Jump into the Creek

Happiness in this world, 

when it comes, 

comes incidentally. 

Make it the object of pursuit, 

and it leads us a wild-goose chase, 

and is never attained. 

Follow some other object, 

and very possibly we may find 

that we have caught happiness 

without dreaming of it. 

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

It was cold this Friday morning - not as cold as yesterday - but cold enough for a hat and coat (and gloves that I forgot). Fortunately, I drive around with loads of stuff in my car...Zelda's daycare bag, my hiking backpack, extra boxes, ceramics that have not found a home (yet - if I don't plan to keep them I try not to bring them into the house).

Anyway, I was glad to pull a baseball cap out of my backpack. Zelda would be glad we had a blanket in her bag too...

I love this park.

I love the lady* who comes early in the morning to feed the ducks and geese. We think she feeds the feral cats as well, or perhaps they are somehow her cats. They follow her. Many mornings we only catch glimpses as she walks home. With the time change we have arrived earlier and spotted her with her containers of feed.

I was trying to snag a photo of the lady who feeds the park creatures. She must be behind a tree here.

There she is.

The heron (we have begun to think there is only one Great Blue Heron feeding along this stretch of creek right now) flew towards us and stopped to fish nearby. We stopped too. We watched it stalk and miss one fish. It ignored us - wading across the creek and coming quite close to us**

The Heron

I'm starting to think of it as OUR Heron.

This was about halfway across.

It made a short little flight to come even closer - this is a screenshot of my video. I took mostly video that day.

It's a lovely, peaceful walk - most of the time.

OUR girls.

Zelda was out for squirrels. And, because the park was so quiet, I was lulled into consent. I dropped the leash so she could have a good run. I know I have mentioned how the leash slows her just enough that the squirrels are in no danger.

But I wasn't paying attention to the geese.

Two squirrels hunted for nuts below a couple of trees. They were well away from the creek and so Zelda did her wild dash around the two trees. Then she looked up and saw the goose.

It all happened so fast.

I thought I might have to smuggle a dead goose out of the park, but the goose took off (just ahead of the sharp toothed dog) towards and then into the creek.

The dog followed.

I had visions of following the dog into the creek (What if that leash got caught on something?).

Wet dog in my fleece jacket and her daycare blanket.

I don't think she enjoyed that swim at all.

Zelda was pretty hyped up after the swim. She was ready for and attempted another chase. She started to dig a hole. She jumped down off of a wall. All this occurred as we walked back to the car and warmth. There was much human laughter and dodging the drops of creek-water as Z tried to shake herself dry.

Then I wrapped her in my jacket and hustled her into the car - pulled out her blanket and wrapped her up even more.

The heater was on HIGH as we headed home to towels and food and much retelling of the story of Zelda's wild goose chase.

NOTES:

*I'm trying to stop saying "little old lady" as I do believe I am getting close to being the "old lady."

** This was the closest we have been to this bird. It was so lovely and just took its time wading around. We did not see it catch anything this time.


Final Note: Our Saturday walk was so quiet. No one chased the squirrels although Zelda did make one quick lunge.

The heron was further downstream - birds on the line leaving reflections middle-right.

Wading and looking for breakfast.

An old "no trespassing" sign. The path from the street down this hill is clear. All ignore the sign.

All ignore this sign too, except us. We picked up loads of other dogs too.

Cheeky squirrel

The old bridge.

The ducks and geese were safe on this day.

Dry is so much better.