8/31/2011

Last day of August...



This may not have been the summer to write home about
(did we even have summer here in the Pacific northwest?)
and it wasn't exactly a summer destined for the memoirs.
But it was bountiful, yes,
in its own way...


To say this summer had gone to the dawgs, well, that wouldn't mean what you might think...
literally, it was for my dawgs.
They'd waited out a long spring of inactivity,
they were deserving - my most loyal friends...hangin' with me through thick n' thin.
Being of four paws, they need to RUN.  It's not an understatement to say they require it
and if they don't get it, we all go a bit nutso.
 That is putting it mildly.


Our local 'Agility Gang' (do you like our name?) put on a small demonstration for the community
at the first annual Dog Promenade...
this is O, running her two year old border collie, directing him to take the tunnel.
O herself is eighty.
I hope to have one tenth of her tenacity when I am eighty...O, you're my hero!


This one went to her first 'Doggy Manners' class...
she was so fearful when she first came to live here, but now
she's learning that the world is not as scary as she thought and staying calm
feels pretty good.
I'm mighty proud of her ~ a smooch on yer sweet nose, black flash.


We fit in quite a bit of exploring...
mysterious forts had shown up on the beaches


and that perennial question, "what if?" seemed to follow us everywhere.
This is a question about possibilities...
what if you ask this question whenever you think you can't do something?


Getting around is much trickier here in the summer...especially in August
when it seems like the whole world is on vacation except us.
We spend a lot of time waiting around in
looooong lines at the ferry terminal...

so I stitched me some long lines while waiting in the car...


and was treated to a few of these while in transit.


Most nights, I headed upstairs to this gabled corner where I worked late, late, late.
Dawgs slept.  Baby great horned owls screeched.  I cursed at tiny beads.
Do not be fooled by the seeming austerity of this view

because this is what my corner table really looked like...
a huge beadiful mess!
One big beady project consumed almost every night in August...
but all fingers functioned properly,
praise doG.


So now it's on to September...I hope I'll remember to run with it, make the best use of waiting 
that I possibly can.
Make messes.
Kiss me some dawg faces.




18 comments:

  1. This is a great post! I feel so serene after reading. Love your dawg pics too. Laying on the floor next to mine, petting his face and telling him how pretty, how good and what a great friend he is, is how I end my day. Serenity.

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  2. What a fabulous post! I am so glad to see that someone else gets so focused on their work that they do not see the mess they make until it is way too late.
    Your photography is wonderful.

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  3. Really loved reading this one.

    Beautiful doggy pics....I'm jealous!

    ...and I'm glad it isn't only my workspace that looks like a doggy's dinner sometimes :-)))

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  4. Such a special post, Christi....a delight to read. So glad that a dawg has found the right home to bring the joy of living back into his/her life.

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  5. Inspiring post - and what a beautiful dog-face... somewhat wolfy, really! I can the wildness and intensity and love...

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  6. GORGEOUS photos! That shot off the back of the ferry made me sigh!!! You were so lucky... the timing was perfect. I love your doggy pictures. You captured so much and I wish I could take pictures like you! When Sydney and Maxx were young we set up an agility course on our large acreage for them (and us!) It was so much fun to take them through their paces! Now Syd is lucky to make it onto the bed. So we are spending sweet quiet time with her while we can. Maxx left us 2 years ago. I miss him... he was such a sweet boy.

    ;-) Debi

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  7. I loved this post. Loved the methaphor and the way you bring all the threads of your life together, celebrating where you are. I think your island must be a beautiful place to live...even when you have to wait in long lines...

    It's like having a handsome husband, eventually they all leave and you'll have your island all to yourself because it's yours...

    It was a joy to share your life today.

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  8. i'd love to be another of those pesky visitors and see the beauty of your space, in particular i'd like to play with the driftwood. Kiss the dawg for me.

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  9. You are right-- we did not have much a summer - not many days above 70-- and now it is starting to cool off at night- which means fall is coming soon.. but we are having a bumper crop of blueberries- so they must like the 70 degree weather!

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  10. What a fabulous post! Love your dog and your stitches, especially. xo

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  11. Penny B ~ oh thank you for that. Quinn is settling in really well after a very rocky start with my #1 dawg. She's truly coming into her own now and it is a delight to see!

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  12. Oh my, I was mesmerized by this posting. All these wonderful snippets of your days. I loved that beady corner -- it would be delightful to put my hands on all those beauties. The stitchery is beautiful -- when waiting stitching will always fill the minutes. And the pictures of the coast had me longing for sand and salt sea spray.

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  13. What a wonderfully serene, fulfilled summer you seem to have had. An idyllic, elegaic post that made me smile on a foggy autumnal morning in England.

    Itching to see what the summer beady project is though...

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  14. What a consumate photographer you are!!!! Hard to believe these are phone camera shots with a little TLC from the aps. Geeeeezst, you're good, woman!!!!

    I especially love the last four lines of this post... except... well, can I kiss me some kitty faces? Will that do?

    Being in the long ferry lines and stitching long lines on fabric collage while waiting is pure genius. Is the title of this piece "Long Lines"... only a few of us would know the extent of meaning for that one!

    Your posts and you are a blessing in the cyber world of artists, dawg lovers, nature lovers, and all noticers of good in this life. Thank you!

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  15. PS, I forgot to mention about O... Goodness, 80 and flapping around the agility course with a pup! Yep, she's a fabulous role model!

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  16. I am typing very quietly so my Gracie girl won't hear me saying "Your dogs are gorgeous!" She thinks she's the only one ; ) Beautiful posting and it's so nice to think of you on your island just over the border from where I am.

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  17. Yum! Love that stitching you did in the car!

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  18. Have just posted about the Magic Feather project and shared a link to you :-)

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