I suppose you're wondering ...

I suppose you're wondering why I'm sitting here in my undies in the middle of the day writing a blog.

Let me back up a bit.  

This morning I was going to take the dogs for a walk along the service road that runs off the Lucasville side road.  Been there lots of times.  It's one of our favourite spots.

You can imagine my surprise when my car decided to turn right at Beaverbank Road  two kilometres before my intended turning point.  Sometimes I just don't know WHAT my car is thinking; but since I was in the car and it was travelling at speed I felt it unsafe to jump out so decided to tag helplessly along to see where it was going.   

Apparently at some point in the past I had mentioned an abandoned radar station that was located 15 km up Beaverbank Road and my car had remembered that and felt that today's fabulous weather was a good reason to have an adventure.  Who am I to argue with a compact car with a mind of its own !

The radar station opened in 1950 to fill a pressing need to watch out for an imminent Soviet invasion.  By 1964 the technology was already out of date and the station was slowly shut down.  The only building remaining is the operations building in the top left corner of the image below and that was our destination on today's hike.

Roads and power poles that once serviced the people living there are the only other things that remain.  

 The long road that leads to the remaining ruins bears a warning.

Since "E.A." clearly wasn't deterred by the warning, neither were we.  

The remains of the operations building.

Some folk find graffiti bothersome but I like it.

Sometimes it raises some interesting questions: "Who is the wind?".   I guess that's as good a questions as "Who has seen the wind?".

"All Monsters are Human Cool"  could prompt a good discussion.

I wonder how they got up there to paint that flag ?

I usually try to get inside these buildings but in this case the "entrance" was fifteen feet off the ground and rather perilous to reach so sadly I had to settle for just seeing the outside.

And checking out some nearby ruined structures.

It was a very hot day and much of the walk revolved around finding ponds and puddles for the dogs to cool off in.  Turning to head back to the car I was struck by how far we had walked to reach our destination !

Yep.  Up over that hill and another kilometer past that.   Heading back we sometimes managed to find prettier side trails that took us off the blistering hot concrete.

And back to my car whose idea this whole outing had been, but who had opted to chill by the side of the road while the dogs and I went on our forced march.

And that brings us back to the present moment.

And me sitting in my underwear.

Do you wanna know why I am sitting here in my underwear ?

Tough luck -- I'm gonna tell you any way.

No wait.

I'll show you !

TICKS !    

I just took 14 Ticks off Sooki.  When I idly itched my belly button and found one gleefully hiding in there I pretty much stripped everything off and subjected myself to an inspection in my full length mirror.    My jeans are in the wash and the dogs have been checked again and again.

Stooopid car !

P.S.  I am a malicious person and press the ticks between pieces of Scotia tape.

Life is a series of dog walks ...

Just got home from a lovely dog walk at Auburn Golf Club with Wendy and Sooki.

I thought at first it was going to be a cold walk but after a while I found myself pulling my mitts off and yanking off my ear muffs.

Wendy fetched her ball while Sooki followed Wendy ... or her own nose.

The snow wasn't really that deep, but still it was harder to walk in as I had to lift my  knees higher than they like to be lifted.

We encountered a few other people out walking their dogs or taking their kids sledding on the wonderful hills.  The man in the shot below was snow shoeing while his two dogs tagged along.

The golf course is very scenic with several covered bridges crossing a pretty river.  As I always have treats in my pocket, Wendy and Sooki come quickly when called.  They'll even put up with posing for a picture when a bribe is in the offing.

This is Wendy's "Throw the ball, throw the ball" look.

This was only my second time visiting Auburn.  I learned of it a week or so ago when I hooked up with a local Facebook dog walking group.

The photo below is from that first visit.  I love how there are no humans in the photo and the dogs appear to be on their own. 

I'm sure you can see why I went back again today.

A Wendy walk.

The other day I took Wendy for a lovely walk to the off-leash section of Shubie Park.  Trey is not crazy about off-leash parks.  Other dogs want to run up and sniff his bum, and that sort of intimacy without a cup of coffee or a chat first, is outside his comfort zone.  Wendy, is a free and liberal bum-sniffer, both as the sniffee and the sniffer.

It was warm, and the leaves were unfurling in the magical lime greens of spring.

Wendy never ran too far ahead: always coming back to check in with me.

A dog had generously provided this feeder
for the squirrels he loves to chase.

Note at bottom says: "Stay dirty my friend"

We watched the ducks.

And Wendy went for a swim.

Since I had not brought a ball, Wendy took the liberty of generously finding a stick for me.  She dwells under the erroneous impression that I love throwing sticks.  

The dreaded departure sign.

Sometimes it's nice to have some one-on-one time with one of your "kids".