Encouraged by my daughter, Heidi, I’m back again with an addition to my blog this month. Heidi maintains that she enjoys looking at my pics. Hopefully, if you’re looking at this, so do you.
In any case, we’re coming up on Halloween again so I think it appropriate to begin this time with a shot of one of our neighbor, Ross’s, pumpkins. He has a whole patch of them coming right along. They should be ready for the big day (or night, however you see it). This one looks pretty good to me. Dickie and I have watched it grow as we pass it on our morning walks:
WINDSOR AIR SHOW
It was a couple months back now, but I have to post a shot or two that I took at this year’s air show. It wasn’t quite as large as in recent years, but there were some good things to see. One of them was a woman dare-devil who stood out on the wing of the plane below as it dipped and dived and performed a variety of maneuvers in the sky above us. Dickie and I didn’t actually notice her at first. In fact, I don’t think Dickie ever did notice that she was there until the performance was over, but, as you can see, the telephoto lens I was using tells the story:
One of the biggest attractions was a monstrous Air Force cargo plane that lumbered slowly through the sky. It flew so low and so slow that one wondered how it could stay aloft, but it did. When it made a turn as it flew by where we were standing, I got this shot that almost makes it look as if it were taken from a plane flying above the cargo plane. I assure you, however, that I was standing on the ground:
KITES AND OTHER BIRDS
This next pic is a photo shop production. Several years ago I took some photos of a kite that was being flown near the beach at San Francisco Bay. A few weeks ago a kite (bird) flew by us as we walked along the vineyard north of our subdivision. Just for the fun of it, I put those two shots together, since they’re both a kind of kite. This was the result:
We’ve had plenty of other birds flying over us lately. The Canadian geese are on the move. You can hear them as they call to each other and gather into larger flocks. I suppose they’re heading south now, although this bunch was flying in a northerly direction when they flew past us:
There are still plenty of birds on the ground for me to practice my hobby. A bird I haven’t seen that often lately is the flicker. This one was sitting on the very top of a power pole, so he’s only partially visible, but I thought I’d preserve the occasion:
The bird we see most frequently right now is the lesser goldfinch. I’ve managed to get some fairly decent shots of them on occasion. This one is from a couple weeks ago:
Just now the finches are feeding on the weed seeds that are plentiful along the ditches by the vineyard. Here’s another shot of a finch lunch-time:
DOGS WE HAVE KNOWN
I have thousands of photos of all kinds of birds now, since I’ve been enjoying this hobby for seven or eight years, but it dawned on me the other day that I also have accumulated quite a few photos of various dogs we have met in our morning walks and our trips around the area. Let me show you a few.
Since the newest dog in our life is the puppy our daughter, Gretchen, and her husband, Jonathan, have adopted. let me begin with Lulu. She’s a mixed breed, part labrador retriever, and looks to be a real sweetheart. I took this picture the other night at a concert in Armstrong Woods while Jonathan was holding her. The flash made her blink, but she’s a beauty, isn’t she?:
Dickie and I often joke that we know more dogs than people here in Windsor. That may be a slight exaggeration, but we do know a few canines. Two of our favorites are a pair of German shepherds. The older one is named “Bandit”. He’s a male and marvelously trained. He is remarkably obedient. We meet him and his owners regularly on our morning walks:
His mate is a younger female named “Tasha”. Tasha is one-quarter red wolf, playful, but equally well-trained and obedient. She’s also very beautiful:
Another pair of canines we’ve come to know are a couple of tiny poodles. Oscar is the older and larger of the two. He’s as friendly and gentle as they come:
Lucy is younger and much smaller than Oscar, but equally friendly and you can’t help but want to cuddle her:
Another dog we’ve come to know and enjoy meeting on our morning walks is Jenna, a terrier with a very decent disposition:
Honey is a golden retriever we also meet now and then on our morning walks. She’s beginning to age, according to her owner, but still makes the trip. We’ve known her for many years now:
Still another dog we see most every day is Lucas. I call him “Budweiser” because he reminds me of the dog in the Budweiser commercials. Lucas sometimes barks at us from within the horse corral which he patrols, but he’s obviously a pussycat, just doing his job:
Still another barker is a dog I call “Chudleigh”. We don’t know his real name, but, when we pass by, he regularly calls to us from behind the iron gate in the driveway he calls “home”. That’s what the white bars are in this photo, the iron gate:
OK, so now you know more about the dogs in my life than you ever cared to know. But, wait! I’m not finished yet. Dickie and I regularly travel to the ocean and we’ve met some great dogs out there, too. Here’s three that crossed our path. Boomer was owned by a couple from Oklahoma. His photo was good enough to win me a “Picture of the Day” sometime ago. The other two were simply striking in my opinion, so here they are:
There’s more. We visit parks now and then and the dogs below are some we found there. April and Gracie were pals who scampered around with each other in a dog run at our Pleasant Oak Park here in the neighborhood. The Bouvier des Flandres is a dog I met one day at Shollenberger in Petaluma. I’d never seen a dog like him. I had to include “Carl, the Labrador” for obvious reasons. I’m happy to say he was a great dog. Chloe patrols the same horse corral that Lucas above runs. Being as small as she is she can easily slip under the fence and does. That’s how we know she’s really very gentle, too. The golden retriever is a spectacular Frisbee catcher. I’ve seen his master throw a Frisbee a hundred feet or more and the dog always catches it before it hits the ground.
I’ve discovered over the years that a guy with a camera is almost like a guy with a dog. Most everyone is willing to be friendly, if asked. That’s how I got the owners of the dogs in the photos below to let me take their dogs’ photos. I think there are some beautiful dogs here:
Dickie and I have lived here in Windsor as long as we’ve lived in any one place. We’ve lived here long enough to outlive some dogs, too. Here are several that meet that criterion. Chandler and Vanna were Dalmatians. Snickers belonged to our daughter, Mary, and her husband, Christopher. Bandit belonged to a neighbor we have come to know. They were all fine dogs in their day:
If you’ve stayed with me this long, I guess I can push the envelope a little farther. I just have to get in this guy below. He’s a friendly bulldog that has greeted me occasionally when I stop in at the veterinary clinic. Isn’t he something?:
Last, but not least, there’s our neighbor’s sweet little cairn terrier, Zoe, the cream of the crop:
That’s it for October. Arf!!!!
