EEK! A Shrub!

While making our morning rounds, Beyla's attention was noticably grabbed by something unseen in my neighbor's yard. I figured she saw a squirrel or something that had already scampered off, nudged her forward, and continued about surveying our morning domain.

On our way back her attention once again fixed in the same area of the neighbor's yard. OK, this can't be coincidence so I start letting her move in the direction she's looking to see what it is she sees. Being a foolish human of such obviously limited perception I'm of course looking in the yard for this object of canine fascination only to realize she's locked on to the shrub right near the street. They'd wrapped it for the winter. OK, something changed. Big deal, right? Well, she begins to approach her spritely prey with great caution, perhaps for fear it might attack. Who knows, I'm not a dog. I can't even imagine how she must be perceiving this innocently wrapped shrub.

When she gets within 3 feet of it she let's out a soft "Woof!" then runs away a good 10 feet. I start laughing like a fool on the side of the road while letting her once again cautionly, though somewhat more bravely this time, approach this new and fascinating thing. After the usual sniffing she decides it of no concern and hasn't looked back since.

Dogs. What goes on in their minds? I suspect if we knew that, we'd know a great deal more about life and it's meaning. I think they may secretly hold the wisdom that is the key to it all.

First Snow

The first real snow of the season fell Tuesday. Not only did it accumulate, but it was still on the ground come Wednesday morning. It was strange walking in the woods and seeing snow on the ground and on the trees. As we walked along hearing only the soft crunch of my shoes and Beyla's paws it was great to just take in the white world around us. I love winter. The snow, the crisp, cold air... it's the change of seasons and the differences between them that really add that special something to life in New England.

The pond is starting to freeze as the nights and morning gets colder. It won't be long before our walks take us out across the pond for a completely different vantage point. That's part of the fun of winter. Being able to walk on water so to speak. It allows you to travel on foot to places you can't the rest of the year. I can't wait for the lake to freeze solid enough to travel on. That'll open up a whole new expanse for us to explore. :)

Where are we Boo?

Sunday afternoon Beyla and I headed out into the woods. Since we had nowhere in particular to be and nothing in particular to do, we set off to check out some new trails we hadn't been on yet. At the end of the trail we know we headed right to see where it takes us and after a few mninutes we found oursaelves emerging on a right-of-way between the houses of a neighborhood. Interesting. This is the second such trailhead out of these woods. It's actually kinda cool the way Groton has kept the rights-of-way to the conservation areas in spite of newer real estate development, but it makes me happy ot see it.

Well, that wasn't quite as long a walk as I'd hoped so we then took another trail branching off from this entrance and started to follow it into the woods. This was more my style. Not that there's anything wrong with fire road trails, but I prefer the closer quarters of a nice single track through the woods. This was such a trail. Clearly foot traffic only.

The trail meandered through the woods presumably joining the main trail later at another branch I have yet to investigate. Off we go tromping through the woods, just the 2 of us, Beyla busily checking her P-mail (as Kari calls it). After a while we passed what looked to me to be a nice vernal pool. Though not terribly uncommon, they arent' something you come across every day either. I'll have to check the web for more info on wether or not this was in fact one or not. Anyway, it was a cool depression in an open area of the woods with a bit of water still standing in the lowest part. It couldn't have been more than a foot deep. The rest was quickly being overrun by grass.

Further down the trail we crested the top of a small hill that was a large, flat rock outcrop. Cool. This is certainly a rarity around this area. The whole areas trees were different too. Almost entirely young hardwood, only a few pine saplings interupted them. It makes me wonder what happened here to leave only young trees behind. Fire? I didn't see any signs, but then these trees were still a good 15-20 years old. Looging perhaps? Hmmm... noipe, no stumps. This too requires further investigation. Beyla of course was busy in her own dog world with her usual perspective unknown to me. I really wish I could see what's going on in her head. I wonder how she perceives the things I see around us.

Next stop, another interesting rock outcrop. This time a large fractured rock. We did a bit of rock climbing t0 further examine the cracks and such. It turns out Beyla is part mountain goat as she deftly climbed up ahead of me as sure-footed as if she were on the flat trail. Must be nice to have full-time four-wheel drive, huh? :)

Eventually we came to yet another neighborhood trailhead. The nearest mailbox read "Painted Post Road". Hmmm... that doesn't sound familiar at all. "Where are we Boo?" She just continues sniffing. Perhaps she's getting directions. Now we're a good hour from home and I'm not quite sure where we came out. Not lost mind you. After all we DO know how to get home, but it's a long way around. so, I give Kari a call and ask, "Where's Painted Post Road?" After she finished laughing at us, she looked it up. Interestingly, we're not a half mile from the house... that is, if we bushwhacked straight through the woods where to the best of our knowledge there's no trail. By road, we're almost 4 miles from home. Great, an hour or more either way.

We decided to take the hit and ask for a ride home. Kari laughed at us again before responding with, "OK, loser. I'll come get you." She might have even said, "I'll come get your sorry butt." but I'm not sure now. LOL!

We walked to the end of the road to wait and as we approached I saw a familiar house and realized justhow far off track we'd gotten. HA HA HA! Oh well.

Next time out we're going to investigate the trails at the end of Lone Lane though. Looking at Google Maps, I suspect there might actually be a trail that connects to Paint Post Rd, thus giving us a much better route home next time.

That was our Sunday. Always an adventure with us. :D

BRRRrrrr!

I should have worn my gloves this morning. The hand holding the coffee was ok, the hand on the leash was not so excited about the weather this morning. Beyla, as usual, was unfazed by the cold.

We had a brisk walk to the pond this morning. Beyla was on a mission today it seems. Not really in a rush, but not dilly-dallying either. She was very excited when we got to the pond and saw 3 Mallards and 2 Canada Geese on the water. I'm not sure why they are still here though. The ducks immediately took flight, 2 of them landing frther away in the water. The third circled a few times quacking in protest for the disturbance before making what may be the least graceful duck landing I've ever seen. It was more like dropping out of the air than landing really. Nice big splash, I think she went under water briefly. LOL!

On our way back, I found a small, gold collar hanging on the gate. My first reaction was to leave it as the owner will probably find it on their next walk, but I realized it's a small snap-on/breakaway collar. This was not from a dog being walked. Looks like somebody was out wandering by themself and lost it. So I took it with me and I'll give Sophie's parents a call and let them know I found her collar. I really hope she came home without her collar rather than the other way around. :/

Saturday

Kari usually takes Beyla for her morning walk on the weekends because I sleep a lot later than she does. But this saturday was worth noting.

After I rolled out of bed and got functioning I sat on the couch drinking my coffee. Shortly after, Beyla hopped up on the couch, curled up next to me and laid her head on my lap. So there I am drinking my coffee with my dog's head in my lap, talking to Kari and just generally easing into the day.

Life is good. :)