Sunday, December 20, 2009

More snow dogs at PP:

My car yesterday a couple minutes before I dug it out and drove it away:

Sun coming up at the river:

Dogs walking toward the rising sun, including (l-r) Roux, Max, Tyler:


Saturday, December 19, 2009

Fantastic snow hike

Thanks for taking the great pictures Alex!

With Ivory and Max by the river


Max, Ivory and Mackey with me in the woods




Sunday, December 6, 2009

Hiking at PP on a pretty December morning

With my little "family" at PP this AM

Finally getting cold enough for enjoyable hikes; 30º when we got out of the car this AM. The dogs just have tons of energy, even Ivory. The river's around 9', so pretty high. But a gorgeous morning. I also met a nice person to take our picture. You never know when you ask someone what you're going to get. But this girl ended up taking seventeen shots! They were all beautiful; it was difficult to narrow it down to this one but I liked it a lot. Max is learning to wear his coat for cold weather camping. Great start to a great day. Lots of kingfishers down there too, but they don't sit still as long as we do.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Brief November recap

November had a lot of high points but one of the two best was Thanksgiving with part of my family at my brother's house in Ashland - my two sisters were unfortunately unable to make it. Nor were the older two of my five nieces but oh well. Hopefully at Christmas. I got to see the younger ones. And have dinner with them! Plus both my brothers, my Mom and Dad, Kevin's wife and her family, and a lot of great dogs and cats.

Another high point was completing my seventh Ironman (in seven years) in Wilmington, NC on November 7. And my Mom and Dad were both there! Which made things much more enjoyable.

A friend made a nice comment about these pictures on my fb page. He said I'm smiling just as much after the race as I am before the race. Which is certainly a good goal to shoot for. But if you look closely you can definitely see I don't have quite the "spark" in the second picture. The race took me fourteen hours and fifty-six minutes so I was definitely worn down some. But there's no feeling in the world like crossing the finish line after that much time, and you certainly get a boost from that. I'll be signing up for the 2010 race at 8:00 sharp tomorrow morning (December 1, 2009) when registration opens up. The race in 2010 will begin on Saturday, November 13 at 7:00 AM in Wilmington, NC. There's no real need to sign up this early; this race won't fill up fast. But registering early helps keep me in the "triathlete mentality," gets me in a good state of mind and helps keep me there all year long.

Have a great December,

Jay

With Dad, half an hour before the start - 37º!


Off the bike after 112 beautiful miles


Gorgeous day for a 26.2 mile run

I'm smiling because:
1. My Mom is at the finish line and
2. I don't have to train any more!


Monday, November 23, 2009

Shocking - no August, September or October posts

I've been fooling around with fb too often and not paying enough attention to blogging, which I enjoy a great deal more.

First, from August, the adorable Gandhi, teacher of satyagraha, since moved on to a lovely new home:
Next, from September, a lucky shot of a Great Blue Heron we startled while walking along the river one lovely morning:

Finally an October post, this one of Roux taking an early morning dip while Mackey lifeguards:

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Life at Pony Pasture - not all birds and flowers and turtles

The dogs and I came upon this scene as we finished our walk today. Not as lovely as we're accustomed to:

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Turtles

Turtles have begun to appear while biking and hiking. The dogs and I saw a big one at Pony Pasture. This is Max and Roux investigating the first large one we saw, Thursday morning at Pony Pasture. That's about as close as they got; they're not fond of turtles:


This is a smaller (obviously) one we came across on Sunday, June 28:

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Post-river hike with Aileen

Aileen (oldest of 5 nieces, oldest of 2 god-daughters) came to town for a quick visit today; we took Ivory, Mackey, Max and Roux to Pony Pasture and had a great hike. We got a few good pictures post-hike:

Aileen, Max, Ivory, Roux, Mackey

Jay, Aileen
Mackey, Max, Roux, Ivory

Name this person and these dogs:



Saturday, June 6, 2009

Changing energy levels:

Max, Ivory and Mackey at the trailhead on Friday evening, before we headed down. To see where this picture was taken, click on this link. Raring to go:

Same dogs, Saturday morning, preparing for the return trip. To see where this picture was taken, click on this link. Their enthusiasm appears to be slightly diluted:

Appalachian Trail fauna

Ran into this little guy (perhaps gal) on the hike down on Friday and again on the hike out today - multiple times. They're not at all rare. Click on it to make it much larger. It's the Eastern Newt, Notophthalmus viridescens. If you'd like to learn more about it, this is the wikipedia entry: Eastern Newt:



Dog Party on the Appalachian Trail!

After spending Friday night (June 5, 2009) at the Paul C. Wolfe Memorial Shelter we (Ivory, Mackey, Max and I) were hiking back out on Saturday morning. The shelter is next to Mill Creek, a couple miles north of Humpback Rocks. We were parked at Humpback and I guess we were halfway back when we ran into four more delightful dogs! Unbelievable. I wish I'd caught all their names. And the people's. But I do recall that Hobbit (she was from Illinois) was the one taking the pictures. Her dog is in the foreground, with the red backpack on, the only one who was really working for a living. I think her name was Madison or Matty or Maddy but that may have been another dog. There were a lot of "M" names. She's a Border Collie but she was shaved to keep ticks down. She was ~3.5 years old and extremely well mannered.

By the way, click on that picture if you want to see a larger version.

I think the guy's name (on my right) was Dennis, but I may have misunderstood. If either of you email me correct information, I'll fix this post. He had three dogs; you can only see all three of them in the bottom picture, but of course Ivory's looking away. I only remember one of his dog's names - it was "Little." Look at the picture and try to guess which one was "Little." Here's a hint: the name is not descriptive.

Anyway, fun to see everybody, I hope you have a great hike. Take it easy,

Jay


Sunday, May 31, 2009

Ivory's first TV appearance (in 1999!)

This is the first time Ivory was on television, way back in September of 1999. It was on Channel 8 in Richmond. It shows a few seconds of Ivory visiting kids at MCV:

Friday, May 22, 2009

Spring things I've not yet mentioned

Actually it's more flowers. More to the point, more smells. Of course they look beautiful too but in May in Richmond the smell is everywhere. I meant to put pictures of honeysuckle - the main smell source - in my last post. But here it is:

Honeysuckle
Lonicera Caprifolium

It almost looks garish when it's that close. But what a joy. If you think it's pretty to look at, you should try sticking your nose in a bunch.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Pony Pasture - and elsewhere - in May

Lots of trips down there this month; it's been stunning every trip. There are new flowers in bloom each time we go. Earlier this month - maybe even late April - the redbuds were blooming. Always a lovely early reminder that Spring is arriving. But now the honeysuckle is out in force and it smells so good you don't even want to stop long enough to exhale.


The above is of course not honeysuckle but it looks beautiful and smells heavenly. If you know what it is, drop me a line. Maybe it's some kind of wild blackberry or something. More later.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Skye's BFF's

Skye left this morning; unbelievable. Here are a pair of pictures of him with his BFF's:


April in Richmond - there's no improving it

How much is that kitty in the window?


Roux at the River

Table for two, please - Bottom's Up
Friday, April 24, 2009

Sunday, March 15, 2009

A couple more pictures from the Maple Festival:

Click on the pictures to see larger versions:

Arrival in Monterey:


Watching sap being boiled for syrup (and holding stuffed huskies):

Getting ready to go home (still holding stuffed huskies):

Catching up on sleep (still holding stuffed husky and another unidentified stuffed animal):

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Highland Maple Festival, 2009

Clare, me, Wren, Phoebe
Highland Inn
Monterey, VA


If someone told me that this year my nieces would be even more delightful company than they were last year I would have said "impossible." And yet this year they were even better. I don't know how they do it. They are first class companions for dining and travel.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Hard to believe it snowed a week ago...

...and Saturday we did our first AT campout of 2009! And it was in the seventies! Ivory, Mackey and Max were, as ever, superb:

Mackey (in the background)
Ivory, Max (on the leash)
Saturday afternoon


Ivory "conserving energy",
Max, Mackey
At the shelter - Sunday morning


Hiking out on Sunday

Thursday, March 5, 2009

First big snow of 2009

Unfortunately I only took a few good pictures of the dogs, although we went for a great hike at Pony Pasture at 10:00 on Monday, March 9. It had started snowing in the evening on Sunday, March 9 and was still snowing a little bit Monday morning. We got at least 6", maybe more. The dogs, as always, had a blast at Pony Pasture. For right now, just one quick picture - of course Ivory is the only one facing the camera. Roux and Mackey are facing away, and Max is out of the picture. More later. Have a great day,

Jay

Roux, Ivory, Mackey
Pony Pasture - Richmond, VA
Monday, March 10, 2009
~10:30 AM

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Two cats in February

Dash is orange and my cat, Kite is not orange and Alex's cat. They're both neutered males, ~1.5 to 2 years old. And adorable. They are very wide-eyed. This was on February 17, 2009.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Back up on a cold day in January, 2009




Mackey and Roux


Kite


And I see to my embarrassment my last post was six months ago or more. Oops. The top picture is one of our new companions Roux, slipping and sliding around with Mackey this morning at Pony Pasture. The next picture is Kite - lounging in a favorite cat spot, on top of a chair next to the woodstove. Kite and Roux are two of our three "new" companions, although they joined us here with their human friend Alex in April of last year. Although today is a cold day in January - it was 25º when the dogs and I got to river at 8:15 this morning - it's definitely not the coldest day we've experienced this month. Despite what you might guess from the photo above. The coldest day this month (so far) was Saturday, the 17th; when we got to the river it was 10º. The kitchen sink wasn't working but the rest of the plumbing was. I went out later for the day and when I came home, the pipes under my house had burst and there was water pouring down the driveway. Fortunately (thanks Wayne!!) it was repaired quickly and no damage was done.

Anyway, I need to write a lot more, but I also have a lot of firewood to cut. It's hard to tell from that river picture, but I've been on very comfortable one or two hour bike rides on each of the last three days. But there has definitely been a change in the weather.

So much exciting news for 2009 - Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America just five days ago. And he's only 19 days older than I am! I am thrilled to have him leading our country.

It's been very slack of me not to have put more posts up on here - I've got a whole lot of exciting stuff going on. Exciting to me, anyway, which is not always exciting to other people. But besides my own outstanding dogs and cats, late last year I spent some of the most meaningful dog-time I've ever spent - and when you're me, that's saying something - with a very graceful animal named Mister Floyd. RIP, I regret to say. But it was a privilege to spend time on this planet with him. I think his picture needs to go right here:

Mister Floyd (smiling)

That guy taught me so much. Right now I'm learning from another great guy, Peter Jackson, who will be around a lot longer. I'll get some pictures of him up later. That's all for now.

Mister Floyd (not smiling)

Mister Floyd (also not smiling)