You know there are three boy dogs in my neighborhood that walk by my driveway almost every day. Personally I think they do that just to catch a glimpse of beautiful me.
These are a couple of my neighborhood boyfriends.
And I have had a couple playdates with Lance, a very handsome sheltie-boy who is about six months older than me. I think he likes me too.
I’m kinda sweet on my boyfriend, Lance, too.
And just this week mom arranged for me to meet Levi, a four year old sheltie who lives about an hour away from me.
This is my boyfriend Levi! Isn’t he a handsome boy?
Levi and I met at a fenced in dog playground in his neighborhood. The moms picked the coolest day of the week because, as you know, shelties are always wearing a heavy coat.
It’s so much fun to run free!
At first Levi and I weren’t sure about each other. He wasn’t sure he wanted me in his territory, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be there either. He’s a lot bigger than me!
He can’t catch me! Well, he wasn’t really trying to catch me…
In fact mom said this is the first time I looked small!
Something smells good under here. Plus there’s shade.
But eventually, when mom broke out the frissbee we started to have some fun. Levi just loved my frissbee and I chased him while he chased it.
Levi has a beautiful coat!
After a little bit of running around we settled in a corner where there was some shade. Even at 68 degrees it was pretty hot. While the moms were talking I’d sort of peek around from behind mom’s legs and get Levi’s attention.
Time for some shade and a drink!
Then I’d race off and hide behind the slide and just dare him to chase me. Yep, I pretended I didn’t want to play and then I’d egg him on. I’m very skilled at being a tease.
Ha ha, got you to run Levi!
We didn’t run around too much, because of the heat, but we’re going to get together again when it’s cooler outside.
Running is just the best fun!
When we meet again we’ll be more comfortable, cause we’ll already know each other. Levi’s mom says he went home and took a nap. I went home and bugged my parents for the rest of the day.
Catch me if you can, Levi!
I guess I got a little wound up.
Thanks, Levi, for inviting me to play at your park!
Talk later, your most alluring sheltie-girl, ruler of all boy dogs…
We had some really hot weather up here in Michigan and it seemed to last forever. Of course it didn’t last forever, but for my two nights of camping at a local state park the heat hung heavily in the air even late into the night.
Even though it was hot I enjoyed a fire each evening.
I hadn’t camped at this park for a few years, not since Katie and I camped there and struggled with noisy kids partying all night just a few sites away.
This site is surrouned by woods.
This time it was much more quiet. I was in my favorite site at this campground, full shade, with lots of privacy. I went there specifically to watch the birds that hang out in the trees surrounding the site, many of which I don’t see at home around my feeders.
My app Merlin says this is a wood thrush. I don’t think we have wood thrushes in Michigan.
And I went to give Penny an opportunity to see a campground for the very first time. Her dad brought her over in the evenings and we sat around and talked.
“I’m a little anxious, mom. And it’s hot out here!”
She sat around and observed. Everything.
“What’s that over there, mom?”
I didn’t ask her to get into the tent for a number of reasons, one it was too hot inside the tent, and two she isn’t really happy in the tent yet.
“Mom, do you have any treats over there?”
But she did get to watch people and dogs and kids walk by and begin to realize she didn’t have to bark at everyone.
“You’re still here, right dad?”
It wasn’t easy for her. Watching dogs walk by, listening to noisy trucks as they hauled trailers past our site was hard.
“Dad? Those kids on bikes need to be herded!”
But little kids on bikes? Now that deserves a big bark, mom!
“So, this is your favorite site mom?”
We still have a lot of work to do, it was all new to her. But I can see potential.
“OK mom, that was interesting, I’m going back to my air conditioning now!”
There are, of course, a lot of memories at my favorite site, memories of camping with my Katie-girl. And I think she was there with me last week.
My girl used to use this leash to wander the site when we camped together so long ago.
I miss her so much, even while little Miss Penny is bouncing around distracting me. Penny says that’s OK and I appreciate her giving me some grace.
Hey Katie-girl, I know you were there.
On my last day at site 16, just before I started packing up and while I was feeling sad and missing Katie, a female cardinal arrived. She hopped around, up on the picnic table, underneath it, across the parking pad, always keeping an eye on me.
“Hey Lady! Don’t feel sad, she’s right there in your heart!”
I kind of think Katie sent her. She made me smile, just like Penny does, who, I’m sure, was also sent by Katie.
I don’t know what this bird is, but it’s pretty!
There’s lots of summer left. I hope I get to take Penny to another campground before the end of the season.
“Just remember lady, you’re never alone!”
And I figure by next summer she just might be ready for a real adventure, even if it’s camping in our own backyard.
I’ve been hanging around our my house a lot. I’m sort of bored, so I bug mom and dad by poking them in the knee. If mom’s on her stupid phone I jump up next to her and knock it out of her hand. That’s her cue to take me to a park.
It usually works.
Yep, here we are at another park.
But this past week while we were at a park I asked mom if we could please do something more fun. Like with friends and stuff. Because, not to be rude, but walking around in the trees with my mom all the time gets sort of…well…repetitive.
Can’t we do something different, mom?
And you know what she did? She took me with her to visit my dog mom, Vivian, and her bestie, Oliva!
Olivia has the ball and Vivian is just full of joy to be running!
And even better we got to play in their yard, all three of us together! At first I wasn’t sure about the rules and I hung back on the deck observing the craziness below.
Olivia seems to be the owner of the ball.
But then I figured it out. The rules are that there ARE NO RULES! So game on!
Wait for me you guys!
It was a warm day so we didn’t run too long, but while we were running, we were running hard!
The infamous two headed sheltie.
And let me tell you, three excited shelties chasing a ball on a beautiful late spring day sure make a lot of noise! Mom was hoping the neighbors were all at work.
Let me at that ball!
We went back inside after a few races around the yard, to cool off and settle down.
This is my mom, Vivian. Isn’t she beautiful?
Well…maybe just to cool off. Three shelties don’t settle down all at once you know.
This is Olivia, the keeper of the ball. She’s beautiful too.
Then after our cooling break we went out one more time to have some more fun. I was an active participant from the start, cause I knew just what this game was about.
It’s all about that ball.
I had so much fun running free without being tethered to one of my folks. Not that I don’t love my walks with them…but seriously, I doubt they’d be able to keep up.
I can fly!
We were just flying around that yard!
I got close to the ball a few times, but I never did get it away from Olivia. I figure that’s OK, it was her yard, her rules, you know?
You’re a really good ball keeper, Olivia!
I’m just glad I got to play in a big backyard with a tree where we could rest in the shade in between bouts of running.
We posed together like good girls…cause mom had treats!
But mostly we just played and played and played.
My hind end wanted to fly away a lot that afternoon.
It was nonstop mayhem!
Hey, maybe we can cut her off at the pass, Vivian!
In the end I didn’t really need the ball, I was just loving the chase. Vivian and Olivia were real nice hosts and let me play with them until it got too warm and we all decided to go inside again.
Hey mom, can you open this door for us?
And then it was time to say goodbye. I had a wonderful time, and I’m so glad I get to stay in contact with my dog mom, Vivian and her bestie Olivia and of course my Mama S.
We need a goodbye treat, ok mom?A girl can only run so farin one day.
I’m a lucky girl.
And I know it too.
There were a lot of sheltie smiles that afternoon!
Signing off, all these pictures of us running have tired me out. Time for a little nap.
This morning I got to play music with some of the members of the Clarkston Community Band at our local Farmers’ Market. It was opening day at the market and the weather was perfect. Sunny and in the 70s with, at the beginning, no breeze to blow music around.
Ready to begin the next piece.
OK, so we were sight reading most of the music. And OK, we didn’t have all the instruments of a full band. And yes, we did dissolve into giggles in the middle of one piece of music we had optimistically thought we could pull off when it became obvious we weren’t going to make it to the end even remotely together.
Taking a break.
But hey, people stopped to listen, the Disney songs were a big hit with the little kids, and we got to spend a few more hours playing together at the end of our season.
You just can’t beat live music outside in the sunshine. I’d say it was a win for us and a win for people shopping the market on a beautiful Saturday morning.
As I was leaving Kensington, having been run out of town on the trails by the little birds, and on the boardwalk by a marauding swan and a big group of kids, I stopped at a little picnic area, off the beaten path.
“Are you SURE you don’t have anything to eat? Can you check your pockets again?“
I thought maybe the birds there would be more forgiving, since they don’t get many visitors. I turned on my Merlin app and let it record the birds singing as it identified who was nearby.
“We didn’t want her food anyway. It’s not good for growing cygnets.“
A vireo, a common yellow throat, a warbler, a bluebird, a flicker, a red winged blackbird. And of course a robin.
“I’ll just stay still, she’s not interested in me anyway.“
I could hear the vireo and the common yellow throat coming from down near the marsh, so I crept that way. I spent a long time standing still staring up at a cottonwood tree that I’m pretty sure hid the yellow throat. But I never saw anything move.
No birds, but this daisy was nice.
I’d already been out at the park for hours and I was hungry, having forgotten to bring myself anything to eat either. So I headed back toward the car, past the picnic pavilion where I saw this little guy.
“If I stand real still you won’t notice me, right lady?”
Well, it’s not a photogenic location, but heck, it’s a bluebird. Right?
He flew up into a tree and then over to the outhouse building. Still not a photogenic location, but the sun was pretty on him there.
“From this perch I can see what’s going on all over this picnic area.”
He bounced around there, from the corner of the building down to the ground up into a tree and back to the building again. Then I lost track of him, couldn’t find him anywhere.
“I’m a velcro bird! I can hang out anywhere!”
I decided it was time to go home, and I turned around to head to the car and, little stinker, there he was on the path right next to me!
“Hey lady! Pay attention, you’re gonna step on me here!”
It was as if he was laughing at me as I took my third, not photogenic, photo of him just because he was beautiful.
And then he flew up into a branch and stayed there, posing until I got the shot.
“Thanks for playing lady, I had fun too.”
Well thank you kindly, Mr. Bluebird, for playing along. You sure made me smile that afternoon! And I’m still smiling today!
So let’s see….I was a miserable failure according to the little birds over on the nature trails, so I decided to go out to the boardwalk to see what if anything was going on at the heron rookery.
The sky was clouding over when I got out to the boardwalk.
Every year I try to get out there frequently in the spring to watch the littles grow up. But I never get there enough, and this year I missed all of it.
Perhaps an adult resting after lunch duty.
Cause the littles weren’t so little anymore!
Are the nests empty?
It was about mid-day and most of the feeding activity had apparently already happened. There wasn’t much in the way of adults flying around.
Nope, not empty. They’re just deep and still hold hungry little ones.
But there was still enough activity to initiate a few anxious moments as the teenagers determined if the adult flying in was their adult.
Guess that wasn’t our order, guys.
Disappointment ran rampant.
This nest held four hopeful teenagers. They were keeping an eye out for mom or dad.
I enjoyed watching this mama (or daddy?) heron working on their nest.
Cleaning up the household.
After she got it the way she wanted it she rested a moment, shook her feathers and then sat back down.
Newborns are just so much work!
I think it’s a little late for eggs to still be there but maybe she has some late arrival babies in there.
I hope my partner shows up soon to spell me for awhile.
Mostly the adults just seemed tired of all the noise and chaos.
I swear, these kids need to grow up and take some responsibility for getting their own meals.
I wasn’t getting anything all that exciting when a group of kids showed up and I figured it was time to go.
Everybody’s having a good time, but they were noisier than the birds.
But then I took a few more pictures of stuff…
Hey! Where is everybody?
and as I was doing that I saw this swan flying toward me.
Incoming…
Directly at me, actually,
Really…..INCOMING!!
Until he (or she) was right there in front of me and then overhead. It was amazing and resulted in my favorite shots of the day.
Duck!!!
Things like being in the flight path of a swan make me want to go out there every day. I was definitely smiling as I headed for the car.
Not duck!!! SWAN!!!! (You see what I did there…)
And I smiled some more when I stopped at a little picnic area on my way out of the park. But that will have to wait.
Change Is Hard 