Woods Wanderings

Lots of time spent in the woods here lately.  Someone asked me how I spend my time, and I said watching baseball, working, and running in the woods.  And that's actually a pretty fair assessment, with a few side excursions now and then.  And some Pilates.

It's that time of year when Biltmore gets beautiful again.  And this isn't even the acres of flowers and towering castle - even random river banks are beautiful!

Turkey Pen.  Kelly and I have memorized Bent Creek so we've decided to venture out for Adventure Tuesdays.  In which we. . . you know, try to find some adventure.  If you consider wading across a freezing cold yet beautiful river adventurous then Turkey Pen fits the bill.  

Baseball player.

The baseball player and his elder have somewhat surprisingly turned into fishermen here lately.  Yes they have waders and everything.  Which is fortunate because mountain rivers in the spring = really cold.  Sam can state that with certainly, having fallen in a few times last weekend.

Who me, fall in?

Pack o' Boys in the creek.  The essence of youth.  If you're lucky.

Cattail Creek.

My main running buddy.  Unbeknownst to me, poodles are kick ass trail runners.

Mountain to Sea trail near Craven Gap.  A lot of rocks, not so much actual running.  But lots of fun.

If you look carefully you will see my friend's son's Flat Stanley enjoying the view.

Flat Stanley's legs are short.  He sometimes needs a ride.

Random parkway panorama.

Mountain to Sea trail at the Haw Creek overlook rock.

Happy Saturday

Pretty great Saturday around here.  Started with. . . Chisel.  I'm a creature of habit, and my Saturdays almost always start with Chisel.  I was smart this time, though, and swore off anything that made my SI joint open up (at least that's how I think of it.)  So, no fire hydrant-ish stuff, no hurdleish stuff. But still a lot of other stuff.  Here we are in all of our sweaty glory.

Want a fun workout in AVL?  That will leave you unable to sit the first 2 or 14 times you do it?  I'll hook you up.

And then while I walked home I took some pictures of street art in downtown Asheville.

And then I was all, "oh right, I have a ton of work to do!"  And I sanded a bunch of bangles I poured yesterday - in fact here's the group right before I poured:

But then, instead of continuing my diligent work-ish ways, we picked Sam up from a friend's house where he spent the night, and then I played with my Facebook Ads (which I seriously think I'm about to figure out!  Joy! Or at least satisfaction!), and then I went to the mall (I know, WTF?), and then I went and picked up Moose from *his* play date, and then it was 7 pm and we ate dinner and watched Breaking Bad, and now it's now and I never got any more work done.  Oops.  But it is Saturday, so I guess I'll let it go.

I'll leave you with Moose and his sister (host of his play date.)

Moose (L) and his sister Betty Grable (R.)  They're from the same litter, and Betty lives with my Dad.  They meet up for play dates on a regular basis, and carouse around like maniacs.  They love each other.

A Boy and His Dog

Meet Moose.  He's a poodle in the guise of stuffed animal.  He also is apparently invertebrate, based on the way he stretches out for a nap.  Like his spine is a slinky.




So the way it works in Spotted Dog Land is that after dinner I return to my lair (aka studio) and Clark and Moose stretch out downstairs on the sofa to watch a little television.  And in order to keep our marital bond strong, we occasionally text back and forth.  (I know!  You're blown away by the romance!)

Clark's favorite topic for the nightly check-in is the Sleeping Moose Selfie   You'll notice a certain pattern in Clark and Moose's night.






After a while I commented on how serious they both are.  So the next few nights Clark added some enthusiasm to the project.  Makes all the difference.