LOU'S NEWS - BLACKPOOL 2009

I start this article with a very heavy heart as on Saturday 7th February as we had a phone call from our partner John Tyerman. He hasn’t been feeling too clever in past months and he visited the Dr's for some test results and has been diagnosed with cancer. From what we gather it is quite a rare form. He currently is waiting for further tests to get a clearer picture of what is going on, so to John and Linda and all the family we are thinking of you and really hope you can beat this. I know that you’ll fight it all the way.

Well that’s another Blackpool come and gone - where does the time go?? I hope you all had an enjoyable time I know we did, I was so worried about leaving our Sophie-Lou at my mums but I knew that if I didn’t then we would not get another chance till next Blackpool, as it turned out she was an absolute angel whether it was because she had our Connor with her or plain and simple it is just her Mummy that she plays up for who knows anyhow it was lovely to get back to my Mums on Sunday night ,but she was fast asleep but I think John must of secretly woke her up because he came down the stairs with her and she could not stop saying Mama Dada, anyway back to reality now with all her demands!!

For all of you that we met at Blackpool thank you for making our time there enjoyable, also a big thank you to our new friends Dave and Janet Hull who asked us to be guests of honour along with our dear friends and partners John and Linda Tyerman at their presentation on Saturday night at the Cliffs Hotel for The North West Classic club jointly with the Bamfords Gold Ring Spectacular.

Janet Hull (secretary of and hubby Dave looking very dapper for their prize presentation

My John presenting trophy to winners of the Bamfords Gold Ring Spectacular R Davies and Son also winning a pretty amount of £2000.00

Friday 30th January

Since we got back from Blackpool it has been all hands on deck with our Sophie-Lou supervising!!, we have paired up our stock birds and are all ready for Monday to pair up the 2 yr olds and 3 weeks time the yearlings , as before the young birds will be auctioned on Elimar, so if you are looking for some top quality distance birds look no further I will of course publish dates of auction etc ,since getting home I really have not seen much of John as he is only ever in his true element when he is up with the birds by that I mean the feathered kind!!!!!.

Our Connor has been of school the last 2 days so he has been up helping his Dad and I have been down here with Sophie-Lou when she `s not marching up the garden to see her Dad and the birds, I have just painted the 70 nest box fronts we collected on our way home from R V Woodcraft at Dover and the next job is to paint the back of the nest box with the same colour we just think that having the different colours seems to help the birds get their boxes a bit quicker.

Monday 2nd February

Well so much for pairing up the 2yr olds today it’s like a blizzard out there, we’ve all been out playing snowballs started building a snow man until the dogs decided to come and knock it all down so gave up on that idea, it took me ages to convince Sophie-Lou to come back indoors she thought it was hilarious throwing snow at me and her brother Connor my feet are still numb!!

Wednesday 4th February

Well good news yesterday John was able to pair up the 2 yr olds, so yesterday and today haven’t seen much of him as he is up the loft at first light which is still not till just after 9am as it is still quite dark, and he reappears now and then for a coffee and Sophie-Lou and I get to wave at him from down the bottom of the garden!! Sometimes venturing up there but not for too long as Sophie gets so cold, he really is fanatical I think if someone invented them he would put the birds in nappies!!

As I told you we paired up our stock birds last week and they are starting to build their nests now so not long till the youngsters arrive.

Today I received an e-mail from the president of our club who I have mentioned before Marcel Loquet inviting us to dinner Friday night so that will be nice to have a night off from cooking but as I’ve told you before the French don’t like to rush their dining they will have a course then have a drink and a chat then about half hour later will have another course and so it goes on.

The president of our club Marcel and his lovely wife Mimi and of course his winning family of pigeons in 2008 he was 1st and 2nd National Tarbes but hopefully we will give him a good run for his money at Barcelona this year!!!

Tuesday 10th February

John goes up the loft at 08.30 and cleans and refills the drinkers then by the time he has done this it’s light enough to start letting the birds out at 9 am 35 yearling cocks go out till 10 then from 10 till 11 the next lot of 35 yearling cocks go out then from 11 till 12 a section of yearling hens go out then from 12 till 1 another section of yearling hens go out then from 1 till 2 the last section of yearling hens go out then from 2 till 3 the first section of 2 year olds go out who are paired up now ready for the next Young BirdauctionJohn paired these up on Tuesday.3rd Feb.

Then from 3 till 4 the other section of paired 2 year olds, then from 4 till 5 our race team go out who are also paired as we will be under laying the eggs from the Barcelona birdsunder theseas we do not want them to rear yet.

Whilst these birds are out John then goes through section by section cleaning the aviaries ready for the next day, so as you can see now that the season is upon us again we don’t see much of him ,unless he pops down for a coffee, but he wouldn’t have it any other way, he really is in my mind the ultimate pigeon fancier wanting everything and doing everything to perfection, nothing stops his routine even now whilst he has a bad back he wont sit down he is up the garden doing this routine looking at the time so the birds are out the same time and in at the same time every day.

As soon as I get our race programme I will forward it on to you all, exciting times are a coming!!

I just had to include this picture of my very dear friend Paul Rennison his new friend “Rita”!!!!!!!! and of course me far left., photo on the right needs no introductions another of our good friends Les Parkinson and his lovely wife Elizabeth who celebrated her birthday that Saturday night in Blackpool.

Just a final foot note in the next week or two we have Terry Peart returning to do a follow up article for the Pictorial, a busy time for us as in the very near future we also have Keith Mott coming to do a promotional dvd and also my new friend Lee Fribbins from the RP also for an article.Well that’s about it for me for now look out for our next auction of high quality young birds for sale coming soon on Elimar.

As always please take care of each other. Lou.