Soul Food

It's been a busy weekend. Rusty (yes, the dog) and I had to get up early both yesterday and today. This morning was for a really fun activity. We started a six-week "Wilderness Walks" class, which combines obedience training with local hikes. Good times. It's run by the same organization we've gone to dog camp with the past two years.

Rusty

Being out in nature, with a total of seven dogs, was a pick-me-up my spirit needed. As usual, I've overwhelmed myself with life by procrastinating. Also, a deep sadness has been hovering after Rusty and I attended the funeral of a good friend, H, yesterday. There were about ten dogs at the mass, including H's dog Shadow. It was a new, interesting experience, but didn't take away from the profound pain of losing a friend.

Shadow

The weather was perfect for a nice hike, complete with practice of sit-stays, down-stays, etc. It was not too hot and the sky was blue with a few clouds. I ended up making a couple of trips back and forth in The Valley. When I left North Hills, I drove to Pasadena along the 210. The hills, stripped of any smog layer by the winds, were gorgeous! The clouds casted shadows that added to the beauty. Later, I went Downtown and then briefly back to Pasadena. As I headed west toward home, I soaked in the incredible orange sky, the afterglow of the sunset. Amazing.

It's really what I needed. Outdoor activity and communion with nature. Sure, I'm still behind on several deadlines and have a lot on my plate to deal with, but I feel a little more prepared to move forward. So, I recommend that you all hug a dog or go outside to play. I think you'll feel better.

Birds And Bees & Songs Like These

I'm too tired and whatever to go with the 'letters' theme today. Instead, I'm just going to post a few photos I took in my back yard yesterday. I could spend hours in my yard taking pictures. The subjects are often the same--dogs, squirrels, birds, flowers, bees--but the results vary.

Click on photos to see biggr in flickr:


Busy Bee


Holyfield, the squirrel, snacking on carob pods.


Little Guy, self-proclaimed back yard sheriff.

On an unrelated note, I've been thoroughly enjoying the new R.E.M. album Accelerate. I'm not sure if it's because I've been hormonal and emotional the past few days, but I keep tearing up when I listen to it. I especially like "Supernatural Superserious" and "Hollow Man." I can't wait until May 28th!

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

When I lived in places that actually had significant weather, I like watching the Weather Channel. It fascinated me. Especially when we lived on the coast of Texas and had hurricanes threaten us, I'd check in frequently for the latest status. Keep in mind, this was pre-internet.

Now, whenever there is the least bit of earth trembling, I log in to this site to see where the earthquake was located and its magnitude. Some kind of sick fascination? Maybe. More likely, I just like to be informed.

Naturally, I love a Firefox addon called eQuake Alert that I recently discovered. Every time the earth shakes somewhere in the world, your browser shakes and the magnitude and location show up in the bottom of the window. Besides the major activity in Chile today, there's been quite a bit of 2.5-3.0 shaking in Central California. Good to know.

The Weather Is Here. Wish You Were Beautiful!

I love being in the mountains. There's nothing like the tall evergreen trees, the clean crisp air and that wooziness you feel for the first day or so while you adjust to the altitude. Rusty and I are enjoying ourselves at camp. We've met a lot of nice people and dogs. After this and last Fall's trip up here to Big Bear Lake, we may just have to make this a yearly getaway.

Today we've been on a hike, gone out to breakfast (yes, with the dogs in tow), and done a craft project. Soon, we leave for a lakeside romp and lunch, which will be followed by an evening hike, dog-friendly dinner outing, and s'mores around the campfire. We will be sleeping well tonight.

Urban Nature Redux

I've mentioned the prevalence of wildlife in my city, yard, and occasionally even my house before. This past weekend, we saw four very skinny, hungry looking coyotes close to the road. (I don't understand the people who had parked by them and let their dog out of the car without a leash. Idiots.) Later, as we walked with Rusty around the Silver Lake reservoir, it started getting dark and we were treated to a chorus of coyote howls.

Last night after a trip to the market, I encountered this critter on my porch:

Baby possum, just outside my front door.

Happy Earth Day

Urban Nature

I always think it's kind of cool that even though Los Angeles is a city, we have a lot of 'nature.' I remember playing tennis in Griffith Park a few years ago and within ten minutes I saw a skunk, a coyote, and a deer. I've also seen tarantulas and rattlesnakes when hiking there. Ew.

Fortunately, I don't live in a neighborhood that coyotes like to visit, even though I have seen one as close as a mile away in my grocery store's parking lot. Even if they wandering over to my place, I have a six-foot wall around the back yard to protect the dogs. That wall doesn't keep everything out. We have visits from squirrels, neighborhood cats, and frequently possums. I see the occasional rat running across the telephone/electrical lines at night. There has also been the rare large lizard, which freaked me out. I thought it was a snake at first, until I saw the legs.

Last night, Eric and I went to meet up with a friend he is doing some work for and then get some supplies to make dinner. Our current protocol is to put Cosette and Little Guy in their crates, due to some behavioral issues. Rusty gets to stay out and "guard the mansion," as we tell him. When we returned home last night and opened the front door, Rusty bolted out past us, an unusual behavior for him. He seemed frantic and turned back and went in, but continued acting weird. We just kind of stood there, watching him, wondering what was going on.

The lights were dim, but I could make out a shape on the carpet, near the dining room that I knew was not one of Rusty's many chew toys. Because of the shape and darkness of color, I immediately said, in a wigged out voice, "THERE'S A DEAD BABY POSSUM IN THE HOUSE!"
So, we turned the lights on and investigated. Yep. There it was, a dead baby possum. Ugh. Nasty.

We knew there was only one possible culprit, who was acting so incredibly guilty already. Rusty clearly didn't kill it (we've found dead baby possums in our yard before, but not for several years), but he had obviously been the one to bring it in. He seemed to know that what he'd done was not such a good idea, in hindsight.

Eric went outside to get the shovel (Ren, I'll tell you where we keep it...it's actually Steve's shovel that we borrowed years ago!...in case you need to do this sometime when we're away), and I got a big black trash bag. We disposed of the poor critter and I can only imagine how horrific my outdoor garbage can must now smell. I set about spraying, scrubbing, disinfecting "the spot" where the thing had been placed.

I lost my appetite and it ended up being quite awhile before we made dinner. I guess my conclusion is that urban nature is not always so "cool." Oh, and I hear the black widows are going to be especially numerous this summer.

P.S. No, I did not take a photo of the dead baby possum, but the thought did cross my mind as I photograph just about anything. I was too grossed out to even go there.

Mystery Solved

Turns out the pod I found on my patio the other night wasn't creepy or alien at all. It was a praying mantis egg case. Now I feel guilty that we stabbed it with a screwdriver. Turns out they hatch 100-200 babies in the Spring and they are really good for your garden, eating things like mites and aphids.

Oh well. Now I feel like an ass.

Mystery Pod

There was a strange, mysterious, and downright freaky pod stuck to a canvas bag on my patio last night. Please check it out on my Flickr site (click link above) and let me know if you have any freakin' clue as to what it might be. Thanks.

Thursday Challenge: Small

'Small'

Hitting the Trails

I went on a hike tonight and it kicked my butt. I haven't been for a few weeks, but decided to go with six other women from work. We were chatting and trying to beat the impending darkness, so we really booked up the hill and up the hill and up the hill. Since I'd been snacking on sugar-loaded Japanese candy all day, I kind of hit an energy low a bit before leaving for Griffith Park.

Some of the girls were nervous because they saw a very large snake last week that was swollen from eating some poor woodland creature. It was pretty lethargic, but then this doofus came along and poked it with a stick and it got (understandably) very angry. There was much debate at work today as to whether anyone would even go.

We went and we didn't see any snakes, but there were a couple of snake trails across the dirt path that we spotted. A guy in the parking lot told us as we were setting out that he had seen a snake up near a particular water tower. I think it was getting cool enough and dark enough, it had gone to bed when we got up to that area.