Tynan here with this week’s “What’s on the frame” (and the blog).Like last week, she’s still working on the dog bone commission. Has she made one for me? I think we all know the answer to that one. Oh, and BTW, she’s taking some time off.
So, you know how she went on and on last week about how busy she is? As if the whole world isn’t over-scheduled. (Right, I’m not overly busy at all; dogs are smarter than the average human!) Anyway, this week she’s soooo busy that she told me I had to write the post up and get it out. Clearly, she was afraid to tell you that she’s decided, what with everything going on, including a nice vacation on a riverboat in France!!! – no dogs allowed – she’s about to take her annual summertime blog hiatus for a few weeks. Look for her again sometime mid-August. In the meantime, she insists that she can be reached and “seen” through the Facebook page, Instagram, and email.
I want you all to know that I did her bidding, but I’m not happy. 1) I don’t get to hang in Bordeauxon a riverboat eating goat cheese and drinking wine. 2) They wouldn’t let me explore the cave I found yesterday. See, we went hiking on an obscenely easy trail in the Cibola National Forest on the other side of the Sandias. (Okay, the master’s still babying his gouty toe.)
Here’s the mine shaft opening on the Tecolote Trail (No. 264) in the Sandias. Contact me if you’d like to investigate it one day.
As usual, I’m leading the way up the mountain. I’m scanning the trail for the usual suspects: bears, bobcats, mountain lions, geckos. Don’t laugh, those little bastards can sneak up on you and scare the shit out of a dog. Anyway, I take a gander to my left and what do I see – no, not a giant gecko, smart-asses – but a cave. Cool! Who knows what kind of snacks might be hidden in there. I adjust course and head for the opening. Cautiously I enter and next thing I know…someone’s got my tail. Damn, I hate that. “Tynan, get your ass out here!”
Turns out it’s an old mine shaft entrance. But who knows who lives in there now? Not that anyone would let me investigate. Chicken shits! They insisted that we take pictures of the cave, but that’s all. Damn. I just want everyone to know that I was willing and brave enough to find out what was in there. Some others…were not.
Laura here. Just to clarify about that hike. Scaredy Dog really did want to explore the cave, but, yeah, NO! And while it wasn’t the most difficult hike, look who dashed back to his car so that he could rest. Happy summer! Be back after I take some time off.
On that note, I wish you all a good rest of the summer. Like I said, we’ll be back to the blog mid-August. She’ll probably make me write that first one too. I hope that you and your dogs (okay, maybe the cats too) enjoy your vacations even if they’re staycations. And if you’re taking your dogs somewhere cool this summer, PLEASE comment here. It’ll give me more ammunition for next year.
Tynan putting on his best face. Looking good, man! He’s bringing you one of the rugs “on the frame” for this week. “Australian Welcome” is just about done; there are just 12 more little triangles to color in. For some reason this rug seems to have taken forever!
Hey, it’s me Tynan! I’m back again. She couldn’t come up with a good topic for this week’s blog,so she put it on me. Thanks for the favor, Mistress. Not! As if I just have a ready-made post just sitting around my in dog-bed. I’ll take some advance warning next time, sister!
Things haven’t changed much since I last wrote. My fur is still a problem. We live in New Mexico. Sure, it’s high desert, not as bad as Pheonix or Tucson where they close the airports when the tarmac melts. (How is that a real thing???) But Albuquerque is nonetheless in a freaking desert. It’s been in the mid and high 90s for a few weeks, and they still haven’t taken me to the groomers. Again. A long walk that they took me on one morning a week or two ago almost killed me. Thank God for Starbucks! The master, he goes in to buy our refreshments. Leaves me to wait with the mistress. After a l-o-n-g time – do they not see my tongue hanging our of my mouth? – he comes back out with: 1) an iced coffee for himself; 2) a white iced tea for her, and 3) a cup of ice water! What? Not only is it not the iced caramel machiatto that I requested, it’s a cup of water. Just water. No whipped cream, no caramel drizzled on top, no nothing. Poo! Blech! And have you ever seen a dog try to drink from a cup? Not the easiest thing to do. My swollen, over-heated tongue loses half of the liquid while she holds the cup in front of me. At least she went in and had the cup refilled. Thank God for small, miniscule, itty-bitty favors.
Just look at all the fur on me! I wish she’d put the ceiling fan on high. And the AC even higher. This High on Hooking Dog deserves more respect. And a damn haircut!
Not that I want to bore your with my grievances, but they’ve been promising me that we’d go hiking all spring-into-summer. And yet, and yet, we haven’t done any hiking. First there was her big RA flare-up, then he had to one-up her with a big, old gout attack. Both feet. I did kind of feel sorry for him. No walking really for weeks with me and the mistress. But he’s feeling much better now. Finally talked to a doctor, and she’s getting by enough, but are we going hiking, preferably somewhere cooler, like up the Sandiasor to Nambe Falls where we could even get wet? No, not at all. And now that this stupid New Mexico drought had gotten so bad, they’ve closed all the national and state forests and such. Didn’t want to, but people are stupid with campfires and cigarettes, and forest fires are a real thing here. So, we’re sh… out of luck. What’s a dog to do but lie on the bed in the air conditioned air and under the ceiling fan…
I’ll tell you though, there’s a definite bright spot in this hot, summery, New Mexican dog’s life.
Sorry, couldn’t find a pic of my new best friend Darlene, but here’s one of her rugs. Ask her who the designer was. I’m a dog, not a rug hooker.
Vacation’s coming! Yesiree! Yep, the humans are going on vacation in August, the two of them alone on a river cruise. (Can’t wait to hear how they resolve the whole problem of her light sleeping and his industrial snoring. If you have any ideas, write’em down in the comment section below.) Me, I was supposed to go to one of those doggy “resorts” – resort, my ass! – but one of my lovely hooking ladies – Darlene – and Rex her husband have offered to let me bunk at their place. You should see it: Trees and real grass! Not that fake putting green like we have here. I burn my pads on it! Their yard’s bigger than ours too. Lots of places to sniff out geckos and rabbits. And to do my business in private, if you get my drift. Best of all is their liberal offerings of treats. One time I was there and Rex brings me out a big-ass bowl of lunch. Lunch! Mistress up and tells him, Oh, Tynan doesn’t eat lunch, Rex. Bitch queered my action. Still, I got a half of that bowl and some other treats from Mary, another one of my hooking babes. She lives near Darlene and Rex and might take me for a walk or something that week. She has a good house too. Lots of birds; always an excellent thing. I might catch one one day. If I try a little harder. Maybe. When it’s not so warm.
That’s my story. Today. Tune in again to see if she lets me have the laptop again. Hope you’re
No. it’s not too exciting. Yet! Slowly working our way around the perimeter of the “Big Boucherouite.” Hoping to have more time to work on it in the coming month. Remember that it’s got a due date – March 1 – in order to enter it into next year’s Fiber Arts Fiesta here in Albuquerque. Check out the into here. Can enter starting January 1. You don’t have to be local!
cooler than I am. Or at least have good AC and a haircut.
Tynan, the High on Hooking Dog
Notes from Laura:
Tynan has a haircut scheduled for later today. he’s just not aware of it. He’s not usually too excited to go there, though it’s not as bad as going to the V-E-T.
Apparently, Nambe Falls is open, and they allow dogs. We’ll try to get up that way later this week. Don’t tell the High on Hooking Dog, though. It’ll be a surprise.
Dan Ostermiller is the artist who brought the wild things to Santa Fe’s Botanic Gardens.
Last Wednesday Tom and I took a little field trip. Several months ago he’d surprised me with tickets to Santa Fe’s Botanical Gardens, a place we’d never been to. He picked them up for a sweet price on Groupon; I was good with that. Unfortunately, Tynan and his canine ilk are verboten at the gardens, so he had to stay home. (Not that he minded; he managed to log a lot of air conditioned snooze time on the bed with us gone.)
So, we get to the garden. It’s up on Museum Hill in Santa Fe. Friends had warned me. It’s no BioPark. The BioPark here in Albuquerque comprises both our zooand botanic garden – don’t ask me why it’s called “botanic” and not “botanical” like I’ve always heard. But I’m used to the plain BIGNESS of our botanic gardens becaue I’m there regularly; the Adobe Wool Arts Guild does demos there the first and fourth Tuesdays of each month (except June and July when they kick us out for summer camp groups).
The Santa Fe gardens are far more modest. Really, it takes very little time to cruise through it. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant place to spend a warm (read: HOT) early summer hour or so. And one thing really stood out – or really twenty-three things: the animal sculpture exhibit of Dan Ostermiller called “Gardens Gone Wild.” If you’re thinking of seeing the garden, I recommend going while the critters are there; they made the place. According to the literature we picked up, the exhibit runs from May, 2018 – May 12, 2019. In the meantime, check out some of the pics I managed to get.
This is “Bullfrog.” There were actually two of them hanging, but I spied this one when we first started down the garden path. He charmed me especially as my maiden name is “Croke,” and for decades I collected froggies.“Melba” is a whopping 69x72x41 inches. I suggest that you don’t try to take one of her eggs for your breakfast. (Even if they’re bronze like the sculptures.)
Wouldn’t this ramadain the midst of the rose garden make a perfect place to get married or to renew your vows?Meet “R.B.” He’s quite the distinguished looking bunny rabbit, no? He stands 55×50.5×42. After I put him (or perhaps one of the other two rabbits in the exhibit) up on Instagram, there was a discussion regarding how much he looks like a chocolate rabbit. Yum!But before you eat the chocolate, you have to eat your veggies. Artichoke, anyone?Near the various herbs and the artichoke, of course, was the horno, an outdoor adobe oven that was used by Native Americans and early settlers. Drive around New Mexico and you’ll see them in backyards being used still. Good kitchen equipment never dies.
“Boys Will Be Boys” is just one of several bear sculptures in the exhibit. Together these two are 50x80x73.
This is a close-up of “Ursus.” He actually stands 98.5×46.5×39. He’s a BIG BOY.
This was the sculpture that really WOWED me. “American Gold” is huge! If I read correctly, 113 inches across the wings. Just seeing this one animal sculpture would’ve made the garden trip worth it.Meanwhile, my own wild animal clearly had a wild hair across his butt during his latest photo shoot. He decided it was face-scratching time rather than presenting “What’s on the frame.” Hm, maybe it’s a full moon… Or the almost 100 degrees today. Stay cool, people!
