My dog Spike tries to pretend that my cat Opel does not exist. Despite that, the cat adores the dog. What they have in common is this: they share an intense love for clean laundry. Here they repose on some laundry that was clean before they found it, but is now dirty laundry.
Cat - Dog on Newly Dirty Laundry
Doesn’t everybody go hiking in the snow on Thanksgiving? Katie and I took Spike for a walk at Hinckley Lake. Here she is, in the car, anticipating the walk.
Spike Anticipating a Walk
Arriving at Hinkley Reservation
Surprisingly there were quite a few people hiking or running. One gentleman running by gleefully commented on what a glorious day that it was. It was indeed a beautiful day, starting out a little overcast …
Thanksgiving at Hinckley Reservation
Thanksgiving Hike at Hinckley Reservation
and ending with the sky clear and the sun out.
Blue Sky in Northeast Ohio
Read another series about hiking and walking the dog at Hinckley Reservation starting here.
On this particular hike, we walked the dog completely around Hinckley Lake, as I said before, it is about a 3.5 mile trail. Near the southern part of the lake is an area that we don’t usually walk past – the boathouse. This is not because I have a problem with the boathouse, but because it is usually quite busy in the summer season. This doesn’t really make sense, since I don’t mind walking around the spillway when it is busy.
Boathouse at Hinckley Lake
From the Cleveland Metroparks website:
The Hinckley Lake boathouse is open from April until mid-October. The boathouse features boat rentals, fishing tackle, bait and snacks.
Snacks? Yum! All summer long, my daughter had been asking about renting a canoe and spending some time on the lake instead of just looking at the lake. I thought that this was a good idea, but we just never got to it. On this day, we checked to see if they were open (having not read the website first), but alas it is past mid-October, isn’t it? I am wistful about our non-boating expedition.
I wonder if they rent those doggy life jackets too? I’ve seen them for sale. If I were to wager on it, I bet that they don’t allow pets to accompany us novice boaters.
When I am not not-boating, I make beads. Check them out at Etsy or my Spawn of Flame website.
I compulsively read everything that I see. I can read fast, I can read upside down, and I can read mirror image. If there is something on your desk, you’d better put it away if I shouldn’t see it, because I’ll read it whether I want to or not. How could I possibly ignore all of the compelling signs along a trail? Especially if it about the ubiquitous Poison Ivy.
Poison Ivy
“Leaves of three, let it be”. How many times have you heard that? I guess that the “welcomeness” of this plant depends upon your point of view, so perhaps my title is unfair. I’ve read that it is a source of food for birds, so they must welcome it. Many people however, develop contact dermatitis reaction to the oils – you know, a nasty rash. I don’t (yet), but everyone else in my family does.
This plant is rampant around the Hinckley Reservation, including one picnic area with an island of gorgeous ground cover that on closer observation, appears to be Poison Ivy. Maybe it is not and is some similar plant, but I pay careful attention to not let the dog brush against it and transfer the oils to us.
Are you getting itchy just thinking about it? I am, and like I said, I’ve never had so much as one blister (yet) from it.
When I am not hiking or scratching, I make beads. Check them out at Etsy or my Spawn of Flame website.
Continuing my saga from yesterday, Hinckley Reservation contains a reservoir named amazingly enough Hinckley Lake. Naturally (or un-naturally) at one end of the reservoir is a dam with a spillway. At the base of the spillway is a small swimming area, and beyond that is a shallow stream. Together these areas are called (wait for it…) Spillway Pool Picnic area. I’m not making this up, here is the park map. In the summertime, this is a very popular picnic spot, but it is deserted this time of the year.
Hinckley Lake Spillway
Well, not totally deserted. We were there.
Shallow Stream at Hinckley Lake Spillway Picnic Area
My dog, Spike, loves walking in the water. As promised, here she is, sloshing through the water with my daughter, looking much happier than in yesterday’s photo.
When I am not hiking, I make beads. So does my daughter, but not the dog. Check them out at Etsy or my Spawn of Flame website.
One of northeast Ohio’s best kept secrets is the incredible hiking locations that are here. One of my favorite places to hike is the Cleveland Metroparks, and in particular Hinckley Reservation. This fact is no secret to anybody that has read my blog in the past year. It is a fabulous place, no matter what season, and there is hiking suitable for anyone.
Hinckley Lake Loop Trail
On this day, we hiked around the reservoir on the Hinckley Lake Loop Trail, a trail with gentle hills of about 3 and a half miles. It is my dog, Spike’s favorite place to hike, which also is no secret. Why? Because no matter what hike – that is her current favorite place ever.
The Picture Tree
Spike doesn’t look very happy in this photo, because like almost everyone that I know, when she poses for the camera she puts on “camera face”. She is also none too happy about sitting for this shot anyway, maybe it has something to do with the steep drop off behind her. Or then again, maybe it’s because she has to take time out of her trail exploration to sit. Remember, I’m talking about the dog here, not my daughter. The daughter was enthusiastic about the photo shoot.
I’ll post a picture of both of them tomorrow that shows the dog in a little more happy mood.
We almost always take a picture of someone in the hollow of this tree when we walk this particular trail. Does anybody else have a spot that is a family favorite for posing?
When I am not hiking, I make beads. Check them out at Etsy or my Spawn of Flame website.
My second post on this blog was about some baby plecostomuses that had come to live at our home.
When I bought them, I had asked the breeder what tiny plecos would like to eat. He told me a few things, and one of them was that a piece of driftwood was good for them to nibble and to just hang out on.
We did not want to put just any chunk of wood into our tank, so this gave us an excuse to trot over to one of our favorite local pet stores, Two Turtles. There, they had a stunning array of driftwood. Each of the driftwood selections were attached to a piece of slate and we inquired about its purpose. The sales guy told us that it was to help anchor the wood to the bottom of the tank and that we might need to add even more weight to keep it down. His parting words to us were “good luck”.
See, we had pictured the driftwood nestling gently on the bottom of the tank and maybe tilting a little requiring a small adjustment now and again. Wrong. wrong. wrong. We couldn’t even get it all the way into the tank, it was so bouyant. Definitely not expected. On the bright side, part of it was in the tank, and the plecos cheerfully did indeed nibble at it and in general hung out on it.
So, now we have this driftwood a little into the tank, a lot of driftwood sticking out of the tank, and the lid of the tank hanging open. Ok, at least there are no jumpers in the tank right now. So, we had to revise our expectations of the behavior of the driftwood. Maybe it will get waterlogged and sink in a couple of days. Then we can place it in a tasteful location of the tank.
Time passed. The driftwood barely budged. That was unexpected.
Finally after a couple of weeks, it did take on enough water to sink enough so that the lid of the tank would once again close. Victory! Of course the plecos did not care where the driftwood was and continued to blissfully nibble away at the wood.
Fast forward, now two months have passed. The driftwood has finally touched the bottom of the tank. I am now really beginning to understand the “good luck” admonition from the pet store guy!
Our dog, Spike, was peacefully sleeping on the couch when my husband decided to get her attention by throwing (clean!) laundry at her. She was much too content to respond and seemed to like her new blankets.
The cat, Opel (spelling from the rescue agency), absolutely cannot resist laying on clean laundry. Apparently it does not matter even if the clean laundry happens to be on top of the dog. And the dog didn’t seem to care either.
These animals are both about 10 years old and have lived together in the same house for 7 years. Up until now, neither has barely acknowledged that the other even existed.
Can someone tell me why, when there are fresh water bowls all over the place, does the cat feel the need to drink from somewhere else?
In my household, other than people, we have a dog, a cat, and fish. Many, many fish. Numerous large tanks. You get the idea.
Among the fish that usually inhabit our tanks are plecostomus. These are algae eaters and otherwise cleaner-uppers, and can grow relatively large – easily a foot long or more in a good sized tank. They also can live a long time – our oldest, John, left our worldly waters a few years ago at the ripe old age of 22 years. John, incidentally, was named late in his life, and was bestowed his name in honor of my son-in-law. I’m not sure that John, the son-in-law, realized what an honor it really was to have this fish named after him.
A few years ago, we had a bristlenose plecostomus. These fish don’t get as large as the “regular” pleco, maybe 4 or 5 inches at most. They also get these bristly protrusions on their noses, hence their name (stating the obvious). She (I think – because her bristles were not large) is also no longer with us, and I had not adopted any new ones, until now.
I bought a DOZEN babies of these fish on AquaBid last week. They arrived, quite vigorous and healthy, and have been happily scraping the glass in my tank for the last few days. They are so sweet – the smallest is a little less than an inch long. I am looking forward to them growing up in our tanks.
In addition to raising fish, I make artisan lampwork beads in my home studio. See my website www.SpawnOfFlame.com.
Spawn of Flame 