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.
It took a year, but our first visitors finally arrived here at our new house in New Mexico. My parents took the honor, arriving last Tuesday. They departed early yesterday morning, just as the sun came up from behind Albuquerque’s Sandia Mountains.
Mom always says, “Wine tastes best on top of a mountain.” In this case we were celebrating the view from Sandia Crest after arriving via the Tramway.
I have to admit that Tom and I were rather depressed after we dropped them at the Sunport (that’s what they call the airport here). More specifically, we were homesick, something that really hasn’t been a problem for us other than at the holidays. Which are coming up… Still, we had a good time: saw lots of sites, shopped lots of shops, ate lots of food, drank lots of wine. (My beverage proclivities are clearly genetic.) New friends – also from New England – joined us for Tom’s home-smoked ribs and football Sunday. And since you asked, yes, the Patriots did beat those Arizona Cardinals, even without Tom Brady. Woohoo!
Interestingly, I took few pictures, mostly because we were always visiting places I’ve already got photographs of. Guess I better ask my father to share his pics.
But vacation’s over (and it was a vacation for me, especially not dealing much with social media, to be perfectly honest), our visitors are gone, and now I’ve got work to do. There are two weekends of the Rail Yard Market left for me. Mug rugs have been selling, so they have to be replenished. I steamed two today; tomorrow I’ll finish them up. I’m in the midst of finishing a table runner too. And starting a brand new rug, a big round one. I drew it up yesterday. Later today I’ll finish sewing on the twill tape and start cutting strips. (If you’re new to High on Hooking, I sew the tape on first, before I start to hook. It’s just how I was taught.)
The reception I’ve had at the Rail Yard has been so positive that I’ve decided to participate in December’s special holiday market. It’ll be cold standing outside all day (the building we’re in is really just a shell), but I’m hoping that it’ll be worth the effort. And that there will be a LOT of hot tea available. So, I need to get ready for that, come up with some new ideas. More on that later.
Balloon Fiesta: what fall is all about in Albuquerque. Think our visitors will like this?
So, it’s time to get moving and to prepare for…more visitors! Tom’s sister and some of her family will be here in…two weeks! Just in time for Balloon Fiesta to start. Fall is a busy time here in the Salamy household and at High on Hooking. Thank goodness we like it that way.
It’s Tuesday, a perfect day for playing a little hooky. I know it’s also blog-duty day, but maybe we can fudge that a little in the name of unbelievably nice winter weather and creativity. Especially when I think of what I wrote last week vis à vis creativity and my re-burgeoning need to write.
Hurray! I finally sat down and wrote.
This morning, while the kid was at work and the husband was out at some doctor’s appointment, I took up pen and paper and set forth to write fake stuff – fiction, that is – once more. I gave myself a prompt I’d collected (I keep them on my Pinterest page, if you’re interested) and wrote till I heard the garage chimes ringing that Tom was home. It was a good start. Tonight the journal comes out after the dinner dishes are cleared.
The afternoon hitting 60 degrees here in west Albuquerque (sorry to all those who might be finding their own climate a little chilly), after lunch Tom and the dog and I headed down to the Bosque (the forest along the Rio Grande) to check out the local wildlife. Got so warm, I had to take off my sweatshirt.
The Rio Grande as it flows through Albuquerque. Those are the Sandia Mountains in the background. I’m thinking that I’ll have to do a landscape piece sometime soon. See, playing a little hooky is good for one’s creativity.
Tonight it’s back to pulling loops. My March 1 deadline to have this current piece done is quickly approaching, and there’s still some project infrastructure I haven’t figured out. Just trying to get the major hooking done first.
Praying that the old Clairol will come through for me…
Tomorrow’s creative endeavor: Early this morning, before I sat down to write, I did my monthly-or-so coloring of the grays. I hate dying my hair. Hell, I haven’t even tackled dying the t-shirts I hook with. Tried a new shade. And changed to L’Oreal when I had been a Clairol kind of girl. Very bad idea. I’m a natural redhead. Or I used to be. Currently, I’m more Lucy meets a violet crayon; the box called the color it “Ruby Rush.” Yeah. Made a call back to Maurice in Rhode Island: “What do I do?!!!?” Then took a trip to Walgreens to pick up the old Clairol. Back to the dying board tomorrow.
