To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. ~ Helen Keller
I recently discovered a new place to take the dogs on our weekend adventures. It has everything we love.
There are hiking trails through the woods.
There are hiking trails through fields.
Some of the trails are quite wide and allow us to spread out.
Some of the hiking trails have great views.
The trails are well marked.
The hiking trails are wonderful, but the reason we first went to this place (and what keeps us going back) is this:
The dogs finally have a place to swim.
Note that when Luka swims he does not get his tail wet. He holds it up out of the water like a flag or a sail.
When they’re not swimming the dogs enjoy exploring.
They also enjoy tearing along the shoreline like maniacs.
Sadie barks with joy.
Luka sits quietly and does his impression of a drowned rat.
The dogs also take a moment to enjoy the day.
We’ve definitely found a new favorite spot.
In summer, the song sings itself. ~ William Carlos Williams
I’ve snapped a lot of pictures over the past couple of weeks. Here are my favorites.
The prairie:
I pulled off the road to take this picture. I love how the clouds and plains seem endless. It seems like many people think the prairie is boring, but I think it’s beautiful.
The stream at the park:
It’s been horribly hot here so even when we go to the park in the early morning we spend most of our time in the water. The dogs love to splash and run through it.
Monsoon season is here and that means lots of clouds in the afternoon. Here’s some over the foothills.
The Black Eyed Susans are out in force.
You can also see the flowers in this picture of Luka running up a hill.
It’s been a beastly hot summer here. Luka spends most of his time lying in front of the screen door, waiting for a breeze.
Our afternoon storms don’t always bring rain, but always have thunder and lightning. If it’s thundering we don’t go for our walk. This makes Luka sad.
We’ve made a couple of trips to the park, including a trip after work. (The dogs were SHOCKED. We never go during the week.) I liked how different the light was in the evening.
Summer fun means a lot of naps. Sadie has been perfecting her napping technique.
Knitting progress has been very, very slow. When it’s nearly 100 degrees I can’t bring myself to play with wool. I do hope to finish a pair of socks soon, though.
EDIT: Most of my favorite bloggers are on Blogger. Blogger has decided that I can’t comment on their blogs. Every single time I get an error message. If you’re on Blogger, know that I’m reading, but I can’t say anything. 
The mountains are calling and I must go. ~ John Muir (1838 – 1914)
Our walk looked a bit different today.
The dogs and I were out the door very early for a hike in Waldo Canyon.
The trail gained elevation quickly and soon we were high above the highway that brought us to the trailhead.
We were walking on the side of the mountain. Every so often we passed large rocks.
The dogs led the way.
As we made our way into the canyon there was a wonderful view of the plains.
The farther we walked, the better the scenery.
After a couple of hours on the trail we rounded a bend and there was Pikes Peak.
I lingered to enjoy the scenery and to snap some pictures. The dogs came back for me.
It was a long hike (~ 7 miles) and we took some short breaks on the trail.
We also made a longer stop in this clearing and had a snack. (Milk Bones for them, granola bars for me, cold water for all.)
Luka was happy to have a moment to rest in the shade.
It was a lovely day.
Nothing endures but change. ~ Heraclitus (540 BC – 480 BC)
I’m bored with my blog.
There, I said it.
I’ve been thinking it for some time now, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do to make it different. I had a plan, but it was postponed until next summer due to an injury to my foot. (Nothing serious, just enough to put those plans on hold.)
Finally, I have a plan.
I’m going to share some of my favorite photographs that I’ve taken over the years. It’s so simple. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it sooner.
I only recently got into digital photography and only bought a quality camera a couple years ago. This new direction isn’t about picture quality, though. It’s about my favorite pictures.
I’ve been taking pictures for as long as I can remember. If I can face digging into the closet of my spare bedroom I’ll be able to share some ‘old fashioned’ pictures, too (taken with a film camera).
One of my favorite pictures was taken just two days ago.
I was sitting outside at sunset brushing Luka. I looked behind me and saw this in the western sky.
It didn’t last long, but it was spectacular…like a painting.
Labradors [are] lousy watchdogs. They usually bark when there is a stranger about, but it is an expression of unmitigated joy at the chance to meet somebody new, not a warning. ~ Norman Strung
It was another gorgeous weekend here. When Sadie and I arrived at the park I realized that spring is finally here.
The stream is completely thawed. The little waterfalls are all flowing freely.
As always, Sadie jumped right in.
She barked with joy.
She splashed.
She enjoyed the ice cold water.
And she shook it off when she splashed it all over herself.
Sadie loves the water.
We also explored the woods. Sadie loves to run through the woods.
She loves it even more when there’s someone to chase.
We explored the fields.
In the middle of one of these fields is my favorite bench in the park.
I love to sit there and admire the view.
It was a fun day and when we arrived home Sadie passed out.
I finished the socks last night.
My intent was to get the stripes to match as closely as possible and look what happened:
They match perfectly. I’m still not sure how I pulled that off.
Full details of the socks are here.
I love this yarn so much that I’m going to use it again for the next pair of socks.
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.
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. ~ Epicurus (341 BC – 270 BC)
There has been stash enhancement:
I bought this yarn (and the yarn in the last post) in 2009 because I’ve set a goal for 2010: I want to knit entirely from my stash this year and not buy any more yarn. I have so much gorgeous sock yarn (and it’s all documented on Ravelry if you care to check it out 
). I need to use it and appreciate it so 2010 is the year of Sock Knitting From My Stash. I’m posting about it here to keep myself accountable.
One exception: this does not count my current credit at The Loopy Ewe. I can spend that credit this year, but that’s it.
After ten days at home I had some separation anxiety when I returned to work on Monday. When I came home I saw this:
Sadie continues her love of being upside down:
I watched a news program at the end of last year and one reporter declared the last decade as the time in history when technology took the biggest leap forward. I agree with him.
I was thinking about this the other night when I was lying in bed browsing the internet on my phone. I have an app on my phone that hooks into web cams around the world. I was watching scenes (live or close to it) from around the world while lying warm and cozy in my bed. I was also able to capture what I was seeing and here are my two favorite pictures from that night.
I watched the sun rise over the mountains in Austria:
And then I watched the sun rise in Paris:
What a wonderful world.
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:
