another day enjoying the snow

 snowshoe'd out in N Biv for a good 2 hours.  the pups got coated but had a great time.

 we've had some lovely snow days.  a few days of snowshoe action.  burned a lot of calories no doubt.  Ivy looked so cute in the upstairs window watching me shovel snow.

 i created a garden....which is now buried in snow, but it was fun while it lasted.  it was nice to do as there was a celebration of life for Alaska's wild flower guru on Saturday.  seemed fitting.

 my little flowers were all happy...though not very fancy.  i used kids snow paint.  stuff is okay but it doesn't travel well in the cold.  tried to use it on  my walk later that day, practicing with small polka dot snowmen. the stuff clumped and clogged. fine for at home with warm water though.

 we did stop by her celebration of life.  didn't stay long, wrote in the guest book...about all.  then we hit the bear tooth.  i was starving after 4 miles of snowshoeing.

 class tonight with Ivy Rose.  she does well.  Rally seems kind of fun. not really sure how much i'd pursue it...may be more next winter.  Ivy is smart and i could see her competing in anything..she is so into being a good pup.

 Tusker didn't want to stay in the car.  i really should try leaving one at home.  honestly, he would probably be the one to test it out with.  he'd probably do better home alone than Ivy would.  both sleeping now.

 thought i'd put these next 2 pics in that i found on fb twowomenandahoe i think it was.  so i took neither picture nor did neither of the flower art in the two below shots..both are impressive.  makes my art look pretty bad..but i'm so far from a perfectionist.

 look at these flowers below!! that took some time.

 just saw some story...some woman somewhere, not sure where, but she apparently ate some calamari.  some time later she had mouth pain...turns out her mouth was pregnant with 12 squid! ick...!!  that would freak me out.

 other news...Gene Cernan, i think i spelled that wrong...anyway. he was the last astronaut to walk on the moon. it was years ago and what i had heard/read he was actually hoping that he would just be one of many and that our space exploration and moon exploration would be further along than it is.

 listened to NPR for a bit while driving around in the deep snow..loads of it, lots of cars where they weren't supposed to be snow.  anyway, this guy had written a blog.  he was saying at some point he had asked atheists if he could buy their soul and he said nobody would sell him their soul.

 it all went a bit further and one atheist did say he could buy his soul for $50 since he didn't believe he had a soul so who cares.  of course, he wondered could he get more for his soul and then also said that since he doesn't believe in souls if another asked to buy his soul he would have no issue selling his soul again since in his mind he had no soul he could make up any sort of rule he wanted...like that his soul had returned

 of course it did make me think that not believing in a God would not necessarily mean that one would have to not believe in a soul.  could there be an afterlife without a concept of a God?  could there be a soul without a concept of a God?  i suppose there could be.  believe or not if you have one you have one.

 there is for sure some entity of life, call it whatever you wish.  i'd say many hospital staff, such as myself, can attest to that.  have only had one patient that spoke of seeing the white light you hear of.  i have had patients whom as i did my exam and checked their pupils...it seemed dull and dead inside...the entity that comes through our eyes was not there. i recall one patient doing my checks and seeing that whatever that entity is that had left, had now returned. she recovered.  have also had family members recognize this in their loved one...they would look in their loved ones eyes and know that that person was "gone"...as in they had left their earthly body.

 i don't have to have answers....i don't have to be right.  it always seemed odd to me that people would believe they had some sort of knowledge of all things God, more than the others of the earth.  i suspect mostly humans need to have answers,want to have those answers.  want to feel like they have the chosen path to follow. i see nature as the path i guess.  that is where i feel closest to whatever God there is.  right or wrong...i really don't care.  i'd rather just be a good person because that is the right way to be.

 if there was a God that was involved in creating this beauty and detail then that God would surely desire us to show it respect and care and to protect it.  so many details, so much uniqueness.  so much diversity.  hard for me to imagine that whoever created this earth didn't put a great deal of love and attention into it all.  too much for us to take it for granted .

 whatever each of us believes or thinks is the truth of it all...i feel it's not all that complicated.  we must be kind and respectful and giving and generous of heart.  we must try to protect this earth and all the beauty, we must pick up the weak and help those who need help.  we must be grateful for what we have and if we have abundance we should share that with those less fortunate.

 the various religions have right and wrong in them...i sense none are all right or all wrong. if it brings you happiness to attend church then be happy, if it does not then find what brings you happiness and overall, if it makes you a better person then embrace it...same with the people in your life....if they make you a better person then embrace them.  avoid negativity, avoid negative people.

 and of course, embrace dogs...!!

 speaking of entities...i turned around the other night in my room and there seemed to be a dog entity there...a big yellow dog entity...and then it was gone.  was it my girl stopping by.  i'd like to think so.

 as you can see a few small snowmen around...quickly covered over by snow last night.  it came down pretty steady all night.

 out with GT on the Monday walk today.  she brought her boy Leo.  nice enough pup...he seems pretty intent on Ivy though so she leashed him up.  she'd not in heat, but until i get her fixed i have to be pretty watchful. don't really want her getting humped anyway..she seems too young and innocent.  must protect my girl from things beyond her comprehension...haha.

 felt badly for Leo though being stuck on leash when all he wanted to do was romp around.  his human says it's only Ivy that he does this too.  not sure why that is. maybe her rough housing is just too exciting for him. maybe because when he meets dogs at the dog park it's just a quick meet and greet? no idea.

 she is pretty cute girl too though.

 the pups had a great time romping in that deep snow.  love when they do this bow thing.

 faces blurred in snow

 Ivy gets coated and seems to love it.

 otherwise today, i came home and curled up under my fleece heated blanket and soon fell into a deep sleep.  no wonder i never get much accomplished.  i walk and sleep.  it's a rough life.

 action and then all cute for a photo op

 and back to the chase.

 yep...those pups are sleeping.

 head buried

 diving in!

 always looks so beautiful with all that fresh snow coating the tree's.

 we just did some various loops in there.  not quite 4 miles, almost.  i polished off my 4 miles with the class i think.

 was trying to figure out one station so the instructor took Ivy to demonstrate...so i'm all, Oh you turn into the dog, she says no and does it again...so i say, yea, you turned into the dog...then she realized i was right and the rest of class she was using that to explain it to everyone...we both laughed.

 their muzzles look cool all coated.  they got lots of ice balls...so far nothing like the ones Blossom used to get.  we will see if their coats are different by next year...they are still growing so i think it can be a bit before you really get the full coat on these guys.

 you can see the snow falling on this one below.  he was trying to get the ice balls out from between his toes. i help them on occasion.

 for a few months he's had this last bit of long hair at the tip of his tail. cracks me up for some reason. keep waiting for it to disappear but it's still there.

 guess i'll go read a bit and crash.

grateful for:  A.  not sliding into the ditch like so many others today...probably helps that i drive super slow. B. watching the joy of dogs as they romp in fresh deep snow.  it's been a bit for that as the last 2 years were low snow years.  C.  snuggle time with my pups.  :-)  good night