One Word Wednesday

Boo!

Darby is wasted on me

I think Darby would have been great at real agility -- not just the silly backyard stuff we play at sometimes.  I've commented before about her leaping over the patio lounger chair when charging around the backyard with Pumpkin.  But, lately since I rearranged the furniture in the family room, she's started something new.

When I sit on the left-hand side of the sofa with the girls on my right, they have a good view of the kitchen, family room, hallway and a portion of the dining room.  Every now and then when they aren't dozing, Harry will wander into view and the girls will decide they just have to chase him.  Pumpkin jumps off the sofa as you would expect -- sofa to floor -- then runs around the coffee table.  But Darby!  Darby LEAPS from a standing position on the sofa, over my crossed legs and to the floor!

It's quite impressive to see her gather herself up like a horse clearing a dressage jump.  Of course I don't have a photo of one of her leaps, but I thought I would show you these photos to help you be as impressed with her feat as I am.

My crossed legs minding their own business.

Nine inches -- the distance between the surface of the sofa and the top of my knee -- the distance Darby leaps up before jumping down to the floor.

26 inches, the distance between the top of my knee and the floor onto which Darby lands without a stumble and takes off running!

Darby should have found her forever home with someone like Taryn over at A Tail of Two Cardis.   I'd love to see what Darby could do with some real training and someone capable of running an agility course without falling on her face, and also able to memorize the order of the jumps, tunnels and walks of the course!   I think Darby is wasted on me -- but I'm sure happy to have her.

P.S.  Of course, I know I should train Darby so she doesn't leap over me like that.  We're working on it.  

Long shadow time of year

{this moment}

{this moment}

a Friday ritual.

a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

a simple, ordinary, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama.

Still with the tongue

One year ago this week:

This week:

It still doesn't fit in her mouth!

One Word Wednesday

Sweet

 

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

Ahhh, the joy of dressing one's children up for holiday photos. 

  Poor Bonnie and Bailey.  Poor, poor, poor animals.  Forced to lay, strategically positioned, in a ball of Christmas lights... all so your mother and father can take several hundred photos and choose one for the annual Christmas card.   Your lives are so difficult... so difficult that Bonnie almost fell asleep.

Perhaps if you weren't so good at laying in whatever position they put you in you might have been able to avoid this humiliation... that, and the rapidly rising temperature of the C9 bulbs your mother had to constantly re-adjust to keep from scorching your nether regions.

All and all you should consider yourselves lucky.  Your mom did refrain from buying the matching blue and red Martha Stewart dog sweaters that were on sale for 30% off at Petsmart today.  You could have been wrapped in lights AND wearing a sweater... and lets face it pups... it don't get much worse than that!

Note: no ears, noses, or nether regions were scorched in the aforementioned photo shoot.

Drizzly Sunday

It many parts of the United States a drizzly Sunday afternoon would be nothing to write home, or anywhere else, about.  But, here in very southern, Southern California and for this rain-starved, Easterner-at-heart, a drizzly Sunday is very worth writing in her blog about!

Glenn and I started the day with our annual trip to the pumpkin patch at Bates Nut Farm, about an hour north of us.  

Drizzling too hard to take the big camera out.  But, my iPhone/camera hid under the brim of my rain jacket very nicely!

We started the day in the rain, and we ended it cozied-up in the house.  Too bad it wasn't cool enough for a fire! 

Cool weather coziness

We're enjoying some cool weather here in very southern, Southern California.  Well maybe I should say cooler because 70-75 isn't really cool.  But it is cooler than the 100 degrees we had earlier in the week.

During hot weather, even with air conditioning blasting away in the house, it's rare to see this:

What isn't rare about the photo, and the 15 others that I took, is that at least one of the girls is moving!

Enjoy whatever weather this Sunday brings you.

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

A simple, ordinary, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama.

Final Installment of Vacation Photos -- STILL no Corgi Content

OK.  I promise.  This is the final installment of my vacation photos.

I've saved the best for last. 

I give you "Weird Vacation Photos."

 Strange angled shot of Empire State Building.  "Something" on a roof.  If it's ever missing, the owner should come search Glenn's workshop.  I like the "Don't Block the Box" sign; too bad people don't obey it!

Have you ever eaten dulse?  I have.  A little strange, but tasty.  I like the crispy variety.  The four of us.  I'm the short one and the only one who tried the sample of dulse.  Glenn posing with the carved wood people in St. John's, New Brunswick.  The second ambulance we saw carting away someone from our ship who had fallen.  Altogether, we saw 5 -- FIVE -- people fall! 

 I was amazed by the amount of gum stuck to New York City streets.  I like the foggy photo.  And couldn't resist getting a shot of the garbage barge.

People looking at themselves in Time Square; we're in the lower middle/right.  Dancers at a community center in the Chinatown area of NYC where we were stopped while the driver of our double-decker tour bus, which had its mirror clipped by a semi, waited for his supervisor to give him the OK to continue the tour.  Oops!  Don't Block the Box duplicated.  A squirrel on the grounds of St. Paul's Chapel across from "Ground Zero."  Glenn wondered aloud how many generations of squirrels had lived in that very, very old cemetery. 

Glenn relaxing on the balcony off our stateroom.  Don't you love his choice of cruise shoes?  If I outlive him, I'm burying him those boots!  A warning at the lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, Halifax.

And now, the weirdest of the weird:

As we hurried to catch our Hop-On-and-Off bus in NYC,  I noticed this single butterfly wing fluttering in a sidewalk grate and had to get a photo.

 A near -- very, very near -- miss between another one of our tour buses and a parked car.

Glenn (to the left of the man in the yellow jacket) about to get splashed at the blow hole in Acadia National Park.  Fortunately, he was wearing a Gortex jacket and didn't get drenched like some people did!

Our traveling companions bundled under three airline blankets each.  The emergency exit doors on this plane were especially drafty! 

So, there you have it!  The last of my vacation photos.  Thanks for looking.

Corgi content resumes on Friday! 

Vacation Buildings -- Still no Corgi Content!

We had a great mix of weather in New York and at the various stops on the cruise.  It was never bitterly cold and what rain we had was just enough to mess up my finicky hair but not enough to cause us any serious problems.  I like the fog clinging to the Empire State Building.  It was fun to see the Flatiron Building in person and to spend some time in Times Square.  I can't imagine being there on New Year's Eve -- it felt claustrophobic and overwhelming enough on a Friday evening in Fall!

Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, Halifax.  I thought we would see more lighthouses than we did; I'm glad we got to see this very pretty one.   Trinity Church in Boston reflected in the building -- whose name I've forgotten -- across the street.  (I just noticed I used a photo with our big ol' bus parked right in it!)

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.

A real mix of new England Buildings.  St. Paul's Chapel that survived the collapse of the Twin Towers.  Buoys on a building in Bar Harbor, ME.  Houses in Peggy's Cove.   A brick building held together with rods decorated with metal stars.

The New Yorker building from just outside our hotel.  City lights from on top of a double-decker tour bus.  I like the elevated walkways between buildings.  I'll bet they come in handy in the winter!  And the middle of summer, for that matter!  Even Glenn, who can be somewhat taciturn, said that seeing the Statue of Liberty in person for the first time was a moving experience.

Another view of the Empire State Building.  A very blue house in Newport, RI.  A jet climbing.  View of Freedom Tower from the grounds of St. Paul's Chapel.

This is the next-to-the-last installment of my vacation photos.  Then we'll be back to our regularly scheduled Corgi Content!  Thanks for bearing with me!

Vacation flora and fauna -- no Corgi Content

The only dog we saw in NYC! Geese flying south.  A bird shivering on our cruise ship balcony in port in Halifax, NS.  A graveyard squirrel in Salem, MA.

Central Park from the Top of the Rock observation tower.  A tree on the grounds of The Elms mansion in Newport. RI.  St. Johns, New Brunswick color.

Various Bar Harbor foliage and a wonderful mushroom growing at the base of a tree on the grounds of The Elms mansion in Newport, RI.

Japanese Lanterns in the City Market in St. Johns, NB.  Creek in Acadia National forest.  Lichen on a tree somewhere.  Tree with berries in St. Johns, NB.

Bar Harbor, ME foliage (sorry about the duplicates!)

New York water towers -- No Corgi Content

A few months ago, I watched a History Channel (?) show about a company that makes water towers used in New York City to maintain water pressure for the buildings.   When, on our first evening there, I started noticing the towers, I wished I had paid more attention to the show!

Here are just some of the many, many towers.  (Most of the photos were taken from the top deck of the Hop-On-And Off buses we used to tour the city, so forgive the awkward angles!)

View from our room in the Tryp Hotel in the Garment District.