Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Signs of Spring

Those of you who have one will agree and those of you who don't will just have to take my word for it.  A little dog is a foolproof way to discover the signs of spring.

Normally, Kuro lies abed in the morning, knowing that first walk won't come until I've finished coffee, paper and breakfast.
Kuro keeps one eye open just in case I head for the door early.
Yesterday when I stepped out onto the deck at first light, Kuro was right there, nose lifted, sampling the morning breeze for scents of spring.

Later, during our midday walk, he was busy checking out the smells of other dogs who had earlier passed his way, but he also investigated some small bits of color in the otherwise green carpet.
Small daisies hard at work soaking up some sun.
I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a dog nose. there are smells of all kinds, each telling a story or raising a question begging investigation, wafting along with the breeze. 

I would be

[I had almost completed this post on my phone when I stopped to answer an incoming call. When I returned to Blogger to complete the post and post it for publication, this is all I found. I've tried everything I know to find the rest. I worry that my readers will have to put up with an occasional broken post while I'm in the hinterlands. In order to complete this post I'm moving to my laptop. I'll investigate the problem more later.]

I would be overwhelmed to suddenly smell all the things that a dog does. Depending on the breed, dog's noses are hundreds or thousands of times more sensitive than our human noses. Of course, it takes a lot more gray cells to process this information also. Estimates range upwards of 40 times greater than ours proportionally.

Of course, I guess a dog would be similarly overwhelmed if it could suddenly see the full range of colors that humans see. Most authorities say dogs see basically shades of yellow, blue and gray. Quite a change if they could see the full rainbow and rich tones we see. But their eyes also see better in dim light and are better at detecting motion.

Back to our spring walk. Near the northwest corner of the park, Kuro began to pull toward a small rise. When we topped it, even my poor nose could smell what was attracting his attention.
The bright yellow and strong smell of skunk cabbage are a sure sign of spring.

Kuro likes the smell and I like the colors and shape.
In addition to helping me discover the signs of spring, Kuro encourages me to get my daily allocation of walking time. I feel better for that and I know Kuro appreciates it.

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Test from Edmonds

Still work to do discovering how best to use this app.  Last night while on the flight from North Carolina to Seattle I drafted a post thinking it would simulate the internet-free zones on my trek. Actually I made up two drafts using to different approaches. 

Too tired last night to play with it, today I went looking for those drafts.  So far it seems they've disappeared into the ether.  Or maybe I managed to turn them into anti-matter.

I'll try to find them again later. Meanwhile, please join Kuro and me as we walked along the Edmonds waterfront to the local dog park earlier this afternoon.
 Quince in bloom along the path

A perfect camelia blossom

 Kuro told me he liked the contrasting flowers and sky.  

We saw some daffodils discussing the weather

Refreshing white hyacinths

Forsythia blooming in front of the Port of Edmonds sign
All told it was an invigorating three-mile walk round trip from our place.  Kuro enjoyed a romp in  the off-leash park.  Maybe next time he'll go for a swim.

Now back to the drawing board...

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Test post from Durham



In  preparation for my upcoming travels I've been trying to get decent blog posts from my phone. 

At first I had problems adding photos.  Then I had problems editing the text.  Maybe its an old guy thing.  

Finally I uninstalled my old blogger app and installed a new one.  Looks like I may have at least some of the problems solved. 
Cherry tree outside Whole Foods in Durham,  NC

Azaleas are just beginning to bloom
I'll try this and see how it looks.