My Daily Joy | My Daily Giggle

Power of The Paw Needed for Gizmo

My hiking buddy Gizmo is very sick. The prognosis is not good. But  I hope you will all use your powerful paws and send him comfort and lots of love in the coming weeks! His pawrents could use the same!

Gizmo's mom snapped this pic of us Saturday night... who says rottens don't smile???? Isn't he the most handsome boy EVER???

Mabel in the Arroyo

Last month, when I was feeling homesick, I took Mabel to the Arroyo. All the trees remind me of my grandparent's farm... With all the repairs still going on from the Station Fire, things have changed a lot in there.  We had always seen this little reservoir just past the ranger station, but it was always fenced off. You could get to it but you had to hike up the mountain about a 1/4 mile and back down the stream... and do the reverse to leave. So, we've never gotten to swim there. But oh, what we've been missing!

Now that the fence was down... Mabel just walked right in. It's off the trail a bit but eventually a few doggies did join us but we had it all to ourselves for quite a long time considering it was a Sunday and the trail was busy!

The pond was not very deep which is ideal for Mabel... she likes when her feet touch the bottom...silly baby!

Watching some other pups arriving.

The pond is fed by a lovely stream

It's just gorgeous there!

Keeping her eye on the stick!

Got it!

The Other Side of the Rainbow

It was certainly a magical night when that rainbow appeared. This was the other side...the view of the sunset:

And this was our sunset a few nights later:

It's easy to see why this place speaks to my soul...

I Spy

with my little phone camera... I love to peek through the brush and see what  mischief Bart and Mabel are into on the far side of the creek. It's always getting dark when we are down this way but you get the idea...

Please! See the Bees!

The guys I hike with thought I was losing my mind last week when I kept telling them to watch out for the bee hive I had almost stumbled into.

I kept telling them where it was and that it looked like a shirt sleeve threaded on a branch... but they never saw it!

Then one night, I walked 'em down and showed them...NOTHING! The bees had disappeared after being there for a week! It turns out it was just a swarm! Still, I'm glad I got some pics on my phone!!!

So fellas, believe me now????

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Contest

If you like my beads there are TWO contests ending this weekend that have gift certificates to my glass bead shop as a prize. You can read more about them on my bead blog!

Claiming It for His Own

I'm often amused at the things that can appear on our trails overnight. You pass the same spots often...one day, it's scrub brush and the next day, you wonder if someone has moved in. Or worse, they just drop off boxes of possessions...like the homeless need new lamps!

A few days will pass with the boxes / items undisturbed. But eventually people will start picking through the items. Me? I try to take the glass home - not because I want it but that I don't want our dogs stepping on broken glass.

It's incredible what you can find out there, sometime floating down the river. I've long wanted to write post titled shopping at the creek. Several of my favorite things were scavenged from there.

Last week, I noticed someone had discarded a little purple plastic crate along one of our trails. There was some lipstick and makeup with it. And the crate was all busted. And apparently, the unspoken rule of leaving such stuff alone for a few days holds with the canines as well as the homo-sapiens. But on the third day, Bart claimed that purple crate for his very own. It has been thoroughly marked. Just so you know... this is Bart's:

And yes, that IS Bart juice!

Sunset Moonrise 8-4-11 - Wordless Wednesday

Cleaning out my phone pics again....

Shhh.... Secret Party at the Bestie's House

My Bestie has such an open door policy with family and friends, it's not unusual for her to come home to company. I myself have been caught sitting on her sofa, watching her tv with my face covered with barbeque sauce!

Since I'm considered part of the family, it's not often that I miss out on a gathering, but back in July, I popped by to pick up Bart and found a secret garden party going on!

By the time I parked Mabel further away from the festivities, there were only two revelers left:

One of them was having such a good time, she even jumped the fence and partied on the roof!

I wish they would invite me next time...I know where the good stuff is!

Everybody's Talkin'

... about the rainbow we had in the creek last week! It took me three pictures to capture it all! I tried to paste'em together in photoshop...but I was apparently walking while shooting and they don't really line up.  So, you'll just have to imagine it all put together. Here it is, left, middle and right:

Be sure to check out Gretchen's Photos as well as the Rottrovers! It was awesome... and we're all still talking about it!

Choya Choya Choya

The past two weeks, Mabel and Barticus have been incorrigible on the trails... taking off on a chase at any hint of a coyote! And now that the coyote pups are a few months old and being left alone more and more by their parents... the little buggers will bark at their shadow... much less a hiking pack across the valley floor!

I'm really happy that Mabel and Bart have each other.  But I still fear that Mabel is losing some of her sharpness in her old age. The best example of this is  that she has come home with jumping choya in her several times this week! This one was removed from Mabel hind quarters by our hiking buddy!

She must have had thirty or more stickers in her that night! That is the most she's had since she was a pup. Usually, she may step on a stray one on the trail or accidentally find a piece of choya that is in another bush (they are fragile and break off. Hikers kick them off the trail.) But never does she come home with scads of them embedded in her! Until now...

This particular night, I tied her to a door knob and turned on every light on the patio, got a spot light from the studio and was plucking away with needle nose tweezers when Mabel's auntie arrived with gloves and pliers. Different tools for different artists!  She walked right up to Mabel, scratched her booty with one hand and yanked this sucker out with the other.  Then she comforted the girl while I worked on the smaller ones with the tweezers.

The next night, Mabel got one in her tongue as well... OY, that was fun. NOT!  When she did it yet again a few days later, I didn't even bother my friend... I just got the big tools out!

But my real fear is that something has changed in my girl... can she no longer smell / sense where these things are??? And as for Barticus... the dog we kept on leash for months because he couldn't seem to avoid the choya??? Not a single barb in him!

Meetup at the Creek

What can start out as a family hike can quickly turn into a full blown pawty at the creek....especially during the summertime!

Pretty boy Bart enjoying a frolic in the river. ( I just LOVE the water dripping off his hind foot!)

Friends and their pawrents arrive...

Mabel Lou spies her buds!

Excited greetings abound...

Bart tries to explain to Sue where his allergies itch...

Tilla and his dad get their golf balls organized for a game of fetch.

Hank and Sue hear the coyotes in the distance while Tilla is unimpressed. The two bratty dogs in the back head off for a closer inspection.

And there they go!