ABC Wednesday ~ W

ABC Wednesday ~ W

W is for Waterbottle. This is my favorite waterbottle that I take with me on my daily hikes. Its in this particular picture to show the relative size of these lovely Wild flowers. These are wild orchids that we call Yellow Ladyslippers and are in bloom right now. They can be twice this size. They grow out in the open in rocky soil.



Here's a closer view, You can see that the rim of the "slipper" is tinged with red. I am a big fan of Wildflowers and these are one of my favorites.

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What's Blooming?

On a nice sunny day this week, I decided to go for a walk on the Gorge and Pipeline trails to see what's blooming these days. I saw lots of these Mountain Sandwort growing in the gravel by the pipeline. They are very tiny. Each Petal is somewhat heartshaped and they have 2 or 3 flowers on each stalk.

Crackerberries ( You may Know them as Bunch Berries ma'am.) are in flower in the woods.

A few late blooming May Flowers. Most of them are gone now. A couple of weeks ago you could smell their sweet perfume in the air.

There are lots of Pin Cherry trees in bloom.

..and wild strawberries a plenty.

Pretty much all the wild flowers that are in season right now are white. I am looking forward to seeing some Pink and Yellow Lady Slippers next month.

ABC Wednesday ~ T

T is for Tribute

This is a tribute to Cali, my sweet little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, whom I had to say good-bye to 3 weeks ago. Cali, whose full name was Maracaibo Calico, was a beautiful, gentle little dog. Though she weighed only 10 pounds, she took up tons of space in my life and my heart.



Cali had a sister, her litter-mate Mikki. Though Mikki lived with my brother and his family, Cali and Mikki spent lots of time together and always had a special bond. In this picture they had just come from the groomer. We said good-bye to Mikki in December.

Cali was an only dog until Tucker came to live with us 3 years ago. Though they were never affectionate with each other, they got along just fine. Here they are sharing a nap in the den.

Cali and Mikki napping together on the arm of the couch.

Cali got along well with other dogs, but Mikki was the only one she would play with. Their favorite game was wrestling.




Cali met a new friend last summer. Her name was Pippa. This is Cali and Pippa with Pippa's mom Linda.



This is what she looked like when she was 4 months old. She was 3.5 pounds. She eventually weighed a whopping 10 pounds.


Cali was not a talented dog. She never advanced beyond a "sit " command and failed miserably the "how long does it take your dog to find the treat" IQ test. But she was a lovable, pretty little dog who filled a pretty big spot in my heart. I miss her and Mikki a lot.

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