How much is that doggy in the window?

It seems a little callous to be writing about new baby puppies when I've never written about Jack, who left us on August 27 but the pain is still a little too sharp to write for public consumption and yet time continues to flow out towards TheNow and in the now there is room for joy and something good to share: A New Baby Puppy. 

We are Dog People and within kingdom we fall under the Phylum Lab People. Mind now - first I love dogs so I'd have been perfectly happy with a pound puppy. My only requirement was that it be a girl and it be under 6 months. I wanted something that could keep Callie busy and take her mind off of being an Only Dog. 

BD, though, was really feeling the Labrador Lust and had been talking to breeders all over the state. Some had pups, some were going to have pups, some had names of people who might have pups. But it was the Times Dispatch on-line Classifieds that hooked us up with a kennel in Goochland who had one girl left. On a lark we decided to go have a look on my birthday and you can see what we found. 

It was a gorgeous day and the drive is very rural, very pretty, over rolling Piedmont Va, with a stop for Cheetos (it was my birthday after all) and Diet Pepsi in Sparta. When we pulled up to the kennel, though we had a moment's gulping pause. There, pulled up in the drive, was a van and beside it stood a mama and a daddy, holding a yellow wiggly puppy, and 4 assorted children reaching out to stroke soft downy fur. Both BD and I held our breath and schooled our expressions into generosity and charity, knowing that if it came to a choice between a family with 4 cute kids who needed a puppy - and a couple of geezerettes who already had a dog ... well ... we were prepared to be nice about it.

Only it wasn't the case. That one was the Next-to-Last puppy. We came to look at the Last Puppy.

 It took almost no time for this little ball of fluff to pass every test. In fact, this was the easiest puppy picking expedition I've ever experienced. And as you can see - she's a perfect fit.  It took Callie no time at all to get friendly.


Even generous

 Because even though this ball is hers - she can share

So here are lots more pictures of our newest addition to the family.

 Lots of outdoor play in this yard

But how much is that doggy in the doorway?

 First real bone

A walk out the pier to the marsh

And a splash into the muddy water

When will you take me for a boat ride, Daddy?

 Ooops. Slipped off the pier

Daddy to the rescue

 My first dip in the dog swimming pool.

 Brrrr this water is cold

Life is good, down on the farm.

 

So once again, there are enough dogs at TheCastle for TheQueen and BD.  What a Happy Birthday.

A Birthday Visit to South Carolina - Pt. 1

Without a doubt - nothing really could be finer than a birthday visit to Carolina - if LD is down there waiting with a pan of smoked pork shoulder and a fine crumb birthday cake for TheQueen. Even the day we left was the first cool blue sky day after weeks of hot hot hot surprise September weather. In fact, the only reason to leave such a day as this would be to go see PABDOS.

We took Callie with us. I'm not a fan of taking pets along on trips. The changes in environments, the territoriality of dogs, the danger of them being spooked by sudden noises or worse - not a good idea. But Callie has been pretty clingy since Jack died and LD's dog Buster is an old friend. There was lots of nuzzling - like this

Or great outdoor companionsip - like this

But most of the time they played like this!

Hartsville is a pretty little southern city - a small city - full of lovely architecture in just about every price range. The city isn't very old - built in the 1890's - it hasn't any antebellum charm but it has plenty of good quality old and even some rather nice new.

The home team is the Red Foxes and you'll see lots of red fox signage dotting green front lawns.

Saturday morning dawned fairly cool with a mackerel sky and low humidity. We headed off to run the dogs in the sand hills - the Carolina Sand Hills National Wildlife Refuge.  Which is mostly long leaf yellow pine - planted in straight rows, with very little undergrowth - designed to promote the Red Cockaded Woodpecker - which we never saw. But if this is what they like - there are acres and acres and ACRES of it.

Here are two seedlings ... planted at the grass stage. Cute, aren't they? I think they look like elf hats or maybe fairy tutus.










We hiked through this sandy forest for about 6 miles  or so.

It was a glorious day in SC too - and I couldn't resist snapping shots of LD - silhouetted against the sky


Or this one of Buster, in the tannen dark water of a stream. Both dogs got lots of good dunking wet time on this walk.

Unlike our loblolly pines, the long needle version is prone to some pretty weird twisty shapes. I loved this one - imagining it as Apollo's unstrung lyre. 

After a great hike we moved from the national refuge to Sugar loaf Mt. State Park - just across the road and past this lake. We saw half a dozen camping groups scattered around this park. 

We also laughed till we cried at the idea of being told to climb the stairs when traversing the mountain. 

 We didn't keep laughing, though, when we started climbing. Instead, we were grateful for the steps. Made it a lot easier to go up and come back down.

Close to the summit was a wonderful rock, perched in an odd and perhaps precarious angle. Both LD and I could crawl underneath and once there we realized there was a hole in the rock ... with daylight coming through!

At the top was a rocky spot and a square viewing stand with benches.

And What a view it was! Enough to tempt one to perch - and to gaze at something bigger than the usual - vast, blue, glorious. We really savored this breezy mountain top.

There was another smaller mountain right next door - Horseshoe Mt. It had caved on one side, leaving only U shaped rim. We climbed it too and explored the shapes, paths, and steps. 

Especially the shapes of the gnarly long leaf pine trees. They'd make perfect Ents, wouldn't they?

Then it was back down to the lake and back to LD's house where we had lunch before heading out in search of HAILE'S GOLD MINE! Which will be tomorrow's post.

It's Just Different, Somehow

Once again the earth has rolled around the sun till it's back in September - the Birthday Month. The Cricket Song Month.  The New Beginning Month.

But somehow, this year, it's different.

In fact, the whole summer was different. It feels as if it's been different for a long time. I've been trying to figure out how long it's been different and I think it's been more than a year really - but certainly it's been different since the warm weather began.

First off there is the drying up of my creativity. The lack of art, craft, and creation has been a little painful and a little relaxing. With the retirement of The Doing and The Making has come The Reading - but it hasn't been productive reading. Not the Good For You stuff. It's been escape reading into murder mystery novels - a harmless enough activity, I suppose, but certainly not particularly creative. And even that has been different this time around. BD and I are both reading the same author, Michael Connelly and discussing his books - their underlying ethics, the particular characters, and most especially the literary style and skill he uses. Hmmm. Well. Perhaps that part is the productive bit. We never read the same books unless we're reading out loud to each other. This is a first for us and it's author specific. We've tried to branch out to a few other authors and haven't gotten past chapter 1 with any of them.

I am not horribly unhappy about this inartistic un-productiveness. I know that creativity sometimes needs to sleep, to store up energy. Besides, I don't create out of duty. I do it out of joy and love. But it does feel strange to be so in-artistically unproductive. It just, somehow, feels different.

There is also the unease I've felt over the whole shake-up in our local government. It isn't panic. It's almost anxiety, but not quite. The changes were long overdue and they'll make things much better - they even satisfy my Virgo soul, with it's love of order, routine and stability. But there will be some fall-out and the library will have to revisit a lot of its statistical data in light of Someone Else's now-revealed inadequacy. It's always a pain when you have to clean up somebody else's mess - even if it's only a part of someone else's mess.

So yeah - work feels different. And I made it feel really different by pushing through a software platform change from a pretty intuitive, easy, almost childlike program to a more geeky and sophisticated and, I still believe, better program. That sort of change is always a climb up the hill - a hill that feels steeper, the older the climber is and I'm sorry to say - I am the youngest employee at the library right now. Yeah. Gonna be 61 years young.

So yeah. It feels different.

And then there is the different feeling in the house right now. I am so sad to say that our beloved Captain Jack Haile, our good health talisman dog, slunk away in the night last week and was hit up on the highway - the 4 mile away highway. I found him as I was driving to work and we buried him beside Topsy. I will write a loving tribute to him one day soon. He was too fine a dog, to special a dog, to wonderful a dog to not memorialize him, but right now the pain is too sharp to write about it.

Poor little Callie is very disoriented - when she is reminded of it, that is. She is a dog and as such she lives in the now. A run. A biscuit. A romp with the string toy is always going to get her attention but the rest of the time she's hugging close to our ankles. The thought of her being canine companion-less bothers me a lot and BD a good bit as well. I think we will find her a playmate pretty soon.

And so.

And so now, as the days begin to shorten, as the mornings fill with misty dew, as the crickets begin to sing and the black gums begin to revolve from green to red, I begin the Birthday Month feeling, somehow, a little different. Not necessarily bad. But surely different. 

Art in Action

The moment I saw the Zentangle books I knew I wanted to use it to decorate clothing. White t-shirts came to mind, of course – but not exclusively. I knew black and white would look great, just … not so great on me. I also knew color would be fun – but color is always trickier. Here are two versions of Zentangle inspired wearable art. I used Sharpie Fabric Markers on them both.

The important thing to remember when playing with these designs is that Less is More. I'm far too inclined to draw every favorite design all over everything. With this t-shirt I selected 7 patterns and repeated them throughout - carrying one of my favorites, the leafy vines across the back and another favorite - a blossom like design down both sleeves. 

Here I am in classic Librarian Pose

This colored one is nice enough but, alas, too many colors. If I want to do lots of colors on something I'll do it on white or cream. If I start with any more identifiable color as a background I'll select a strong contrast instead. I still like this - but I think the B&W is better.

Like tattoos without getting pricked. 

And here is a picture of the Birthday Girl - because today is our little princess Callie's first birthday. No. She won't get a cake. Yes. She will get extra biscuits. Happy Birthday Callie-Girl!