May 18, 2015 Well...........I thought Spring was coming.........

Here is a nice photo I took on Friday, the 15th of May, the day before Toby's 12th birthday.  I really liked how it turned out.......even tho it was such a foggy day.  He still loves his adventures.......even if he can't do such strenuous ones any more.

The day of his birthday, I headed to one of his favorite spots, shown above, to get some nice reflection shots of the cliffs in the pools in the rocks before they evaporated.  It was morning, the sun would be on the side of the cliffs......perfect.  Except, it wasn't.  You see how foggy it is.  It was even thicker when I got there.  It had lifted a bit when I took this one.  However, even with all this fog, all the water in those pools on the rocks had nearly evaporated already.  I might add......we had a clear blue sky with no clouds up here when I left.  I waited quite a while in case the fog would lift.  It did lift even a bit more after this one, but never went away.  When I did get home, it was still a beautiful day and shirt sleeve weather up here.  Some days, being just over the hill makes all the difference.

This was a photo taken in that spot two days before the foggy one.  It had been raining and more rain was imminent.  It was a really gray, stormy looking day.  But, the lake was still and I could get up on some of these spots and found what cool reflections I could get in these puddles.  This is why I wanted to get there on a sunny morning while there were still puddles.  We now have puddles again after 2 1/2" of rain in 24 hours.  But.......no sun.  It is still spitting rain, today.......and snow or snow mix is in the forecast. 
Bah.........humbug!  I am ready for spring to be here to stay. 
I did, on Saturday afternoon, while we had blue sky, shirt sleeve weather.......finally start moving some of the chives out of the starter beds and near the house making it easier to use them when I want them.  I still have more to do........but, it ain't happening today!
Ok, enough grumbling about the weather.........I suppose!  But, it has shades of looking like last spring when the ground was so wet and saturated, I couldn't do anything or get equipment anywhere to get anything done.  Looking very much like a repeat right now...........

I will leave you with a fun photo of my pup, Betsy, who will be one year old on May 31.  With her is her best bud, Kirby.  He's a few years older than her but much younger than Toby.  Toby can't manage this hike any more.  They had so much fun playing beneath this falls.  It's been a favorite of mine for many years and since most people don't know about it........we never have any competition.  :)

May 14, 2015 Well.......that was a short Spring!!

Well.......last week was warm and things were drying out almost to workable...........then, there's this week.  Rain, snow.......cold, you name it.  It isn't an inspiring week for things done outdoors.  It did, however, make the rivers run high again.  The northeaster the other day made for some darned good waves on Lake Superior too.  It's been a pretty gray week so far.

However, with the moisture and a bit of warmth, it had gotten the little flowers out of the ground and a few are even blooming.  Earlier this week I found both the white and purple violets out and blooming.  Yesterday I found a large patch of spring beauties.  The buds were fat and they looked pretty nice along side this beaver pond.  However, not a one was open yet.  A few other little plants are starting to grow.  I even have a few domestics coming up.......not much; but, at least they are coming out of the ground. 
It will be an interesting year in regards to my "flowers" in the yard.  I have always had the battles with the chipmunks, who are forever digging holes in and around and under everything!!!  Of course, I now have Betsy......who has decided it is her job to get those chipmunks!  She hasn't yet.  But, she does manage to give them a bad time.  And......if I thought the chipmunk holes were a nuisance, I don't even want to tell you what they look like after she decides she is going to dig one out of that hole!  Oh well..........

I almost forgot......on Sunday......I found my very first flowers of the season......Bloodroots.  I have always thought these were quite pretty.  There was a quite large patch of them poking out of the grass.

The dogs and I have still been doing a lot of hiking each day.  On this particular day, I just took Betsy as it is really rugged and there are a lot of windfalls on the high ground.  It is such a pretty area to hike in.  However, the top, which I always loved, and has some fine views, is so full of windfalls and storm damaged trees, even the deer are having a harder time to navigate through it now.  As I walk around this, under that, over this........I start to wonder......is there a point!  Oh yes......a few wolves and deer still make their way through it.......but, the trails aren't much used anymore and also have a lot of detours.  I finally went off the side, which is where Betsy is here.  Enough was enough already.
One thing about Betsy.......who will be one the end of this month......she has plenty of energy and enthusiasm for that sort of thing.  But, a few times ........even Betsy had to look at me like.......are you nuts!?  Are we really going through that?
That day, on the way home, we had a little other excitement just before I got home.  Right on the county road I live on just before home!!!  I was driving slow because of neighbors chickens and dogs and such........and, in my peripheral vision, I saw something coming at the road.......fast!  I was hitting the brakes to slow more........and by then, could see what it was.  That big, dark timber wolf with a fair amount of black in......that I have seen numerous times this winter.  He was coming from the south side toward the north side.........and, in a hurry.  Since I can see for a distance here.........I knew it wasn't chasing a deer.  But.......it ever even slowed down and I stood on the brakes and came "this close" to having it as a grill ornament!  Oof!  I don't need that kind of close calls. If I had been in my truck, instead of the Edge.......it would have been a dead wolf.  The brakes on the Edge stop you RIGHT NOW!  The pickup brakes.......not so much.  I never liked them in the winter.....but, never really realized how "slow" they were until I started driving the Edge.  Man, what a difference.  Well......it did make a difference to that critter, which never did slow down as it headed up the hill.  I was, of course, watching out for it the rest of the day then.....knowing it was so close.  The dogs couldn't figure out why I wouldn't let them out to play.  But, better safe than sorry. 
So..........outside of an absolutely awesome Scrabble game with my mom yesterday.......this is kind of what my week has been like. 

May 3, 2015 It's Too Hot Out There..........

It's a hot one out there today, relatively.  We have had a couple of days that hit 60-65 degrees.  However, it was 72 degrees, here in the valley, early on today.  It is just after 4:30 now and still 75.  Wow!  It's also windy so out there hiking around, one gets dry in a hurry today.  I am not complaining.......at least not yet.  Maybe things will start to green up around here.  I took this shot of the flowering willows yesterday.  I was surprised to see that still going on.  Pretty!

It's been a busy week.  I have made a lot of tracks.  Nice weather will do that!  Whether out hunting for sheds, of which I found one, or hiking with friends......it's been a fine week to do that sort of thing before the bugs come out......which we all know will happen this month.  This one was taken on Wednesday.  My sister-in-law and I decided to hike our dogs here, for a change of pace.  Then, on Thursday, our ladies' hiking group got together and hiked a number of rivers and checked the waterfalls.  That was a very enjoyable day also.  Nice scenery and good company always works!

This river was one I had never been to before.  This hole in the rock was rather interesting.  I have never seen anything quite like it.  I'm sure it probably started out as a kettle.....as there is one near it.  However, since there is a bottom to this rock, which is above the water.......I guess it wore through.  I thought this was one of my more interesting finds of the day.  One of the other rivers was really interesting also.  It had such a different rock makeup and structure than the others on the shore.  I will be going back there some time in the near future.

This one was taken on today's expedition.  The dogs had to cool off!  They were too warm, just like me.  We got down to the shore and the temperatures ranged from 49 to 53 degrees!  Quite a change from up here.  I expected it, luckily, and brought a jacket.  I hadn't expected it to be that drastic tho.  Anyway, we spent a while down there and quite enjoyed ourselves. 
I guess we will wait and see what the week brings!  Maybe........just maybe, it will be time to start working on gardening and vegetable beds so they are ready when the ground warms up. 
Have a good week!