The Blog Party will be at Reid's in Parker, CO, east of Denver, the weekend of June 11. Regular blogging will then resume. I couldn't have quit if I wanted to with all the response!
Health continues iffy: PD under control at the moment, but apparently a bad case of spinal stenosis is next on my plate. Meanwhile, in one of those ironies that life hands us, I have found an excellent affordable Purdey.
One thing I must note in this quick reference: the death of Herb Wells, greatest coursing photographer who ever lived, in his eighties, in Alpaugh CA. If Dan Belkin was responsible for founding that odd colony, Herb kept it alive, and was its soul. Here are just a few images to remember...
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| The last 3 are a sequence; the hare flips, and runs away |
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| Saluki Lahav's greatest catch, in front of three GOOD greyhounds |
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| "The most sensitive hare portraits I know are done by an old saluki man in southern California-- just shots of peaceful jacks." Me, in an old blog post here... |
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| Herb |
9 comments:
Hi Steve
I thought that you had retired from the Piste! ( Never!)
Hope the health issues are manageable , must be so frustrating ....
Enjoy the Party- sorry , cannot be there- have one for old times with me! - Such
Great memories of times spent in Magdalena with you both, and other generous and
gracious friends.
John & June
(Johnny UK)
I hope you feel better soon!! I'd like to go to your party, too, but I'm going to be very pregnant.=p
....Purdey pictures, can't wait....T. Condon, E.Mt.
Congratulations, Moro. Boy or a girl?
T Condon: give me an email and I'll send you a few. It isn't here yet, but a friend of mine is holding it for me.
It's a boy!
Stunning photos! Good health & cheers to you. I won't stop looking for more posts on your blog - including pictures of the blog party, right?
Hope you pick up in the health department. Post a few pics of the Purdey - likely the closest i will ever come to one! TK
YOUR FIRST PRUDEY?
Absolutely. I DID have a hammer Grant, a near equivalent and an original, not a restored gun, which I foolishly-- since it cost a lot less- let go-- will not do THAT again =(:-0)
I also owned Lord Dunraven's 16 bore Woodward, which sounds better than it was- an utterly clapped out gun that the late Bill Smiley bought for $600 in Phoenix, with a soft oil- soaked 13 inch DOWN pitched stock with a vented pad and a white line spacer, 26" sleeved barrels. I couldn't hit the ground, or a barn if I were inside, with it; Terry Weiland wrote a piece about a dove hunt at Bill's in the month after 9- 11 with it, in Grays, and graciously credits me with more birds than i shot. He, with I think his custom Arrieta, and Bill with his "modern" Beasley patent hammerless self- opener Purdey (made in 1912), shot the most, and the late Armand Romano, a retired Brooklyn Homicide detective, shooting a custom Model 12 pump 20 with beautiful dark wood, told Bill's wife Linda he had shot them all.
The cheapest quote I could get on restocking was $3000; the cheapest on rebarrelling was 12,000 POUNDS, and Purdey refused to do it, saying the gun was not worth the barrels. The guy who had it after me, buying it for 3000 from Glenn Baker (who subsequently sold me my lovely .410) spent TWENTY SEVEN THOUSANDS DOLLARS restoring it It is beautiful, but since this is more than I paid for my house and most expensive car together (I know, I live in a poor rural community), I think that is beyond my pay grade.
I also owned a Holland and Holland "Dominion" back action sidelock 16 that was often in the shop, which i sold to help pay Jackson's St John's tuition one year-- no regrets. That is my London gun history, if you don't count a Grant hammer 16 that I kept long enough to refinish the stock but which had barrels so badly pitted I could never quite dare to fire it (it was very old and I believe it was a pinfire conversion...
I have no time to blog right now, but knowing all about gun mania will do ONE post on this, the Purdey and related matters. Then NO MORE TIL AFTER THE PARTY!
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