A few weeks ago, the Town removed and replaced the fire hydrant 100 feet or so down our road. Yesterday, Beethoven found it and did what every boy dog does. He re-hydrated the hydrant with Damsel looking on. Click on the image to enlarge.
Critters
Christmas Butterfly
Every once in a while, I get to capture an image that ranks right up there with some of Damsel’s best photos. This time, it was purely unintentional, in that I went out to photograph some shrubs with a before photo before I started on trimming them. When I got out to the palo verde where Damsel had decorated the green tree with some red Christmas ornaments for the season, a butterfly suddenly came out of nowhere and posed on one of her ornaments. Chalk this one up to luck – AND the fact that there are still butterflies, songbirds, humming birds and other critters that remain here in spite of the cooler temperatures. We LOVE Arizona! Click on the image to enlarge.
Happy Halloween
Since our house is located on an unlit unpaved road away from where kids would go on Halloween, we don’t get any tricksters. But, that’s probably a good thing since our Min-Pins tend to be overprotective and raise a ruckus whenever anybody comes calling.
We still enjoy the spirit (no pun intended) of Halloween and decorate accordingly, including our little girl Min-Pin, Cabela. Click on the image to enlarge.
Guess HOO is Coming For Dinner?
Damsel noticed this great horned owl perched on our roof as we were bringing the dogs back from doing their business. She didn’t have her camera with her, so I took the little Canon A1400 Power Shot out of my pocket and snapped this photo. Click on the image to enlarge.
Guarding the Big House
This is a photo of the front window in the big California house with the dogs standing guard to potentially bark at whatever might come down the semi-busy street. Beethoven, the little red dog by the window looked back to see what I was doing as I took the photo; Cabela the little blue dog camped on the couch cushion, waits until the little red dog sees something before springing into action.
There is considerably more activity here than at the little desert house and the dogs get busy making sure that every “threat” gets barked away. Events include others in the neighborhood walking their dogs or baby strollers and all that “dangerous” stuff.
Other attributes of the big house is that it is BIG; our little desert home is around 1300 square feet while this place is over 2600 square feet, upstairs and downstairs. It is twice the romping room and both dogs enjoy bounding up and down the staircase.
All that activity concludes tomorrow as we pack up and head back to Arizona as early in the morning as we are able. Don’t worry about the dogs, though, they have plenty of entertainment in the desert barking at cottontails, jackrabbits, javelina and the occasional coyote.
We’re all looking forward to heading back in the morning now that our business is finished here. Click on the image to enlarge.
Pigs in the Wash
Just as we were getting ready for the commute to the L.A. area today, a herd of seven or eight javelina crossed the back part of our yard on their daily forage. The dogs let us know they were coming, so I ran out to the courtyard and took several pictures of them as they crossed the wash. These two appeared to be juveniles, but we did see (and not photograph) a very small one with it’s Mama. Click on the image to enlarge.
Hummingbird
This is a photo I took of a hummingbird that was browsing some of the garden shop flowers a while back. We get dozens of the little birds of all different colors who browse our feeders in the patio. They are so delightful to watch, either looking out the windows or while soaking ourselves in the spa. Click on the image to enlarge.