Sunday, October 1, 2017

A fine day for walking...

I met a friend and went for a walk this afternoon. Her dog and my dog are both somewhat reactive, but for whatever reason they get along with each other, so that's a good thing. We walk in an area where we rarely encounter other dogs, so our walkies are usually pretty peaceful.

It was a perfect day for walking - the air was cool and dry, the sunshine was warm, there was a gentle breeze, puffy white clouds floated through the blue sky - as I say, a perfect fall day.

As we were walking near a forested area both dogs reacted to something in the underbrush. I am a bit wary as we have some odd varmints around here, Dwayyos and such, so I was keeping an eye on the shrubbery just in case something leaped out and approached us. Then I saw a blur of fur, something darting along, low to the ground, but due to the thickness of the brush I couldn't see how tall it was, and being colorblind I couldn't see what color it was. I said "Wombat! Again!".

It really wasn't a wombat. One hardly ever sees those around here. I think it was a groundhog. We do see those. So the threat passed, the groundhog went to ground and on we walked. I like days like this - doing things I like with people I like and a couple of good dogs tagging along.

And oldie, but appropriate for today.

16 comments:

Trooper York said...

Great post.

But let's be honest. It was a commie in the bush.

chickelit said...

Nice inaugural post. You're not the shack-dwelling recluse that Trooper painted you to be.

Trooper York said...

Of course not.

Sixty is sauce and deboner.


Which he tries to conceal with loose overalls.


From the Junior Sample collection.

The Dude said...

Did I mention that the underbrush was Kudzu? We are talking Southern Gothic over here!

edutcher said...

Kudzu is God's curse on Earth. I am so allergic, you wouldn't believe it.

Donny Genaro said...

dwayyos and such

You may be colorblind, Sixty, but I'll bet not much gets by you and those dogs.

I worked the door at a short lived jazz club in San Francisco in the seventies. Coltrane was God to the sax players back then, and sadly already gone. I haven't listened to him for awhile so thanks for putting him on the turntable.

Chip Ahoy said...

In the North Korea post I was surprised to see N.K. noodles the guy ate were made from various flour including kudzu.

What? Kudzu flour?

That's what Wikipedia recipe said.

So I looked to see if Japanese people eat kudzu and I found this 43 recipes for kudzu.

They're all very bizarre with exotic ingredients hard to obtain like mentsuyu (a condiment made from dashi, as already mentioned, their spectacular seafood base), and powered kanten (like agar) and mentsuyu which is Japanese sugar sugar called black honey, and kinako (roasted soy bean powder)

Look, just forget it. You wouldn't like and you'd complain too much. Forget I mentioned people actually eat kudzu. It's not for you. I made a mistake here. It's all too much right off the bat. Stick with meat and potatoes.

I'm thinking about something else anyway.

I just planted the aquarium. I poured in the gravel and it's not what I expected. This is all tiny grains not various size chunks as I was lead to believe. It's much more excellent than I anticipated. It's clay that is fired and sorted to size. So it holds nutrients very well. It also holds air. The water I poured in is loaded with air so the tiny stones actually float!

Just scrambling the water makes them sink again.

But air still collects on them. Air is released from tiny stones on the bottom and collects on tiny stones on the top and lifts them. The entire surface of stones is covered with air bubbles. They look exactly like tiny snails that going up. It's the weirdest thing seeing stones rising to the surface.

The gravel is deep.

I made three hills and planted all the little clones in patches. Mindful of mature size and textures. Two red patches contrasted with five various green patches. Each hill has two patches of various sizes and intensities. When it grows, this is going to be awesome. And if any species fails, so what, I can always replace them easily as original planting.

I don't know why I didn't think about this a long time ago. And once I did think it, I don't know why I waited so long. Sometimes I don't understand myself. This whole project was fun.

deborah said...

Great tune, thanks! Reminds me that Christmas is on its way.

ndspinelli said...

Great post and look forward to more info on the lady friend.

ricpic said...

Lady Friend?

What is so rare as a day in October,
The month of the gold and the blue;
Trailing two dogs name of Rufus and Rover,
Looking forward perchance to a screw.

The Dude said...

LOL @ ricpic!

We need a poet laureate around here and I nominate ricpic.

Do I hear a second?

deborah said...

Hell no. Anyone who fails to take the opportunity to rhyme Rover with clover is not worthy of the title.

The Dude said...

Maybe Rover speaks Scooby Doo and pronounces his name "Roctober". It _could_ happen.

deborah said...

Ruh-roh, Sixty needs to switch to decaf :)

deborah said...

Damn, now I want coffee.

MamaM said...

Yes, you hear a second. With a bang a gong, carry on. Which turns out to be bang a gong, get it on, when I go to look, but either way doesn't rhyme.