Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.


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WordPress Photo Challenge: Force of Nature

 

cropped Katie May 8 2015

Dandelions, those pretty little yellow flowers that so many people work so hard to eradicate from their golf course inspired yards, are incessant forces of nature.  Turn your back on them for one moment and they spring back to beautiful life.

And Katie-girl, a force of nature in her own stubborn, hyper, crazy, joyous way.

The combination is beautiful.

You can see all the other interpretations of forces of nature at the original post.  Or catch a few of my favorites here, here and here.  Each is a totally different take on the concept.

I love these challenges because you see wonderful things from all over the world.  Enjoy.

Imported Photos 00789


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Katie pronounces it officially summer.

Katie here.  Guess what, guess what, guess what?

At my park last night.

At my park last night.

It finally got warm!  And our grass is green!  And sometimes I get to sit in my kennel and watch the birds and bark at anyone on my street!  It’s amazing.  This weekend my mama even said she might put up the tent!  That means it’s summer, right?

Well, maybe not quite summer cause she never did put the tent up and we had to sleep inside the boring old house.  She said she was too tired.  I swear, that mama is always too tired to do fun stuff.

Well, I take it back, she did come home Sunday evening from somewhere all dressed up and she rushed out of her good clothes and put on her park clothes and we got to go to my park just as the sun was going down!

She said we had to get my dandelion photo, whatever that is.  And something about the park people mowing the grass if we didn’t hurry up.  So we rushed over there so fast she forgot my treats…and she marched me out to the middle of the field and guess what?  Apparently dandelions close up when the sun goes down!  Who knew?  So she found a little patch of them in the last bit of sun and said that would have to do for this year.

Boooorrrring

Boooorrrring

I found the whole thing terribly boring.  But then she and I walked all the way around the park and it was just wonderful.  Don’t you think the sun makes my coat look good?  I hear I’m going to the groomer Friday.  Maybe if you all tell her how beautiful I already look she won’t make me go.  It’s worth a shot, right?  I’d give you her private cell number to call her, but she won’t tell me what it is.

Golden sun on my golden coat.

Golden sun on my golden coat.

So anyway.  We also got to do weeding this weekend.  I’m not sure what that is either, but it seems to mean I get to lie out in the soft grass while my mama digs around in the dirt and gets all smelly.  She is definitely not a princess.  Sometimes I wonder why I hang out with her at all.

Then tonight after supper she and dad went back outside to weed some more.  I loved it because I got to sit in the grass again and watch my road.  I kept them safe from two marauding joggers and a couple of trucks.  Good thing I’m around.

But when the sun started going down mama said that was enough and now she and I are hanging out on the deck!f  The sky is getting all apricot, and there’s a big pink puffy cloud to the south.  AND…best of all mama saw the green herons come back for the summer!  All three of them flew over and made a big production of landing in our trees.  Boy they are noisy!  She seemed awfully glad to see them though.

AND we just saw a humming bird!  Mama put the feeder up yesterday cause she figured they’d be around by now and sure enough, just a few minutes ago a little hummer flew around our heads and went to the feeder!  He seems more skittish then he was when he left last fall, but he’ll get used to me.  I never bark at hummingbirds.  They are so cool and they make my mama happy.

So anyway, I almost forgot…mama says that by Friday it’s supposed to be hot here!  And if there aren’t any storms for sure we’re going to go camping in the back yard!  I almost can’t remember what that means, but I’m sure when I help her put up the tent I’ll be all excited again.

This was me last year!

This was me last year!

So all of that means it’s summer.  Right?  I think it is.  Princess Katie proclaims that summer has arrived.  I don’t care about stupid calendars and official dates.  I can’t count anyway.

Everybody enjoy this beautiful weather!  I hope no one has storms and you all get to go out for walks with your peoples or your dogs or (I suppose) even your cats.

Now I need a nap.  This weeding thing gets a girl exhausted.

See you soon in my tent!

Come camping with me!

Come camping with me!


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Lonely chickens

We’ve been taking care of our neighbors’ chickens for the past couple of weeks.  Well.  I have only been up there a couple of times; husband has head egg collection duty.

Busy chickens

Busy chickens

But I went up last weekend and as I approached their space they commenced to clucking and racing around, coming up to whatever side of the pen I was on.   I think they miss their people.  Husband says no – they’re just excited to get fed.

Whatcha doing out there?

Whatcha doing out there?

Which could also be true.

But I prefer to think they enjoyed my company while I was there.  I talked to them and took their pictures.  I thought they were quite beautiful.

So are their eggs.

Yum

Yum

 

 

 

 


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Surprise! Not

Husband mowed the yard last night, and I moved the kennel up against the deck.  This morning I moved Katie’s kennel further away from the deck steps.  As I walked back into the house I said to myself:

“Self, that kennel is way too close to the bird feeder.  Wonder how long till the squirrels figure it out.”

Answer:  Under an hour.

Breakfast!

Breakfast!

Excuse me while I go move the kennel.

 

Run!

Run!


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Caught up in it all

I have a friend I’ve missed talking to, seeing regularly.  We worked together for many years and probably would have become good friends but I ended up being her manager and you just can’t be friends with people that work for you.  She retired a year ago shortly after her husband died and we promised we’d get together.  We meant it.

But you know it didn’t happen.

I’ve thought of her often, mostly when I’m at work where things remind me of her.  And I’ve pulled out my cell phone to call her and then thought I’d wait till I wasn’t at my desk, maybe at lunch, or before the drive home.  But lunch never happens and by the time I leave I’m so tired I don’t think about anything but the traffic jams waiting for me out on the freeway.

Then this week someone else asked about her, assuming I’d kept in touch, and I made a concerted effort to reach her.  As we talked today I wondered aloud how her retirement was going, what she’d been doing, how life was.  What was new.

She said she’d renewed her library card, read a lot of books, watched a lot of movies, spent time with her grand kids.  Slept.  All good things.

And then her voice broke and stilled.  With a little wobble in her throat she softly mentioned that it had been lonely.  Without her husband of so many years, without her friends at work she’d been lonely.  Oh she didn’t want to start working again, face the traffic in the mornings, the stress of the industry we’re in, but still…

And I felt terrible.  I was supposed to have her over for dinner.  I was supposed to keep in touch.  And I let it go every day, day after day, while I got sucked into the endless funnel of work and life.

And she’d been lonely.

It’s ridiculous.  Me, who knows more than most how short life is, who knows what’s important, let it slide.  She’s someone I care about, someone who makes me laugh, someone who was there for me when things were very very bad.

She was lonely.  Damn.

We’re having dinner early next week, she and I and a few more people from work who have wondered how she is and have missed her.  I can’t wait.  She made me laugh this afternoon in the middle of work craziness.  Even while I was beating myself up.  She’s good like that.

Some lessons have to be learned and relearned.  What’s important are the people, not the profit.  It’s pretty simple really, but oh so hard to follow through.  Lesson learned.

Again.

 


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Watch those treats mama!

Hey mama!  I'm stuck behind this big log!

Hey mama! I’m stuck behind this big log!

Katie here.  Those of you that live around here are probably noticing that spring has arrived!  Oh I know sometimes we still get a snow flake or two, but all in all stuff is really beginning to green up and some people even have gardens that are blooming already!

My mama says she doesn’t know how this happened.  She didn’t notice the willow trees turning yellow before they popped out in green buds, and she didn’t see her goldfinches when they were green with gold tufts of new feathers.  She says suddenly the grass was green, the willows were green, and the birds were gold!  She doesn’t understand how she missed all this.

I do.

She works too much.  It’s hard to notice stuff like trees and birds when you go to work in the dark and come home at dusk.  I’d say it’s even hard to notice things like a princess.  Who is sitting right by her feet.  Holding a pink pig in case she wants to play.

Or anything.

So I look forward to the weekends, because then, sometimes, if I’m lucky, my mama will take me to the park.  Like she did today.  Of course she wanted to take some silly pictures.  Honestly mama…don’t you have enough photos of beautiful me sitting beside grasses at the park?

Got anything good over there mama?

Got anything good over there mama?

Today she liked the way the sky looked and she was trying to get me and the grasses and the sky.  But she couldn’t get me to look at her.

I have a new rule about having my picture taken, but don’t tell her.

When she gets out that stupid camera and makes me sit I do.  But I look the other way.  And when she calls my name I look at her for a split second and then I look the other other way.  Even when there’s really nothing over there that interests me.  I do this a lot until she gets really frustrated and just takes the picture anyway.  She has to be really fast to get one of me looking at her.  It’s my little way of letting her know who’s boss.

Not going to look at you Mama.

Not going to look at you Mama.

We all know who’s boss.  Right?

So anyway, today she thought she’d trick me and she pulled a plastic bag of treats out of her pocket and she’s squatted down trying to take a picture of me with the sky and she was waving the bag of treats around and I’m focused on the ground just next to her and I won’t look at her and she can’t figure out why until I stand up and she stops looking through the camera and says “STAY!” in her school voice, so I do, and she gets the shot and then she stands up and says “come!” and I do and then I start scarfing up all the treats that had been flung out of the plastic bag all around her.

Ha ha ha ha mama!  See?  I am such a good girl!  Even though there were treats flying everywhere I stayed until you said come!  But I wasn’t really interested in looking at you when there were all these great treats lying all over!

My cover girl shot.

My cover girl shot.

Mama.  Sometimes she’s not very perceptive.  But I love her anyway.

Especially on the weekends.

Can't we just go for a walk mama?

Can’t we just go for a walk mama?