Boolie

I Feel Like I’m Being Watched

I was standing on our front steps watching a squirrel move through a snowy tree when I turned around and was transported back 16 years. Up top is Boo watching me from our front door, below is Templeton watching me from the back door in 2001.

Goodbye Sun, Goodbye Snow

Ellie watches the last rays of the setting sun from a snow-covered hill in Irving Park. I thought this Sunday afternoon walk was going to be our last walk together in the snow after a week of walking in the white as I was back at work on Monday, but I stayed home on Tuesday when temperatures didn’t warm as quickly as predicted and a possible ice storm was approaching. Thankfully the ice just missed us but Ellie and I had one more long walk in the snow that morning before the great thaw started in the evening.

I treasure every moment with this sweet pup.

Red Five Prepares for the Trench Run

A week ago we got an unusually heavy snow (5th heaviest snowfall on record for Portland) and work was canceled. This was the snow I had been hoping Ellie would get to play in (plenty more than I had hoped for), not only because she enjoys it but because it reminds me of the snowstorm that led to us adopting her, so we went out for a long walk in the morning. On some streets we were the first to be out and had to blaze a trail through the deep snow, in the early going she was happy to plunge along in the lead but an hour and a half later she was happy to follow in my footsteps.

She went on another long walk in the afternoon around sunset, I took this picture of her on our shoveled sidewalk after we got back so you can see that with the snow up to her belly it was a lot of work for our elderly pup to get through the snow, she got more than her share of exercise that day. Normally snow melts pretty quickly here in Portland but a cold snap kept the snow around for a week, it started warming last night and the snow is rapidly melting (and the water now seeping into our basement).

We had a great time in the snow, the pup and I, but now I’m ready for spring. When does that start, next week?

Here Comes the Sun

While it may seem like Ellie is awaiting the rising of the sun, she’s really awaiting the giving of the treats, her reward for sitting still when I take pictures on our walks.

Recovering

This fall the status of the Columbian white-tailed deer was improved from endangered to threatened. I’d guess this young buck, eating in a meadow beside Long Lake, is one of the offspring of deer that were captured and moved to Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge as a part of the recovery efforts. I saw him in late December, one of his antlers had already fallen off but the other was not yet ready to let go.

The Emergent Light

I was watching a bittern that had mostly moved out of view when this pied-billed grebe swam over as it hunted for fish. The sun was just starting to push the fog away and bathed the grebe in a gentle light.

Look Who I Found!

I visited Ridgefield a handful of times over the Christmas break and was saddened to see that my favorite spot to watch bitterns, a little strip along Rest Lake, had been mowed close to the ground. There is plenty of cover in other areas near this strip so the bitterns still have ample places to hunt, they just won’t be visible from the road. So I was ecstatic on my last visit, when I had stopped to watch some bufflehead in an earlier section of Rest Lake, to notice this bittern hunting in the tall grasses. I only had a little window through the grasses to see it but it was a real delight to watch one of my favorite birds again.

The Rectangular Cat

I don’t think it’s fair that Boo doesn’t have to follow the laws of physics like the rest of us.

Fading Glory, Fading Use

Many of the garages in our old neighborhood are too small to hold modern cars. Even our little Crosstrek is a tight fit in our old one car garage. I’ve wanted to photograph these side-by-side garages for a while, as they have seen better days yet still hint at their former glory, and on this day fortune smiled as Ellie decided to walk down this street and I happened to have my camera with me.

Spying on Santa

For thousands of years on Christmas Eve, children have hoped to catch Santa delivering presents under the Christmas tree. But he always managed to avoid detection, until this year that is, when he looked down at a box beside a Christmas tree and realized, too late, the box was looking back at him. Don’t feel bad Santa, Boo is a clever little fellow. And the Boo Box has only increased his powers.