Front Page, T&G;
Mood:  special
Topic: the field
We met a photographer in the field yesterday who took our picture. She had been at the College to shoot the presentaton of a giant check to the Grafton Land Trust (instrumental in purchasing H. Woods, where Rei and I walk) as a donation for open space preservation in response to their taking open space for their new biolab. While listening to the speeches, she saw us walking in the field in the snow out the window. She told us it was her job to be aware of interesting shots happening in the world as she goes about the area on assignments, and thought our dog pack looked great in the snow. No promises that the photo would make the paper at all, but we wake up this morning on the Front Page, full color, above the fold. this photo is from the online version:
That's Cody up front with his ears up, Cleo to the left. I am back on the left with Madison and Reilly. moving Right is Tom with Duncan, and Brandy in front of them, then Kathy and Riley, McTavish, Brandy's mom and all the way on the right is Fitz, who is staying with Kathy and her springers while Kevin Number One is in Hawaii for a new job.

Note to Laura: I kept your pups away from Del at the field that morning. They went running toward her, but stopped when I called them and then Cleo barked her little hoarse bark "Wrow! Wrow!" I managed to only distract them away because they did not "come" back to my side. When we saw Del later, I leashed them both. Cleo was afraid of Tessa's owner with a large umbrella, she really was upset and croaked at it, then she tried to back out of her leash (Del was nearby, hence the leash) when Del got far enough away and out of sight, I let Cleo off and she even went to visit Chris (Tessa's mom) under the umbrella. She is wary of it, but she isn't barking at it.

I did not know if your dogs would make the paper, because they ran up to beg from the photographer (who they discovered only had film in her pockets, not cookies, after all) and may have been completely out of the shots she was taking. As all of Worcester County can see this morning, Cody is quite a ham!

Day After the Snowstorm
Mood:  cool
Topic: the field
Yesterday we had a foot plus of snow- it's the texture of all purpose flour and a delight to shovel - if you must- and to snowshoe in. Rei and I went to the field under this glorious blue sky and went across the windy corn part and into the forest. When we came out of the forest, the wind had left for other pastures and we were soon met by Neil on his snowshoes with his dog Casey, we agreed what a great day it was to be snowshoeing and how much better we like snowshoeing vs x-c skiing. The dogs played and wrestled in the deep drifts and their wet manes became icy and spikey from all the roughhousing in the snow. One set of tracks was there before us, but we met no other people or dogs, and hiked up the hill and around. it was very pleasant to walk with someone feeling as much joy as Neil seemed to be- he is a teacher and his school is having a snow day today. He let me try his trekking poles that I can't seem to decide if I should want or not- they are helpful going uphill, but I enjoy the freedom of just walking, arms swinging. Dog-patting, cookie getting, camera fishing, need a tissue kind of arms. This snow, while it did snow my team out of the second half of a hockey tournament, is the best snow of the winter so far.

More Dog-Fieldin'
Mood:  lyrical
Topic: the field
It's darn cold out, so we walked locally this morning, then donated a bunch of old furniture and baby stuff (*dusts off hands* done with that!) to the Central Mass Housing Alliance, which gives household stuff to families moving from shelters to permanent housing. Now before I go all noblesse oblige on it, the benefit to me is that I no longer have the stuff in my basement, and being the purist that I am- while I DO love a mess, I hate having stuff around just because I am lazy. Some family in Central Mass will get a table with a leaf, a playpen, a car seat, a stroller, some pots, vcr, dvd player, a stereo with speakers that are older than Jeff (though we know they are probably better- if uglier- than many consumer speakers made today). I reorg-ed the stack of boxes under the basement stairs and things look good down there. Good enough that we are investigating the possibilities for making the hockey drying area more finished.

Anyway, as good as that makes me feel- purged of excess STUFF, happy to help by donating excess STUFF, and excited for the future of the basement- Reilly does not share my joy. She wants to go out.

I put it off some more, and sick of thanksgiving leftovers, we went out for chinese buffet. It did not warm up outside, and in fact it began snowing lightly again. We came home and Raye began to get wiggy, so I instructed Jeff to direct her energy and play something, anything!- I am taking the dog out.

We went to the field and met Hazel, a chocolate lab that I met as a puppy exactly two years ago on Thanksgiving morning. She and Reilly play and race and wrestle together very happily, and Hazel's dad walks very fast, so we had a good brisk stomp around the field, burned off the buffet and got home before we got too cold. Its always more tiring for Rei to run with dogs than just hiking with me, although she is very happy doing that too. She just sleeps harder if she's been playing with the dogs. Hazel reminds me that Rei does enjoy playing with females just as much as males.

Last night I walked Rei in the dark and we met Chester, who lives down by the school bus stop. Chester is a small, curly male dog that has hurt his leg a few times (not sure how) but much of the time I have known him he has had the lampshade (e-collar, or as my friend Ann calls it- the Cone of Silence) on his head. He is fine now, and as we approached in the neutral territory of the middle of the street, I thought perhaps if Rei and Chester met and sniffed, he might not get so bent out of shape when we wait at the bus stop for Raye. His owner said we could visit him, but he probably woudln't be very nice.

He wasn't.

He lunged and snapped and made a lot of fuss. To her credit, Reilly- who is the size of four Chesters- just watched him and then walked away. She does not escalate events. It was one of those times that reminded me that I could have different issues if I had a different/additional dog. So she's not a lap dog, but things might be worse for me if Reilly cared more about status.

We met Daisy Dog on Wednesday, waiting for Raye's bus. Daisy is usually chained in her backyard and goes bananas when she sees us walk by, runs to the end of her chain and spins herself around, barking at us to Get Lost!! This day she was loose, and approached us cooly and directly. I put on my Alpha Bearing, tall and very direct and unruffled- I have experience now with this really impressing some dogs and using my big NO if they mess with Reilly. Daisy approached to investigate Reilly, but was apprehensive of me. I made soft noises to ease her, but stayed tall. She tried to go around Reilly, who bowed to play a couple times. Daisy spooked away. I noticed she had a dryer sheet sticking on her hind foot. Rei seemed quite ok. I dont know if Rei was bolstered by my Alpha Bearing. I only asumed that air because our vet neighbor has told me that Daisy "tries to kill" other dogs, and I don't know how literally she meant it. (Her own dog is a bit of a wild nutball, a harmless one, but a hyper one nonetheless, probably inviting a more challenging response from Daisy. Which just goes to show you that vets and trainers are not the same thing.) We walked home, which was the way to Daisy's house, and she went ahead trailing the dryer sheet, like a corporate executive on the way to an important presentation with a piece of toilet paper on the bottom of his shoe.

Snowy Thanksgiving morning
Mood:  cool
Topic: the field

It snowed about 4 inches Thanksgiving morning, and it was still snowing when we went to the field. Tracks indicated that people and dogs had been goign around but we only met a hefty basset named Oliver, wearing a red LLBean parka. Reilly didn't care for him and when he sniffed her nose she showed her teeth and backed up. Oliver could not have been less impressed. He kept sniffing her and she kept backing up and I asked her what was wrong, that oliver seemed fine, but I said all that more as a pre-emptive stirke against Oliver's humans thinking Reilly might attack him. Of course she didn't and I knew she wouldn't, but people are so unpredictable. :P

We went around several times to get good and tired, to earn our thanksgiving feast and to see if any of our friends would show up, but they didn't.

I remembered reading in Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' book about how snow reveals the overlaid world of dogs on top of our own, otherwise invisible. All the pee stains, the paths. Reilly stops to pee frequently and sometimes appears to be marking more than relieving herself, I say this due to the amount she pees and how she seems to stop before she's empty. She sometimes even picks up her right leg an inch or so- maybe because she is marking, or mayeb because she doesn't want to get her feet weet. I may never know. Her friend Tessa also does that. I tease Tessa's mom that Reilly learned it from Tessa, but she probably began doing it on her own, and it was around the time she turned 2 years old.

We met a corgi on the dirt road today. The dirt road is a dead end, terminating at the ninth green water hazard of the golf course. It used to be cornfield access for the farm trucks, and I would walk home from the bus stop certain fertilizing times of the year tiptoeing around the plops of liquid kuck left by the tractor on the road. Now it has a boulder blocking vehicle access and a chain between two trees, so I tell Raye we can't go up there. Generally people are golfing and this is true, but now that it has snowed there is no more golf and the snow reveals that this point is well travelled by folks walking, probably to create a loop around from the golf course road through our dead endy neighborhood to old upton road and back to the McMansion golf course road again. It is very weird to have strangers on the street, to have the corgi people ask me if my dog is friendly in my own neighborhood. For the corgi to be off leash while Rei is on leash.

Seven-Minute Nettles
Mood:  accident prone
Now Playing: Kiki's Delivery Service
Topic: the field
Even though I said I wouldn't take Kaylee to the field anymore, I did today. I sort of became the person I don't understand- why bring an unreliable dog to such a social place? Well, it was not a popular time and I DO love Kay and want her to have a happy time with us, so I brought her but kept control of her around the dogs we did meet.

First we met Shadow, I let Reilly see Shadow, but I told Nic that Kaylee should not meet her. Shadow is a dominant female and I know that having never met her before that Kay would have fear and act out. I practiced telling my field friends that my second dog plan had failed. It went fine. In fact I am so sure of my decision being correct now, that I fear i tell the story a bit TOO confidently and since noone SEES her snapping at anyone at the moment, I don't know that all the emotional value of this decision comes across right. but I can't care.

We met Foxy and Morton- two tiny dogs Kaylee had met before and we know she feels unthreatened by. We walked with them till we met Hobey and a speckley dog I didn't know. I kept Kay leashed and close by. I explained to Karen and to Speckle's mom that she had to go back to Tennessee (even though she will probably be adopted here in Massachusetts- its just less explaining.) and a little about the fear biting. Hobey and Reilly played and wrestled. I am so happy that Reilly has remained a good sport and still her same self through it all.

We climbed the hill and rested and then went down to the car. I let Kay run because there was no one else in sight. She ran back to the blue Subaru Forester and sat down. but it was not my car, it was the OTHER person with the same car- i wondered how dogs knew the right car- by location, by smell of where their own trail began, but I guess Kay knows the make and model of my car and considers that good enough.

Walking in the tall grass, I brushed my shin across some stinging nettles- seven-minute nettles, says Karen, because some nature place told her they only sting for seven minutes. My skin feels a little numb still, but it isn't stinging anymore. Last week, Karen, Kevin Number One, Raye and I all got Nettled. Pain is easier to bear when you all share it.

We're waiting on Great Dogs to find a foster home for Kay to hang in till her new adoption is approved. I waffled in my mind a little about offering to foster her here until she gets a new home approved, but really I just feel like moving on. If they can find her a foster home great! If not, she can hang with us a bit longer. or should I say, a "little" longer? "Bit" has many meanings.

I just finished my hockey jersey photo album (link to the left)- it contains photos of all the jerseys I own that I have drawn the logos for, in some cases sewn the crests myself, in some cases sewn the whole jersey myself from scratch. There are 30 in there and I think i actually might be able to track down a couple more photos on my HD of ones I have done for friends. I can think of two already that I am missing. Enjoy!

Foods of the field
Mood:  hungry
Topic: the field


The grapes at the field are starting to grow- they are tiny baby grapes right now. Their vines have large leaves and curly things and they have grown up the trees and down the branches and overhang the path a bit. Later in the summer, when the grapes are really round and full, the grapey corners of the field smell like wine, sweet and kindof dry. Right now the field smells like hay still, but not as strongly. The rhubarb is big and leafy, you have to wait for the stalks to turn red and then you can make strawberry-rhubarb pie. :d yum! Raspberries on the edge of the field are reddening, but the ones on the Nutty Forest path are still hard tiny and green. no eating.

The bugs ARE biting though. Woodflies are out now, mosquitoes are dimished and the black flies are all gone. The woodflies hurt like sonsabitches, but they are slow, and you can smack them. Poor Reilly likes to lay outside, but the flies bite her when she sleeps around her eyes and she comes in looking a bit swollen. I am keeping her inside as much as I can- she is chillin on the slate floor- best place in the house for cool dogs.

Today we met a family with a chocolate lab pup- 9 weeks, tiny, male. Rei didnt give him the time of day- puppies get in big dogs' faces and they get annoyed. Rei didnt have to cuss him out, she just moved away from him, as he was on-leash and couldn't get to her. We also met a 14 week Labradoodle. Lots of these around in recent years- the demand for shedless dogs with good personalities has led to the breeding of family breeds with poodles: Golden Doodles, Cockapoos (which Laura thinks should be called Cockadoodles). Personally, I think a cocker spaniel with a poodle is a personality nightmare, but I have a greyhound/lab- the polar opposite of small, curly and yippy.

The Choco-Lab mother asked me if Reilly was a Catahoula, and I said I didnt know, she's a shelter mutt from Virginia, and anything's possible. I don't discuss Rei's lineage the same way with everybody. Some people like to think they know a lot and I let them. She is sometimes the victim of Brindle Stereotyping- some famously aggressive dog incidents have been committed by brindle dogs and people are wary. 'Pit Bulls' can be brindle, and the two dogs in California who killed a lady were Presa Canarios ('Canarios'=Canary Islands- which are NOT named after birds but Canines- large brindly mastifflike ones that developed there. Word up!) Other types of dogs that can be brindle are bulldogs, bullterriers, boxers, mastiffs, danes- all breeds with fighting and guarding pasts, not necessarily present though! There are also brindle hounds- greyhounds, and several hounds of the South such as Tennessee Treeing Brindles, and Mountain Curs.

The shelter sold us Reilly as a 'lab mix,' which means 'we have no idea, but she's not a shepherd or a border collie' - more than half the pups seem to be Lab Mixes, so it seems that labs really get around. When she was a fat little stubby-legged puppy, and her ears were on top of her head, I got a lot of questions about her type from people who would stop a few yards away.

But she has grown up to be a leggy girl with a long tail and little ears, a running dog. The fighting breeds are broad chested, wide mouthed dogs. Powerful dogs. Some people have suggested Reilly might be part Dane, not greyhound, but she isnt really THAT big, and her ears are small, her face is more tapered. Last winter I walked with Kathy and her two springers, and we met a woman and her dog on the hill who said "Wow! you've got these two beautiful spaniels and that tough guy over there!"

I am sensitve I guess to people thinking Reilly might be dangerous, so if anyone seems afraid of her, I will tell them a lot of Reilly lore in the hopes that they will rule out 'pitbull/dangerous dog", but when people find her beautiful and are not afraid of her, I let them speculate and think about it because they enjoy looking at her-"She has a greyhound butt and a lab head! Definitely the greyhound undercarriage. She has webbed feet! Is she a good dog?" Yup, she is! - and regardless of whomever her parents were, that's the thing we love so much about her.

Heavy Equipment
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Legal Tender- B52s
Topic: the field
Today they cut all the remaining hay, and the tractor was picking up the rollers, which was cool to watch. The tractor has a big lance on the front of it and it easily drives that through the center of a roll, lifts it and carries it to a flatbed wagon with two slanted poles on each end to keep the rollers from rolling off. The wagon can carry eight rollers, which the tractor guy straps in with these ratchet straps. It then skewered one more roller, hitched the wagon and rolled off to the barn with nine 6-foot rollers.

It was a good day for trucks- sewer is being installed on our street this summer, and in preparation for that the contractor has been dropping off big rigs and implements of destruction. I should take some pictures. There is a standard payloader and a Chiparvester- which has an arm with a lobster claw for grabbing trees, and a mouth full of rolling blades like a pencil sharpener that it feeds the trees to itself, chipping them all up. It has a lot of decals with directions stuck to it, and cautions, and a large white sticker that says "DO NOT REMOVE ANY DECALS FROM THIS TRUCK!!"

I took Reilly down to check out the trucks, since she is a good guard and alerts me to any trucks on our street. I figured that she might like to get a closeup view while they are still sleeping. Theres lots of old dried mud and bits of herbage stuck in the caterpillar treads of the Chipper, but it reeked of oil heavily. I dont know that she could smell much past the oil.

At the field today we met Kevin Number One, and he had his big camera with him to take pictures of the hay rollers, and decided instead that he'd have to take photos of the tractor picking up the hay rollers. Kevin Number One is flexible and spontaneous that way. I kept him busy talking long enough that he probably had to walk Waaaaaay down the far end to catch up with the tractor's progress.

I told him I think I still have some of my old photo paper and a box of enlarger filters, maybe a negative developing can, and that if I can find them and he wants them I am happy to giv ethem to him. I didnt know if the paper was too old (I took b/w photography in 1991, soo...) but it has been kept in its special black plastic baggie and maybe it'll still work. He said he'd love to have it, even if it is not perfect, because paper is expensive and sometimes he doesn't even make contact sheets because he doesnt want to spare the paper. I am happy to facilitate a little wastefulness on Kevin Number One's part, because when you make things, you can't be so precious about them that you feel inhibited and are afraid to work on them.

When I worked at the Co-Op in Cambridge- my hippest job ever- my co-artist Amy "Raisin" Cain recieved a gift from her mate, Charlie, of a large quantity of big sheets of Stonehenge paper. Nice paper you can draw or print on or paint. the key is she had enough that each sheet was not SO valuable, and you could mess up without freaking out that you just used up THE paper you bought for Project Q. Charlie is an architect, he knew and Amy knew, and I know (and Jeff knows!) that the gift is not $65 worth of paper but the freedom to mess up freely that it allows.

Hay Rollers
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: Meowsy Meow- raye
Topic: the field

They hayed a new section today- as you can see Rei is enjoying a roll in hay. She gets pretty silly and excited about new hay, but we all do. You can't help but walk through it, and enjoy the smell of sweet hay. Kids throw it, dogs race in it, roll in it, hide under it.

The downside to haying is that it creates a bit of a killing field, and the days immediately following the cutting the dogs are excited and inattentive to us, looking for tidbits of li'l creatures that got cut up. Its a don't ask, but don't kiss me thing. In the section they cut a few weeks ago, I checked out what the dogs were all looking at, and it was the remains of a turkey nest with 3 flattened eggs and tons of feathers. We walked on, but Reilly's friend Shadow was not coming when her owner called, she eventually appeared bringing a turkey foot as booty. It's not pretty.

BUT... Reilly IS pretty. Her color is called brindle. Brindle is dark striping over whatever colors your dog is underneath- some dogs are fawn brindle, (dark stripes over tan) red brindle, even black brindle. Some dogs are white with spots of brindle. Reilly is a swirling galaxy of brindle over tan, chocolate and rich bronze. If you are a cat person, you'd say she's a calico, if you are an older cat person, you'd say she's a "money" dog. If you were a bettor and knew she was only half greyhound and therefore not fast enough to win a race, you'd say she's not QUITE a "money dog."

not TOO rainy
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: annoying children
Topic: the field
roster- C, R, Reilly
met- no other dogues

It was raining lightly, we only trekked a half-field, stayed out of the Nutty Forest because its pretty buggy in there. There is one section left to cut hay, and two sections of rollers to pick up. The long section is full of birds, and the cut sections are much easier to walk and to see far. This is good for spotting oncoming dogs and for Rei to run wherever. When the hay is tall, she doesnt go very far off-path.

Because of the rain and how briefly we were there, Reilly met no other dogs