PeacefulkT’s Pursuits

Well, after a virus scare this week, Clyde (the computer-and-wine genius!) is switching my computer over to a new operating system which has a fun name – ubuntu.  I kinda want to run around here yelling ‘ubuntu ubuntu ubuntu!’  But so far I haven’t.

Anyways, this new switch means that I need to learn a new photo editing software package.  This one has another fun name – Gimp.

Yes, that photo you see above is a gimpy crocus. A crocus with a gimp.  A gimp-ified crocus.  Gimp my crocus.

Sorry, I’ll stop.

As you can see, I have a long ways to go on this new software (not to mention my patience level to wait until the wind stops so that the flower can actually be in focus).  It’s not exactly what I wanted to be doing this week, but oh well.  There will never be a good time to switch over I suppose.

Today I’m working on the laptop while Clyde overhauls my desktop.  I’m discovering how much I love my desktop.  The mouse!  The large screen!  The keyboard that doesn’t cause your fingers to gimp!  :)

I hope your day is going well and that you are virus-free.  Now I’m getting off the blog and gettin’ all gimped up.  Cheers!

Nope, no beer commercial today…just the promise of spring!  The daffodil buds are starting to show up now.  So are the forsythia buds:

These two are buds, I promise.  Just ignore the teeth:

Pepe’s teeth are really white, aren’t they?!  I guess those doggie teeth whiteners really work.  And in mid-jump, my dogs ears look like fuzzy horns.  Awwwwww!

Take down!

Hunting for flowers and playing with your buddy is tiring, so it’s good to take a break and refresh yourself.

Pepe can enjoy slurping up the Meramec, we’ll just have to enjoy the scenery and dream of when the trees will be covered in green again.

(looking upriver)

(looking downriver)

And now, looking back in time….check out the days when Maggie could take Pepe down.

Cheers!

The daffodils started coming up this past week.  Which I’m glad to see, but it brings up the annual spring debate in my head.  Read on if you wish, but beware – my head is possibly not a place you really want to venture!

Katie The Normal Human Being: Spring!  Spring, spring springspringspringspring!  Bring it on!  Bring it!  I can take it!  Yay for flowers and gentle breezes!  Yay for sunshine!  Yay for warmth!

Katie The Vineyard Goddess: Hmmmm….it’s a little early to have really warm weather.  If it warms up too much and then goes back to freezing temperatures, the grapes are screwed.

KTNHB: I don’t care!  I want spring!  I WANT WARMTH!!!!!!!  I want to take spring flower pictures again.

KTVG: Are you willing to lose a crop again?  Has it just been 3 years since the Easter Masacre?  Don’t you remember the record warm temperatures in March and the FREEZE DAMAGE at Easter in 2007?  We lost 80% of our grapes statewide that year!

KTNHB: I don’t care!!!!!!!!  Don’t you understand?!!  I am a normal human being who is tired of the cold.  Tired of the brown.  Tired of the gray skies.  I want green and purple and pink, and bunnies frolicking on the hillside and shorts…I want to wear shorts again!

KTVG: O.k, your dogs chase off the bunnies anyways, so you might as well just forget about that part.  And you only want shorts because it makes the laundry easier.  I mean, hello – this is your livelihood we are risking!

KTNHB: Oh get over yourself!  You knew the risks when you went into farming.  Why don’t you just move back up to Michigan where you’d have two more months of cold!  You could live in relative vineyard-frost-risk-free ease and quit bugging me.  ME.  Me who wants to live somewhere that is warm in March.

KTVG: You are so illogical!  You know the longer growing season here makes for some amazing wines.  I couldn’t get that up in MI.  But if it meant leaving your idiocy behind, I might just consider it.

KTNHB: Now you’re just being mean.  Did you forget that we are actually the same person?

KTVG: You’re right, I’m sorry.  I don’t mean to insult you, er me, but I just don’t see why you can’t contain yourself for a few more weeks for heaven’s sake.

KTNHB: Because I’m a normal human being, that’s why I can’t contain myself!

KTVG: I think that is starting to become highly debatable.

KTNHB: There you go insulting us again.

KTVG: I can’t help it, I have low self-confidence (even though I’m a Goddess).  Plus I think you are taking over and I don’t like lack of control.

KTNHB: Maybe if you sat in the sun and absorbed some UV goodness, you’d make more vitamin D and that would help you feel better about yourself.  And make you relax a little too.

KTVG: Well, I’d have to put on sunscreen.  UV rays can really damage your skin over time.

KTNHB: Oh good lord.  Never mind, we really are an idiot.

….we are hunting wabbits!

My goofball labs have decided that they would rather not be bird dogs, they would rather scare up some Hossenfeffer instead.  (By the way, I think they learned this from Pepe’s stepdad, Cletus).

On most hikes to the river, both Pepe and Maggie have their nose to the ground, and any downed trees/brush piles get a serious sniff-over.  Sometimes rooting around and digging is also necessary.  Last year their efforts often met with success, but this winter it’s been slim pickin’s for these two.

Last weekend I found out why they haven’t been able to catch much lately.

I hiked down to the river and onto our little dock:

Saturday was just gorgeous, and the temperature in the morning was probably 50 degrees already, so I decided to sit on the top step and relax for a bit.  Pepe and Maggie immediately started sniffing all around the downed tree to the left of the dock:

They do this every single time we go down to the river.  And never once do they find a thing!  So I’m sitting on the dock, and they are sniffing, and they don’t find anything, and they start heading farther upriver.

That’s when a small rustling nose just below and to my left got my attention.  I looked down expecting to see a mouse, a small bird, or perhaps even a squirrel.  But lo and behold!  A rabbit, no bigger than my two fists put together, quietly hops out from the underbrush.

It looked up at me.  I looked down at it.

The dogs moved further upriver.

I experienced an Alice-In-Wonderland moment when the rabbit telepathically asked me if I was going to give it’s presence away to the dogs.  I telepathed back, ‘No little rabbit.  Live to hop another day.  Hop-along Cassidy.  Have a hoppy day!’

The rabbit understandably became disgusted at me.  So he/she hopped off under the steps, out the far side of the dock and up the hill behind me.

I wished I had my camera on when he came up, but alas, it was too late.  Instead, this is the best I can do for you:

Two minutes later Pepe and Mags came running up to me.  They cannot communicate telepathically, but I could see by Pepe’s expression that they had no clue what had just occurred.

So much for hossenfeffer this week.  It’s clear to me now that Bugs Bunny lives down near the Meramec River and there is very little hope for my dogs.  I can’t help but tease them when we’ve been walking this week though; I’ve been singing “kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit!”

Cheers!

I’m supposed to be working….cleaning actually…but it’s more fun to blog.

Hi, my name is Katie, and I’m addicted to my computer.  (Unless you are a bill and then I have something else to do instead.)

I had an evening to myself last night, so instead of bills, I made a couple cards. Here they are:

Thanks for visiting the blog today!

I hope you’ve had fun and gotten out of some work with me. Cheers!