A Slow Quiet Afternoon

As I thought it might happen, nothing much happened this afternoon. That drizzle I mentioned this morning never stopped. In fact by early afternoon it looked more like a light rain. Stella and I did not venture anywhere out of the yard. Heidi did her lap around the house after lunch and Stella decided she wasn't going any further than 10' from the door. With the light a little rain and no urge to watch any kind of tv, it was a perfect time ... for a four hour siesta!! I caught up on some good quality sleep that I was short on from the 'strange morning' but one problem. I had very few pictures for this post. It was still a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella Always Surprises Me

This morning was Day Two of Stella's Total Freedom routine. On the way back I had an uneasy feeling about my decision because she was nowhere on the horizon as I scanned from the center of the field to my right to see the woods behind the neighbor. The search was going to have to take place with shoes and feet so wet I could feel the water squishing inside my shoe with each step. Another poor decision choosing the New Balance running shoes with the field so wet.

As Sadie took off on the normal path I could see the field was continuing to grow at a rapid rate. Within 10' of stepping into the field from the yard my legs were wet from the heavy morning dew. As I glanced back at the house, the grass is tall enough now that I couldn't see Stella anywhere.

She had decided to walk north through the yard, not even close to where Stella and I were. I have a feeling she is really enjoying her new found freedom without any verbal herding by me. Where would she end up this morning?

Just passing the property line pole and heading due north.

Sadie's face, ears and legs were already as soaked as my shoes were soon after she started. That never bothers her.

By the time I approached the first turn both hounds were almost complete out of view. Stella because she was hidden some where in the middle of the field and Sadie standing in taller grass over by the edge of the field and brush line.

I turned and kept walking.

I was hoping I'd get some photos of Sadie running to catch up with me but by the time I turned around she was already close to me. I took some rapid fire photos and came up with only this one, while the others were too blurry to post here. Nothing like shaking your head dry while on the run.

Amazing how the dew stayed in perfect round balls lined up along the seam of the leaf.

With a slight wind out of the North/Northeast, this morning had that feeling of muggy. I could tell it was going to be hotter than yesterday yet the weather apps were saying no higher than 84°. We've gone from 15° below normal in April to 10° above normal so far in May. We are already in what I call "June Weather".

Heading back on the return path at a faster pace with that uneasy feeling I had about Stella, I told Sadie to "go find Stella". She took off running straight ahead but for some reason stopped until I caught up with her. I was still scanning the field straight ahead and then toward the woods. She must be down in that drainage ditch next to the neighbor's yard.

Then my eyes caught just a little movement in my vision to the left of me .... unbelievable ... Stella had not moved 10' while Sadie and I did the half mile loop.

You would have thought by looking at her wet face, ears and legs that she had  ran a mini-marathon but from the location I last saw her ... she had moved 10' max. That was much better than having to walk through more tall wet grass looking for her. She was near the path waiting for us.

Notice how short the grass is in the middle of the field compared to the lower part behind the house that has a lot of winter fertilizer from the hounds.

Like every morning when we take the 'alternate' route, they scan the backyard from the property line pole all the way to the carport. No squirrel was seen this morning but I did hear that same animal conversation in the middle of the night, outside my window.

A couple of days ago when I saw forecasts of 30% to 80% change of rain for the next 4 days I put the car cover on the Z4 .... so it hasn't rained. It does not take that long to take it off or put it on, so driving it is just a few minutes away, when I want to.

Heidi's inner weather app has told her it's has to be mid-summer weather so she has gone back to her Phase II Hibernation ... I had to check a few times between meals if she was breathing because she was in that deep of a sleep. I am not sure when her next session of high activity will be ... but this is the normal life of a basset hound in the summer.

I could feel some afternoon plans forming in my brain cells this morning during and after our walk. They were plans from grocery shopping to a possible drive around the local countryside with my camera in hand. Yet that is one thing about being retired, plans can change in an instant and this afternoon they did.

After a nice phone conversation with a friend out west, it was time for lunch and I had a craving for small burritos/tacos on small corn tortillas. They are pretty basic but somewhat addicting, consisting of refried beans, chopped tomatoes, onions and cilantro, topped off with some salsa. They are so small you cannot wrap them like a burrito but fold them like a taco.

Small but evidently powerful ... I cannot think of any other reason that soon after I cleaned up the kitchen after that lunch I was down for the 10 count as they say. I staggered (not really) to bed for what I thought was a short siesta. A little over 3 hours later I found out those plans I had were no longer tentative but cancelled ones. All of the hounds were still asleep.

Grabbing some cold water to drink, trying to sort out my brain cells, Sadie and Heidi migrated to the door one by one. Heidi came outside just to relieve herself, looking like she might spend some time outside with us but looked almost as tired as I felt. She turned and headed for the door to go back inside.

By the time I had let her inside, Sadie had taken off into the field thinking we had started our afternoon walk.

Stella was still back inside laying on the dog bed in the corner of the bedroom, filled with cool air. When she came outside she seemed just as dazed and confused as Heidi and I was, not sure what she wanted to do nor what we were going to do.

As I walked over to the shaded area of the Mahogany trees I yelled Sadie's name since I saw her nowhere in the field as far as I could see. Was the tall grass hiding her or was she in the woods? Stella was checking out something with her nose ... were one the neighbors cooking dinner. Her nose can pick up a meal a mile away.

Out of nowhere as I was looking out into the field, Sadie came sprinting down the path into the yard but slightly confused when she didn't see me standing there. I was hiding between the two tree trucks where the squirrel had escaped yesterday morning.

It was hot but that did not mean we couldn't take the afternoon walk now. I walked back inside to trade the camera for the retractable leash in case I needed to help Stella stay in the same direction as Sadie and I. Heidi had decided she had seen enough and had no plans of returning outside ... she was done for the day.

Long naps put me in a daze afterwards. It might seem like a wasted day but evidently 8 nights of "west coast baseball" played a toll on my sleeping habits. With games starting at 10:15pm local time I was already near the time I had been going to bed lately while getting up earlier than normal. Summers bring a change in sleep times.

I must admit the thought of blogging here or not did cross my mind. I have never been able to figure out that question or feeling. To me it's strange as I go back and forth in my head on whether to continue blogging while I've been blogging every afternoon now for 3 days in a row.

Since the rain never showed up again today ... I think I need a sundown drive in the Z4 to clear my head.

Somewhat tired but all is good in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Butterflies Dominate Afternoon Walk

Heidi may have cutback on her outside activity today but that didn't mean she didn't get outside to wander a bit. Just after lunch all of us went outside. While I went down the hill to the mailbox the hounds didn't even move out into the field. That's different.

Stella let me know they have called a meeting ... I was to pay attention ... they had demands.

With a 3-0 unanimous and soon to be 4-0 vote, even with fantastic weather outside but only a little over 5 hours of sleep last night ... we all voted on taking a siesta. They marched to the bedroom as soon as they were inside, each to their nighttime sleeping spots and it was lights out just a little after 1pm.

As you may have noticed the story and descriptions are below the photo they are talking about. That might be different from the old blog but here it will be the norm from here on out. Why?? I like opening the post to see a picture first, before any written content.

I wasn't two steps into the field just after 4pm where I saw so many butterflies flying in groups of 3-4, that I couldn't get my camera setting adjusted fast enough. I have found over time using this camera the AF-area mode "Auto-area AF" is better for butterflies and "Single-point AF" brings the hounds into better focus. I have to manual change that setting each time.

This afternoon was so active with butterflies and hounds ... some of the hounds ended up a little less sharp due to being in "Auto-area AF". This leads me to believe the possibility of me using manual settings is not going to work with my type of photographs during a walk, where you do not know what will happen or what will show up next.

As we approached that bright orange flower I saw at least 4 butterflies having dinner. Would Sadie chase them off, trying to catch them?

No .... she trotted right by them without any of them flying away.

I am going to have to start putting up a list of butterfly and flower names on my 2nd monitor to use while I type a post or a website that could be a quick reference for their names. My memory for names like this is terrible. But if you asked me about a ballgame played 50 years ago, I can tell you what happened in a nano-second.

With all the butterflies in the field this afternoon I let the hounds roam where they wanted. I never called them once. All the photos you see of the hounds in this post show them following their noses and desires.

I could tell we had slept through a perfect afternoon. The 74° was nice, no mosquitoes and I couldn't feel any sticky humidity. Sadie and Stella were on a slow meandering stroll while Heidi was stretched out on the dog bed in the bedroom deep in sleep.

I bought that dog bed for her the day I picked her up from GABR. By the 2nd night, Sadie applied the Bloodhound Laws and took ownership. Heidi didn't mind, she moved to the bed for the last 6 years. Something gave me the idea that was where she slept in her first couple of years before I knew her.

I have to admit that I was a little surprised that Stella was moving along with us and not heading over to the woods behind the neighbor's house.

I kept waiting for it to open its wings ... but never did.

Then just as I started to walk away, it started to open them. Once it heard the beep of my auto-focus it flew away. I then stopped and turned to the beep setting to off.

Chasing butterflies was not Sadie's interest today nor did Stella want to eat anything. Sadie wanted to sniff the whole field, Stella just wanted to get the walk over as soon as possible ... it was too hot for her based on what her tongue was telling me.

This butterfly cooperated and opened it's wings about the time I took the picture.

While I continued my butterfly search along the back edge of the field, the hounds explored behind me. Those power lines run for over a 100 miles south of me and even more than a 100 miles north of me.

The butterflies seemed to be much smaller in back of the field compared to those at the start of the walk.

Stella must be in disbelief that I have not called her name or said "come here" or even "over here". She was looking to see where I was and what I was doing. With this photo zoomed in, we are pretty far apart from each other.

Sadie had already started her slow march back to me.

Stella followed her lead from a different area.

When Stella's tongue is hanging out that way she has only one thing on her mind ... get home as soon as possible.

A little after 4:15pm on a sunny day here in 'the tropics" of Southern Indiana.

You'll notice Sadie over on the left edge of the picture just starting her sprint to catch me. She never fails to do that, no matter how far back she stays. Stella would have never moved by then.

9 year old bloodhound speed ... same motion has a race horse sprinting down the homestretch.

Only she can get her ears flying ... very few other species can.

She then slows her speed to brush by my knee close enough to touch it and let me know she is back.

Sadie was in the studious mode today ... not chasing.

If I only knew their names.

I knew from my internet data spreadsheet that I was using data faster than my daily plan. Finally as I was writing this post, at 4:48pm HughesNet Gen5 let me know I was at 0 and my internet speeds would slow down.

For the first time and with my curiosity, I pulled out my $9 bill and bought 3Gigs of data. That is much cheaper than Exede Satellite service charged, plus any of that 3Gb I don't use in the next 2 days 7 hours and 14 minutes, will be carried through to the next month if I need it. My download speeds went back to the range of 45Mbps - 48Mbps. I've been very happy with my switch to HughesNet Gen5 this past April.

Once again I find myself searching for that one thing I was going to write about ... but can't remember. Honestly that really bugs me and it's most likely about the time I click the "publish" button ... I'll remember what it was.

The weather is so nice we will probably spend time back outside as the sun goes down. There will not be anymore posts tonight but there might be some new pictures from tonight on tomorrow's post.

With a total of 8 hours of sleep since midnight in two sections ... I feel good. Any of you Apple computer users playing around with the new "beta" version of their Mac OS ??

It was another fine day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.