Everything stinks

It seems like it’s been cold and wet forever. You know that funky smell that wet towels get when they’ve been lying around too long? My parka and gloves have smelled like that for a week, at least. And I do hang them to dry when I come in; I think they just absorbed it from the air. The whole bos smells like funky wet towels and thawed dog poop. This afternoon I couldn’t stand it any more and threw the parka and gloves in the washer as soon as we got back from our walk. Too bad I can’t do the same with my boots . . .

But Rusty is, as always, a happy chappie. He says a little stink never hurt anyone.

Dashing in the Snow

The stick-figure–looking tracks are duck tracks. Before we came along, there were at least a dozen ducks huddled together on the opposite side of  the path from the canal.

A Thought for Today

The real index of civilization is when people are kinder than they need to be. — Louis de Berniere, novelist (b. 1954)

Plus de Paris

The weather was pretty bad for most of our time in Paris (although we managed to have a good time anyway), but on December 25 we got the gift of sunlight. At first it was intermittent, and we got lucky as we rounded a corner and saw the sun shining on this dome against the dark grey clouds. Later, as we walked through the Luxembourg Gardens, the sun prevailed. We sat on a bench and soaked it up like all the other old people.
Yes sir, Paris is special.

Joyeux Noel

Paris at Christmastime. Very nice. Joyeux Noel á tout le monde!

A Retail Derriere

I entered “airedale terrier” into The Internet Anagram Server and that’s one of the results. I like it.

Following on my mention of A.Word.A.Day yesterday, I have added Delancey Place to the list of sites I love. “Eclectic little excerpts delivered to your email every day.” Or you can browse the site.

A Thought for Today

Fred

Originally uploaded by dogma48

This came to me today courtesy of A.Word.A.Day:

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. – Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and writer (121–180)

I often fail in the execution, but this is what I believe in.

Winter

Much time has passed. Not much of note has happened. We had another hedgehog sighting, Rusty started to look like a sheep and then went to the groomer, and the weather forecast for The Hague has been like this:

For weeks. Weeks. Oh, occasionally a little sunlight breaks through for half an hour, and sometimes the drizzle stops for a while. But mostly it’s really, really grey, and the days are very short. Bleah.

Winter does have its own beauty:

And Rusty, who quite likes the cold and doesn’t mind the damp, is still very handsome and still hard to get a good photo of:

Whew! All that posing makes a boy thirsty.

Fantasia

When I saw mushrooms like these in the bos last year I got very excited. According to Wikipedia, they are now found all over the world, but I had never seen them except in photos and of course, way back, in Walt Disney’s Fantasia. To me, they seem very exotic.

I was trying to get a better photo when another dogwalker approached. Rusty leaped up to say hello, decapitating the ’shrooms with his leash.

There were more a little further along the path.

Neighborhood Watch