Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: fun stuff


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Of rocks and people

Kathy, over at her blog Lake Superior Spirit connected me to Suzi at her blog Laundry Line Divine, who was putting together a day of photographing rocks.  Yes.  rocks.  I immediately thought about all the wonderful rocks I photographed while I was in northern Michigan along the shores of a Great Lake.  You can see some of those photographs here. (Scroll down to the March 23rd entry to see an example.)

But I suppose that using photos from weeks or months ago would be cheating.  I think the whole point of this exercise is to head out and find something interesting that I might not have noticed before.  Or maybe noticed before but not in the same light.  Which brings me to the beginning of my search for rocks.

I was re digging the vegetable garden this morning and noticed the rocks I had used to mark beds last year.  But they weren’t very pretty, or even particularly interesting.

So after the garden was dug I wandered around the yard, considering how I wanted to approach this “rock assignment.”  We have rocks in our landscape out front.  Most were brought in, so I don’t consider them part of the natural way of things.  But one of them was from our own back yard, so it’s special.  I used to sit on it when it was in the backyard, I called it my “contemplative rock” and was sad when it got moved to be incorporated into the garden wall.  Though sometimes I still sit on it.

I felt like there must be other uses for rocks – other ways that people have incorporated rocks into their lives, so I set off on my bike to see what I could see; looking for the elusive rock that spoke to me.  Lots of people use rocks around here, often to mark their lot lines, to line the road or to present the entrance of their driveways.

Sometimes light on stone was interesting.

But still I was in suburbia, and what I really wanted was something more rural.  Say…a stone hedgerow in a farmer’s field.  I headed out on more rural roads, peddling away, up and down hills, through mud…and then I caught a glimpse of something way back off the road.

Venturing up the little used track…

… I found this…

…which I recognize is not a rock…but wait!  As I was wandering around taking pictures of this amazing structure I realized I was staring at the answer to my quest.  How the original farmer used rocks…and in a beautiful and functional way.  The foundation of this old barn was built from rocks, probably from the farmer’s own fields.

I never did find a fence row of rocks…but I’ll leave you with one photo of rocks that I love.  I’m cheating in that I took this last fall.  I can’t take credit for creating the rock sculpture, just for appreciating it.

Thanks for inviting me to play. It was interesting to think about the way people and rocks interrelate.  And I’ve learned to appreciate the rocks right here at home, while remembering my favorite rocks from far away.

PS:  This one is a cheater photo too..it’s from the Lighthouse at the tip of Leelanau Peninsula in northern Michigan.  Another bit of  evidence about man’s use of rocks throughout history.


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The promised wood peony photos

I know I was going to show you this beautiful plant..then I got distracted with truck stuff.  So…on a lighter note, look at this!

Wait a minute!  That’s a picture of Katie!   “So Mom, aren’t I prettier than some old flowering shrub?”  Well, yes baby you are, but this post is supposed to be about the flower!

It’s about 3 feet tall, doesn’t get cut back like standard peonies, blooms earlier and is just stunning!  This is the first year I’ve had it, I bought it with a friend last fall and wasn’t sure it would survive the snow and then this spring the nibbling of our local deer…but apparently none of that bothered it!

I am so pleased I think I’ll go buy another one!  Now…back to our regularly scheduled Sheltie…


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Agility! and Rally too!

Guess what?  Katie had a full day of school yesterday.  After so many weeks off, her spring break I guess, we went to Rally class in the morning and Agility in the evening!  I really debated whether to enroll her in the Agility class because we were already committed to the Rally class on Thursdays.   But about an hour before the agility class I asked Katie, who was sprawled out sleeping near my feet, if she wanted to go back to school…and she jumped up, tongue rolling out and grinned at me, then ran for the door.  I took that as a “YES MAMA!!!”

In Rally I’m having trouble with her focus, and she’s surging ahead quite a bit.  So much to see, so many doggy butts to sniff.  I want to get those two more legs for our Rally Novice so I need to make sure we’re working on our heeling every day.  She’s much better when she and I are alone out in the driveway then when we’re in a ring with 8 or 9 or more other dogs, trotting around in a big circle.  But still.

As for Agility?  Well, she wasn’t sure what was up at first.  We are in the beginning agility class (the last one we took was like preschool, pre-agility!)  with about 9 other mostly really big dogs.  There are actually about 15 dogs in the class, but they broke it into two groups, those who had been through this class before, and those of us who had not.  Maybe eventually we’ll all be together, but I hope not, as that would be a BIG class!

We worked on jumps (no problem MOM!) and teeter (I HATE teeter MOM!) and tunnel (ZOOOOOM!!!) and A-frame (Again!  I want to do it AGAIN MOM!) and tire (BOOOOORING!).    We obviously need to keep working on that tiny teeter out in our driveway.  Though before our rally class in the morning she ran up the teeter all by herself, so it might have been more that she didn’t like the stranger hovering nearby then the teeter itself.  Who knows?

Last night she slept great.  No wonder!


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More obedience.

Katie and I went to another drop in competitive obedience class, this one right across the freeway from the airport, last night.  Since I was away almost 6 weeks and Katie didn’t get to go to school during all that time I’m trying to make up to her and go as often as we can.  She had fun, mostly, and was pretty close to perfect, in her own Katie kind of way.   Except on the long down when, as I was walking away a plane went by low and loud overhead at the same time the thunder started.  When I turned around, on the other side of the ring, Katie was right behind me…looking sheepish, but scared.  Poor baby, I couldn’t yell at her.

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But guess what?  She did TWO stand-for-exam exercises for two different instructors and didn’t move her feet at all!!

You go Katie-girl!

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Playing

Wanna PLAY??

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It’s raining here, so Katie and I are playing inside.  Here are my attempts to get that perfect photo.   First the tunnel – – should be no problem, right?  Well, here’s the first shot I got!  LOL!

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So we tried again.  I couldn’t get the anti-red eye thingy to work, but it’s cute anyway:

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And then the chute, which was even more challenging to photograph.  I put her in a sit/wait  in front of it, then ran around and got ready for the photo, then yelled “CHUTE!” and she’d head through.  Obviously the first couple times I was too quick with the shutter finger!

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And then I was a little late.

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Geeze Mom!  How many times do I have to do this before you get the shot?

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A few more times baby!  OOPS!  Missed you, let’s try that again…

Katie 2616GOTCHA!!

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Later today?  We’re going to obedience class…gotta rest up…

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Shelties and their boxes

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A couple of days ago I ran across a Petco in a part of town I don’t usually shop.  I popped in to see if they happened to have Riley’s (the CowSpotDog) favorite treats and guess what?  They did!  I haven’t been able to find them for quite some time, so I picked  up a few of them for him, and Katie and I packed up a little box to mail to Riley.  Katie was very anxious to make sure that Riley got these treats, as she feels very sad that Riley’s Mom is having such a hard time getting better from surgery.  If you haven’t read about Riley you can here:  http://cowspotdog.blogspot.com/

Then later in the day two boxes came for Katie, via the nice UPS man.  She was very excited.  She got a TUNNEL!  And a CHUTE!  She could hardly wait while I unpacked the tunnel.  Here she is with it partially undone, when she just had to investigate.

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As soon as we got it open she walked casually through, then asked what treats she was going to get!  We thought she’d have more issues with the chute, but she ran through that a bunch of times in the kitchen with no problem.

I’m sure you’ll get more pictures from us once we take these new toys out in the yard!

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Unexpected

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I had my whole day planned out yesterday.  The 2 mile run, some job searching stuff, then off to the grocery store for Aunt V,  deliver the groceries to her and visit a bit, then on to donate my old cell phone to a woman’s shelter, then maybe a bit of shopping just for fun.  But you know what they say about the best laid plans.

I got the 2 mile run in, and completed a job application for a library job nearby.  I was crabby because I had suffered a lack of sleep the night before.  I was hanging onto my plan somewhat desperately –  all I really wanted to do was head back to bed – when the phone rang and husband said it was my Ann Arbor Aunt.  For a moment I thought “DRATS!  I can’t fit anything else into my overly planned day!”

And it’s true she DID want to get together to do something.  In the beginning I wasn’t feeling very gracious, but reason overcame my illogical crabbiness.  She wanted to meet me and Katie down at our favorite park, which is halfway between where we both live.  And it was sunny out!  AND I’d been thinking I should take Katie to that park someday soon, it’s so beautiful in the spring.  So I revamped the plan and agreed to meet her.

I packed up Katie and all her stuff (you know the drill; water, bowl, leashes, treat bag, poop bag) and me and the camera and off we went.  I could feel the morning’s tension seeping away.  Especially when we crested a hill and I noticed the beautiful clouds.  I just had to stop and capture them.  Good thing I left the house early for our 2:00 p.m. meeting…lots of time for pictures!

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Then about half way to the park I realized I had forgotten the poop bag!  And Katie ALWAYS does her job almost as soon as we start our walks in the park.  It’s like she saves it up for a public place.  SIGH.  So I did a little U-turn and stopped at the bank to get some cash, then a bit later on we stopped in at Colsanti’s, a little grocery store.  It’s kind of a plant nursery, gourmet groceries and produce market complete with a bird aviary.  I’d been there once before a long time ago.  My plan was to find something to buy that I actually needed and which would require them to give me a plastic grocery bag.  Which I could use as a poop bag.  Good thing I left home early….lots of time for grocery shopping!

As I was contemplating purchasing white potatoes or strawberries I heard a strange sound directly overhead.  I glanced up and saw a large toy train chugging along on a suspended track.  Strange I thought, but then as I looked around, the whole place was quite eclectic.  Mounds of fruit and vegetables, a gift store with cute little things, pots of plants, a wonderful deli, and a train circling overhead.

I bought some potatoes, a few scones and some crunchy cheese sticks and headed back to the car and Katie.  As I stepped outside something made a terrible screeching sound.  The noise was coming from a huge outdoor bird aviary.  Peacocks!  Dropping off the groceries, checking on Katie who was waiting patiently in her crate in the car, I grabbed the camera and went to investigate the birds.

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They were beautiful!  Several blue peacocks, and a giant white peacock who was showing off.  Plus some turkeys all puffed up.  I watched them for a few minutes then realized I needed to get to the park!  Good thing I left early…

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When Katie and I arrived at the designated meeting place deep in the park (at exactly 1:59) my Aunt was already there, and soon Katie, she and I were off on a walk.  The place was beautiful, swans out on the water, wildflowers tucked into the trees, dogwoods in bloom, the redbuds were splashes of bright fuchsia among the lime green new leaves of the larger trees, huge patches of wild purple violets smudging the ground.  Gorgeous.  You won’t see pictures of this because the camera battery died right about then.  So you’ll have to imagine it yourself, which in reality is sometimes better anyway!

We walked 2.4 miles, and Katie did really well.  And that poop bag that I went so far out of my way to acquire?  We never needed it.  Of course.

So the lesson learned is this.  When you’re crabby, when you feel like you need to get certain stuff done, when you’re not feeling creative or adventurous, let it go, take the road presented to you, keep your eyes open and I bet you’ll see some beautiful stuff.

When you’re least expecting it.

Katie 2541


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Settling down now

Trees 1538Yesterday was our first day of normal life in quite some time.  I’d been out of town for three weeks, home for one day and then involved in our Aunt’s medical crisis for more than two more weeks.  Yesterday we didn’t have to be anywhere, though husband did stop by the Aunt’s just to see how her first night alone in almost three weeks went.  Thankfully, she did fine and I’m sure she’s just as happy as we are to have us off her living room sofa.

Katie and I did some yard work; weeding and sniffing and such things as that.  Sometimes all we did was sit in the sun and enjoy being with each other.  I think that counts as yard work too.

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I dug up a small bed that had filled in with grass and weeds over the past couple of summers.  I’ll replant it later this spring.  It was a lot of work and reminds me that last time I dug this up I was younger and fitter.

While digging I came across these small plants, greenish red leaves and blue purple bells of flowers.  Tiny.  The smell when I crushed the leaves took me right back to my grandmother’s farm, where these lived in her lawn, particularly, as I recall, back by grandpa’s workshop.  I sat in the sun and crunched leaves and remembered playing on the farm, picking black raspberries, watching the pigs, playing with barn kittens.  It was a good place to play.  There are good memories there.

I  accidentally left a weed or two in my own garden yesterday just so I can pull them later and smell that old familiar small and relive the memories.

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Later on I got out the tiny teeter and Katie was all raring to go, walking over it, still carefully, especially at the pivot point, but without any apparent fear.  So I went and got her Dad, to show him how much more confident she is.  And guess what?  While he stood in the door watching she first refused to do the teeter at all, then CREPT up to the pivot point and laid down on it.  Well, that’s new!  And now she won’t go on it at all.

Ah Katie girl.  We’re going to school in about an hour, the first time in probably 6 or 7 weeks.  Hope you remember a little bit about heeling and staying.

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Should be interesting!