one bug eaten today...

bluebells and i think columbine. those are really pretty. i love all the wildflowers that show up each spring.

blossom and i take a break before heading back to the car and loaning my jumper cables to some poor family who wore down thier battery listening to music while waiting for the rest of the family to come back from their hike.

below blossom shows cooper how to swim. this is coopers first swim. he's 11 months old...just a puppy still. i doubt we wore him out. blossom tried hard though.

below is sharon. she was cracking up. i always think laughing pictures like this look like those tampon commercials where they try to convince women that having your period can be a joy! yeah, yeah, yeah! sharon is laughing all the time....fun to chill with. have known her for years. we met in ketchikan. always back to ketchikan. just a great little town and there was a wonderful group of people while i was there.

so i met up with my friend sharon at gold mint trailhead in hatchers pass and went for a little hike...well 8 miles. first i walked the two dogs 2 miles, settled rio in for the day and then drove out. in the process of walking some sort of flying insect made a beeline for my throat. this caused a gag and spit episode and eventually i had to admit that bug was stuck there in my throat and the only practical solution was to take a swig of water and just accept the protein. a mile or so later...my friend was in the same boat. those bugs. i'm just not a fan...the thing they are successful at each year is making me wish for winter.

of course, sometimes winter drops in year round up in these parts. these past few days there has been some dusting on the mountain tops of snow and today when we finished hiking and headed to independence mine it was snowing on us. as i traveled home, the sun turned to rain then hail and back to sun...so the weather can get crazy at times. did get a lovely rainbow outside tonight though. i love those rainbows.

poppy watch...no bloom yet. i've looked twice at least today. i'm just hoping it doesn't wait til i am gone to bloom. that would be cruel.

anyway...the dogs had a blast chasing each other so obviously they went many more miles than we did and rio survived being left behind, though i felt the usual guilt. it was a beautiful day and surprisingly we only got a few raindrops on our walk. haven't been up to independence mine for a bit. they've tried to preserve what they can of the old mine...there is lots that time has taken though. the trails of the park were closed so that was a bummer. made some homemade turkey noodle soup when i got home. put a few bowls up to freeze so that i can munch on them while on my camp out. should be tasty out there in the wild. i'll try to post some scenery shots tomorrow. i'm tired for some reason...could be the 10 miles of walking i did today. hehe. good night.