park | Change Is Hard

July 27, 2013
by dawnkinster 12 Comments

Park days

The weather has been wonderful this past week; cooler with high temperatures in the 80’s (21’s C) and less humidity. Katie and I took advantage of that one evening after work and went to her favorite park.

Just sitting with my Mama.

I took my book, thinking I could sit on the hillside and read, and she could explore while on her long line. For a little bit she sat with me. Then she went and stood at the end of her long line, facing the walking trail. She didn’t cry, she didn’t tug. She just stood there and waited. She made me feel bad. After all what is the point of going to the park if you aren’t going to go for a walk?

OK little one.

So we went for a long walk, all the way around. Then because it was beautiful out we took a side trail over to the library and meandered up the library driveway back to another entrance to the park. I figured we’d head back to the car and go home.

Mama…I always have to wait for her.

But as we approached the park entrance we saw a car we recognized enter the park and drive way over to the parking lot. We were quite a ways away but we picked up our pace. Still, by the time we got to the parking lot they were already unloaded and out of sight down the walking path.

So we hustled along and eventually caught up with Maddie, a miniature Australian Shepard and her folks. Katie and I met Maddie when we were all in an agility class together a few years ago. We learned then that we lived in the same town and went to the same park but we hardly ever run into them. It’s been a couple years since we saw them last.

So of course we had to go on the walk with them, all the way around the park again. Katie thought she was in heaven to get to do the walk again! Though she slowed down some near the end. After all she’d already had a long walk.

Maddie is just full of energy, and ran circles around Katie. At one point, though, Katie did a play bow with Maddie and sort of leaped into the play. For a moment. Then she remembered she is a princess and stopped. I think if they saw each other more often and were left to it they might actually play together.

Katie and Maddie

Aren’t they cute? We hope we run into them again this summer!

Evening with Katie

July 26, 2013
by dawnkinster 8 Comments

No respect

I woke this morning to the news that someone has vandalized the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

Mr. Lincoln

One of the beautiful things about our monuments is that you can visit around the clock. Wandering them late on a warm summer night, when they are all lit up, when they are quiet without the hundreds of tourists, is a gift. Perhaps it’s a gift we won’t always have.

Climbing to meet an important man.

All I can say to the person or people responsible is this: If you don’t have any respect for yourselves at least have respect for your own history.

Number 16

June 23, 2013
by dawnkinster 7 Comments

Biking through the park and mooing with ice cream.

Last Tuesday sister and I met our Aunt at one of my favorite parks. (Click on photos to see more detail.) We brought our bikes and before lunch we rode the 8 mile trail around the big lake. Did I mention there are hills here?

We just came up this hill!

It was a beautiful day, sunny with a little breeze to keep the flies at bay.

Riding through the woods.

We also hiked a little bit in the nature area; we saw some sandhill cranes, swans, ducks, and blue herons with young ones still in the nest.

Looking for the cranes.

We had a lot of fun goofing off, enjoying the sunshine, the park, and each other…

We took lots of pictures.

…and we found out it’s not always easy to keep up with an 80 year old!

The girls

Friday night sister and husband and I went to the local dairy for ice cream. It’s the best ice cream around. I had udder butter (peanut butter and chocolate) and my sister had moocachino (coffee flavored).

Ice cream maker.

We got to pet a really cute calf.

Big brown eyes.

And stand beside really big cows.

BIG cows.

I’m convinced you can’t have exceptional ice cream without the cow scent to accompany it. Darn that was good.

Evening sun.

All in all a very good week.

Water lily at the park.

June 20, 2013
by dawnkinster 10 Comments

So far behind

I have lots of stories to tell you. A visit to the family farm (barns!) and a bike ride in the park. But I’m back to work now and I’m behind again. Well. I guess I could blame being behind on work but the reality is I’m just behind in general.

So stay tuned. I promise barn photos are coming to a blog near you.

Maybe a bicycle photo or two as well.

Maybe.

Sneak peek.

June 17, 2013
by dawnkinster 22 Comments

Busy weekend

It’s been a busy weekend here. Friday night I played with the community band as the warm up act at a local park.

Playing in the park.

The main act was “The Magic Bus,” a group of guys playing 60’s and 70’s music.

Member of the Bus.

We stayed and listened to them play…

Dancing to memories.

…and watched the happy dancers of our generation feeling the beat once again.

Giant dancer puppet

Saturday Katie’s Aunt B and I took Katie to doggie school where she got to practice heeling and jumping and circling and such.

Exercise over!

There’s another sheltie in class now and they seem to like each other pretty much. As much as shelties like any other dog I guess.

Toby and Katie

Saturday afternoon we got Katie’s agility stuff out and she ran and jumped some more.

Heading for the tunnel!

She doesn’t like teeter, but the rest was pure fun.

Jump!

Sunday morning we went to the farmer’s market, Katie tagged along and she got lots of petting.

Walking at the park!

Then we went to her favorite park and had even more fun!

Sharing the park with my Aunt B!

But Sunday night Aunt B found a tick on Katie! OH NO! This is her first tick ever! So now we know we have to be vigilant. Katie was so good, sitting still while her Aunt and her Dad put alcohol on the tick and pulled it off.

She’s such a good girl. She wants to know what we’re going to do for fun today!

Sunday husband, sister and I went to visit husband’s Aunt V. She probably deserves her own blog post…so I’ll write that one later.

At the park

May 28, 2013
by dawnkinster 13 Comments

A lovely weekend

This is all mine!

Katie here….Three day weekends should be the norm because then I’d have my Mama around more and we could do more fun things. Like going to my park! Mama kept promising me all weekend that we’d go to the park. She said that a lot while she was weeding and hauling mulch and stuff. After awhile I didn’t believe her anymore.

So when Dad said “Hey Katie-girl (I was sleeping and he woke me up!)…do you want to go to the park!?” I knew something was up. He never asks me that. So I got all excited and missed the evil look my Mama gave my Dad, cause I guess she was busy with something and now she was going to have to stop doing it and take me right away because Dad got me all riled up. It worked too! I should probably pay Dad a commission or something.

Come on Mama, hurry up!

We had the park all to ourselves. I guess Mama had planned on taking me to a bigger park, but then she realized that those parks would be full of people doing Memorial Day stuff so we just went to my local park. I didn’t care, I was so excited to be there I didn’t even want any treats when Mama offered. I just wanted to sniff!

Every year Mama takes me to this park to take my picture with the pretty yellow flowers. I don’t know why, I always look the same. She says this year we were a little late. I don’t know what she’s talking about. I still look beautiful even though I am six and a half years old. Little late. Sheesh.

A Sheltie is never late.

We practiced some obedience along the way too. And of course Mama did that distracted recall thing. I’m really really good at that. I love running back to my Mama when she calls.

Coming Mama!

Toward the end of our walk the sky got dark and it started to sprinkle. I don’t care so much, but Mama said we had to get back. You see, we tried camping last night in the back yard for the first time this season and Mama said we needed to get back to the house so we could get all the camping stuff back inside. Whatever Mama. It’s not like we spent very long out in the tent last night. It was stinking cold! But I’m not worried, I know there’s going to be plenty of camping nights this summer.

Here’s me being ‘dramatic’ before the rain.

I had a great weekend. Too bad Mama has to go back to work today. On the other hand, I could use a nap!

What are we doing next weekend Mama?

May 17, 2013
by dawnkinster 7 Comments

Katie has a play date!

Not getting her feet wet.

By prearrangement I took Katie to a state park a few miles up the road to meet a friend and her dog Peep. Peep was in the same obedience class with Katie a long time ago, and we’ve been following her trials via facebook for the last couple of years.

When I got home from work tonight I asked Katie if she wanted to go to the park! And of course she did, spinning her excitement as I chopped up some cheese for treats. Her Dad brought up the fact that she was getting to go for a walk at the park and a ride in the car AND she was getting treats! Katie spun faster. I had to put her in the car before I was ready to leave, she was so excited.

Anyway, we made it to the park, one I’ve never visited before, and met up with Peep and her Mom. It’s a beautiful park and the dogs enjoyed exploring, both along the lakefront and on a trail into the woods.

Peep and Katie

I wondered how Katie would be with another dog, and it turns out neither of them cared particularly that the other one was there.

Noses busy.

In fact it was just about impossible to get a photo of the two of them together, how those of you with two dogs ever get them to sit still at the same time, in the same place is beyond me!

Regardless of the photo quality we all had a great time!

This was as close as we could get them…

Katie and I are looking forward to our next visit to the park with her new doggie friend!

…unless treats were involved.

April 21, 2013
by dawnkinster 11 Comments

Sunshine on my shoulders!

Welcome to my park!

Katie here! Guess what? The sun came out today and I got to go to my park. Hey! Do you think there is a correlation? Mama said “Hey Katie! It’s nice outside, do you want to go to the PARK?” Well of course I did…so I got all jumpy and excited and barkey and she could hardly get me into the car. Then I barked all the way there. I was telling her to hurry up!

No one was at the park except a couple of little league teams. They were all busy playing ball so we had the rest of the park to ourselves.

Play ball!

We were almost at the back of the park when I heard a loud noise and the earth started shaking. Mama said it was a train, but I think it was a really really big car! It has never been back there when we’ve been at my park before. I stood stock still and watched it go by.

That’s a BIG car!

When Mama asked me if I wanted to get closer I sat down. No way! I’ll wait right here Mama!

I’ll wait right here.

After the big car was gone I was quite happy to continue our walk. We came to the only wet spot on our walk and Mama walked right by it on the edge. I stopped. Mama got on the other side and looked back and called me. No way! She forgets all the time that I’m a princess. Princesses do not get their feet wet. I made her come back and carry me over. You’d think she’d have thought of that first. Geeze.

Are your feet wet Mama?

Anyway, I had a great time and wish my Mama was home all the time to take me to the park every day. Oh wait. I forgot. Mama brought ‘treats’ because she wanted to work on our heeling. She brought dry dog food! Can you believe that? I came and sat once when she asked me and she gave me a piece. I was disgusted and spit it out. Honestly. Sometimes she is not very smart. If she had brought chicken I’m sure I would have run through that puddle.

Mama’s got a lot of learning to do.

Come ON Mama!

March 11, 2013
by dawnkinster 13 Comments

Another weekend another park!

I walked a long way!

Good morning everybody! Katie here. My Mama took me to the park again yesterday, but I can only give you the short version because she says she has to go to work and doesn’t have time for all this dictation.

So anyway, we went to my favorite park, but there was so much snow melting that we ran into this:

Pretty wet out here Mama!

I said we could go right through it but my Mama is a wuss and said it was too deep. So she bundled me up and we went to another park.

This one was a lot dryer and there were lots and lots of people there, riding their bikes and running and walking with their dogs and other peoples. I was very very good. We practiced some distracted heeling…cause I was distracted until I remembered the treats!

Got treats Mama?

We walked a long way. See that first picture up there? What? You don’t believe I walked over 7 miles? Huh. So you know me pretty good don’t you. Yep we walked one mile and then we turned around…and since it’s four miles to the end of the trail and 4 miles back on our way back to the car we could pretend we walked the whole way!

One mile is still a long way!

Oh hey! I almost forgot to tell you! We were almost back at the parking lot and this family was just starting out with a big standard size black poodle. The dog was all over the place. The Dad was busy texting someone and the Mom was trying to get the dog under control. My Mama told me to “HEEL!” and “watch her” and I did, I walked right by the spinning black dog without looking at it!

And you know what the Dad said after they got by me? He said, “Did you see that dog? That was a good dog, did you hear her say watch me and the dog watched her! Why can’t you do that?” And my Mama laughed out loud. Yes she did. Cause she and I know that doesn’t just happen without a lot of work.

I’m a good girl!

But I am a very good girl. Yes I am. Now I need a nap. All this talking so early in the morning wears me out. Too bad Mama has to go do that work thing.

Yep. Too bad.

March 10, 2013
by dawnkinster 12 Comments

Waiting for spring

Weather people say it will reach 50 (10 C) today. So what if it might rain a little too…we’re still excited.

It’s been a long winter and I am not alone in waiting impatiently for spring.

Stoically waiting for spring.

Lately it seems even inanimate objects are waiting….waiting…

Lonely slide

…waiting for the first soft spring breeze tinged with warmth.

But there is hope. Yesterday on the way to doggie school I spotted a red winged blackbird preening in the top of a tree. I haven’t heard them yet but I am sure I will today when Katie and I go to the park to play.

Missing the children

In fact last weekend while Katie and I were scuttling around avoiding the bitter wind I’m almost sure I heard a sandhill crane’s cry. And earlier in the week I’m almost positive I saw two of them standing on the ice in a marshy area as I was driving to work. I just caught them out of the corner of my eye but I’m sure those were cranes and not geese. Almost sure.

Right now our morning backyard still has snow. (Click on photo to ‘see the light.’)

Morning sheds light on hope

But we’re betting on the weather guy that this afternoon will be amazing. And we listen to Mr. Cardinal as he sings with joy.

Ode to joy

Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

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