It seems like an eternity since I took these pictures.
In fact it was actually only about two weeks ago.
I took these while walking with my dog, and as the sun was setting over Big Butte.
We have walked endlessly together over the past ll months since this beautiful dog with the unfortunate ears came into our grieving lives.
She and I (and sometimes LC but mostly she and I) have taken endless walks through town. Endless walks on BLM land.
Endless amounts of time spent together in a mutual love of movement, of wide open freedom, of the outdoors and quiet adventure.
How many times in the past 14 months have I walked this town, first with Jamie and then with Kory?
Sometimes I feel like I am simply spinning my wheels.
Walking in circles in a make believe town in a make believe world.
I can almost picture this place as the set for a Twilight Zone episode.
A giant little girl towers over the little play town that her father lovingly created for her.
The little town has little homes and little vehicles and little trees and even little toy people and dogs and deer - and a pig - and every day the giggling giant girl runs back into her bedroom after breakfast during the summer, eager to play with her make believe town.
Creating imaginative and endless make believe story lines for her little characters.
Her favorite characters are the blond woman and the pretty little red dog, and she places them in different parts of town every day, directing where they will go and who they will meet and what they will see in their travels.
Giant little girl quietly plays with the characters in her town all through the morning.
When the giant mother calls to the giant little girl to come downstairs for lunch, the little girl giggles and then abandons the little play-town that her father created for her.
Little blond woman and red dog are immediately frozen in place.
Forgotten until the next day when it is time for the girl to play with them again.
What excellent new adventure will she create for her little town and her little people tomorrow?
The little blond woman figure and the pretty little red dog figure stand frozen in place, patiently waiting for the giant little girl to return and place them in the middle of one more child-created adventure the next day.
Little blond woman figure can't move but (unbeknownst to her giant little girl master) she can think.
Frozen in the little toy town, the woman figure silently stands and thinks and then silently she screams
Cut scene to Twilight Zone theme song ..............
Weather now is predictably unpredictable, as this region slowly makes the transition from warm to cold.
Our camping trip last week was exceptional. If the days had been 10 degrees cooler and the nights had been 10 degrees warmer, it would have been perfect but nobody in THIS house was complaining.
On this day the temperature had also been warm, but temperatures were dropping rapidly as Kory and I headed towards the back of town and the endless views of the sun setting over Cedar Butte and Big Butte................
Kory learned last winter that if she jumps up onto the kitchen table, she can see who is driving up to or standing in front of her house.
If I were a stranger looking at the dog who was standing on the table, with front paws resting on the windowsill, and barking incessantly and protectively. I would not even think of breaking into this house.
I honestly do not know if Kory would attack an intruder or wag her tail and lick an intruders' hand.
I have no idea.
But at least initially, she sounds very mean and very protective of her people and her domain, and hopefully that would give any wanna-be intruders pause.
I painted the front windowsills not long after we moved into the house, changing them from dark brown to white. Puppy nails have scratched the paint and so this one in the kitchen needs to be repainted once again.
The table also received many scratches from puppy nail and we now we keep it covered and protected against an energetic dog.
Not long ago I walked into the kitchen and realized that my pup had found a new place to sit................
Two weeks ago I would have reported that the deer were now winter-long Atomic City residents because their appearances in and around town were frequent and consistent.
But it is hunting season and our deer have suddenly disappeared.
Recently I have seen one or two hidden among the trees in resident yards but not the herd, and not for a while now.
There are random trucks driving through town right now, and I know that they are outsiders looking for the town deer so that they can run them outside the city limits.
A chicken shit way to hunt.
If I see them doing it I will dime that out in a heart beat.
They are mostly gone right now, and they will be back eventually, but two weeks ago the deer were everywhere.
Including over the fence on a piece of property next door to ours....................
LC, Kory and I had been in the back yard when we saw the small herd of five or six deer quietly grazing in the yard next door to ours.
About 15 minutes after we first saw them, the small group eventually wandered across the road and slowly grazed their way through the large open field on the edge of town..............
The next night I was walking with Kory and we wandered around town in search of our deer.
It was late in the day, and the sky was that amazing combination of pink and blue that is very common in this part of the country.
As we turned the corner and were heading towards the house I looked up and realized that after wandering all over town in search of them, the deer were within actually steps of our house.
My dog and I both stood motionless in the middle of the gravel street, and did exactly the same thing on this night that we had done on the previous night.
We watched them.
We watched these beautiful things...................
The next morning we found them on BLM land in back of town.
And we watched as they found a break in the fence, crossed over the road, and gently wandered into town..................
She was a stranger in her own life, a tourist in her own body.
Sometimes she wasn't even sure that she had ever really existed...............Melissa de la Cruz, The Van Alen Legacy
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