The natural world, life, and dogs.
The natural world never ceases to fascinate me. The more I see, and learn, the more amazing I find the intricate interplay between plants and animals. Today I learned something about mimicry. My last post was about toxic toads. On this morning’s run with Conall I saw two other toxic animals: monarch butterfly and milkweed… Continue reading Natural World Mimicry
Chann the puppy is a whirlwind of energy, except when he’s napping so he can grow (while mentally plotting more shenanigans). At his second vet visit on August 11th he weighed 19 lbs, more than double his weight when he arrived July 8th. Even weeds can't keep up with that level of growth. Conall adores… Continue reading My Hero
A month ago I wrote about how an injury prevented me from running and forced me to slow way down throughout the spring and early summer. Even walking was painful for a long time. Today, I'd say I'm almost back to normal, resuming running regularly, mostly pain-free. Yay! The irony, though, is even though I… Continue reading Slowing Way Down = Seeing Even More
Twice this month, while walking with my dogs through the woods on the neighbors' acreage, we heard wildlife warning calls: Stay away! In both instances, the calls came from a few yards off the path, well into the trees. I couldn't see the animal issuing the call, but the first one I recognized, a call… Continue reading Wildlife Warning Calls
After a long Vermont winter, and several weeks watching winter and spring battling each other for dominance, I feel I can finally announce: spring has arrived. In Idaho, I was used to April being the month when wildflowers emerged. Entire hillsides would be awash in the bright, happy yellow of sunflowers. Now, I've learned, in… Continue reading At Last, Spring
Saturday, March 5, 2022 I’m struggling. Something happened today that was terribly disturbing. I need to work through it, write about it, see if there's a way to turn a terrible negative into something a little bit positive. It’s evening, I’m listening to the soothing music of Eamonn Karran streaming over the Internet as I… Continue reading Get Back On the Horse
Sometimes you don’t realize just how stressed you’ve been until the cause of that stress is lifted. Case in point: a yard fence for my dogs. What I thought would be a simple thing to acquire turned out to be anything but, and the stress just kept building. In the span of the past week,… Continue reading From Low to High In a Week
Maybe, like me, you endured school essay assignments where you had to compare and contrast something. Who knew that skill could end up being a useful blogging tool? Each day as I explore my new environment in Vermont, I can’t help but compare what I experience here to what I knew for the first 48… Continue reading Reinvention, Part Three: Comparing and Contrasting
I love the gentle surprises the forest offers me when I'm paying attention. Even better when it's one of my dogs that alerts me to the surprise. When I see something new, unusual, and/or intriguing, I take photos or record video/audio if I can, and back home, start researching to learn more. A couple days… Continue reading A Dusky Grouse Encounter
Baby steps. I'm learning that's what it takes to get ravens to trust me. I'm good with that. I’m growing inordinately fond of the raven pair that have been enjoying the voles Conall catches, along with the occasional marrow bone I toss over the fence after the boys are done with them. I find these… Continue reading Building Trust with Ravens
Wild Sensibility 