Category Archives: English cocker spaniel
Like Watching Paint Dry
Might as well do my nails while I’m watching the walnuts dry.
In the lower level, by the woodstove, the walnuts are bagged and almost ready to be hung above the woodstove to finish drying. I think I’ll have to get another burlap bag or maybe two more, to hold all those nuts as they dry. All the messy work of scraping the black goo from the shells has been done. Now we wait. Most days, I sneak a few to bring out to the squirrels.
I wonder if there will be any walnuts left by Christmas.
Puppy at the Beach
When Emma was only about a year old, we took her for an outing at the beach one day.
What looked to us to be just tired sea grasses was probably a shoreline full of life.
“Did I see something move out there?”
“Whoah! Is that water closer than it was a second ago?”
“Are we safe here?”
“Okay, then. Just say the word, and I’ll go bring you that bird I saw down the beach.”
I’m sure I saw a movement there
Way down along the beach,
I’ll go and chase it if I dare…
But naw, it’s out of reach.
And anyway these waves are big,
The worst thing is they’re wet,
But pups like me don’t give a fig,
They haven’t hurt me yet.
So I’ll be brave and daring too,
I’ll chase those birds around,
I’ll show my folks what I can do,
And what a pup they’ve found.
Emma’s Story
When I was just a baby, my older sister Ruby was the boss. She was always trying to tell me what to do.
One day, Anneli took my bed away, and I tried to claim what was left of it – just the inside part was left.
Ruby was playing the part of Miss Know-it-all.
Something moved out on the grass. Don’t forget, we’re hunting dogs. It’s our job to chase anything that moves.
But Anneli didn’t bring us food and she didn’t look like she was sorry for anything. She just laughed and said, “What are you doing in the wheelbarrow?”
Soon, while Ruby went to chase the rabbit, Anneli told me everything was okay. She had another bed fixed up for me on the deck. I tried for some compensation, but she didn’t go for it.
When she put me into the special bed on the bedroom deck, I was going to gloat a bit about how I had messed up her sliding door with nose prints. I was going to tell her, “Haha! So there! That’s what you get for making me worry about my bed,” but before I could tell her all that, I succumbed to the softness of the bed’s furry pillowcase, and off I went to Doggie Dreamland.
Harvest Time
The squirrels have been harvesting hazelnuts from the trees and hiding them to be retrieved in the winter.
Along comes Woodrow the Woodpecker, innocently looking for bugs.
Ronald Rabbit knows the squirrels wouldn’t like their stash to be unearthed, but, “What to do? What to do?”
“Mind your own business, Ronald,” says Woodrow. “That’s “What to do’!”
“I’m telling,” shouts Ronald. “The people will let their dog out and then you’ll be sorry.” Meanwhile, I have one leg raised and ready to make a run for it.
“Look out, you guys! Here I come. And don’t forget! I may be a teddy bear in the house, but I’m a wolverine in the field.”
“Are you serious?” Woodrow calls to Ronald. “Now that the dog is out, we’ll all have to make a run for it.”
“Aw, do what you want. I’m going up here to higher ground and — oh! What have we here? A hole in the tree. Anybody home?”
And so life goes on … unless you’re a bug in that tree.
Laughing Pup
*Note – I apologize for using this same photo of Emma again, but I really love it (because I love her so much). Emma is 11 years old now and is still “the best.” Also, I wanted to mention that I do have four fingers and a thumb. One finger is just tucked in.
There once was a puppy who laughed,
Whose owner was equally daft,
She told the pup jokes,
That she’d heard from some blokes,
Then both of them rocked fore and aft.
Oysters, Clams, and Phony Money
An oyster bed near the shoreline is encouraging to see. If you like oysters, be sure you’ve checked your local website for updates on any shellfish contamination that may be happening in your area.
We saw tons of oysters, but our fishing licences only allowed 12 each. That is certainly enough for a meal.
Poor Emma. She ran over these oyster shells and was soon limping along with sore feet from the rough barnacles on the shells.
After that, she preferred to run over pure sand or maybe a clam bed, both of which were easier on her feet.
I found a bit of beach money to pay for the clams and oysters. See the sand dollars below? The whiter ones were dead and sun bleached; the yellower ones were probably not feeling well; and the darker purplish brown ones (not pictured) were quite alive. I didn’t get a picture of them because I didn’t find them until later when I figured out that they were a few inches below the surface of the sand.
Emma was interested in a lot of things on the beach. This oyster was by itself, away from the rest and was covered with big barnacles. It seemed out of place here among all the clam shells.
The beach had so much driftwood washed up that it was an endless job for Emma to explore for mice and other little creatures that left their telltale scents on or under the logs.
She finally decided to tackle that big job, one log at a time.
It kept her busy all day.
So much fresh air and a tiny bit of sunshine ensured that we all slept well that night.
A Taste of the Good Life
Our old trailer has seen better days, but I can’t think of many that were better than this one.
The lake was peaceful, fresh, and beautiful.
An eagle patiently waited for a trout to be caught. Maybe there would be a little “something” left for him.
But first lick went to Emma. This trout fishing was new to her and she seemed to like it.
The next trout had Ruby interested. It was her turn.
Water lilies at the edges added tranquility to the scene.
Time to go ashore and stretch our legs.
Ruby and Emma found all kinds of wonderful smells there.
But right nearby, where even I could smell the animals that had been there, was the evidence of elk that had visited not long before.
A lot of peaceful moments, but never a dull one.
Unwilling Players
When Ruby (our springer spaniel) was still alive, she and Emma (our English field cocker spaniel) loved to go to the beach with us. There was always something to see.
“Hey, Ruby! Look at these ducks. We could play with them.”
“Come back! We just want to play tag with you!”
“Aw! C’mon, ducks! See how we can run and play with you? That would be so much fun.
They don’t seem to want to play, Ruby. I tried to get them to come closer, but they just swam away. Not very friendly!”
“Oh, I’ll go talk to them. Maybe they thought you were just a bit too rambunctious.”
“Nope! They don’t want to play with us. They just kept on swimming farther away. Hah!”
“Water’s damn cold too.”
“We were just trying to be friendly and have some fun. Go figure!”
Oh, Deer!
“Hmm … I used to be able to check out that garden … and those fruit trees had delicious leaves. Too early for that, I guess, but there’s always a few new sprouts of something over there. Darned fence. There must be a way to get over there.”
“But what’s this? A little black critter, trying to look like a dog. Doesn’t look too fierce. I could probably give it a good kick and it would go yiping home to Mama.”
“Don’t you come over here. And don’t be fooled by my sweet face and my small size. I may be a teddy bear at home, but I’m told I’m a wolverine in the field.”
wordsfromanneli 