Botany boot camp (or how to lose weight through walking)

Ok, so I gained a couple of pounds while Mom was away. Two pounds - that's not so much. . . (except when it's a fifth of one's body weight, I suppose it looks pretty obvious that one has become a tub-o-lard. . .).

What's botany bootcamp? It's what Mom calls, "getting back into shape before the next field season." She has to do a lot of hiking and climbing when she's doing her botanical fieldwork and she always trains for it before she goes away from home.




You know what? I LIKE botany boot camp! It means I get to go on lots of long walks and find interesting animal burrows.
















I always try to go down the hole, but this stupid leash is attached and Mom won't let me off the lead. Stupid leash!








On one of my long walks I found some new friends. They were all running around in a field, playing catch and fetch and none of them had leashes on. This one wasn't a dachsie, but my other three new friends were just like me - well, sort of. . .






This one was a smooth-coat who totally ignored me. "Throw the frisbee! Come on! Throw it!"










This was a full-size standard, long hair.












"Really, who's your stylist? How do I get my coat to look so full?"









"Hmmm, maybe you could stand a bath next time you go see your stylist. . ."











"Ok, you're really wearing a mop wig, right?"










This was another smooth coat - a black and tan. Why is it that we always have to sniff each others' ears?








These are cows on the OSU experimental farm. We walked over there to do some birding and we ended up walking about 3 1/2 miles altogether. For some reason the cows thought we were very interesting and they followed us all along the fence line.








They wanted me to come closer, I could tell. Mom wouldn't let me. She was afraid I'd get stepped on.






I wanted to sniff them, but that fence was electrified and Mom kept me out of harms way. I sniffed as hard as I could, though.


We're still going on lots of walks and I'm back to my old self now. I'm now so fit that the squirrels, chipmunks and birds have to watch out in my back yard. The kids had to have a funeral last weekend for "Dead slow squirrel." That probably tells you that I'm a pretty ferocious predator even though I look so sweet and I'm so nice to people.

Excuses, excuses. . .

Poor Emma - I've been sooooooooooo busy during spring quarter. First I went off for three weeks to Hawaii, Australia, and then Hawaii again. While I was gone Emma gained two whole pounds because no one took her for walks and she found all sorts of goodies the kids left around the house. I had to put Emma through "botany boot camp" when I came home and now she's back to her regular size. I was busy as soon as I came home, serving on a big grant panel, so I didn't have time to work on Emma's blog and then I started teaching again. For the past month I've been working on the Aisling CD, "The Pilgrim's Road." Emma's glad that I've not been ignoring her, but I've really not had time to update the blog. However, I'll correct that now. Sorry for the time lag. . .