Pictures from today

[summer_jackel]

Zhava doing what she does.







Silly beast would rather wade than drink. Cooling her belly feels good after a sprint.













Watching her bounding over the hills is a joy. Sighthouds were bred to hunt wide open spaces, and she loves them. I'm also very careful when I slip her out on the bluffs; she has really excellent recall for a young hound, but I leash her if she ignores a command or acts like she's thinking about bolting. I'm prepared to chase her across the hills, but I don't want to.





Bliss is more about enjoying the scenery.















He's a blissful animal.







If I can just get Coba to hold his ears like this---at least sort of right---there exists, I feel, a chance that he could earn a point or two in conformation. I doubt I can show him to a major, but he's such a lovely specimen, other than the earset, that I am considering showing him again. He's almost ready to start showing in open obedience, and as long as I'm there...



Coba is a wonderful trail companion above all else. Shelties are great to be outdoors with.




A fungus that I love.


Fern tree.


Baby gopher snake! Awwwwwww


An ancient redwood.


A truly spectacular redwood. It's hard to grasp the scale of this tree from the photo, but notice where the tree branches out to essentially become 3 more smaller trunks? Those 'mini limb trunks' are each the girth of a large second growth tree, and this is---it's hard to tell just how far up, but a really long way. It is part of a tiny grove of the only old growth trees left on this ridge. I'm glad that the loggers spared it, because even among old trees, that growth pattern is rare.