Saturday 10 December 2011

Puppy with no name

the hand-over
On the 7th November we collected our new puppy.

It has taken us 7 months to find a girl to fill the gap left by Cocoa's departure.

After a little fretting when first we set off, she soon settled down to sleep on Miranda's lap whilst we headed south.

The kitchen had been prepared late the night before. A cage kindly lent by Frankie and Tony was set up ready to provide a safe refuge at night. Away from any tempting chewing material (although I had also made sure that access beyond the immediate and pretty safe area of the kitchen was virtually impossible, at least until she grows a little).

settling in at home

a welcome lap complete with commanding view

Miranda couldn't resist providing a new toy and Frankie and Tony, who equally couldn't resist coming to visit the next day, brought with them another, a rather strange cross between a sheep and Father Christmas. The puppy is delighted with both.

Puppy's first visit (with us that is) to the vet was met  by all the staff with cries of delight. They had grown to love Cocoa and were very happy to welcome the new arrival. Then followed a totally positive check over, lots of advice and her first injection.
 
time to rest - it's been a big day

Those in the know will know that we struggle to agree a name.

Of course she does have a kennel name, Malrich Doris. For her pet name, to continue the precedents set by Mango and Cocoa, various exotic fruits have been offered as candidates - Pawpaw, Grenadilla, Papaya, even Ugly fruit! (that had to be a joke, didn't it?) - others, perhaps less exotic - Honey melon, Tangerine - some stray from the brief with - Camilla and Gorgonzola. Miranda wavers in favour of Papaya, I continue to wave my veto.

What about Veto, not a fruit but a topical choice.

Thursday 28 April 2011

Thank you.


Bessie, Cocoa, Nico & Pablo
Cocoa holidaying with her friends

Thank you to all who responded to my announcement.

Mango & Cocoa
Cocoa when she was a puppy with her Uncle Mango

Saturday 16 April 2011

A Bit Technical

If you have been looking at our website you will have noticed a few more changes.

The home page is now even less cluttered. Some may say that in its original form it was like some old fashioned children's book. Dare I say it, perhaps it now looks more contemporary.

A major contributor to this de-cluttering is the introduction of an 'accordion' courtesy of Taco HTML Edit. This allows the page content to change at the click of a heading.

The page opens with membership information. A click on the EVENTS heading below, up pops event information and so on.

However, cosmetics apart, the most radical changes are unseen. The homepage has been totally recoded.

The site was originally built using a now defunct program from Microsoft, Front Page. This is a much maligned but quite brilliant program that, providing they are kept fairly simple, allows pages to be built from scratch without any need to look at the underlying code, thus making it all very easy without the need for language learning. But if you want to introduce anything out of the 'ordinary' then, unlike the Apple equivalent, iWeb, it allows you to get into the code and make changes there. Thus the drop down menu system  and the slide shows etc..

However the code that Front Page produces is poor in the extreme, producing as it does huge files full of unnecessary repeated instruction. This doesn't matter really except that the bigger the file the longer it takes to download and when it comes to making those tweaks hunting through swathes of repetitive code is a real bore, especially when the tweak is to be made throughout the entire site.

So although Front Page still has its uses, the home page has been rewritten  from scratch without it, digging deeper into code than ever before. I have also written a separate style script driving the page's format, the font, colour, element positioning etc.. Something I have been trying to learn for some time but which for some reason has 'till now always proved a step too far.

This I intend to develop as the hub of the entire site providing a site wide uniformity and the ability to make change by just adjusting the style sheet without touching any page. So, for example, the background colour of every page could be changed with just a one word change in the style sheet.

I thought this breakthrough fantastic but I have also managed to write a separate javascript routine that can be called to insert the pictorial side menu that appears on every page. This means should it need adjusting I can make the change in just one file with the effect appearing in every page instantaneously.

The same can be done for any piece of code that appears in all or many pages.

This is no doubt all old hat for professional website designers but not bad I think for a self taught, washed up old .... like me.

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Facebook

This week's summary for the Facebook page of the
South East Branch
of the Basset Hound Club
223 monthly active users. Down 16 since last week.

663 people like this. Up 6 since last week.
10 wall posts or comments this week. Down  7  since last week.
64 visits this week. Down 28 since last week.

Monday 4 April 2011

Web Design

Design? Blunder more like.

Photo from the-eleventh.com
After long and tedious experimentation trying to make the menu and heading float,  that is detach them from the rest of the page so that when scrolling down they stay at the top, success! So now to change more of the one hundred and seventy two other pages, must make them all look and act the same.

Testing fine. Everything LOOKS good. Change the most important page on the site, change the EVENTS page. Done. Looks good. Works fine. Hang on, no it doesn't, none of the links to pages showing event details work! Same on the HOME page, some links work, some don't.

What have I done? Its after midnight.

A night spent wondering what on earth had gone wrong to make most of the links on my web pages cease to work. What had I done in the name of design. All I wanted was for the site heading and the menus to stay visible when scrolling down long, interminably long some might say, pages.

So up in the morning. Take another look before breakfast. Take a look using a Microsoft based machine. That's what most people use isn't it. They work! All the links work!

What a relief. Well if you use a Microsoft based machine it might be, usually I don't.

 All the links work using Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP machine. What if it is a Windows 7 machine with Microsoft Internet Explorer 9. Do they work then? Test this on the Apple using Parallels Desktop. Yes fine.

Take another look on the Apple in native OSX mode. They don't work. Why?

Barney & Krishna
If you have an Apple, I'm working on it. That is I'm scratching my brains out over it.......... All is not lost as the drop down menu at the top of the EVENTS page still provides links to current and future events.

So it works with one browser but not the rest. Why?

On the other hand my new Member's Hound Gallery works just fine on the Apple but in Internet Explorer the drop down menus disappear behind it. Currently the only way to see all of the drop down menus is to first go to another page or simply click on the header menu to bring up a page for that category.


Photos of Member's Hounds with names, yours and the hound's, wanted for inclusion. 

Chris Cooper sent me the two excellent photos above.

Also new, a calendar of events courtesy of Google. This is shown of the EVENTS page and the SHOWS page and attempts to show all Basset related events in or within striking distance of our area, including dog shows, not of interest to all but we try to cater for everyone.

All, or rather most, LOWDOWN pages now in colour. Some page files lacked the information to retrieve the original colour. Just too much prior manipulation by Tony our editor, manipulated to good effect in the magazine I should add, simply no colour information left in the Word files.

Other minor changes.
  • Dark blue links changing to red when the cursor passes over them.
  • Layout of most pages tightened up and simplified to give a more uniform look.
Should I have left well alone? Would have been easier.

Its now just after 5 pm and all is solved or at least working, working on the Apple and the PC. Still not sure exactly why. It seems that my attempt to include a page heading that stayed in place when scrolling down was a step too far. Taking one step backwards to a header that disappears when scrolling but leaving the menus to firmly attached to the top, somehow reinstated all missing links. I would prefer a heading that did what it was told without interfering with the rest of the page but ......... Any ideas anyone?

Mozilla Firefox

Although as yet I can find no remedy for the problem with the Member's Hound Gallery if using Microsoft Internet Explorer there is a solution, use Mozilla Firefox instead. This can be downloaded free by clicking here and is available in versions for Windows, Apple and Linux.

Monday 14 March 2011

News From Frankie


Hi everyone, here is some recent South East Branch news,

AGM The Branch held a very successful and enjoyable Annual General Meeting on Sunday, 6th March at Cuckfield, West Sussex.

Reports from the Chairman, the officers, and members of the committee highlighted the many successes of the previous twelve months.

Jean, our Walks organiser, reported on the high numbers now regularly attending our monthly ‘meets’. Derek, our esteemed webmaster, announced some changes that had been made to the website: www.southeastbasset.org.uk - so, if you haven’t visited the site for a while, please check these out. Our newsletter editor thanked the many excellent contributors to Lowdown including Sheila Williams, the winner of the 2010 Winnie’s Wheelbarrow Trophy. Sue, our Basset Hound Welfare representative delivered an impressive report on the many successful re-homings that she had arranged.

All this was followed by some delicious refreshments. Many thanks go to all those who attended.

DFS CRUFTS 2011 Last Saturday, several Branch members travelled to DFS Crufts at the NEC Birmingham for Hounds Day.

Congratulations to those hounds that achieved some very impressive results at this most prestigious event: Marcus Storton = 1st Veteran Dog; Barnaby Malin = 2nd Veteran Dog; Maximus Storton = 1st Yearling Dog; Leo Culyer-Dawson = 1st Postgraduate Dog; Dutch Storton = 3rd Post Graduate Dog; Nico Roberts = 1st Limit Dog; Chevy Malin = Reserve Limit Dog; Minty Storton = 2nd Open Dog. & Reserve Dog CC; and Pandemonium Storton = Reserve Yearling Bitch.
Well done, everyone!

A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY This coming Sunday, 20th March, is a Branch walk at Long Car Park, Ashdown Forest (see website for all details, maps and TomTom links). There will be a special guest appearance of Bronwyn Edwards Cryer. Bron is the Australian/Seattle-based singer/songwriter famous for ‘A Basset is an Asset’ – so, why not come along and say ‘Hello’?

That’s all for now! Love to you and your hounds,
Frankie x.

Sunday 13 March 2011

Crufts

Back home from what is developing into our annual visit to Crufts staying two nights in our Eriba at the Horse and Jockey, Bentley. About to change hands so hoping the good beer and great atmosphere remain the same. Planned to change are the primitive facilities for campers. That will certainly be very welcome.


Culdaws Dirty Dancing
Despite our caravan being only a short drive from the NEC as ever we missed the first Basset Hound class, Veteran Dog. This featured our Chairman, Brian showing Barnaby, Malrich Voodoo to the show world. Barnaby came second, just pipped to the post I am sure, by Champion Dereheath Marcus Aurelius owned by Derek and Heather Storton, South East members from Nottinghamshire, who came first.

Unfortunately I was only just getting myself together when I noticed that Rosemary, our former Secretary came third with her Moonsmead Double Expresso in the Special Junior Dog class. Having just arrived my cameras were still firmly in their bag so missed a photo there too.

Then Derek and Heather repeated their success with first in Yearling Dog with their Diheath Maximus, jointly owned with Di Melbourne.

By the time the next class with a South East interest, Post Graduate Dog, came I had fortunately woken up, managing to get a photo of the winner, another South East Branch member, Kim Culyer-Dawson, showing her Culdaws Dirty Dancing. Derek and Heather coming third with their Dereheath Going Dutch at Dearduenna, another hound jointly owned with Di Melbourne together with Paul Isted.

Ledline Chevrolet
In the next class, Limit Dog, our Chairman, was head to head with our Secretary, Chevrolet against Nico. Nico, Culdaws Bayleaf shown by Frankie was triumphant taking first place with Chevrolet, Ledline Chevrolet coming in fourth in field of eleven. A great result for both.

After Limit comes Open and it is from this class that it is generally expected that the best dog will emerge and so it was with the winner of the class taking the Dog Challenge Certificate and the second, Derek and Heather's Champion Bromwylva Imperial Mint of Dereheath, taking the Reserve Dog Challenge Certificate.

Heather continued her success with Reserve Yearling Bitch for her Diheath Pandemonium (jointly owned by "MRS H , MISS D & MISS J STORTON, MELBOURNE & MURRAY")

Just time for a quick shop to buy Cocoa new bedding and back to the pub for fish cakes and ale. A leisurely night in the caravan before the drive home in the morning. I don't know how Frankie and Tony manage their one day there and back trips. 


Culdaws Bayleaf



Nico, Barnaby and Chevrolet will be back down to earth next Sunday, 20th March, on our walk from Long Car Park on Ashdown Forest. 

Tuesday 1 March 2011

LOWDOWN in colour

Readers of LOWDOWN will know that although it has colour on the outside, inside it is black and white. This as you may guess because it is simply too expensive to produce it in any other way.

However I am in the lucky position of having copies of our editor's original files and many of these contain the original photo images in colour. So with a little bit of effort, actually quite a lot of time, most pages can be reconstructed in colour.

Black and white or colour, makes no difference on the internet from a cost point of view.

Over time you will see the LOWDOWN pages emerge in their full colour glory.


However they will always be at least six months behind their hard copy originals.
Watch this space www.bassethoundowners.org.uk