Katie here. Mama and I received very sad news last night. Our friend, the regal Queen Abby crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday. I was heartbroken when mama told me.
Queen Abby.
You might remember that I first met Abby a few years ago in Ann Arbor when we walked in the Arboretum together. We were both younger then, and we walked a long way!
This is fun!
Abby and I had so much fun! I noticed that though she was a little younger than me she carried herself with such grace, and looked so regal. I immediately decided she was a Queen. I’m sure you agree.
She was definitely royalty.
Then the moms got us together again, in a little park on an island in the Huron River. We had a beautiful day to explore, though we didn’t walk as much as we had before, we were getting older you know.
We were always willing to pose for our moms.
I so enjoyed my time with Abby. She was the perfect park explorer companion. We liked to walk together down paths and across fields.
Abby was a happy girl.
And we loved to sit together in the shade too.
Can you believe the moms want more pictures?
Abby was such a classy Queen. She never sniffed my private parts, and she never snapped at me, even when I was sniffing hers.
How you doing, girlfriend?
We got along like we’d always known each other. If we’d lived closer to each other I know we’d have turned out to be best friends.
The Queen surveying her park.
I think Abby was an old soul, you know? She was a wise, sweet girl who liked to go on adventures in a sedate sort of way. As befits royalty.
A Queen and her chariot.
And just like me, she was happy, no matter where she was, as long as she was hanging out with her mom. A wise girl indeed.
They loved each other so much.
We met again, our last walk together, just this past fall in another park. We hardly walked at all, but the moms found shady spots for us to sit and talk. We had a good time even though Abby couldn’t see very well anymore.
The Queen resting for a bit.
I’m kind of glad I didn’t know back then that it was my last visit with the Queen. I’d have been so sad, just like I’m sad now.
Content to sit near her mom.
I wish I could go on one more walk with her, but I know that when I cross the rainbow bridge Queen Abby will be there to welcome me and show me around. She’ll have her sight back, and we’ll both be able to hear again. And we’ll be able to run and bark and explore together forever!
We had a great view of the park from up here!
So, Queen Abby, please know how much I treasured our friendship. I know you have lots of friends and siblings at the bridge, but I hope you remember to keep an eye out for me. When I get there we’ll go on our royal walks once again, and everyone will be in awe of our combined beauty, just like they were when we were together down here.
Our last picture of the Queen.
Mama says she will always remember you too, and that little white patch on your behind. It makes her smile, she says, to remember you. Mama and I are keeping your folks in our heart. We know they will miss you forever.
The royal team and their shadows.
Run free, sweet Queen Abby. We sure will miss you Your Highness.
I’m washing dishes this early morning, pots and pans left from last night’s dinner. Katie observes me and, deciding I’m going to be there awhile, settles down on her rug in the breakfast room, in front of the door to her deck. She loves to survey her yard from that vantage point, but this morning she’s sleepy, tummy full of breakfast.
Her mind wants to keep an eye on the birds, keep watch for squirrels, but her body is determined to take a nap. I watch her eyes slowly close, then blink open, then close again. Her head starts to bob.
I stop washing dishes and stand there memorizing her.
As if she feels me watching, her eyes pop open and she gives me a side-eyed glance, checking to see if I noticed her dereliction of duty. I stay motionless. She relaxes and her eyes slide closed again, head still held high.
I tiptoe away, back to the living room to get the camera. Taking the lens cap off and turning back to the kitchen I am surprised by a little fuzzy girl standing right behind me, head tilted, watching.
Back in 2019, instead of making a list of resolutions, I made a list of stuff I thought would be fun to do. I even ended up doing quite a few some of them.
So in 2020 I moved a few of the not done 2019 things to a new and improved list, and added a few more fun ideas, thinking about all sorts of exciting adventures and explorations.
And then covid.
2020 was brutal and I rarely looked at the list, though I did manage to do a couple of the fun things. But at the end of 2020, with the loss of my brother-in-law to covid, and so much overwhelming bad stuff happening, I never even made a 2021 list.
The 2020 list has been on my bulletin board ever since, reminding me that there are still interesting, fun and stupendous things to do, I just needed to figure out how to do them.
Here’s what was on that list, hanging on the bulletin board for the past two years and how it all turned out:
*Camping in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. — DONE the summer of 2021, two separate trips!
*Travel to Florida to meet the baby sheltie boys.–Not done, and they aren’t babies anymore.
*Purchase a set of extension tubes for my camera and explore macro photography. –DONE in 2020
*Make more vegetarian or vegan meals, goal being a least one per week. — Fizzled out
*Take a drawing class. — Not done.
*Spend several weeks in Alabama and invite friends to join me. –Well, I spent a couple weeks in 2021 there, but covid prohibited inviting anyone to come along.
*Walk in at least 3 5K races. — I think I did a total of 2 over the past two years. Both were virtual but fun.
*Improve my night photography skills. — I had an awesome time this past August shooting a meteour shower. I still have lots to learn.
*Spend a week in the Southwest.. –We were there in February of 2020, before we knew about covid.
*Ride my bike on some rails-to-trails around here. — Not done, and I have no idea why not.
*Take Katie camping at least twice this summer. — I tried once, in 2020, but she wasn’t having fun. We are probably limited to camping in the back yard these days.
So. Which of these should I include in my list of stupendous things to do in 2022? Or…should I abandon all of them and come up with some wonderful but wildly different fun stuff to do?
I feel like most of this can be done even in times of covid. But some of it feels stale too.
What would you keep, what would you add? What would you toss?
Inquiring minds (mine) want to know!
Some of your stupendous plans better include me and my park, mama!
Today is my 15th birthday! I wanted to share it with all of you because I was sure there would be balloons and presents tied up in pretty ribbon and visitors singing to me, and of course, cake!
I got to go on a birthday walk over the weekend! Don’t tell anyone but it’s not really a wilderness.
I mean, 15 is a milestone age, right?
There were a few times this year my folks didn’t think I’d get to see this day. With the surgery back in April to save my life when my gall bladder filled up with sludge and then the harsh antibiotics I had to take because they found infection in me and then the kidney disease…well…things haven’t always look so good this year.
The late afternoon light was amazing.
Mama says it’s been a roller coaster. I don’t know what that means cause I never get to do anything fun, but I can tell mama and daddy have been stressed.
All the more reason to spend today celebrating me and eating cake! I’m sure you agree.
Years ago there were farm fields here, this is part of a rock fence line.
But mama says I need to be more realistic, and that cake isn’t good for me, and balloons would just scare me and that I can’t expect people to just show up and start singing to me. Besides I’m deaf, so singing might not be the best way to celebrate.
Plus she said I’d just bark at people and balloons anyway.
So you know what we’re doing instead? We’re going to the vet, that’s what we’re doing!
We didn’t walk real far, but I was so glad to be in the woods!
Yes, you read that right. Mama made a vet appointment for me on my birthday. I swear the woman has no sense of appropriatness at all.
I’m just a little girl in the big woods.
To be honest, she didn’t make the appointment until yesterday. And she only made it because I’ve been throwing up after I eat. Three times this past week. She and daddy are worried and the vet said to get me in there, so she scheduled it even though it was my birthday.
This was a giant fungus. Mama made me pose next to it a few years ago too.
And then she said seeing the vet and making sure we do everything we can to make me more comfortable is the best present they could give me.
I guess. But cake would have been good too. Just saying.
This was a nice spot to stop and rest. Or get a treat.
I did get a real present from my daddy this past weekend. It came in a box from the nice guy who drives the big noisy brown truck. I got to sniff it and everything. I was excited because everything that comes into this house should be for me.
What’s in there daddy?
I’m sure you agree.
Daddy ordered it for me after mama told him I was having trouble eating out of my bowl on the floor. My bad right foot kept slipping out to the side as I tried to get my head way down there.
Those of you that are older like me know how hard it is to get up off the floor the older you get. Well, I was having trouble getting my nose way down there into the bowl, but I love eating so I wasn’t complaining.
Hey daddy! This is perfect!
The day mama noticed my problem she ended up holding the bowl up higher for me, and letting me brace my sliding foot against her. Eating is much easier with a little help.
I just love the dinner and water dish thingy daddy got me! It’s the perfect height for a girl of my stature. And it has the perfect angle too, though it’s designed to have the bowls propped up at an angle or flat. I like them propped up.
You really get me, don’t you daddy!
So I can’t say I didn’t get anything for my birthday. I just didn’t get cake. Mama is such a strict dietitian. If any of you want to sneak me a treat I won’t tell.
And if you want to sing to me while you’re slipping me that biscuit, I’ll smile and pretend I can hear you.
A birthday walk AND a new dinner dish. Guess my birthday wasn’t a complete washup after all.
Talk later,
Your 15 year old Katie-girl.
Birthday nap. Daddy got me the pink princess rug too.
After seeing several photographs of eagles and pelicans on Facebook I decided to head up to Midland and see this park for myself.
Nature and industry coexisting.
I could tell from many of the photos that this was not a conventional park filled with hiking trails and wide swaths of woods for wandering.
But I was still surprised to find that it consisted of a parking lot on top of a high hill overlooking ponds which are part of the Dow Chemical complex.
As I drove up the hill I could see an eagle sitting in a tree.
Guarding the park.
The light wasn’t good, a bank of clouds was encroaching on the sunshine I’d left at home, two hours to the south. Still, on occassion when I first arrived, the sun broke through the clouds.
Oh! And a juvinile down below!
And it was windy! Between trying to focus on the eagle who flew out over the water as soon as I arrived, and trying to keep my hair out of the frame, I almost missed the pelicans swimming very close to the edge of the pond, behind the chain link fence.
It was hard shooting through the chain link fence.
While I was trying to catch an image of them, shooting through the fence, I lost track of the eagle until I heard a whole lot of eagle type noises coming from the trees.
Look closely, there are three juviniles here, all landing in a tree.
Turns out there were three juviniles, all landing close together. I’m pretty sure one of them had a fish.
This little diving duck was surprised when he came up right in front of the pelican!
Pretty much the whole time I was there I was pointing the camera either at the water following the pelicans, or the sky trying to get a sharp image of the eagles.
The light felt like it was evening, but it was 9:30 in the morning.
I was facinated how these beautiful wild birds coexisted so well with industry.
Such an unusual place to witness an eagle in flight.
I was unsure if the eagles coexist with each other quite as well.
Looks like the adult has something to say.
Mostly the eagles soared round and round, higher and higher. I never saw any of them dive into the water, though when they were flying closer to the ponds the ducks seemed to scatter.
The sky was interesting, but made shooting the birds so difficult.
It was hard to keep track of the big birds, they were really very far away. Sometimes the only way I knew where they were was their noisy discussion amongst themselves.
The light caught his head and the lead edge of his wing.
When the sun slid out for a moment it was easier to find the adult, with his bright white head…
Sometimes the tail was the give away.
…and tail.
The whole time I was there, sitting in the car until an eagle took off from a tree, then popping out to try to get an image, I didn’t think I got anything worth looking at.
He turned into a painting.
I was shooting pretty much into the light, what light there was. And the birds were so darn far away. These were all shot with my longest lens, and they are still cropped a whole lot. Hence the painterly looking images.
I think I’ll go back some day when the sun is shining brighter, and perhaps later in the day to get the sun behind me rather than shining in my eyes.
The best part of the day was just sitting and watching them fly.
I felt lucky today that they were so active. I didn’t get the perfect eagle (or pelican for that matter) shot, but I got to see them flying, so much more fun than watching them watch me while they sit still on a branch.
Landing gear down, more pelicans arrive.
None of these images are great, but I had fun, and I figured you’d have fun looking at them too.
Soar like an eagle….
If you’re a birder, this would be a fun place to visit with powerful binoculars. You can sit in the car and watch some amazing birds. Can’t beat it! (You might want to look at these pictures on something bigger than your phone!)
So most of you know that I’ve been fighting kidney disease for much of this year. I go to the vet every month and donate my blood so the lady vet can see how I’m doing.
Me at my park where they have a children’s storybook walk.
Daddy and mama took me to the vet yesterday, they say I shouldn’t be so scared every time, but they aren’t there in the back room when those vet techs get my blood! I’m starting to feel like a pin cushion, all those needle pricks over the past nine months!
At a rest stop on our way home from the vet yesterday.
It’s scary back there, I tell you, and I’m so glad when they take me back to my daddy; I’m always ready to go go go back out to the car where mama waits impatiently for me.
During one of my neighborhood patrols.
But the lady vet and daddy always have to stand around and talk after I give away my blood. They usually look at all the test results, but this time they just talked about my poop!
Checking out my yard.
Geeze! Can’t a princess have a little privacy about anything? Mama and daddy have been taking pictures of my poop for weeks! I guess having soft runny poop is not a good thing. Who knew?
My yard has a katsura tree and all the leaves fell off in one day!
Now I have medicine to help my poops get back to normal. Mama says we’ll see. Literally I guess, right?
My yard has a ginkgo tree too. It’s leaves also fall off in a single day!
And the test results? The ones that will tell us if I’m getting worse? Well, the lady vet sent my blood out to a lab instead of running the tests right there, so we won’t know until sometime next week.
At my park.
I’ll keep you posted, cause I know you want to know!
Meanwhile, I’m chowing down like the food hog I’ve always been and that makes mama and daddy smile.
A little snow.
I hope you all have a great week, and those of you in the United States enjoy Thanksgiving! Mama and daddy say they are very thankful for me. Well of course they are. And I guess, if I’m honest, I’m very thankful for them too.
Another favorite park.
And I’m also thankful for each of you, my loyal subjects. Thank you for stopping by and reading about my poop during a holiday week. I should probably talk to mama about being more appropriate, but you know how mama is. No sense of decorum, that woman.
I love being in the woods with mama!
Anyway, these photos were taken the past couple of weeks during all the walks at my parks and around the neighborhood that mama’s been taking me on. She says she knows how much I love the colder weather and she wants me to get out and enjoy as much of it as I can.
Just another thing I’m thankful for, fall in Michigan!
Come on, mama!
Talk later, your cool air loving, pincushion girl, Katie.
So where did I leave you? Ah yes….at the viewing platform overlooking the wetlands, about two miles from the car.
An excellent place to watch the birds.
Since we’ve been lugging the camera backpack filled with lenses and spare batteries all this way, this would be a good time to change to the long lens. Don’t you think? And perhaps take a sip from the water bottle that’s been adding weight to the bag for the long trek out here.
I loved the stripes of color.
There, that’s better.
So, out here in the open marsh you can here sandhill cranes and Canadian geese as they fly in and out. A few trumpeter swans too. No pelicans this time, and that’s disappointing, but I’m too late in the season for much of a variety.
These guys decided to move on to a place less habited by nosey humans.
The other people on the viewing platform have high powered binoculars, and they are watching a northern harrier harrass a young bald eagle. I can’t see any of that of course, but I enjoy listening to them talk about it.
Yep way over there is a tree that often hosts eagles. In fact that might be one to the left, or that might be the harrier.
Mostly I watch the geese that were nearest to me and enjoy the sun and the sitting down for a bit.
And then I decide I’ll head back, but take a path I’ve never chosen before, out past the tree where, on a previous visit, I’d seen so many eagles, out along the edge of the wetlands, because you just never know what you’ll find.
It was a beautiful day, even if I didn’t get any great shots of an eagle.
And I do find the juvinile eagle, I think, though I can’t get a close enough view of him to be sure. I have a longer lens than I had last year, but he was still a long ways away. For all I know, this is the harrier, rather than the eagle. He (or she) is fun to watch either way, soaring high above the grasses, searching for a meal.
A super cropped image of a bird. Might be an eagle. But I think it’s the harrier. Cool either way.
I come across a passel of cranes, standing around out there in a clump. No noise, just hanging out. When they see me noticing them they begin to walk away at a fast clip, so I move on, not wanting to upset them.
Moving quietly back into the grass so as not to attract any more attention.
And then I begin the long wander back to the car. It is a beautiful day and I’m not at all disappointed that I don’t have anything spectacular to shoot. But wait! There’s an eagle’s nest! Wow, that thing is huge! Now I know which way I’ll walk next spring when there might be some activity there, maybe early in the season before leaves obscure the view.
This won’t be easy to see once the tree leafs out.
It’s not far from the tree where I’ve seen eagles, adult and juviniles…and it’s in the direction I always see them flying from out there. Now it all makes sense. I’m excited for next season!
But other than that my walk back is just filled with beautiful fall sights. I am walking on a path less traveled, and mostly not mowed, so I am glad for my waterproof hiking shoes keeping my feet dry.
Even though I am on the lookout for birds of any size, and though I hear a few, I don’t see any. I probably need to sit in one place, as I’ve considered on other visits to this park, and wait for something to come by in stead of tromping noisily through the woods.
But I am hungry, and tired, and still a long way from the car, so I trek on.
I like the spunkiness of the little tree growing in the remains of it’s ancestor.
The views don’t disappoint. Just about any direction I look there is something pretty.
Another dyke flanked by leaning trees. These always remind me of Marines at a wedding, with their swords forming a tunnel for the bride and groom. Actually, a wedding woud be amazing here.
I can’t stop taking pictures, but that’s no surprise to anyone. Right?
Such great colors and shapes, it’s impossible to resist taking just one more shot.
But eventually I put the lens cap back on, resolving to move faster toward the car and the banana waiting for me. I even pass up the opportunity to sit on a bench, because I know I am only half a mile away from the parking lot.
A tempting bench. If I’d had my lunch with me I might have stopped.
I promise myself I’m not taking any more images. Just going to forge ahead, eyes front, no stopping. Really.
Hmmmm….what’s making all that noise over there?
But I can’t ignore the huge ruckus coming up from a field just beyond the trees to my right. When I come to an opening I see what must be the party room for cranes. Because they are dancing up a storm. So I had to take the lens cap back off. You would have too, I’m sure.
And then I hear this little guy, and since he is the only little bird I’ve seen clearly all day, well, the lens cap comes off again.
It’s not even a good shot, but he is the only one that cooperated, so he gets to be in the blog.
And then, finally, I make it back to the car. My 4+ mile walk through the woods is over, and I know I wouldn’t be back until spring. Unless I decide a winter hike is in order. I guess I’ll put that idea into the ‘things to ponder’ file drawer and see what the winter weather is like this year.
Always notice the light.
More likely I’ll be back in the spring, when northern migration is happening and there will be more activity to wittness. I’ll be sure to bring you along whenever I go back. Maybe I’ll even carry a banana with me so I can stay out there longer.
Come along with me, the walking is marvelous!
You’ll be responsible for your own snacks. And your waterproof shoes.
