Friends have all things in common. ~ Plato
One of the things I love about living here is that the scenery is always gorgeous.
Even an overcast day has a kind of beauty to it.
Being stopped at a light isn’t so awful when this is the view:
The weather cooperated this weekend, so I loaded up the girls and headed to the park.
I love watching them explore together.
I’m very grateful that they’re such good friends.
Sadly, for Sadie, the friendship does not include romping. (Kishka has never been a fan of such undignified behavior.)
Sadie finally found a friend that was willing to romp.
As always, there was squirrel hunting.
Once a squirrel is spotted, the race is on:
Kishka was able to run, too!
Sadie went off exploring a few times, but always kept a close eye on me:
A clear sign of a good day at the dog park is mud. Let’s assess this visit:
Kishka?
Check.
Sadie?
Check.
Me?
Check.
It was a fun afternoon.
I was watching the Olympics last night when I looked down and saw this:
I have no idea how the pig toy ended up posed against Sadie’s leg.
This picture also shows that the majority of my (very small) living room floor is taken up by dog beds. Walking through the room is kind of like navigating an obstacle course. I like to think that it improves my agility. In reality, it’s probably only a matter of time before I break an ankle.
I’m making progress on the Film Noir socks.
I’m hoping to finish them soon, but I cut open my index finger today (ouch!) so knitting is not going to happen for the next few days. I managed to cut it at the exact spot where the needle and yarn go across it. Idiot.
Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories. ~ From the movie An Affair To Remember
There was no trip to the park this weekend. The roads were very icy, so I decided to play it safe and stay home. Kishka’s knee is still really bothering her, so I also wanted to let her rest.
Instead of exploring the great outdoors, this weekend was spent resting:
Sadie, of course, has to be on her back.
Sadie is a roller. She loves to roll on the floor. She loves to roll in the dirt and mud. She also loves to roll on the couch:
One of these days she’s going to roll right off that couch. I hope I have my camera pointed her way when that happens.
I did venture outside to take pictures of the frozen landscape:
Both of the gussets are finished on the Film Noir socks. I’m really looking forward to wearing them.
I’d be happy to have my biography be the stories of my dogs. To me, to live without dogs would mean accepting a form of blindness. ~ Thomas McGuane
My work hours recently changed. I used to go to work well before dawn. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been driving to work at dawn and wow…it’s been gorgeous.
Pikes Peak rising above the bank of clouds enveloping the city:
A couple of days later there was another gorgeous sunrise. I love the pink glow in this picture:
I’ve almost beat the cold from hell and am feeling much better, so the girls and I ventured to the park this weekend.
Our recent warm (relatively) weather left most of the park rather muddy.
The girls spent some time exploring together.
Kishka checked out the squirrels.
She enjoyed the cold stream water.
And she made a friend.
Kishka’s arthritic knee was really bothering her so she and I spent a lot of time sitting together and watching her nutty sister.
Sadie found friends to play with her.
She ran around by herself.
She also explored the slushy ice covering the stream.
Sadie loves to eat snow/slush/ice.
Sadie enjoyed splashing in the stream.
All of the activity made Sadie tired, but very happy.
On the ride home Kishka found that her sleeping sister made a perfect pillow.
Some dogs love to sleep on furniture and some dogs don’t. Sadie is very much in the ‘love’ camp. She adores my couch:
Kishka usually prefers to sleep on the floor or on a dog bed.
But there’s nothing like snuggling together.
There has been some knitting around here. I’m making progress on the Film Noir socks.
I continue to love the yarn. I’m obsessed with striped sock yarn. I’m not sure why, but I think my love of symmetry has a lot to do with it.
A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself. ~ Josh Billings
The cold from hell continues. I am improving, but it’s been slow. My week has been spent working and when I’m not at work I have been on the couch coughing. (I can do a wicked impression of an 80 year old chain smoker). I have not knit all week and there will be no visit to the park this weekend.
Sadie has been keeping the couch warm for me during the day:
And she’s been looking after me at night:
(Excuse the crappy phone picture. It’s tough to take a picture when there’s a 100lbs. dog on your chest.)
Kishka continues to taunt Sadie by flipping her food bowl and then not eating:
Hopefully next week will bring pictures of knitting and the park.
EDIT:
Kishka would like it known that she’s taking care of me, too. Shortly after I posted she jumped up on the couch and stretched out on top of me:
“I take care of Mom, too. Don’t let that blonde vixen get all the credit.”
Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy. ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach
Kishka had a vet appointment yesterday and I had him look at her leg. I thought she hurt it at the park last week (she’s had a heck of a limp all week). It turns out she has a severe case of arthritis in one of her knees. It’s so severe that if she were a younger dog (Kish is around 10 years old), my vet would recommend a knee replacement. Because of Kish’s age, it’s about management of pain.
Kish has new food (with lots of joint friendly supplements) and a bottle of pain pills. Her days of fetch are over (too much stress on the knee due to the sudden stops and starts).
The park, however, is still in the picture so we spent part of our weekend there.
The girls went exploring together:
They looked for squirrels:
They were very excited to see that part of the stream was unfrozen so that they could go splashing:
Sadie was so happy that she couldn’t stop barking with joy:
Some of the stream thawed and was flowing throw the frozen parts of the stream:
I sat on this log and took pictures:
Sadie loves to play Chase. Kishka does not play Chase. She never has (Max and Sam used to play it and would try to get her to join them) and Sadie has learned to not even try to engage her.
When we go to the park Sadie always looks for dogs who will play with her. On this day she was successful:
Chase makes Sadie very happy:
Kishka enjoyed exploring the frozen parts of the stream:
Wooing at her sister (she loves to order Sadie around):
And drinking the ice cold water:
We all enjoyed relaxing on the bank above the stream:
I had a comment a few posts ago about how svelte Sadie is looking. Since I see her everyday, her weight loss isn’t as noticeable to me. I know she’s lost weight, but I tend to focus on how much more she has to lose.
I went back to one of the first pictures I ever took of her back in March of 2008.
Here’s what she looked like then:
And yesterday:
Wow. Those 18 lbs. she’s lost have really made a difference! She still has more to lose (which will be made tougher with Kishka’s limitations on exercise), but she has come a long way. Even if she doesn’t lose another pound, she is much healthier than she was when I adopted her.
I’m making slow but steady progress on the Film Noir socks.
I had a question about who makes this yarn. It’s by Sweet Paprika. They have a website and also sell through The Loopy Ewe. I’m a sucker for self striping yarn and will definitely be buying more colors of this yarn. It’s even more gorgeous in person and is a joy to knit.
:: cue gratuitous yarn p0rn shot ::
In summer, the song sings itself. ~ William Carlos Williams
I’m still taking pictures! Here’s a random collection of some recent ones:
Some seriously cool sock yarn (and it’s going to stripe!):
A pink cloud at sunset:
A cool odometer reading (I warned you these pictures were random!):
Sadie had a bath today. She was not amused:
Her life isn’t all misery, though. She’s been enjoying summer:
Kishka has also been enjoying the nice weather:
She especially likes digging and then ends up with dirt on her nose:
It’s been pretty rainy here lately (well, for us, not compared to someplace like Seattle) and that has made the prairie very green and full of wildflowers:
Never let the demands of tomorrow interfere with the pleasures and excitement of today. ~ Meredith Willson, The Music Man
My camera arrived home last week and I immediately broke in the new lens by (what else?) taking pictures of the dogs:
Shortly after the camera returned the dogs and I went hiking. Here are my favorite pictures (and video) from that trip:
Have you ever tried to pose a dog in front of a waterfall? It’s quite amusing (“Sit. Stay. Look pretty. Good girl. No, stay. Don’t look at the waterfall. Good girl. Stay there. Look at me. Good girl”).
The entire photo/video set is here.
I have been on a sock knitting kick for months now and lately I’ve stopped being monogamous and have been spreading my sock love around. (I guess you could say I’m a sock knitting hussy.)
These three pairs of socks are being knit from yarn that I dyed:
This pair is from a sock blank I received in a swap:
I am test knitting this pattern for the designer (isn’t it fantastic?):
I also have a blanket freshly on the needles:
I was absolutely overwhelmed and a little gobsmacked at the comments and emails that encouraged me to continue with my photo-a-day project. Thank you so much for your kind words and the inspiration to continue. I really appreciate it and you almost talked me into continuing the project. However, I have decided not to continue the project.
I enjoyed taking a lot of photos and I did learn a lot in the short time that I took a picture every day. However, the bottom line is that the commitment the project required ended up sucking a lot of fun out of both blogging and photography. I had many days where I happily snapped a ton of pictures. But, I also had more than a few days where I absolutely didn’t feel like taking a single picture and did not enjoy the process at all.
The project did teach me something, though. Before the project I always had pictures I wanted to toss up on the blog, but I felt like if I posted a picture I needed to do a whole blog post about it and sometimes I just don’t feel like talking (seriously). This project taught me that I can just post a picture and people will find it interesting.
So, moving forward I will sometimes do a ‘proper’ blog post and sometimes I’ll just post pictures that I’ve taken.
But, before we move forward, I’m going to look back for a moment. I went through all of my photos of the day and these are my favorites:
