Fall in Tennessee

Some photos from my visit home this week. The leaves were pretty much gone, but there still was plenty to see. I love, love, love this time of year!

Happy Easter!

We are extremely grateful for our loyal blogging pals. We just love you all and thank you for your generous comments. Sometimes "life" can get in the way of the fun we have here and nudge us in other directions. First, the pooter as well as our provider had problems about ten days ago. Well, things were fixed, alright, but... for the past week and the next, grandpeeps are out of school and they will be hangin' over here with me and Mom - yay! (But again, Mom says that there won't be much time fer here til the end of this week - boooo!) We have gotten a cool tag and also an award and want to thank some wonderful friends for these. From Riley and Star as well as from Maggy and Zoey at Zoolatry (please visit a special blog tribute created by Ann for Helen, her Mom, who passed away on Friday).We've done this cool meme, but not for a long time. The rules are: Open your first photo file folder. Go to the tenth photo. Post that photo. Tell the story of that photo. Tag 5 other blogger friends to do the same!
This is the 10th photo from our newest photo file named, "Easter Emma." Emma is our youngest granddaughter and in this picture, she'd just participated in her first HUNT for eggs. Afterwards, there was a party, complete with African drumming (she was dancing here and so was I heheh!), a bouncy house and soccer balls everywhere with a net. I had a great time, decked out in my special Easter neckwear. I would like to tag Sam and Marge, The Feisty Three, KB and the Gang, June and Samantha and Cabana.
I was honored to get this very cool award from Miley and Alfie - humongous thanks!
Here are the rules: I have to post the award on my blog and list the 12 blogs that have brought sunshine into my life and leave a comment on their blog telling them about the award. And in order for them to accept the award, they have to pass the award on to 12 of their sunshine bloggers. Everybloggie friend of mine always brings Sunshine into my world, so it would be furry hard to pick just 12. I'm going to be horribly lazy, but I really want to get to your posts and barks woofs out! So... fur anybuddy who does not have this award, PLEASE (and I mean it!) lift it from my blog and spread the sunshine out there! Happy Easter!

Damn, it felt good!

Weather yesterday did not cooperate to ride. Even was not sure about riding this morning for our Sunday Morning Ride. The 2 of us (one wimped out on us) headed out under overcast skies. The paths were damp/wet in some areas, but we did not get any rain.
This was the first time in the saddle some Wednesday, and "Damn. it felt good!" No record breaking pace, but steady. When I got back to HyVee, I was really feeling good. Just what I needed.
The pedestrian bridge across the river is starting to take shape. I am anxious to be able to ride over to the Omaha side of the river.

Passiflora caerulea

Blue crown passionvine in bloom in my garden during June.

Romans, Normans & Victorian Labourers

For the first time ever the Land Rover key wouldn't turn in the ignition! George tried, I tried - no-go. It took the combined efforts of George and Ian to finally get us underway to visit St James Church at Rigsby.





Today was bright, sunny, very cold, and frosty so I thought it would be the perfect day to get some photographs of this little church. It doesn't have electricity - I hoped the sunshine would help to illuminate things.





The previous church, pictured below, dated from around 1086. It had to be demolished eventually - in the photograph you can see how it had props supporting the walls. Oh how I wish it had survived!

It was chalk walled, with a thatched roof.





The new church was built in 1863 at a cost of £685. All the labourers of the Parish of Rigsby with Ailsby had to contribute a weeks wages, poor things. I am not a fan of old churches which have been 'modernised' by the Victorians, but this one was built in 1863, so I can be more forgiving, although I still do not like the style.

The church is only just off the road, well hidden by trees, even in winter. To get to it you have to walk across the cattle grid, into the estate grounds, and then across the grass - which all feels like trespassing.





It is a pretty enough church, in a beautiful setting. The churchyard is full of very old yew trees, interesting grave stones, and thanks to Stuart Reder, who lives in a cottage a few yards away it's very nicely maintained.

It is not a shape which appeals to my eyes, but that's just my personal taste.

It is built in the neo-Norman style, however, there is a real early Norman arch to the vestry.

Above this Norman arch is an old sword and a helmet. These were found in an old tomb within the church yard. They were, for a long time, thought to be Roman - however, they are now thought much more likely to be 15th century.



A nice church, but it doesn't do much for me.

Empty Princes Street

Christmas shopping today was an interesting experience in a snowstorm. The shops were almost deserted, the city's buses stopped running and schools closed again. In some cases the buses stopped before a school closed, which for those pupils with cross-town journeys meant either a very long walk in the snow or an overnight stay at a friend's house.
Temperatures are supposed to rise to 6 degrees at the end of the week. I daresay we'll be wading through one gigantic puddle.

IGUANAS EVERYWHERE!

Not as easy to see (or hear) as the roosters, but there certainly are a BUNCH of these critters on the island...

This guy was in the grass at FDR park, where Jackie and I have lunch most days.

This one is named IGGY, and is the "mascot" of the hotel we are staying at, "The Green Iguana"

And this guy I saw in the bushes at Bolongo Bay. We looked each other up and down for a few minutes and then suddenly...

He climbed up the side of the building... it is a three story building, never slipped a bit and made it very fast...

Even islanders were surprised when I told em... Good thing I had my camera.

Nothing to do with Iguanas, but I do know what I like in art!

Workin' On My "Open" Obedience Skills with Barbara!

Firstly, Mom thinks she's got the 'puter probs solved... at least for now. We are much speedier because we spent 12 hours backing up every single file on this thang, then went crazy last evening and this morning pressing the delete button again and again. Mom's index finger needs a massage heheh. We will be catching up, visiting our bloggie pals today and tomorrow. Thanks so much to all our sympathetic friends who also have or have had internet probs - may they be solved as easily as our problem was to fix. (Except Mom can't figure out how to restore the files from this little "Passport" external drive - uh oh...) And although thanks are on the sidebar, I want to acknowledge our immense gratitude to Ann at Zoolatry for creating the incredibly beautiful header up top. Ginormous thanks Ann - you are soooo talented! I am in the presence of greatness... my obedience instructor. Paws crossed that I do well. Sierra, Moritz and I have all commuted over here together this morning, so it will be a fun bunch of work for us all! (Thanks to Sierra's mom for snapping these photos!)
I have been practicing a bit of "open" on my own, after having had some instruction from Barbara occasionally. Since I have one leg left to go for my CD, I'm still mostly concentrating on Novice. But sometimes Mom and I get bored, so we do something else like figuring out how to learn the Broad jump first.

Here's a movie of me jumping over it, while chasing a piece of hot dog. Later, I'll learn to turn after jumping and come to Mom with a straight front. And I have to do a good "finish" too.
Even though I am truly excellent at retrieving my kong or bumper and returning it to Mom, I really dislike this weird little plastic thing. It's taken forever for me to actually go and pick it up. Mom finally took some of advice from you all out there and got a clicker! Voila! Now I'm just rewarded with treats instead of a click. I still won't go after it over a jump or anything, but my skills here are coming along!

"Okay," I'm thinking to myself, "I'll do it, but the treat better be hugely 'high value'." And hot dog "dimes" certainly are!
Next: if I'd only retrieve the thrown dumbell, we'd be working on that, but for now, Mom throws a bit of hot dog while I wait, then says "Over!" After I score the treat, she calls, "Sam, Come!" and I return over the jump!
I'm so fast, I'm a blur!
I don't think I needed crossed paws! I get the rest of Mom's "dawg" supply and take a well-deserved "down/stay" while Moritz and Sierra perform! Have a good weekend!

A great big lawn

After the ploughing, the laying of the turf. The makeover continues of the area of Princes Street Gardens that was mangled by the Winter Wonderland. This squad of gardeners was going about its work last week, with much witty comment and encouragement from those lunching on the park benches above.

I took several shots as the sunlight came and went, since I was just pointing and shooting in my simple way, and it was only on looking through them just now that I realised I'd missed the best shot of all - the shadow of the weeping willow which I've cut off here in its prime. I'll have to learn to look more carefully for the unexpected.
Still frustrating internet problems here.

A Rant … Feel Free to Skip; but I Hope You Won’t

I started out to write about what we did today.

Then I decided to get my not-so-short rant out of the way first.  It has to do with one of the seven black bear encounters we had today — specifically, the one we saw not long after we entered the park.

The picture to the right is the bear in question.  By the time Mui snapped the picture from inside the car, the bear was a mere black dot; I cropped it heavily so you can see that it was indeed a bear.

The sign that Mui’s posing with was at the head of the trail we hiked later in the day.  It warns against one reason why a bear may have to be euthanized as a result of our actions.  You can read the story for yourself in the picture below.  The gist — drawn to food trash left behind by visitors, the bear became habituated and lost its fear of humans.  When it bit a visitor, it had to be killed.

That’s not the only way we might cause a bear’s untimely demise.

You all know that we’re all about wildlife encounters.  For us, an important aspect of such encounters is treating animals with respect and enjoying them while they do what comes naturally.  We do our utmost so as not to cause them undue stress.  Well, the ‘roadside bear jam’ that unfolded before us this morning sure didn’t fit that bill.

First, the vehicles had not pulled off to the side of the road.  They created a traffic hazard for fellow-visitors, and a barrier between the bear and the field it was trying to get to.  Second, one woman — I can only describe her as an I.J.I.O.T — was literally stalking the bear with her camera in hand.  The poor animal was visibly stressed, walking back and forth behind the trees, trying to find a way to cross the road.  Eventually, it managed to do so, galloping at full speed far into the open field, looking back periodically as though to ensure no one was following.

Had we seen any rangers, I would have reported the woman to be sure, but we didn’t see a single one all day and by the time we got to the visitor info station at the head of the loop, no one was on duty.  I had to be satisfied with sending daggers her way when she passed by us to walk to her car.  I couldn’t stop myself from telling her that what she did was “downright stupid,” but I don’t think my words registered.

I realize that the woman was probably just excited to see the bear.  Maybe it was her first bear encounter.  I’ve been there myself, and certainly remember how excited I was when I saw my first bear in the wild.  But her inconsiderate actions not only ruined the sighting for others, but endangered the bear as well.  For had it attacked the woman, the rangers would have had no choice but to euthanize it.

Bears — indeed wildlife in general — did not invite us into their homes.  We invited ourselves.  As such, it is incumbent on us to treat them with respect, and not cause undue harm.

I was also going to do a rant about people hiking trails strewn with rocks, and boulders, and tree roots wearing flip flops, but I think I’ll leave that to another time.

Grand Portage Bay Ice Dreamscape

The clouds over the bay in front of my house the other night were surreal to say the least. Sometimes you just don't need color in the sunset to have a compelling image. This photo was made at the usual sunset time, but because of the heavy cloud cover the sky was a mix of blue and gray. I walked down to the beach in front of my house and found lots of ice chunks floating around in the waves. If you look closely at this photo you'll see that the small ice chunks are actually floating on a larger sheet of ice that was rocking around in the waves. It was a lot of fun to watch the ice rolling with the motion of the lake.