Walk With Me (and Buddy) Wednesday

The weather here in southeast Arizona has been ideal lately. A bit nippy overnight, and then up into the high 60's or even 70's during the day. Buddy is anxious for us to come home from work because it means he finally gets to go for a walk.

Buddy loves to go for walks. Putting on a jacket and grabbing the leash sets him into spasms of joy. He can hardly bear to hold still enough for the clips to be fastened.

Today is no different, except now the weather has changed. The early morning wasn't too bad (I nearly hit a skunk on the street behind the house) but the afternoon turned cold and windy. It was forty one degrees out at four o'clock in the afternoon, but the wind chill was in the 20's. I took in the outdoor plants and cactus; they will stay indoors now until spring. Of course, the wind and cold didn't bother Buddy at all.

There are still a number of trees wearing their fall colors, but maybe not for long with this wind. Leaves and trash are blowing everywhere this afternoon. I have to pull up the hood of my jacket just to keep warm. I'd make a fire tonight, but Joe isn't going to be home and I'd rather enjoy it with him than without.

Sometimes the wind blows up a lot of dust with it, but the dust doesn't seem to be too bad today. If it were, I'd be sneezing a lot, but I'm not having any difficulties today.

Joe and Buddy keep charging along while I enjoy the view of the mountains. As with all mountains, the view keeps changing as the sunlight changes. Of the two peaks in the distance, I've climbed the one on the right; it's actually slightly lower than the one on the left. You can see how the wind is blowing the cypress trees.

We're not going to walk very far this afternoon. The wind has an edge to it and Joe and I are getting cold. Hearing the wind rustling through the palms trees only makes it seem colder, as if winter were directly on top of us. There's no rain in the forecast, otherwise the mountains would probably get the first snowfall of the season. Time to head home, warm up, and make dinner. Buddy is eating much better now and has a lot more energy -- as if he needed any more. I talked to Lori on the phone yesterday and she told me that no one has called looking for him. The next time she is in our area she will give me the paperwork on him and he will be officially ours. Yes, Buddy is going to stay with us. His new Daddy would never give him up now. Surprised, aren't you.


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In other news:

Shame on me for working late hours (!) and not reading all my Bloglines the last couple days! I won a prize for being the 1900th commenter on Mary's blog, The Wool Palace. Mary was my sock sister for Sockapaloooza last spring, and I've kept on reading her blog since then. I love her pictures of the beautiful English countryside, and for that matter all the places she travels; sometimes I'm ready to get up and jump on a boat and move back across the ocean and find a house with a view like hers. I've won some DK weight sock yarn in some VERY bright colors. This will be some really bold colors for me and I think it will be fun to knit something up with it. Socks? Mitts? Who knows? (Who am I kidding, I can't seem to finish anything I've got on the needles right now as it is. Which means I need to cast on for something else, of course.) Thank you so much, Mary, I'm really looking forward to seeing the yarn live and in person.

Quite frankly, and to be honest of course, I had completely forgotten about Mary's contest (there were three prize categories). And I wondered today why I had an email from her because I hadn't commented since last week...So you can imagine what a charming surprise this was! There is no such thing as too much yarn. And certainly not sock yarn!