In a short period of time this afternoon we had a lot of things going on. Nothing extraordinary by any means but a lot of different pictures and a surprise I remembered I had bought myself only on Monday. We tried to take our walk but plans changed midstream. There is still time for walk #3 a few hours from now.
While I was out spraying water on these brown spots in the front lawn, I figured the hounds had broken free as they walked outside after their lunch. When I didn't see any of them out front watching me I had a vision of all three hounds sprinting through the field to the 'no fly zone'. If's it's not going to rain I guess I'll have to water this area.
To my surprise as I walked from the front yard and stepped around the corner of the house, I saw Stella and Heidi immediately doing what they normally do on a day where the sunshine is just right, with no mosquitoes nor humidity.
Sadie also did her normal thing if I am not around, by hitting her 2nd most favorite spot not too far from the yard. So they had not taken off for the 'no fly zone' like my wild imagination had me believing.
Once Sadie saw that I knew where she was, she went back to doing what she does ... eating.
I slowly walked around Stella and saw her stomach moving very little with each breath so I knew she still had a pulse. There was no eye movement ... she was out cold.
Heidi had already figured out she sleeps better inside with the AC on ... she demanded to go back inside.
Sadie wasn't sure but she thought food might be involved so she came sprinting toward the house. How did she know I was going to fix myself a snack?
Stella may have looked as if she was in that deep sleep but with Sadie making noise as she approached the house and with me talking to Heidi ... I noticed just ... barely ... some eyelid movement.
Still she did not get up to follow us into the house. That was fine, I was going to fix some a snack anyway.
Look who has woken up and is standing at the screen door looking inside ... wanting inside ... She was acting like she was asleep just two minutes ago. They say a Bloodhound can hear 4x better than a human. Add the factor of food or the smell of food with their 200x better nose and this is what you get ... A bloodhound wanting to come inside.
I took my small bowl of fresh pineapple with cottage cheese and proceeded to add a couple of new things to the blog. If you notice along the border under Stella's picture I have added two pages "Bloodhound Property Laws" and "Favorite Photos". I also added some links to the sidebar under the heading "Other Stuff".
By 3pm I was ready for an early walk, our 2nd of the day. This was going to be more of a picture exploration for me rather than a hound walk. They would be happy just wandering along our path as I looked for things to take photos of.
Once again there were 4-6 butterflies on the Butterfly Milkweed.
With my new reference on my other monitor, called the 42 butterflies of North America ... I am pretty sure this is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.
Sadie was also not into chasing butterflies for the 2nd afternoon in a row. Not one flew off the Milkweed as Sadie walked by them.
Not pictured but hidden in this group is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail as it flew away when I walked by. My first guess of the three black ones are Polydamas Swallowtail with a maybe a Monarch on the far right. Any corrections are welcomed.
Every time I walk out in this field it looks like it has grown since the last walk only hours before. Stella's in deep in thought.
Sadie letting me know she is not eating what I think she is eating. Her left ear gave it away that her head at just moved up from the ground.
Stella made the slow trek around the flowers, around any butterflies and off the path at times to catch up with me.
I'm glad I was wearing shoes because I almost stepped on this bee.
It looked like more ATV activity than I remembered this morning. A sound nearby confirmed the kids were out enjoying the great weather. I didn't know yet if we would finished our walk or have to move in a different direction. Most likely nothing bad would happen but two possibilities could affect them and me wishing I had made another decision.
That's a dad doing the driving. I hope they ladies to the left holding those smartphones are using them as cameras or shooting video and not texting.
I decided I would prevent the bad possibilities from happening. Sadie was showing a lot of interest as she looked at them. She has never seen a 'live' ATV. Luckily Stella was way behind me doing her own thing. I decided it was time to take a different direction.
We slowly walked by a Ornython Swallowtail and another Eastern Tiger Swallowtail heading for the north corner of our yard. There was something I wanted to take a picture of in the field to show you and remind me what it would look like if they had not cut the field in June.
Could this be a Viceroy?
The hounds were confused when I told them to turn around. They finally caught on that we were going to be walking a different way. It took some coaxing to get them headed in this direction.
I'm guessing here ... the Emperor Swallowtail
As we neared the post that is the north corner property line, I saw more Milkweed that were full of butterflies. It's no wonder they call those orange flowers the Butterfly Milkweed. Sadie left them alone as we walked just past our yard to get our picture.
Normally they will cut down over this hill and even bale what they cut but this time they left the side of the hill uncut. So this is what the field would look like if they had not cut it in June. Not bad really. I could live with it if they decide not to cut it in the future.
A different view of my little used north side yard ... I had put my high pressure washer away after washing the fence along the driveway last spring and then remembered I forgot to wash this one. IF I don't pressure wash it within the next three weeks, the task will be moved to my 2018 To-Do List.
I had to use the flash on this picture because even in the middle of the afternoon it was almost pitch black when you looked into the woods. I always tell people, if you come out to see me after dark and drive up my driveway, don't hit that mysterious man standing in front of the woods.
I get little to no visitors after dark ... LOL ... I wonder why.
For weeks I have been fighting off urges for junk food, ice cream and candy. I eat and like fresh fruit but sometimes that is not good enough to kill a craving for sweets. Monday while grocery shopping I walked by something that brought up a memory and it could work for killing a sweet tooth ... Stauffer's Original Animal Crackers.
Low fat, no trans fat, no cholesterol and if I stopped at 13 crackers it would only be 100 calories. I found them in my cabinet today, up high and forgotten about only 48 hours after buying them. They worked for killing the craving for sweets.
Even the hounds will get one or two ... but it makes Stella drool too much so I have to stop giving them at 2 each.
Stella watch me walk to the mailbox and back sitting like this.
This week is 'flying' in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.