Dreaming

Dazzling sunny day, dunes behind you........ definitely perfect for dawdling on the sandy beach with your dog or drifting on the calm water in your dingy, be it catamaran or kayak..........  Or simply dozing in your beach chair after dashing, splashing, your way into a  great lake........  Oh, drat, my vision is damaged!  It is but a dastardly day dream on a dreary winter day..........

For more or less dreamy words beginning with D, please visit ABC Wednesday where the denizens are determined to delight you each week.

Can't we just be friends?

Seen at the annual Animal Rescue Fund Walkathon Saturday at Meyer Broadway Park in Fabulous Fabius Township, these two were the Mutt and Jeff couple on a sunny October day, a perfect day for a walk in the park and seeking out new friends.  Lots of humans got talked into bringing their canine friends to help raise funds for abandoned and abused animals.  ARF is instrumental in providing spaying and neutering services for animals in St. Joseph County.

And nominated for the most elegant couple at the park:

Although she was hoping for a Golden Retriever, she really loves me a lot!  Aren't I cute:

OK, now what?!

This is Abbey Rose, named for the Abbey down the road where she was abandoned one wintry day almost 10 years ago.  The day after we returned from up north, she would not come down from this eight-foot high fence.   In fact she jumped from the fence onto the roof of the house where she then spent the night, despite our best efforts to lure her off and stop the mournful meowing. 

Anthropomorphizing her plight, I arrived at three possible reasons for her roof sitting.  Had she caught wind of the fact that Willow keeps making the blog and she has never been so honored?  Or, despite daily visits by our good neighbor, was she simply seeking lots of attention after having been left home alone for a week?  Or was she registering outrage that "that dog" came back?

She is a truly beautiful calico with eyes of different colors, one blue, one green.  And she is a cuddler who has the least contentious relationship with Willow, "that dog" who has interrupted the ten-year reign of her kitty kingdom.

Escaping the heat

This is a scene from Harwood Lake in Cass County on the west side of County Line Rd and technically no longer in Fabius Township, but the water from Harwood flows into Corey Lake in Fabius and St. Joseph County.  Technically, Louis la Vache should let me submit a photo of the road since it is the bridge over the intersection of these two lakes.  Today we would never fill in the wetlands between the lakes for a roadway.

In any event, Willow and I checked it out today, one more scorcher in this  summer of scorchers, and found this pontoon of "folks" cruising around the lake looking for the cool breeze of two.  I had no idea the driver had company until Willow attracted the attention of his passengers, first one, then two, and finally three of them interested in the Golden wading in the water at the boat launch.

Why were we even out and about today?!  Because Miss Willow had to go the vet for what I feared was bloating and a blockage and turned out to be a tummy ache to be treated with Pepto-Bismol.  The major symptom: refusing treats since dinner the evening before.  Truly that is a serious symptom in a Golden!  By the time we got to the vet at 10 am, she was feeling much better and so we did a tour of the more southern regions of the township as we headed home.  Stayed tuned for more photos of that tour.

No umbrage please on ABC Wednesday

Utterly lame for ABC Wednesday is this picture of Willow pausing, undecided, at the crossroads in the umbratic woods.  Please don't take umbrage since there is so very little umber in the woods these days with the recent rains producing ubiquitous green as well as the need for an umbrella most days.  Anticipating next week's ABC's is the light in the background above the vernal pond.

P.S. umber is another of those words morphing from describing the color of earth, dark or reddish brown, to an adjective meaning shady to another noun describing the state of taking offense, as in a dark mood?!   And the etymology from the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin umbraticum, neuter of umbraticus of shade, from umbratus, past participle of umbrare to shade, from umbra shade, shadow; akin to Lithuanian unksmė shadow.

Once again thank you to ABC Wednesday crew for sending me searching for words to justify my posting a photo of Willow!