Sunday Outdoors

Today was a pleasant day of walking the dogs through the snow. I took 164 pictures. Of those, there are about 15 that are good, and about 3 that are terrific. The pic to the left is from today, but I stylized it. I had to lay on the ground to take it. It was very cold.

The birds are frantic. There is no ground except where the roads have been plowed. Mark and I headed out to the Southern States for bird food.

There was a spectacular sale on the bird food--to include bird feeders. We bought black oil sunflower seeds (like heroin for cardinals and titmice). I bought some work gloves too.

It was a pleasant experience to walk into this store that caters to people who need to feed dogs, horses, birds and use outdoor tools. A small store that had it's own cat sitting in one of the beds--a delightful find for me. A considerate and helpful staff. They greeted several folks coming in by name.

Standing in line was a man buying food for his hunting dogs. He breeds beagles crossing blue ticks and tri-colored beagles. I laughingly said that must give them more ground clearance. He laughed back and said, "Walker hounds are too hard to chase!"

He mentioned that he sold several of his hunting dogs to a man in Buckingham County. Gave him a good price because he was also invited to hunt on the man's 1800 acres. He said, "People say that you are not supposed to fall in love with your hunting dogs. I love every one of mine." He showed us a picture on his phone of an 18 deer that was gracing the wall of the man's home. Two thirds of the points were on the right hand rack!

It was pleasant interaction among strangers--and a reminder that people are people regardless of their occupations. It's not what you do, but the joy in which you do it that matters.