Welcome to hell, erm I mean Friday, where we are living the song from Beverly Hills Cop as the heat is most definitely on. Wilson here and I’m almost grateful that Mum stole my furs last weekend. While I may have lost my fabulous floofiness, I’m probably more comfortable than Mum is whenever we’re outside. We’ve been taking our walks even earlier than usual when it’s still reasonably cool and we’ve actually found some rather interesting sights. Of course, there’s almost no one on the trail except for some fairly interesting critters. Chalk up a new one on Mum’s list of wildlife seen on the walk. I was rewarded in seeing my first pack of wild raccoons. Not those urban cousins who looked at you with merely a glance. Mum calls them trash pandas but I’m too refined to be that disparaging. There were at least 3 of them, possibly 4 and they did their best to hide their presence. We wouldn’t have noticed them in the trees if one of the chubbier ones missed a step and fell a couple of branches downward and I first thought it might be a squirrel. They looked like a troop of mama and her babies.
They took one look at us and skedaddled up the trees in a heartbeat…thus the crummy photos. I keep telling Mum she’s gotta be a whole lot quicker with her cell phone. To which she retorts that, “she’s got her hands full simply holding on to my leash,” let alone fishing for a camera inher pocket.” Personally, I think she’s just making excuses.
The Mum: Umm, I heard that…
Wilson: Oh, hiya Mum. {trying to act quite innocent} What ‘cha doing?
The Mum: Nice try, House Pony. Those guys were super quick and I doubt I could have responded any quicker even if you hadn’t been with me. I was surprised how quickly they bogeyed up into the high canopy. Seeing them two days in a row was some kind of fun. I love those kinds of encounters.
Wilson: {changing the subject} Regardless, the sunrise was pretty spectacular what with a threat of rain and lots of wildfire smoke adding to the intensity. It was pretty special. What is that old sailor’s saying…red sky in morning, sailor take warning, red sky at night, sailor’s delight.
The Mum: That morning show was supposed to have been a warning that we might get some rain later in the day and true to the forecast, we received about 2-1/2 minutes of light rain later in the afternoon. I had hoped for a longer shower but think it was a bit too warm and most of it likely evaporated before it hit the ground.
Wilson: It was a bit disappointing but not as much as yesterday when we were told to expect a nice afternoon shower. Sadly it didn’t materialize though I think there might have been 15 drops when it got windy.
The Mum: Yeah, it was disappointing. The weather people keep telling us to be patient…El Niño and the monsoons should be arriving in about 10 days but I’m not all that optimistic. I don’t want to get my hopes up, only to be disappointed.
Wilson: Well look at the bright side, at least we enjoyed some pretty morning sunrises this week. 
The Mum: Indeed we did, buddy. Plus there have been the quiet walks in the early mornings catching glimpses of various critters along the trail.
Wilson: Yes, nice quiet walks and new discoveries. Speaking of new discoveries, I found a new plant that you should make sure neither of us get too close to it. American licorice or wild licorice is popping all around the trail as well as along the canal behind our house. Along the canal it’s quite thick and we discovered the hard way that it has burs. I don’t want to rub up against that thing again! It’s a North American perennial legume native frequently found in the western United States. Native Americans used wild licorice for medicinal purposes and as a food source, it was discovered it had high nutritional value for livestock. Too bad livestock aren’t that keen on it so it quickly reproduces through seeds and rhizomes, leading to large infestations, especially in pastures as well as along streams and ditch banks. We won’t be walking near those plants again any time soon now that the burs are appearing and are so prolific.
The Mum: Right you are. While those burs look soft, they are anything but. And speaking of sunsets, did you know, that yesterday was the last day the sun sets at 8:30 pm. It’ll be the middle of June in 2027 before the sun will set at 8:30 pm again.
Wilson: You don’t say. Huh…well that’s kind of interesting. Guess that means the days are growing shorter as we move toward the arrival of autumn in 74 days just in case you are interested. I think we’ll be be happier though I know a lot of our readers really like the extended sunlight in summer.
The Mum: I’d enjoy the extended sunlight if it wasn’t so doggone hot. Well, that’s about it from us. Triple digits are set to arrive this weekend so I think you and I will definitely be hibernating. Maybe you can scoot over a bit and we can hang out together. What do you say?
Wilson: Umm, I don’t think there’s enough room for you here, Mum. Sorry. Have a good weekend and stay cool and hydrated. If you can, get out early to see what kind of fascinating ‘gifts’ Nature has left for us. Have a great weekend.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Welcome to the latest edition of Nature Friday where we join the pups from the 
Greetings and salutations, everyone. Happy Friday. Wilson here…and as always, I’m joining those lovable pups from the 
Happy Friday, folks. Wilson here. We have been busy this week. Mum is getting ready for our annual sheepdog picnic/fundraiser and sadly, I’m had to spend a lot of time entertaining myself after my walks. But apprently I’m not happy about being left to my own devices while Mum is working on getting the gift baskets ready for the picnic. I don’t know, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. But I was contrite when Mum saw it. My head went down quicker than a bad day on the stock market. Mum knows I had no idea what I was doing, us dogs don’t feel guilt like our humans think we do. Still I know I disappointed her and for that, I’m sorry. Ok, maybe not all that so sorry, but here we are. Anyway, we’re joing our pals from the 
The Mum: Wish us lots of luck at the picnic! It’s always interesting herding all those Floofs.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Nature Friday where we join our pals at The Adventures of the LLB Gang. Clicking on the link will take you to see what others have shared this week. This week’s post is mostly about one topic-cottonwood trees. Ok…let’s get started.
Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. where we remember and honor all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice serving their country. Now a national holiday, it was originally known as Decoration Day back in the years following the Civil War and only became known as Memorial Day in 1968 and Congress added it as a three-day weekend for federal employees in 1971.
Greetings mates, Wilson here sporting my best Lorax poise. I woke up with a bit of bed head but you can be sure while I’m not small or orange, I am mustachioed and I do speak for the forest by making sure I water trees every chance I can. Mum laughed at me but I couldn’t figure out why. Then I looked in a mirror. Egad, that must have been quite the dream I was having. All I remember was I received a rather heavy handed shove. Apparently I was in the midst of a dog pile early yesterday morning. Mum has been complaining about waking up and being at the bottom of the pile. Doesn’t she know I need to be right next to her though I prefer being on top of her.
