Rooted in the sky

I tried to get a good photo of the moon (stood in a neighbor's yard and hoped no one got excited)...

then I turned around and saw the sun rising...

and trees rooted in the sky.

We slept late today so no one ran and four of us took a quick walk.

The pups always act like fools when DH walks along. I don't know what it is (the change of routine perhaps) that gives them the jitters, makes them more distracted, and generally causes a bit more chaos than normal.

We managed to avoid falling from ledges (where we were not supposed to be), tripping on uneven ground, being run-over by the morning rush, or snagging a sticker or three from the grass (where we are not supposed to walk).

And, when we turned for home, all calmed as we spied our moon-friend, shining brightly in the west and peeking through the newly naked branches of the park woods. It was so lovely we stopped to catch our breath and then exhaled plumes of fog that mixed with the mist starting to gather around us. [The fog covered the area completely by the time we arrived at work, but that is another story].

Knowing we were already risking our entire morning schedule we headed home in haste. But there were the distractions of barkers and singers and tracks to follow.

DH decided to strike out ahead of the rest of the pack. By the time we reached the house there would be hungry mongrels who must be satisfied [I fix his breakfast. He fixes theirs].

Even in our lateness we took moments to enjoy the beauty of the morning - the setting moon, the rising sun, and the trees rooted in the sky.*


The Count

Full moon-post eclipse
4 school buses
Uncountable cars
4 houses decorated with Christmas lights
2 runners
3 birds singing - greeting the dawn

*My friend, Maurine, wrote a song about trees rooted in the sky. I think of her and that song on every winter walk and wish I knew the words and tune. As it is, I am grateful I know her.

Full moon...cold morning

The full moon lit the way as we three headed east to the park. There were only a few stars in the east - the brightest must be a planet. The moon was glowing white as if preparing for the later shadow, the eclipse tonight.

Christmas lights were shining at the neighbors' - at least at two. One of my children has declared that November is too early. We are waiting a few more days - December is so close. I suspect it is more the case that we were too busy last weekend and will have time the coming one. Oh, and one brightly decorated tree peeked out between the curtains at a house closer to the park.

It was a chilly morning, but a still cold - only a breath of a breeze. Many layers of clothes kept me warm (as well as two pups, excited to be walking, dragging me down the street). Frost on the grass glistened under the street lamps.

The front that blew through earlier in the week cleared the sidewalks of acorns and pecans and leaves. Most of the acorns and leaves lay gathered in piles along the curb and in the grass.  We walked along noiselessly, reveling in the cold and quiet moments just before dawn.

Scruff began to bark as he returned to the back yard.

What was there?

Scruffy is an intelligent dog and he does not alert unless something or someone is there. I finally saw the shape of a man walking our way in the middle of the block, in the middle of the street. And I almost immediately recognized the form and walk of our good neighbor. He was out with his dog too...another early morning walker with a good friend.

Numbers

2 dogs barking
3 houses with Christmas lights
19 cars passing by
one filmy newspaper bag floating by on a wisp of breeze
an empty park
a good neighbor with a good dog

Thanksgiving evening

Blackmailed DH into an evening walk. I don't remember how exactly. My mind is not really clear yet. But we finished the corny movie we watched after the old man's nap and it was an opportunity to restart the good habits that have fallen away in the darkness of time change and from all those other excuses that have come up in the past few weeks.

I knew the pups would want to make it to the park. And, if we got to the park, I would want to walk down the dirt road and "see what we could see." So I had even started preparing DH for coming back with the car if I wore myself out. He has had to do it only a couple of times in the past few years. [And yes, there are many who wonder why he puts up with me. Remember, I only confess MY issues. We agree we are a good match.]

The park was fairly empty. The pecan pickers had come and gone. The ball players too. And we headed down the road, finding big equipment had come before - knocking down a few limbs and mowing the meadows.

We heard the crashing of deer in the brush to the south and the hoo, hoo, hooing of two owls deep in the woods.

I have missed them, the owls. We used to hear them regularly - two great horned owls in the park and a few screech owls in a number of places in the neighborhood. I wonder if they have been here all along and I have just missed hearing them because my walks did not coincide with their activity. I have blamed it on the drought - no insects, no rodents -no rodents, no owls. But we have had enough rain to have bugs and critters enough to draw the owls back. And now we have proof.

We stopped all along the walk hoping to see their silhouetts against the Maxfield Parrish sky. But they stayed hidden and merely sang to us, one higher and one lower, but a blending duet of hoos.

We noted los niños pequeños playing hide and seek in the yard of la casa de las banderas de los Estados Unidos. We used to play hide and seek, the siblings and I. I planted shrubs when we moved here with an eye to good cover for hide and seek.

Then we saw the ambulance pull up to a house a few blocks up the street.

I know of those neighbors. An elderly woman is cared for by her niece at that house. I met the niece and mentioned that I walked by most days. She only realized she had seen me when I explained I was "the crazy lady with the big dogs." An Act of Contrition comes automatically to my lips when I see or hear an ambulance. It is a result of attending Catholic school along the main street of my home town. The sisters taught us to bless those in need and it is a habit so established that it is almost unconsciously accomplished.

We were within a few blocks of the house when the greetings of Mohawk dog and friends boomed out of the shadows of their yard. They had not been out the first three times I passed by today. FINALLY they were home and we could exchange a few barks (them) and frets (Paddy) and teasing words (me).

And then we were home.

Half a walk - beautiful fall day.

Finally felt "up to" a short walk.

The sun was already well up and shining in my eyes as we (pups and I) headed east towards the park. There was never really a thought of making it all the way as I knew I must save energy for at least one more trip "out" today (our giving thanks meal later this morning).

Few cars drove by and fewer neighbors were about. One man was picking up branches in the front of his house. His dog was off leash - a big old brown hound. The dog didn't fret over us, just watched at the curb - silent sentry.

Paddy fretted enough for all. She seems in need of another adventure at the springs with Ruby, Stanley and Hugo. I don't have the energy or breath for that yet, but soon...

Some neighborhood houses were abandoned - families off to grandma's? Some houses appeared overloaded - must be grandma's house.

The leaves are changing. The altheas are turning yellow. Some pecan trees are already naked against the sky, husks dark and open, pecans spilled underneath. Our red oak is bright with fall.

This crisp morning, excited dogs, fall colors are the medicine I need today...I am thankful.

Brrrrrrrrrr

We tasted winter this morning.

Our breathing left little con-trails along the street as two dogs and two walkers headed east into a deep grey, blue and mauve sunrise.

We were late enough starting that most of the neighborhood dogs had been let out and barked as we walked along.

The park was empty. All intelligent creatures were home - hunkered down against the cold.

But then the neighborhood began to wake as cars started and zoomed and running man (thoroughly bundled) headed past us down the hill.

Nueces

It felt like we were in a movie.

Almost a perfect fall day as we started out - leaves were gently falling, floating in the breeze and the clouds kept the sunlight from warming things up. The pecans have started falling in earnest and nearly covered the ground beneath the trees along our path.

One yard half-way to the park was full of blooming Esperanza shrubs. The blooms, bright yellow, were visited by butter-colored butterflies. I wonder if this was some protective instinct - a camouflage - visit plants where you blend in. The Esperanzas also had started bearing long thin "green bean" seedpods, spiderlike beneath the blooms.

Mowers were at work, trying to beat the cold front we are expecting.

Two children came out of their backyard with bicycles followed by their father. He bore fishing poles and a small ice chest. They were soon off, coasting down the hill, boys steering and father hitching his ride with one of the boys.

In the park a half dozen people were walking slowly through the grass under the pecan trees. Every now and again someone would bend over and retrieve a nut or two. They and we know these pecans - nueces - are the taste of fall. Folks have hybridized pecans, making the nuts bigger and the shells thinner. But native pecans, small and hard, have the best flavor.

There were still a few wildflowers blooming along the dirt road - verbena and cone flowers. Grasshoppers were jumping about - and katydids. All kinds of insects flew, floated, and fluttered by - wasps, butterflies, dragonflies and creatures I have never seen before (and may not see soon again). It was as if they all knew today was their last chance in the meadows before the wild weather hits. Black woolly worms wiggled their way down the road as if on some important task.

The sun came out of the clouds and we ran out of water. It was time to head back through the park and up the hill.

Neighbors in their yards, on their porches and driving by spoke or waved greetings. It was Mayberry or Mayfield or Pleasantville.

We were home. Movie over. It was time for chores.

From home to home

As I prepared to leave my hometown in the early morning light I observed a pickup truck moving up our main street slowly. The truck would stop and an older man would get out, pound something into the ground, return to the truck and take out a large United States flag to stand in the fixture he had just installed.

I watched him while I gassed up the car. It is part of what I love about a small town. This solitary figure moving with grace and dignity in his honoring of comrades known and unknown.

The sun breached the clouds about 30 minutes later as the road began to fill with oilfield vehicles - no surprise in the boom in exploration and drilling over the last couple of years. Some trucks had a hard time maintaining their lane in the stiff wind. I wasted no time, passing them when I could on these windy, hilly roads.

In the next big town it seemed a crowd of demolition derby "wannabes" were in training. Trucks and cars exited driveways, crossed medians, changed lanes, ran stop signs and generally created havoc. I began to think that traffic rules had been suspended for the day. It was a long few minutes getting through safely.

I reached the new part of the tollway and was relieved to have it mostly to myself.

I nearly flew home.

Cemetery walk

I love cemeteries.

And I often walk the pups in the cemetery across the road from our elementary school (odd placement, but then everything has to be somewhere). We have lived there long enough to recognize folks. It is our town now.

Today I am in another town - my hometown. We have been talking about our family and our history. We have talked about those we have found and cannot find. We have told stories, old and new (or at least new to some of us).

I have had time today and decided to try and find two of the lost ones. I found three.

One nice thing about a small town is that there is almost always someone who knows someone who can help you with a problem - plumbing, buying tractor tires, getting a refund from the local co-op or locating a grave. All problems can be solved with a few short phone calls.

I was directed to the treasurer of the local cemetery association. After a few minutes of explanation and small talk - she sounds the same as always (I have known her since I was a child growing up with her children) - she located the names I gave her and then found where they are on the plat. She gave me directions - north entrance. Drive to the back. On the left hand side look for "Tice" at the road on the left, no - right. "Tice" will be just behind the "Pools." Walk down that row towards the brush line and you will find them about halfway down.

"And where is Ira?" I asked.

 "Oh, he is there too. And Elma."

"Yes, his wife."

"But they are on either side of your great-grandparents. Well, this could be showing the wrong order of things."

"Or maybe they preferred it. You never know."

I drove to the city limits, turned left and then right into the north entrance. After driving to the back I parked at "Tice." The memories of the bearers of these names (and so many of the others) flow through my head. Mr. and Mrs. Tice were lovely people. Their younger daughter was a friend, a girl scout with my sister.

Half-way down the row were the stones. My great-grandfather and great-grandmother moved here from Indiana. He was a farmer and one of 14 children (including two sets of twins). They raised my grandmother here with her sisters and brother. We have a photo of my grandmother in her brother Ira's WWI army uniform. Both of them were full of fun.

Uncle Ira was on one side and his wife was, indeed, on the other side of his parents.

Uncle Ira loved a good joke. I could almost see his smiling face and hear a chuckle as I walked back to the car.

Night walk with new lights - Ice cream place open?!

Crazy clouds brought thunder and spot showers. Pups had to come in (Houdini dog had already escaped the yard - probably from the first thunder clap).

As the showers ended we talked ourselves into a walk. We tried out some new lights from our friends in the dark.

Lots of neighbors are out on Saturday night. Six teenage skateboarders were goofing off at one house. We moved into the street to give them plenty of room.

Dogs barked at us from their dark yards - even Mohawk dog and friends let us know they were out and watching.

The park was dark and empty - folks scared by the stormy weather.

The light was on at the ice cream stand and we were the only customers.

Dogs got a few licks of soft vanilla. DH and i tried what will probably be our last snow cones of the season. It was nice to get one last treat without fighting crowds.

We need to hit the park at a deer-friendly time. We miss the herd.

Maybe tomorrow.

Walked out of my office building to see some amazing clouds.

Perhaps the drought made made me forget...

how clouds can decorate the sky...

They didn't look like rain clouds in all directions...

but some had that darkness...

and the rain started...

as I headed home.

The Pack grows - 5 dogs, 3 grown-ups?

Finally we figured we had to quit babying Paddy's paw and get in a hike.

We started below the dam and walked for almost 2 hours with the dog whisperer and his pups, Hugo, Stanley, and Ruby.

His dogs and ours were almost instant friends. Hugo and Scruffy ran off together. Paddy and Ruby were both kept on their leashes for a little while extra before we let them loose. They bonded too and ran with each other (the 8 year old and the 18 month old).  Paddy had a hard time keeping up after an initial burst of energy. Ruby is a flash.

One sweet moment occurred repeatedly - I would fall behind the group as I tried to get photos of this and that. Scruff would stop, turn around, and come back for me.

Even Paddy would hang back every now and then, hugging my leg when she had gone too long and too hard.

We were all worn out as we headed for home. DH took a nap. I started to download these photos. Hope you enjoy them. [Reordering them has been a pain so forgive the lack of logic.]

"Why haven't we walked here before? Why did it take so long for us to meet these fun dogs???"



What is this?

Little yellow composites

Ruby, the snake finder. She found no snakes today, but did catch a field mouse - poor thing.

Ruby and Hugo and the DW (dog whisperer)

The woods were full of Bois d'Arc (Osage Orange). The fruit were enormous.

Ruby and Hugo wandering the path with Stanley way in the distance.

Not sure - Iron weed?

Insect tracks on the leaves - beautiful.



Berries of some kind.




These remind me of the sea oats at the coast. I suspect they are some variety of wild oat.

The roots around this tree were beautiful. (1)



Roots (2)

Roots (3)



Cannot tell if this is a bunch of bloomed out sunflowers or something else. It was pretty.



DW, DH, and Scruffy

Path winds through fluffy seed-headed grass.

The creek. I have pictures from years ago - an Eagle project. We built an earthen dam. The scout involved just had his first child. I am starting to feel old.




Not sure, but really looked like Pyracantha (firethorn) - a plant from hell, as far as I am concerned.

Scruffy, come on back!

Good boy!



The path was pretty steep in places...not so much here.



A hole.

And another hole

Yet another hole

Prickly pear showing its ripened fruit (pear shaped - must be where the name comes from)

Scruff and his new buddy, Hugo.

The pack. Someone is missing - probably Ruby.



Is that my sweet Padimus drenched in nasty stagnant water?



Scruffy comes running to check on me. Love those ears in mid-flop

Now THIS is a meadow!

More interesting grass



Happy dogs.



Buzzards were everywhere and one lost a feather on the trail.

Buzzards fill limbs of a tree along the river.

Close-up of the birds...appropriate for the season...

Stanley stalling on the way back to the cars.

 

Short walks continue

Trying not to over do with the pup makes no one happy. Scruff stands at the gate and barks at Paddy - who could not come play until late today. They greet each other like the long lost.

We hope to take a walk at the river tomorrow with new friends.

But for now, it is around the yard, a few blocks down, and a few blocks back.

Last night while out at dusk Paddy stopped eating to note the strangers walking around. One young man got a growl, and another, and another. I may be alpha, but these pups love and want to protect me.

Time for them to come in. I will clean and bandage the paw and get them ready for our Friday adventure.