A drizzly cold day

It is a drizzly cold day today. 
Two or three degrees celsius.  No sun.  And of course, a light rain.

A day that chills you to the bone and depresses you with its dull sameness.

I took Wendy and the pups for a walk at Shubie Park. 

Wearing my puffy, purple coat, ear muffs and mittens, I pulled my coat hood over my head and hunched my shoulders for a chilly walk.

The sky was grey and the woods dripping.

But I soon stop.  Something catches my eye.  There is life beneath the sleeping trees. It is not all brown and dull.  And even the browns, glisten in more shades than I can name

And the moss.  The glorious moss.  Does moss never loose its vibrant colour ?  Even after it has been covered with winter's snows does it still lurk there green and alive ?

The pups stand peering high into the branches of the trees hoping to catch a glimpse of a scolding red squirrell.  When they hear that chittering call, they fairly loose their minds.  Did it go this way ?  or that ?

Run, run, run.  Pant, pant, pant.  Wag, wag, wag. "Did you see me?  Did you see me run?"  They check back in with me to briefly share their joy.

Can you hear the rustle as you walk through the leaves ?  and smell that wonderful musty leaf smell ?

There are even crocodiles in these woods.  I almost sat on one that had cleverly disguised itself as a log.

The trees are talking as their branches brush each other in the light breeze.  "Time to go" they chide. "Night is coming early these days.  Time to go".

I guess they're right.

But this walk has been far from dull.



A walk on the wet side ...

The weather here has been hot and sunny lately with the occassional wet day thrown in.  If it's not too cold, I'd rather be out on a wet day than in the blistering heat.  I'm just not that keen on hot weather. 
I should be careful what I wish for ...

Last week I took Wendy, Buffy and Sooki to the "back beach" at Rainbow Haven.  We walked up the track away from the ocean shore and headed for the area not used by beach goers.  Steering away from the marshes and ponds I throw the ball along the path and Wendy chases it while Buffy and Sooki chase each other.

At low tide the back beach is huge, much wider than it was last fall.  This increase has probably been at the expense of the ocean beach, as storms and surges shift sand from one area to another.

It had been raining off and on all day with some heavy down pours.  Later in the day the weatherman said the rain was done and things would be clearing up.  Foolishly I believed him but just to be safe I wore my rain slicker.

When we'd walked as far as we could, it began to drizzle and within minutes it was pouring.  Heavy rain.  So much for the forecast !  Rain sheeted down my coat and soaked my legs.   It was a sideways driving rain.  It found bad seams and soon was trickling down my back.

I hunched.  The dogs hunched.  We were a sad looking group.

The beach quickly became one big puddle.  My shoes (complete with orthodics) filled with water.  I sloshed.   It was not one of those warm rains.  It was a c-c-cold driving rain.

The poor dogs were sodden.  Buffy looked at me balefully and jumped up my legs, begging to be picked up but she is too heavy for me to carry that far.

There was nothing for it but to slouch our way back to the car. 

Once there I used the many towels and blankets to dry them as best I could.

Stoooopid weatherman !