The long awaited first lure coursing session of 2010 took place today. Beanie and Biggles new pal Bundy was there along with old pals Cuillen and Jamie. It was a beautiful sunny day – albeit very cold!

Cuillen and Biggles were first to race. Cuillin got off to a good start:

but lost interest after the first corner. Biggles took a short cut then romped over the finish line with Magic the poodle (who joined the race in the final straight) hot on his heels:

Cuillin should be in the race, and Magic shouldn’t!

But Biggles doesn’t care! His cheating ways have put him in the lead!

Bundy was next. She drew against a very fast whippet in her first race but she did very well:

Finally it was Beanie’s turn. She too was drawn against a whippet. She ran her heart out:

cut a couple of corners and managed a dramatic neck and neck finish:

But was pipped at the post. So all the Beagles were knocked out in the first round. We’d thought that Biggles was through but the judges awarded the race to Cuillin – no doubt because of Biggles’ shameless cheating!

We finished up with a couple of races with all the Beagles and Cuillin. In the first one Beanie took off after the lure while Biggles took a direct route to the half way point with Bundy hot on his heels. Beanie managed to catch them up despite the fact that Biggles only ran half the course, but our little boy slipped up a gear and managed to hold off his big sister to win the race.

In the next race the lineup was the same:

Cuillin was released slightly ahead of the others and this time he followed the lure almost half way around the course!

Biggles took his cheating a stage further and ran directly to the home straight to wait for the lure:

What’s wrong with this picture?

So Biggles wins his third race of the day…in his own unique way!

You can see the full set of photos from this lure coursing session on Flickr – click here.

It was all very well having a white Christmas, but we’re now well into January and the the frozen white stuff is still showing no signs of departing.

You wouldn’t want to go using the hand rail on our deck..

At least not without thick gloves..

And the burn that runs by the back of our garden is still frozen over, though some intrepid critters have punched a hole through to the running water below

The brass monkeys might have been wise to stay indoors today, but monkeys of the cheeky variety had good reason to venture outside. It started when Parcel Force finally dropped off a package that the UK Customs Grinches  had been holding for us since before Christmas:

We paid a lot for Customs to delay our parcel

I just hope we weren’t charged for the services of a sniffer dog…

…’cos our two are always happy to do that for free

Although even a thorough sniffing left Biggles a bit puzzled

Yep our portable lure coursing kit – from Grimner Greyhounds in the States – was finally here. The kit comes with a battery, control switch, four pulleys and about 300 yards of line. It’s amazing how all that fits into such a tiny box.

Needless to say we had to go out into the garden and give it a try despite the freezing conditions. We didn’t have any deer or rabbit skin to use as the lure, or any of Kevin Rose’s tripe juice, but it turns out that a Tesco value tea towel liberally smothered with the contents of a tin of sardines does just as well.

OK, it was just a short straight line run but still it’s enough to declare a successful test, and Beanie & Biggles both loved it. It’s also worth noting that the sacrifice of the tea towel didn’t hamper our kitchen activities in the least; we have a cache of ’em because the Biggly Boy has a thing about them. Stealing a phrase from the fashion world, you might say that the tea towel is the “new” sock as far as Biggles is concerned.

So, we’ve got our own working lure. All we need now is for the weather to warm up a bit so we can have a few sessions on the beach, though judging by the freezing conditions late this afternoon, that’s not going  to happen any time soon!

Yes, that really is chunks of ice getting washed in by the tide!