing at Raymond's a few minutes early (we allow time for several detours when guessing at our ETA). He and his lovely wife Margaret invited us in to their beautiful home for tea. We all sat in awe as Raymond recounted stories of famous dogs and handlers, and of his travels through the UK and North America. He had known the great J.M.Wilson and and his spectacular dogs. Raymond told us stories of his own famous dogs and of working them on the hill. The pictures and memorabilia were fantastic...

After tea, we went out to work dogs in a near-by field. The field had "rashes" (reedy type brush) running across the middle of the field which created a virtual fence, and the sheep seemed a long way away on the other side. All of us were a bit nervous, but Mary Lou elected me to go first. I wanted to work on Craig's outrun, but naturally he was perfect. However, when driving them back to the top he decided to act like he didn't know how to drive, and Raymond kindly insisted there was a dead spot in the field for sound.

Raymond explaining a finer point to Linda and Mary Lou...


After we'd all had a go, the rain started and it was cold, so we headed back to the house. Margaret had laid out a beautiful lunch, and I proceeded to make an impression by knocking my head on a low flying ceiling light in the kitchen. Since Raymond is at least 3 inches taller than me, I figured I wasn't the first.

As we head back towards The Shepherd's Barn, we are looking forward to tomorrow, where we will try to set our new record of three trials in two countries in one day. May the sheep (and sat nav) be with us!

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