The Dog Days of Summer

Ask the dogs - it's way too hot ! We've been getting up at 4:30/5:00 o'clock every morning for the past couple of months to beat the heat. To no avail. You open the front door at o-god-thirty in the morning and a wall of humidity and warmth slaps you in the face. The last two or three days have been better..........finally ! But since we are in the middle of August I'd say I'm only cautiously optimistic that the mornings will stay that way. This morning I met my dear friend Barbara for a dog walk at 8 a.m. It felt like half the day was over around that time already. The ranger at the park entrance was happy to see us again and complained that before he only had seen us leave rather than coming in to wish him a good day. The entrance station only opens at 7 a.m. and by that time we were ready for breakfast and coffee ...........and yes, a refreshing shower !
I have never seen birds panting or squirrels laying flat on the ground to seek relief from the heat. They were suffering from the hot temperatures and I sometimes had to refill the water dishes three times a day for them. We also decided to feed them. Something I usually don't do during the summer, but they thankfully took our food offerings. Here a few summer impressions from the bird feeder:

Tessa is on the injured list

A couple of weeks ago, Tessa managed to hurt herself by jumping out of the car at warp speed in hot pursuit of a cat she saw on the other side of the street ! ! !  It was one of the rare moments, when her Shiloh halo slipped off to the side and prey drive took over.  I'm sure you've seen that happen before with your own dogs. Your oh-so-well-behaved dog all in a sudden seems to have gone deaf and chases some critter with determination into far away places. Besides the fact that she could have been hit by a car, I don't care for moments like these to happen too often. In the interest of keeping my own sanity !
The result of this kitty chase was a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament. Great ! *grrrr*  Now madame was put on six weeks of rest and relaxation and the healing process will hopefully be accelerated by acupuncture.
Usually, Tessa is terrified at the vet's, but not this one:

 Upon getting into the treatment room, she first has to

 inspect the place,

and once the needles are placed, she drifts off to a half hour nap. Completely relaxed and with no worry. Before she gets acupuncture though, she's being treated with osteopathic methods. By now we've gone to see Dr. McIntyre four times already and Tessa seems pain free and putting almost normal weight on her leg again. I'm thrilled ! All withoug surgery ! Yeah ! 

If you're in need of a fabulous osteopath and homeopath, look no further: http://holisticvethealth.com/index.html

Thank god it's summer. Because of the heat and humidity it's much easier to rest her than it would be during cooler days. Let's be honest : I'd feel extremely bad about having to leave her at home while I take the Budelheimers out for a walk. That way everybody gets to go on long sniffing excursions with very little movement, lots of wildlife to admire and quality time to check out exciting scents. 

Sometimes it's even pleasant enough for a quick sun bath on the patio,

or some doggy hai-ku in the yard: 

Now keep your fingers crossed that everything keeps healing as well as it does !

More of Maple, the Turtle

Since we met underneath the big maple tree for the first time, my little friend now has a name: Maple. :-) From the looks of it, she spent the night in the ground cover in front of the house. Proof were all the turtle size tunnels I discovered the next morning.  Call it fate, but when I looked out the kitchen window I saw her yet again on her way to the neighbor's yard that morning. It's not that I'm hanging at the kitchen window all day, and so I thought it was a wonderful coincidence that we met again. Of course I had to run inside and grab the cam. It hat started to rain and the water gave my little friend a kind of polished look:

The Day After

Don't complain to me (Me=Rodney, who else ?) about not reading more of my adventures. Hu-woman is extremely lazy and full of excuses when it comes to being my personal secretary.  I've been trying to explain to her that typing with claws is way more difficult as it ever would be using human fingers.  Better stop complaining now before she stops typing about the stuff I'm complaining about. (GOT THAT RIGHT, RODNEY ! ! ! **hu-woman here**) Reason she won't complain about typing is, that she's been giggling all morning because I partied hard yesterday and therefore don't feel so good this morning:

Now ! If I get one sly remark about my looks today, I'll be very upset and you all will have to endure more of my writing in the future. At the moment I don't really care too much about talking food, but let me tell you: I got some duck meat for my birthday and it was DE-LISCI-OUS ! In August, Tessa's Boneday is coming up and I'm looking forward to that day's special treat. Our Humans may be a bit weird some time, but they sure know how to spoil a dog. That's it from me...........back to sleeping off that hangover !

Looking Out The Kitchen Window.....

I saw a box turtle slowly coming up the hill . . . 

I admired her beauty from all sides:

She seemed in search of the perfect hideout for her eggs, and even the border rocks did not pose a serious obstacle on her conquest:

I wish you all the best, little turtle. . . 

It also made me wonder how a turtle manages to survive in an urban setting. They like it warm and moist and concrete and chem-lawns aren't really on their dining plan either. I tossed out some salad for her in hopes she'll find it on her way back. If she ever comes back through here. It was the first turtle I ever saw in our neighborhood. Maybe, if I see her again, I'll pick her up and take her to the swamp at Great Falls Park. I'm sure she'll do well there.

For The Ninth Time

....our chaotic, always adventurous,  mostly always up-to-no-good, always keeping life interesting Mr. Monstermeister, a.k.a. Mr. Budelheimer, a.k.a. Rodney  is celebrating his birthday today ! 

Happy Birthday and we hope you delight us for many more years to come !

Morning Activities At The River

This morning we fell out of bed more or less.  I guess we're officially back on VA summertime and that means that those, who want to engage in outdoor activities should get out there as early as possible. Getting up at five o'clock is no problem. Disadvantage of the early rise is the fact, that around eight at night you're ready to go to bed get your zzz's before having to "fall out of bed" again. Another reason for getting up so early are the dogs since they do overheat much faster than people do. Picture you only had your tongue and the sole of your feet to perspire you'd be in serious trouble once it gets above 80 degrees. Not to mention the year round fur coat you'd be wearing. We like to take the dogs to the park. There we find more shade and the dachshunds don't get overheated too quickly from the reflecting heat which is all too present when walking in town on the hot and sizzling pavement.

This morning, the best hubby of all agreed to accompany me for a photo session at the river and here is the result:

The water is getting lower and makes for quite a pretty scenery.

Here I was trying to get the water look a little bit softer by decreasing the shutter speed. (Actually my first try at this with the new camera.)

Other "first attempts" didn't turn out too well. I would LOVED for this picture to be better. What a pity ! 

Eventually the heron did land and I got a better look at him and his prey.

There were lots and lots of them out, fishing for breakfast:

After watching the herons, we continued our morning walk along the river:

The vultures are feeding on the trash some picnickers left behind. Makes you wish, people would be a bit more conscientious about the locations they leave their garbage at. 

These are some impressions of the trail that leads along the river. Isn't it pretty ? 

We are indeed lucky to live so close to a park of such beauty. 

What we left behind was a bunch of vultures on the rocks. I wonder if they enjoyed the sunrise as much as we did.

It's Photoshop Time Again

As you know, I love playing around with images in Photoshop and so I would love to share a few of my creations with you. I hope you like them. :-)

The beauty of a rose

"Leaving the page"

The Budelheimers

The Furgang

Bica (Color Key)

Scene from the Mannassas Battlefield

"Have a great journey"

Harley D V-Rod (Rodney is named after this one)

Here's a fun one. 

"Slybone and MadUncle" (Named after Simon and Garfunkel, of course.)

Not to forget "Smiliemonster's Greatest Hits"

Bath Time

Not to forget the "Stroll at the Lake"

On the left you see the castle of Hellenstein which is located in the town I was born in. On the right is part of my daily walking trail along the Potomac River at Great Falls Park. In this image I was trying to combine my hometown in Germany with my home in Virginia.

Knowledge is Power

"Creating a Masterpiece"
This is my little grand nephew Aaron. (I "borrowed" his brother Levin's open eye for this image)

"Eldin"

"Marie"

"Uncle Max"

My grandmother and my mother

The BW pictures above are restaurations. Pretty difficult, but the result isn't too bad, is it ?

Bjorn

Bicalina

Just playing around in Photoshop. :-)

Vintage Window

"Nightbird".
This is actually an edit of a picture I liked very much, but it's quality left much to be desired. So I turned a blurry bird at daylight into a nightbird and thus I am able to enjoy the image anyways. :-)

Wine and Song

Over time I create these little "masterpieces". I still use Photoshop 8 and I'm having loads of fun creating these images. Usually it takes anywhere up to two/three hours to finish one of these. I haven't been doing a whole lot of them lately because of my inflamed wrist joints. Still hoping for them to heal without having to have surgery. Three dogs and two arms in a cast doesn't sound good. Therfore: Photoshop has been put on ice for a while. 

As always: Clicking on the images will let you view them original size, and please leave them here. Don't take them with you ! ;-)