Katie’s as wound up as a spring lately.  Too many rainy days, or days when I’ve got to work, or both.  We haven’t been to the park in a long time, no doggy school, no long walks anywhere.  She’s out of control with energy.  So today, given I’m not working and it’s not raining, we went to a park.

She was off and running as soon as her little feet hit the ground.  We were in a park that has softball fields, soccer fields, a water playground and picnic areas.  Of course we had to explore all of it, which was easy as there had been a cross country race earlier, and the white line on the ground used by the cross country team went by all the interesting places.  I’d just say; KATIE!  Walk the line and she’d run down the white line.  Well.  Sometimes.  Once she chased the shadow of a hawk that was soaring overhead.  Silly girl.

We were exploring all the nooks and crannies of the park when she came across this big piece of ash.  I read in the paper yesterday that there was a big house fire nearby, and this ash was from that fire.  Once I noticed the first piece I noticed a lot of other pieces of ash on the pristine ball fields.  It made me sad, as it represented the loss of someone’s home and probably all their belongings as well.

Along the way we came to a big sledding hill.  Hmm…I thought, being my father’s daughter, I wonder what you can see from up there?  Well, Katie wasn’t interested in the least to climb up that hill after walking all over the park!  She looked at me as if to say:   That hill?  Not going up there Mom.  

And then she laid down to make her point.   I guess I’ll have to climb the hill another time, probably by myself.

I loaded her up in the car and we went exploring, to see if we could find the house that had burned down.  It wasn’t far away, and this is what is left.

I bought the paper, and found a picture of it taken while it was burning.  It looked like a nice house.  I’m feeling so sorry for the family that lived there.  Lukily no one was home when it burned.  Still…

Pulling into our subdivision after our adventures we saw a whole big flock of young turkeys along the side of the road.  There were 8 or 9 of them.  Can you see them in this picture?

Katie and I are thanking our lucky stars this afternoon after our weird walk…she’s off to take a nap and I think I’ll mow the grass and think some more about how lucky I am to have her and a house and a family.  All safe and sound.