Pictures of Puppy Beach

Crane Beach, Ipswich MA

MochaChow Chow

Winter Sun and Found Beach Ball

 

West Boxford, MA

I came upon this beach ball, tucked under evergreen branches on the home stretch of a sunny ride around the neighborhood today. 

Patrick and Clara Thanksgiving

This is the sort of random shot I had in mind  when starting this little project.  Artificial flowers set out for the winter.  Andover, MA - spotted on our way home from the Feaster Five Road Race.  This is a great family event, baby strollers and well behaved dogs (maybe another year for Mocha) welcome.  Bundled up brass players on the street corners kept us moving with music. 

Enthusiastic runner pre race

Enthusiastic runner post race - pies are given at the finish

Wet shoe morning

West Boxford, MA

Loved riding in the rain today, didn't love walking through the halls of Pfizer with two completely waterlogged Gortex Boots.  Seems like the waterproofing is worn out and they are now water retaining.  Either that or that much water drained off my pants into the boots over 10 miles.  In any case, it was a complete opposite to the pedestrian experience that I enjoyed vicariously this morning through this site.     http://www.outofedenwalk.com/walk-highlights-year-one/#21    Note the sun and distinct lack of water in these pictures.  These made me laugh because even though they are in exotic Saudi Arabia, a few of them evoked the feeling of a few bits of hiking the PCT in So Cal - I guess walking is walking. 

Coca Cola truck through a veil of evergreens

Pfizer campus, Andover, MA

First snow fall of the season today.  The Canadian geese were out this morning on the pond, but had mysteriously vanished when I came out with the camera.

Lichen on stone wall

The New England stone wall, Kelly backyard.
A stone ecosystem for lichen, poison ivy, and perhaps a few critters. 

Wild landscapes of stone were a theme in my reading yesterday.  Imagine a long walk through a stone boneyard.  Imagine what spaces there are on this earth if one walks far enough to find them.

http://www.outofedenwalk.com/walk-highlights-year-one/#5

Winter Arrives

Paisley Farmstand, West Boxford, MA

Wind was the weather of the day.  All day and cold.  At sunrise, the lawn had a white powder coating from a hard frost or perhaps a light snow.  Mocha seemed to embrace the cold weather - enjoying at full speed a mountain bike outing with Patrick over smooth twisting singletrack.  On the way home, we stopped at the neighbor's farm stand to buy squashes and apples.  The jugs of cider are stored there in a cooler - today it had become an ice bath. 

Baaaaaa

Super fluffy sheep and cute goats spotted on this morning's run.

North Andover, MA

Really enjoyed a ladies' ride to Newburyport today.  I'm feeling the motivation to start training. 

Polar Bear looks out on wet November

Andover, Mass

This sculpture was installed at the library a few years back. Consider a dramatic lifestyle change!  Save the polar bears! 

yucca

It was a challenging day for nature photography as traveled in the car to a training in Cambridge.   I took a short run on paths in Cambridge and Arlington, but didn't find much of interest back there behind the Pfizer building.  Ok, not true, I did see a person posing in a wonderful red native costume in front of the wetland plant and had I taken my camera - the scene would have been perfect for this.  You never know what you will find behind the Arlington T station.    What it comes down to is I should carry my camera to show you the magical and strange things that are found.

Instead I bring you the lowly yucca from my kitchen.  Mary Swander writes about a meditation on yucca in Out of this World.  That is a book that deserves a winter re-read.

And if you are in the mood for better pictures, you can take a browse through these that Sasha and Anna took on our trip to Provence - text regarding the trip in the Sep blog posts.  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22984471@N03/sets/72157637905410315/

Backyard moon take 2

I've been reading a book about the  industry of horseshoe crab lysate.  Horseshoe crabs see in the moonlight to find their mates.  They can actually see better at night than during the day - one article I read said that the better vision is triggered by an internal clock, not the light level.  That is too bad as I found the idea of good moonlight vision quite compelling.

See how interesting the horseshoe crab is!

http://www.horseshoecrab.org/anat/vision.html

Leaf Petals

I thought I'd seen the last of the leaves, everything left was brown or mums in a state of mid November decay.  What a surprise to find these bright red leaves which reminded me of rose petals.

Pfizer campus, Andover, MA

Sunflower scarecrow

This is one of a collection of some of cutest little lawn ornaments I've ever seen.  They are so small that I think they would be easy to miss in a car, but I get a good look at them on my way to work on the bicycle as they are on the top of a rise.  It was an interesting evening to be out tonight.  The roads wound through warm and cool pockets of air - and small moths have gathered all around our house.

Ladies Ride in Lowell

What better to get one out of the house and having fun on a chilly gray day than a cross race.