Sniffin' and Lookin'

 

I saw elongated angle worms and pretty baby hyacinths covered with water drops. 

Meanwhile, Bridie smelled critters who had dared to pass through the Lovestead overnight.

It's a process of looking and sniffing for my Border Collie pal and me after we've finished the morning chores. 

Bridie sniffs. I look. 

In one case this morning, Bride sniffed her way across the hay field toward the fence to the Meserve Preserve.

While looking her direction, I watched the hair on her back rise up and continue to do so as she moved closer to the fence. 

A big black thing which did not move seemed to be the object of her concern. 

As I walked closer to Bridie, the black thing appeared to be pretty much like what I had suspected:  an old collapsed stump. 

Apparently, the eye of a Border Collie isn't always that discerning.  Soon, Bride's hair relaxed, and so did she. 

We moved on across the wet field and back to the lane where stretched-out  worms aplenty kept me watching ever step so as not to squash them. 

Bridie kept on sniffing, moving ahead of me toward the house. 

As I rounded the corner toward the house, I stopped at the oregano patch where my eye suddenly focused on a pretty pink hyacinth which had popped up overnight. 

This is the fun of looking and sniffing on strolls around the place on wet spring mornings.

  Bridie gets a pretty good nasal idea of what scary monsters have invaded overnight, while I enjoy the discoveries of new life which is appearing in spots all over the place.

Plus, on wet mornings, you get the bonus of that multitude of angleworms slithering across the surface. 

We have rain today.  We had rain yesterday.  

Both Bill and I were surprised to see and feel the drops coming from the sky when we climbed into the pickup with Foster and set off for a Sunday drive. 

Turns out that was just introduction to an entire afternoon of steady rain. 

We both have observed that the weather forecasts a week out are pretty safe for those making the predictions.  

Make people happy by suggesting 70s and sun six days away. And, as those predictions steadily go down the tubes as the week of wet wears on, start on the next week's promises. 

Yesterday was not exactly what we expected seven days ago, but what's a person to do except get in the pickup and drive around looking at different scenes of wet. 

So, that's what we did.  We set Spirit Lake as our goal, and when we arrived there, it was still raining. 

We defied the elements and took a short walk with Foster. As Foster sniffed out good places to lift his leg, we walked around the lakeshore watching ducks and geese and even kildeer enjoy their wet afternoon. 

We figured, from the sight of various colored rose petals dotting the ground, that some special event had happened in that area the day before. 

The colorful, wet petals added a nice touch to the grass and sand along the shore.

We also stopped at the grocery store in Spirit Lake and then drove through some residential areas of the quiet little quaint town which seems to be exploding with new residents.

It was  a nice and often eye-opening drive where sights down back roads with signage and flags gave a pretty clear idea what the political atmosphere happens to be. 

We concluded that our drive had definitely turned out to be the best way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon. 

Foster agreed.     

That same "always looking" habit while taking a short drive on Saturday introduced me to this roadside intruder.

Yes, "intruding" from its enclosure onto the roadside. 

That's precisely what the goat was doing when I went one way down its road.  

When I turned around and came the other way, a sense of gotcha guilt quickly became evident as the goat wasted no time racing from the right of way through its fence and back into the pasture, staring back at me and my car every step of the way. 

The best part of this entire interlude was discovering who its "protector" from all things scary happened to be. 

The grazing horse never batted an eye with the sudden arrival of its horned friend. Just kept on eating as its sidekick sought protection from the lady driving the green Subaru. 

Fun interlude.  Cute goat. 

And, so another week of looking forward to sunshine and warmth has begun. 

The rain has stopped and the grass has turned even greener than yesterday. 

So, we'll plod along and attend to some more spring projects anticipating that warm, dry weather. 

Happy Monday.