It’s been a very big beginning to year 2010 can you all believe that it is almost Easter already???

We have a family tradition (in Jims family) in that his mother always makes the family her own fresh hot cross buns every Good Friday. His mother is now approaching 85. It has been like this every Easter as long as he can remember. There is nothing better that the smell of his mothers' fresh Easter buns cooking in a hot oven and a fresh bun with butter in my hand. This will always be one of my most constant and endearing reminders of the Easter Season.

Our website has undergone many changes and updates and we want to thank Amanda for giving us the motivation to undertake this project and keep the website more up-to-date.

Of course every Easter there are the rushed trips to Sydney thrown in all for good measure to attend either the NSW Weimaraner Club Easter specialty Show or the Royal Sydney Show, both usually mean early starts, lots of travel, a busy day and late home again. This year we can only attend the Royal Easter show as we have a number of other commitments including family and we also we have a litter of puppies from our lovely Lizzy who has returned to us at Somerford to have her first litter.

Lizzy currently has 11 puppies that are now over a week old and they are all thriving. We will be keeping the pick female from this litter and our friends at kadma are taking the pick male to campaign in Queensland.

Lizzy is a great mother and is so careful in the way she pays individual attention to her puppies. At this stage they are beginning to learn to walk and I find they can be a great time waster as we often just sit watching them feed or crawl around their whelping box.

Our special news at the moment is that our dog Legend is currently the No1 Weimaraner in Australia in the national and breed categories of the Dogzonline competition and for this we need to thank Shannon Barden who more recently has taken over as his handler from Amanda Lavercombe. Both handlers have done a wonderful job presenting Legend to the judges. As a mature dog Legend is enjoying working with Shannon and recently they won RUBIS (All Breeds) at Wallamba in NSW. Well done guys..there is more to come yet!

We would like to wish all of our friends a happy and safe Easter 2010 and we hope you all enjoy your dogs!

Well what a busy time Somerford have had! Since Jim's last Blog entry, there has been Christmas, New Year, birthdays, a litter, Shannon joining the team and lots of plans made... one of these plans is to try and update our website... it has been rather negleted of late as we have all been very busy... however, with the new year we have decided that this is a priority to keep our weimaraner friends updated on all things Somerford!!

Over the next few months we plan to keep the pace going with lots of dog shows entered. With Judy titled and heading towards maternal duties, we now need to get Bette's show champion title and she too will become a mum. We hope to have lots of little weimaraner puppies about during 2010 and look forward to the excitement that brings. We love meeting the new puppy buyers and hearing the wonderful stories as they settle the newest member of their family into their homes.

We re planning to head off to the Weimaraner National in May and watch the best Weimaraners in Australia compete. It is always very interesting to view the dogs of different kennels and it is incredible to see so many weimaraners in the one location. It is a fabulous gathering and we look forward to catching up with lots of our friends.

I will try to keep this blog updated each month or so, time permitting!! If you have any photos or snippets of information you want to share, please email us so we can include it in next months blog!

Happy wishes and good luck in all you do,

Amanda and ....The Somerford team xxoo -  

The year 2009 is passing very quickly at Somerford, already we are passed the half way point of the calendar year and we are also on the tail end of Winter in Australia. Those yummy soul warming golden days of Spring are just around the corner and as Spring always brings the promise new beginnings I wonder what is in store for us all this Spring?

As the warmer weather approaches I know an overseas holiday has been planned for the Somerford boys. Danny has an aging Grandfather in Macedonia who he hasn’t seen since 1997 and he has been very keen to see his grandfather again for a long time. His Grandad was a very important family figure in his younger life growing up as a child in Macedonia. We will travel via Italy for a week and then a short stop in Hungary before reaching Macedonia and then a quick stop off in Hong Kong on the way home to Australia.

With the weather warming up we have been exploring some of the very beautiful walks in our neighborhood. There are a number very wonderful coastal walks surrounding our property and I have put some photo’s of the Glenrock Track on our website for you all to look at. This beautiful walk to the beach starts along our back fence The loop walk takes us through the State Conservation Area down a very lovely rainforest glade to the beach and then back up to our front door. Please enjoy the photos taken at the weekend.

We have had a great year with our dogs. At the moment ‘Lizzy’ – Ch Somerford Liz Taylor is really living up to her name, she is truly a beautiful Star. At the moment she is No 1 in the nationwide competition on Dogzonline for Rising Stars (click link & scroll to bottom of page). In her last four shows she was been placed Best In Show at the Weimaraner Club Qld (Op) Show, Best Junior in Show at the Weimaraner Club Qld (Ch) show (under International Breed Specialist Judge Mrs Gale Young USA), the following weekend she was awarded Best Junior in Group and this last weekend was again awarded Best Junior in Show which sent her to the top of the Dogzonline competition. We are very proud of our Lizzy’s results and congratulate her handler in Queensland Kevin Horne who has a very special relationship with this little star. Lizzy is currently leased to Carol Thompson of Kadma Weimaraners in Queensland. This year we repeated this succesful mating that produced Lizzy and she is now joined by her sister ‘Halle’ Somerford Halle Berry owned by Carol Thompson who, by the way, I hear did very well at her second weekend out last week beating some tough competition.

Our ‘at home’ dogs are also doing very well on the local circuit against tough competition and they are all placed well in the various national online competitions particularly when one considers that we are not ‘out’ at dog shows every weekend, preferring a balanced approach to our busy lifestyle we do not enter shows every weekend. We are very proud of ‘Legend’ – Ch Somerlaren Ima Legend, ‘Bette’ – Somerford Bette Davis who has already won class in groups and class in shows and is only 8 months of age and ‘Judy’ - Somerford Judy Garland who has also had similar success on the same circuit to Bette.

We want to especially say a BIG thank you to our friend and team mate, at Somerford, Amanda Lavercombe who helps us so much in so many ways. Amanda holds a full time job, has two children under 5 and rarely misses any shows that we have entered and she also attends weekly practice sessions with all the dogs and is a much loved and highly respected member of our team – thanks Amanda.

This week we also need to congratulate Colleen and Tony who have Judy’s litter brother REX – Somerford Duck Assasin who is currently being trained for his debut in field work next year. Last week Colleen gave birth to their first child a little boy called Zac Thomas, well done guys.

I just wanted to thank all of our puppy buyers who purchased a puppy from our last litter in June 2009, thanks for your cards and emails keeping us posted on the progress of your puppy's it sounds like they are all doing well and that you are enjoying the new additions to your family. I will endeavour to get some photos up on the web and some of your emails also. Thanks again and we are so happy you are enjoying your new puppies!
Till the next Blog......... Keep luven those dogz......

I hope all my readers had a great Christmas and a Very Very Happy New Year.

We have had a delightful break from work, we are rested and ready for the challenges and opportunities that 2009 will present.

The weather has been perfect, if not a little too hot on some days and we could now do with a little rain again.....yes I hear the groan from my Queensland readers and I know that you have had a very wet summer to date so please send some rain down here for us to share.

Our puppies are doing really well they are all very even in size they are very playful and are nearly 7 weeks old ..... wow where did that time go?

They have now had their 6 week vaccination shots and they will have their last vaccination shots before they leave here early next week. They can start going to their new homes in the middle of next week. If you are collecting your puppy next week then you can now phone Danny 0438 289 798 to arrange a suitable collection time. If you need to know what to get before you collect your puppy please read our FAQ section.

We have had a great holiday spending time with our friends, having fun days at home with the puppies and our dogs and also special times at the beach and relaxing in the wonderful summer weather we are experiencing at the moment. We spent Christmas with Amanda and Damien Lavercombe and their family and had a great lunch and a relaxing afternoon. We also had a great New Years Eve partying with our friends the Follington's on their property at Warners Bay. It was a great night although very tiring the next day as we both needed a grandpa nap in the afternoon.

Last weekend was the first point score show for the NSW Weimaraner Club and Danny and Amanda made the long trek to Wollondilly where Legend was placed Res Challenge male and our baby  - Somerford Judy Garland who needs her own page soon won Best Baby of Breed. Ellie also placed Best Junior of Breed.

The best news however was from Queensland where our movie star minor puppy - Lizzy  Somerford Liz Taylor - , in Queensland with Kevin and Donna Horne, had an amazing start to the New Year winning Challenges both days on the weekend and on Sunday Best of Breed, RUIG and Best Puppy in Show. Hope George and Michelle are also following her progress as she is a decendent of their Am Ch/Aust Ch Deerpaths Charlemagne.

Lizzy and Kev are having a great time in Queensland and Lizzy is steadily climbing the breed ladder in the online competition. Check out her progress on Dogzonline.

Tomorrow it is back to work for Danny, I guess we are both a bit sad that the break is over so quickly but also a little excited about the potential we see in 2009.

Before I forget how can I not congratulate Laine on the success of her import 'Mark' winning Best in Show last night in his first weekend of shows in Australia - Well done team Ashlaren! .... and congratulations. All that said........not a bad weekend and end to the holidays.

Till next time that is all from me.

Jim

Well it is officially that time of the year when we all begin to celebrate Christmas and shortly after that the end of year celebrations will begin.

At Somerford we have a lot to celebrate and be thankful for this year.

I guess the first thing that we need to be grateful for and to celebrate is that we all survived a fairly tumultuous year. This time last year all the headlines were about the booming economy and wow hasn't that changed in a relatively short period of time?

For Danny and I this has been a good year. We are so grateful to have Amanda Lavercombe working on our team and handling the show dogs so competently in the ring, we also have to thank Pepe le peu for helping us master our presentation skills in the ring and as a result of his expertise and our team participation we have a new Champion in the Kennel  Ch. Somerlaren Ima Legend.  

We also have to thank our friends Kevin and Donna Horne for taking our Somerford Liz Taylor to Queensland and giving her such a brilliant start in the show ring and obtaining her first Baby Puppy in Show the very first weekend out. She is already off to a flying start in the Queensland Weimaraner Club point score for 2009.

On a personal note many of you will know that we own The Petshop Boyz Store in Newcastle NSW.

Last Friday evening we took our staff out to dinner for a night of fancy dress and karaoke ..... yes I can already hear some of you saying   'o no not karaoke' but it actually turned out the be an amazing night with lots of laughter, fun and competition. I really didn't know how many great singers we have on the staff. Check out a few sample photos of the party here.

It was a busy week with pre Christmas dinners and party's to attend.

Yesterday we spend almost the whole day with friends trying to get some great dog photo's of our Wei's BUT you know what they say ......never work with children or animals. It was a very trying day with the redeeming factor being the impromtu lunch created by Barb and her team. 12 of us all sat down to a great lunch of fresh roast chicken and bread rolls, needless to say at the end of the lunch nobody was too motivated to go out and start shooting again.

I have updated a couple of shots of Ellie taken yesterday.

Wasn't today a magnificent day? Because the weekend was so busy for us both and with so little time to relax Danny and I took some of the dogs to the lake for a swim. Have a look at the photo's here. Weimaraners love to swim and retrieve objects so we set Legend a task to teach our new puppy Judy to swim. I'm not sure he accomplished that but I did see her take a short swim and she enjoyed watching her big brother Legend play in the water with Danny.

For those of you interested in the puppies I have placed a couple of new photographs on their page. They are doing well and are weaning and eating solid foods now. Next week they will be more out and about and fun to play with.

Well thats about my lot for the week. 

I hope you are all enjoying the fun and fellowship of the season.

jim