Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: park


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20 years – it's a walk in the park

My husband and I have been married twenty years and we celebrated our anniversary by visiting the Meijer Gardens near Grand Rapids Michigan.  The gardens have a huge conservatory with tropical plants, and acres and acres of gardens outside that are beautifully planted and showcase giant sculpture.

The gardens are wonderful, the sculpture interesting, sometimes even funny…and right now there is a special installation of giant art glass interspersed among the waterfalls, flowers, grasses, hills, woods and sculptures.

There were so many wonderful, colorful, playful and striking things to see; I have so many pictures to show you, but I guess I’ll try to limit myself here.

It’s going to be difficult to choose…

…because there were just so many amazing things to see.

I wish you could all have been there…

…to see the glass balls bobbing in the water and nestled among the rocks in the waterfalls…

…and the tall rushes in the woods…

…and tucked in among the real rushes near the wetlands.

So much to share with you.  Maybe I’ll put a few more pictures up tomorrow.

Meanwhile, did you see the big hawk sitting on top of the huge horse sculpture?


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It's challenge training Sunday! (1)

Katie the Sheltie-girl and I have accepted a challenge from Ricky to  head out each week and attempt to work on something that really makes her crazy.  We’re trying to do a bit of behavior modification and the challenge is helping us step up and get some much needed work done.

We’re not the only ones working on this challenge.  You can see the whole list of people and their pups that are working on tough stuff over at Ricky’s blog;  dogs like Sara’s Oreo and Misty, or Marie’s sheltie Dare,  Kathy’s Breeze or Patti’s Brutis and Tytus.  In fact there are so many people working on trouble spots with their dogs that you really need to go over to Ricky’s blog and look! The list is on the right side of Ricky’s blog and you can read all about everyone’s adventures on their blogs because we’re all going to write about our experiences each Sunday.

Soooooo….what did Katie and I do this week?  Well, you may or may not know that Katie lunges at cars, and if she weren’t always on a leash I’m afraid she’d run right out into the street after them.  She barks hysterically and is pretty hard to handle whenever we’re out and a car goes by.  She doesn’t like bicycles either, or joggers, or anyone or anything that goes by fast, especially if they make any noise.  So Friday we headed to a park where the first mile of the path runs parallel to the road.   I don’t usually take her there for a walk because it’s just no fun, worrying about her lunging and barking, and possibly pulling out of her collar.

The first thing we did was hang out at the top of the path, where it crosses the road.  Each time a car went by I’d tell her to sit and stay.  If she managed to do that without barking or lunging at the car she’d get a treat.  As the first car went by she took off barking; she got a correction and no treat.  And she knew I had treats with me!  She’s used to getting something if she sits and stays, but she blew it when she took off after that car.  And she knew it.

As the second car approached I told her to sit and stay.  She sat, looked at me, looked at the car, looked at me.  I reinforced the word “STAY!”  She looked at the car.  You could see the muscles in her shoulders bunch up.  But she didn’t move anything except her head as she watched it go by.

Well GOOD GIRL Katie!  She got lots of praise and treats.  And the light bulb went off, you could actually see her think about what was going on.  We started down the pathway which descends a long hill.  Lots of people were out on their bikes…

…each time one came past I’d pull her off the path and put her in a sit.  She watched them go by, wanting to bark, but not doing it.  She got treats.

See her ears go flat?

That’s because two little boys just went by on razors which made loud clacking noises.  She sat still for them as they passed us, but just after she couldn’t handle it anymore and reacted with flattened ears, running up to me.  She got a treat because she came to her mama rather than chasing the children.

And of course when I saw a woman on roller blades coming down the hill as we were headed back up I put Katie into a sit.  It wasn’t fair though because Katie had her back to the woman, and just after this picture was snapped she leaped into the air, surprised as the rollerblader swooped past.  My fault. Guess the mama needs to work on stuff as well!  But Katie didn’t bark at her, nor try to give chase.

We spent a good couple of hours walking up and down the path, watching people go by.

We even sat under a tree across the street from the golf course where lots of cars were coming and going.  She watched, once in awhile she checked in with me, and I kept saying “good stay Katie!” and she chose to stay.  Good girl!

I don’t know if she’s broken the habit.  I’ll have to proof her in a few more places.  Like in our driveway where she’s at home and feels a bit more like Queen of the Hill.  I think in the park she felt slightly out of place, was more intimidated and more likely to follow directions.

I’ll have to see if all this translates to behavior at home.


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Reunion

My reunion with Katie was something of a disappointment.  I waited patiently in my reading corner for Katie and her Dad to return from the kennel and  I was excited when I heard them drive up.  Katie wandered around the kitchen for just a moment, then ran right over to me.  But instead of jumping on me with welcoming kisses she dropped into a “down” and began to bark at me.  Her little yips were hoarse and I’m guessing she barked pretty much the whole week she was in the kennel.  She wouldn’t let me touch her; each time I reached out she backed away and commenced to barking again.  So I sat still and let her decide on her own what to do about me.  She ran up to her Dad when he came in as if to say “There’s this LADY over there Dad but don’t worry, I’m taking care of her!”

Husband said the kennel told him Katie had been very good.  She liked their bed; apparently some dogs preferred to sleep on the floor.  Well of COURSE she liked the bed, this is Katie, the princess who hogs as many pillows as she can, even if she’s already on the couch.  And they said she had to “think” about things before she’d follow or go with any of them.  But once she decided she wanted to go outside she’d be happy to go.  That sounds so much like our little stubborn, mind-of-her-own, Katie girl!

This evening Katie and I went for a walk in her favorite park while we got reacquainted and bonded again.  I think she’s over her initial suspicion but she sure is barky!  I’m used to peaceful evenings filled with reading, napping, swimming …not the constant barking of a Sheltie recently home.  I think she had free reign to bark as much as she wanted in the kennel and she’s not yet quite under control.  Not even close.  But that’s OK…we can start training again.

As long as she’ll give up on her grudge against a wayward mama.


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Gulf Shores

This past weekend I visited a friend in Gulf Shores Alabama.  Turns out it was the same weekend as the free Jimmy Buffet Concert so you’d think things would be pretty busy.  But given the oil spill the beaches, those legendary beautiful soft white beaches, were virtually empty.  So sad.  Here’s just a couple of photos.

There were teams of people cleaning up the tar balls on the beach, looked a lot like sifting kitty litter.  But it was so hot!  98 degrees with heat indexes into the 100 + teens…glad it wasn’t my job.

And offshore were the booms and boats skimming oil off the surface….though it might be difficult for you to see this…

I’m sitting in the truck in the parking lot of the local library, using their wifi.  They aren’t open but it’s working OK.  Except that it’s HOT.  So I’m going back to the house where there is air but no internet.  I can’t really see what the photos looked like that I chose, but you get the idea!

Gulf Shores Alabama is beautiful, touristy, ugly, sad and HOT!  I had never been there before…and I think I’ll wait to go back until it’s fall or winter and the oil is gone.  If that ever happens.

On a good note, my friend has two black labs, so I got my dog fix for the weekend…but I’m really beginning to miss my Katie-girl.


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Another park

The advantage of not having a job (No I haven’t heard anything good or bad yet on the last set of interviews) is that I get to go to the park more often.  Today I told Katie that I was bored with our little local park, so we went out to my favorite park, the one I used to run in each week –  Kensington –  which is about 30 minutes away.  It has an 8 mile bike/walk trail around a big beautiful lake.  Katie and I didn’t walk all 8 miles, but we did do a total of 2.5!

The black raspberries are getting ripe, and in fact I got to taste one or two.  Yummy!

Mostly we just ambled along until we got to the boardwalk that runs above one piece of lake shore.  Katie wasn’t so sure she liked it, there wasn’t anything interesting to sniff on the edges, like there had been on the path.  And there wasn’t any shade either!  But on our outward trip she trotted right along after she checked the edge just to make sure everything was safe.

Since she was doing so well I planned on going about a mile and a half where I knew there was a bench overlooking the water.  But just before that bench is a bridge across a channel.  It has a wooden deck that moves and makes noise as people ride bikes across it.  And of course just as we got there a whole family of bike riders went by.  The noise spooked Katie a bit, that and being “inside” something.  Then a semi went by on the nearby freeway, running over a joint with multiple wheels, sounding like a nailgun.  She jumped and headed back the way we had come.  That’s OK sweetie, I don’t always like semi’s either!

On the way back to the car we moved slower.  She was getting hot, notice the sideways tongue.

Every time we stopped for a drink (often) I’d pour the remainder that she didn’t finish over her head and back and rub it in.  We sat in the shade at the bottom of our last long uphill and watched people go by, families, individuals, runners, people on bikes, people skating.  She didn’t bark at anyone.  Sometimes a tired doggie is a good doggie!

And she slept most of the way home.  No surprise there!


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Lambie, the tunnel, and the park

Katie would like to explain to all of you how to play “Lambie in the Tunnel.”  So, as interpreted from Katie-speak:

First you need a lambie.  And a tunnel, cause you all live too far away to share mine.  Not that I’m particularly good at sharing anyway.  Wait!  Mom!  Edit that out!!

Then you get your human to throw lambie into the tunnel.  You can get her (or him) to do this by standing in front of her (him) with lambie in your mouth and making your big brown eyes look pathetic, as if no one has EVER played with you in forever…or at least in the last ten minutes.

This is where it gets kind of theoretical, so listen up.  You can either run around the tunnel to the other side, then run as fast as you can, scooping up lambie as you go through the tunnel, and drop it at your human’s feet.  Or you can chase lambie into the tunnel from the same direction as your human threw it, scoop it up and run back to your human, either outside or inside the tunnel.

Or, and this is the best part, if you want to make your human feel really silly you can just look at her (or him) and stare as if it were beneath you to run through this silly tunnel, much less collect a lambie at the same time!

Then, after you  retrieve the lambie  a few times beg to go for a ride to the park!

After all, you deserve a park trip, given all that retrieving you’ve done.

Enjoy sitting in the shade and watching the little league kids play ball.  Then resist totally when your human says it’s time to go home.

In this way you keep your human in line.  This is very important, as you all know, to any Sheltie-girl ( or boy!).


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A river, more peonies and…Shakespere?

My Friday afternoon began with a bit of canoeing in Ann Arbor on the Huron River with my Aunt B.  We canoed from the canoe livery in town to just below the Barton Pond dam.  They said it was two miles of river up to the dam, but it was really more like canoeing on a  beautiful lake.

It’s been a fair number of years since I’ve been in a canoe for any length of time, and today my behind is letting me know that I sat for a good long time on a hard aluminum seat!  I’m surprised my arms aren’t expressing their displeasure at the amount of work I forced out of them yesterday as well.  Of course they may be waiting until I’m less suspecting.   Like tomorrow.


The pond and river were wide and smooth most of our way up to the dam.  On the way back a storm was coming in, the winds picked up and we had little white caps to maneuver.  There was no stopping to rest aching arms, as the  head wind would blow us  further back up  the river whenever we stopped paddling!  It was a challenge that we won!


Later in the day we had a lovely picnic lunch at Nichols Arboretum in preparation for watching Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Nights Dreams” which is being done Thursdays through Sundays through the month of June.  Here’s a link to the Ann Arbor Newspaper’s review which will also tell you a bit about how the play is done in this beautiful outdoor setting.  For those of you in or near Ann Arbor, you really should go enjoy this event.  It’s unique and wonderful and set in a place so beautiful you can hardly believe you’re lucky enough to be there.

We had a marvelous time.  The play began in the peony garden, so I got to take more pictures of the beautiful flowers.  They still look good, though some are not as beautiful as they were last weekend.

The audience gathered in chairs and on blankets along the hillside to watch the opening act; the setting the stage, as it were, of the love between Hermia and Lysander, and the arranged marriage Hermia’s father has made between her and Demetrius, and of Helena whose overwhelming  love for Demetrius has been scorned.

After each scene the audience picks up and moves to a new “set” within the Arboretum.  This makes the production fun, even for people who don’t love Shakespeare.   Each setting seems perfect for the action that takes place there; the hapless couples become more and more confused wandering through the forest on that dream filled night.

The audience gets to see it up close and personal.  The actors are so close  that you can see facial expression, hear most of the words and watch the prat falls as they race up and down the hills of the Arb. 

We enjoyed the fairies dance among the trees in the woods, listened to the magical music played by nymphs on the hillside, and laughed at the antics of  the band of Pucks causing trouble on this midsummer evening.

And then it began to rain.

During the last minutes of the play the thunder rolled and the skies opened up.  Rain poured down in buckets, the production was called for rain and we all ran for our cars.  I haven’t been out in rain like this since I was a little girl.  We got soaked.

But we laughed all the way back to the car.


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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.

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