Black and White Sunday: In a Rut?

Black and White Sunday: Blanketed

The Path of Least Resistance

We had a small snow about a week ago. Not much really, three inches at best. Thanks to colder than normal temperatures, that snow has stuck around, and around.

Out for our morning walk the other day, I had to laugh at the boys. As you can see in the pictures, not much of the snow is left. The ground is poking through here and there. But sure enough, they opted for the even shallower snow where the tire tracks were.

Whether it be single file.....

Or taking the double lane highway....

They always opted for the well packed portion of the trail....well, that is, until they smelled some deer poop off to the side. Snacking on deer poop always  trumps getting your feet cold!

Really, Officer......

......I haven't been drinking! Could I do this if I had been?

Yesterday, the big snowstorm headed our way was touted to be a doozy, even for the Washington, DC area. There was much media fanfare (of course!). Now the mountains just to the west of us (the Blue Ridge and the Shenandoah) truly did get clobbered, but here the temperatures were in the mid-30's all day. The snow melted pretty much as fast as it came down. It was a very slushy mesh. I had hopes of lots of great photos, but the boys really didn't care to be outside. And it was so wet, I didn't want my camera out in it.
And besides....isn't really time to start looking at pictures of daffodils and crocus?!

Here's a footprint shot of Wilson. There appears to be a bit of a hitch in his get-along. The shallow snow lets you really notice it. Not to worry though, Wilson was recently checked at the vet (full x-rays!), and has a tad of arthritis. There's nothing too serious going on, and they felt he was in good shape for almost ten.

One more snowy shot tomorrow and then maybe we can move on to spring!

Mr.Indepenent

I've talked about our walks on the W&OD trail several times. It's our primary place to walk because, one, it's so convenient being directly behind my house,  two, it's a lot more entertaining than walking the sidewalks in the neighborhood, and, three, I can get in a bit of off-leash time in certain sections (Shhh! That will be our little secret!).  This park is what is known as a linear park and runs from just outside Washington, DC to Purceville, Va., a total of 45 miles long. But it is only 100 feet wide. Within that narrow width, it has a narrow band of trees/scrub, then a paved portion for the bikes, another narrow band of trees/scrub, a gravel portion for the horses (a very, very rare sight these days!), and one final narrow band of trees/scrub. There are sections without all the greenery, but that's how it is where I do most of my walking. And on either side of the park is a bit of neighborhood common area, then houses. So now that you have a mental picture of the trail......

We always walk on the gravel horse trail as it has much less traffic, usually only a jogger or two. As soon as Wilson gets his freedom, he acts like a teenager at the mall with his parents. That is, he pretends he's not with us! He quickly shoots through the outer band of trees and onto the common area. He keeps traveling in the same direction and keeps up, just not with Jimmy and me! I guess we embarrass him.

Here he is....Mr.Independent!

Wilson: I can't be seen with them! What will my friends think?!

Have a great weekend, Everyone!

Wilson With White-stuff on Wordless Wednesday

New England is Getting a Blizzard........

.....and all we are getting here in Northern Virginia is a very slushy dusting..........

Just once every winter, it would be nice to get hit with a lot of snow!

So....many times I've mentioned walking my guys on the W and OD trail that is directly behind my house. You may also have noticed the power lines that run along the trail. That's because the local power company has legal right-of-way to run their lines on the trail. But it also requires them to manage the vegetation, to ensure it doesn't overgrow the lines and towers. They do this by pretty much bulldozing under the wires about once every five years. This winter was one of those years. It opened up areas that were buried in briars and blackberry bushes. Before, it was only passable if you were a bunny, now it's wide open, which led me to this rather odd photo op......

Another missed Wordless Wednesday opportunity, I am sure!

This chair has been out in the elements a very long time by the looks of it. Solid oak lasts a long time!

Jimmy is not nearly the model Wilson is. He's a bit camera shy and it can be very hard to get him to look into the lens. But today, he did not want to be left out. He practically jumped into my arms for his turn!

NO! My big butt did not break this chair!

Have a great weekend, Everyone!

Stay safe if you are in the path of the big blizzard!

Rivulets

Overnight Wednesday into Thursday we had POURING rain. You could hear it roaring on the roof of the house. Fortunately, by morning, when it was time for a walk, the rain had moved on.

We headed in our usual direction on the W & OD trail , just as the sun was rising. The heavy rains had caused some run-off erosion and the left-over water was being lit by the sun. I liked the way the water twisted and turned through the gravel.

Here are a couple of shots, taken a few minutes apart....

Cool tones before the sun broke through....

Warm tones when the sun found a hole in the clouds....

And finally, just to give you an idea of how much rain we truly got.....Here's a bench down by the big lake in the neighborhood. Obviously it was not installed with it's legs in the lake! The water had gotten so deep at one point that the bench was under water. Look at all that debris.

Looks comfy, no?

Have a great weekend, Everyone!

Just Enough

Wednesday night into Thursday we had a heavy dusting of snow. It was just enough to provide a photo-op, and, boy-oh-boy, I needed one! I was running low on photos to post.

Jimmy: Quit wasting my time with that stupid camera. There are deer to chase. ***

No corgis in sight but still pretty

A weak sunrise, trying to break through the clouds

Not a great picture of the boys, but I liked the sun.

I love snow days! It's like I have the world to myself! Usually the trail above is too busy with bike commuters and joggers to walk the dogs off-leash. But a little snow changes everything in my favor!

*** Speaking of deer,  I also have a gross little side story. As we walked along the trail, I got out ahead of the boys. I turned to check on them and they had fallen pretty far back. They had their heads buried deep into the bushes and it looked like they might be eating something. Poop, I figured. But they would not call off of it, so I had to backtrack. Lo and behold, they were wolfing down a dead deer that had been opened up by other animals. Lovely! The weather has been well below freezing for days now and the deer looked quite fresh (Ewww! I know), so I wasn't too worried about what they had managed to get down. But the feast had to end. Needless to say, they were not pleased with me.

I know there was a Wolfy Wilson Wordless Wednesday photo in there somewhere, but I let it go ;-)

Have a great weekend, Everyone!

Another Jimmy-ism

A while back, I reported on a little quirk of Jimmy's. He really is a character and a smart one at that! On many of our morning walks, we take to the W and OD trail behind my house. It runs east/west and usually we head east in order to complete a nice 2 mile loop back to the house. Of course, this time of year, the sun is still low in the sky, even at 7:30 or 8 in the morning. So that means the sun is in our eyes, often quite brightly. I wear a winter hat that has a small brim to block most of the rays. Jimmy has developed his own method....

What a smart boy!

He walks behind me and stays in my shadow. No sun is his eyes, thank you very much!

As we head into the home stretch of Christmas, I have a feeling my posts may become infrequent. I haven't had much camera time lately so the blog fodder is running low. Have no fear though, I do have a couple of Wilson's Wednesdays stacked up :-)

The Shadow Knows!

What mischief lurks in the heart of a Cardigan? Only the Shadows know!

Toe the Line?

Wilson and Jimmy weren't quite sure what I meant when I told them they needed to toe the line on the way back to the house.....

I've got a two day agility trial this weekend, so look for the return of the Weekend Report. Please send along all the double-Q karma you can. The pursuit is back on!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I Can't Help Myself ! .....

....I just LOVE photos that contain water reflections!

Footloose!



Loose, footloose, kick off your Sunday shoes!

I don't know why, but as soon as I saw this photo, it made me say Footloose! Maybe it was Jimmy's happy expression as he barrelled toward me, or all four paws drawn up in the air. I'm not sure. So I googled Footloose (the original one, not the current re-do) and saw lots of images of feet in the air. I watched the original music video featuring a very young Kevin Bacon and haven't been able to get that song out of my head for days! And speaking of Kevin Bacon, has everybody heard of the trivia game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon ? It's a pretty fun game if you are a movie buff. (And just mentioning it is very likely to send my blog's search stats way up! Wink, wink!)

At any rate......

Everybody cut everybody cut

Everybody cut everybody cut

Everybody cut everybody cut

Everybody everybody cut footloose!



Just a Little Screwy!