Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Katie


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New laptop practice

It’s here! The new laptop is here! And husband spent all night setting it up so that I can take it with me on a little trip this weekend.

I should have made more cookies for him.

This morning I uploaded the last series of photos taken the day the laptop died. They’ve been sitting patiently in the camera ever since.

This was way back in October mama!

Katie thought you’d like to see a couple shots of her, given it’s been so long since she’s been online. She figures you need a Katie fix.

And she’s seen my suitcase so she’s alternating between excitement and pouting while she’s attempting to figure out if she gets to go.

No she doesn’t.

But don’t tell her that.

Can we go play now mama?


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I’m helping mama

Katie here. Just call me helpful, but mama has been a little stressed out. I guess something called a laptop (what the heck is that? I thought I was the only one allowed in her lap??) died. Mama didn’t cry or anything, and I don’t think there was a funeral, but she seems stressed.

I try to distract her by asking her to pay attention to me. Me me me me! Every morning when we get up I get her to make me a big breakfast and then I bug her to take me out, go for a walk, give me a treat, take me out, go for a walk, give me a treat…repeat. You doggies know the routine, right?

That way she’s not so stressed over that stupid laptop. I can tell it’s working too. This morning she took me for a walk in the neighborhood for a long time. Even though it was very very cold out. Now I’m working on getting her to take me to a park. Or three.

I personally think cold weather is good for her, but she says she has to find her gloves. Mama is a wimp.

Mama says change is hard.


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Fall flies

A bit of color among all that green.


It seems like fall is flying away. It’s been unseasonably warm, and by the end of summer we had had days and weeks with no rain.

A soggy marsh.

It’s still warm, even now, but this week we’ve had days filled with waves of rain. Yesterday we got over an inch, the day before was similar, and though it’s barely noon we’ve had half an inch already.

A little bit of peachy yellow shines in the wet air.

The few colored leaves we had are are sailing across the yard on gusty winds. Sometimes the rain blows sideways too and we are feeling a bit of cabin fever.

So in between rain bands Katie and I ventured out to see if I could capture just a few photos of what little color we have. She was hoping to read a few pee-mails left by neighborhood dogs.

The most color we have right now is sumac.

The maple trees, the sumac, and the wild grapes are turning color, but most of the rest of the trees are still green, or just turning brown.

Katie and I only went a block or so in each direction, but we saw what color there was. The wind was picking up again, though, so I urged her to move faster toward home.

The wind scuttles across the pond across the street.

In our own backyard, while I was concentrating on the leaves left on our burning bush I felt the first splat of new rain. “Katie!” I yelled, not looking back at her, “COME!”

Damp burning bush.

I tucked the camera under my arm and sprinted for the back door. As I got there I looked over my shoulder and she was standing out there just looking at me. She didn’t want to come back inside. “COME!” I yelled again. She stared at me.

Berries provide some color too.

She is, after all, a princess.

I ran back out, head tucked into the wind, grabbed her leash and tugged her into the house. And just as I closed the door the rain slammed into the windows. She looked at me as if to say “Gee mama, what was all the rush for anyway? We’re still relatively dry.”

Safe inside watching the rain.

Silly girl.

Hey mama! Wanna play now?

PS: This is not my Walktober. I’m planning something next week when I travel to a special place. But if you’re inclined to do a Walktober, and if it’s not pouring rain where you live, this might be the perfect time to do one! Link to Robin’s blog and she’ll compile them all at the end of the month.


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Surprise!

Most of you know Katie likes to get me up early. Really really early. Most mornings it’s a struggle and today was no exception.

On our fourth trip out within a couple hours (during most of which she did absolutely nothing but sniff the grass) I glanced over my shoulder.

And saw this.

Whoa! Katie, let’s run and get the camera!

The original reason for the trip outside was instantly forgotten. She let me run back inside and grab the camera as she waited patiently (and if you know Katie, you know she’s not the patient sort) for me to return.

Then the double rainbow showed up.

See the second one?!

I could barely contain myself. Katie, always the princess, remained calm.

I’ll wait here on the porch mama.

The color was amazing.

Couldn’t stop shooting.

Thank you Katie-girl for getting me off the sofa and outside this morning. Even so often and so early. You’re a good girl.

Now, can we go back to sleep?

Love you too mama


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Just a typical day

Not every day in retirement is an adventure, but the simple days are OK too. This morning Katie and I woke up to another beautiful October day. Blue sky and the moon just going down.

Hello moon!

We wandered a bit around the yard. She likes to check in with her tomato patch, just in case a spare cherry tomato falls off the vine don’t you know.

Guarding her tomatoes from marauding squirrels.

And of course it did.

Then a wander under the white pines at the back of our yard. Such a pretty place that we hardly ever visit, I don’t know why.

Can we camp under here mama?

But she said that really wasn’t enough of a walk, so she arranged to go to the park with her friend Deuce.

They posed under duress.

The mamas felt like a walk in the woods too, so it all worked out.

The light was beautiful!

We even tried to walk on the beach but the sun was getting too hot, and besides, they have this sign there.

They thought this was a silly rule.

Which we ignored.

That sign didn’t me ME, did it mama?

No, not every day has to be an adventure, but when you’re retired adventure can turn up any day!

Hey mama! This leaf is as big as I am!


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Katie’s Walktober

Katie here. Mama says she’s going to go on something called a Walktober. I was not exactly sure what that was, but I heard the word “walk” and I wanted to make sure I was included. Because mama should never go on any walk without me!

This is my friend Deuce.

I asked her what a Walktober was and she told me all about Robin’s blog and how everyone was going to take a walk in October and post about it, and then Robin would do a wrap-up post with links to everybody’s walk at the end of the month!

Mama said the dates were originally Oct 1 through Oct 18, but now Robin has extended it to Oct 28!

We don’t sit real close to each other. We each like our personal space.

Mama says she hasn’t decided where she’s going to do her Walktober, but, as usual, I’m way ahead of her. I went on my Walktober last weekend with my friend Deuce and his mom. Oh yea…my mama was there too.

We went to a park I’ve never seen before! Oh my! I do love new places! I guess I get that from mama, who also loves to explore. This new park was in the woods, so there was shade everywhere! And a beautiful river ran right through the middle of it!

Such a beautiful day!

I loved being cool while I explored, and I of course loved being in the woods. There were all these beautiful trees, and lovely new smells.

I’m 10 years old! So nice they have a sign for me!

It wasn’t a very big park, so mama and Deuce’s mom decided we’d just go around on the trail twice. I didn’t even notice. I loved being there. I even jumped a log without touching it. Mama said I looked like I was flying.

I can fly mama!

Then she made me do it two more times because she wanted to get a picture. Figures.

I felt really good on this walk. We walked way over a mile, and I even ran a race with Deuce! He won, but that’s because he’s only 5, just a youngster. And because I let him.

A Princess runs sedately.

You might not know, but this summer has been so hot that I haven’t really wanted to go on very many walks and mama has been sort of worried about me. But she can tell now that it’s getting a little cooler that I’m feeling much more like myself.

She’s really glad.

I want to say thank you to Deuce and his mom for sharing their park with me. It was the perfect park to do my Walktober and now I want to challenge all of you to get out this month and take a walk. Post about it and link to any of Robin’s posts. She’ll collect them all and everyone will get to come along with you on your walk!

I can’t wait to see your Walktober!

Deuce can fly too!


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There’s more to camping than the sheltie-girl

The road to the campground.


If you listen to Katie you’d think that all camping adventures are about her, and I suppose in some respects they are. We don’t do things she doesn’t want to do, and on this last camping trip of the season she didn’t want to do very much, so we stuck close to camp.

Still, there were many beautiful things to show you.

The grass turned color depending on the light.

We made short forays into the deep old growth forests. The air felt cooler to me, but I guess a sheltie-girl’s heavy fur coat made it hot for her, even there, so we didn’t stay very long.

It’s cooler back here in the forest.

The ferns along the forest floor were mostly brown. I don’t know if it’s drought or they had an early frost. No one else seemed to know either. They were still pretty in brown, but I felt kind of sad that their summer was over.

Variations of brown.

Katie and I drove a few miles down the road to visit two lakes, formed when the glaciers slid over Michigan years ago, then melted.

Amazing color, even before the leaves really begin to turn.

The sky was an incredible blue and the lakes were perfectly still. I couldn’t stop shooting images. Katie was pretty patient about the whole thing.

Reflections in the still water were mesmerizing.

It would have been fun to kayak on either of these lakes, and I think you can rent kayaks from the park. But Katie said she wasn’t into boating so we didn’t check that out.

Lilly pads add some color too.

As Katie told you the last night we had a storm blow over, making the sky and even the air turn bright pink.

Pretty in pink.

It was pretty amazing, and the camera caught even more pink than our eyes could see. Everyone was out looking around in wonder.

I’m glad the weather cooperated last week and allowed Katie and me to get one more camping trip in this season. We’ve been so lucky this year; we didn’t get rained out on any of our adventures.

It might be a long winter, but we’re already planning where to camp next spring.

Sky in the water.


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She can’t silence me people!

Katie here.

Well I never. I never! Mama and Daddy left me for almost three weeks! I was at camp and it was noisy and other dogs got all the attention! I swear no one fed me or played with me or took me outside and I was all alone!

Checking out my gardens.

Oh. You don’t believe that?

Well, OK, it wasn’t all that bad and they love me a lot there and I get to go outside a bunch, in fact they say I don’t want to come back inside when they call me. That’s cause I think I should get all the attention wherever I am, and do whatever I want, given I’m a princess. But it turns out all those other doggies are princesses and princes too! Who knew?

Hey mama! You saved me some tomatoes!

ANYWAY…

Mama finally came and got me and I told her off the entire ride home as is my right. And when I got home I told daddy off too. For hours. But then mama asked me if I wanted to go for a walk around the yard. Well yea mama!

I also told mama that none of you wanted to see her old pictures of forts and oceans and old houses and stuff. What you wanted (and I’m sure I’m right) is to see me! The Princess! Of course!! So I told her there better be lots of pictures on this blog (I can type but I don’t get the ‘insert media’ part of it. Plus I can’t decide which of my beautiful portraits should go where.) of me and she better get hopping because it’s been way too long since you’ve had the pleasure of seeing me.

And I told her she’s way behind in the camping quotient and I don’t care if it gets cold at night she better get that tent put up and it better be in an interesting place, not just my old back yard. Though on second thought the backyard might be OK, just don’t tell her that yet, I want to make her work for it.

I got to run in my yard!

I’m not vindictive, no I’m not.

Mama says daddy set the alarm clock each morning for 6:30 or 7 a.m. and she doesn’t know why. She thought she should be able to sleep in more, given it was her vacation. Well. I’m here to tell you mama, that 6:30 was sleeping in. Now that I’m back in town we’ll get right back to our normal schedule. Yep, 4:00 a.m. seems a reasonable time for a sheltie-mom to be up and at ’em.

Yes siree, I’m going to whip her back into shape. No more slacking mama!

My flowers are still pretty.

It is, after all, my responsibility as the Princess in the household to make sure my subjects are in shape.

She’ll thank me later.

Your gal Katie.