Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
An eastern fox squirrel sits on a park bench in Irving Park on a foggy December day. We have two species of tree squirrel you frequently see in the city, foxes and eastern grays, neither is native. We have native squirrels in our forests but I’ve rarely seen them.
There is a playground near one of the entrances to Irving Park, a while back they added these water features so kids could cool off during the summer. The city shuts the water off in the cooler weather when nature brings her own water, normally as rain, but sometimes snow or fog. These pictures are from a few days apart, at the top of the hill is my beloved dog park where in both pictures you can see people playing with their dogs.
Fog shrouds the Door of Hope church in NE Portland.
A foggy and frosty morning at the dog park at Irving Park.
The past couple of days Ellie has only wanted to go on 45 minute walks, still amazing for her age, but not quite the adventurous 60 to 90 minute walks of previous days. One thing I’ve noticed as she’s aged, in addition to the stiff legs and shortness of breath, is that at an intersection she tries to take the diagonal across instead of crossing each street in turn. She I suppose intrinsically understands the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and at her age wants and needs to minimize effort, but it always makes me think of the famous theorem that bears Pythagoras’ name. It made a big impression on my young self when I first learned of it and I realized the world of mathematics, and our world it describes, is both profound and beautiful.
Despite this I make Ellie take the long way round, crossing each street one at a time instead of taking the diagonal, as we live in the world of the automobile and it is their rules that govern our walks. She doesn’t understand, but then neither do I.
One of my favorite portraits of the pup, taken as the sun set and a day or two before the snow finally melted.
Is Ellie posing beside a massive old tree near the dog park, or did I perfect my dog-shrinking ray?
Ellie is 13 or 14 years old and rarely wants to go up to the dog park at Irving Park anymore, but last night she was up for it and had a grand time rolling in the grass.
Boolie 