Pine Cone

She will play with anything that will fit in her mouth! 

Surely pine cones aren't that tasty?! 

Bottoms up!

Umi-no-koen Park, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Post-Christmas

Just past six months old.

What does she see? 

A cold morning walk in the neighborhood. 

Playing in the park in the evening. 

So hard to get her to look my way!

Learning how to lay.

Northeast Countryside

Festive taiko drums during festival in Ibaraki Precture.

Kimono- and armor-clad dolls on a traditional float in the parade.

Street decoration for the festival and parade using bamboo and the symbol of the local town.

Paved road running along the top of a river bank.

Warm and wet regardless of the early fall. Love the mist covering the low areas of the valley.

Huge red bridge crossing the river. Normally, the river is not flowing so heavily, so there is a lot of farming going on between the river and the river bank.

Of course, should the waters rise, these farmers will be at a loss.

Growing rice along the river.

The mist completely blocks the view of the mountains in the distance.

Harvested rice and rice waiting to be harvested.

Normally, I don't like the view of power lines scarring the view of the skyline, but these towers are the tallest things in the whole valley of farms and rice paddies.

Even rice farmers get lighted streets!

Green onions waiting to be harvested.

Small town the next morning.

This shot was a mistake, but liked the strange effect so kept it anyway.

Local farmers really take a lot of effort to keep the appearance of their homes looking nice.

Wall of yellow!

Wall of green!

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Puking Puppy

This cage was useful for about six months. After moving to a new home, she can roam freely in the house destroying thing at her pleasure! 😉

Took her on first long road trip to Ibaraki Prefecture. She puked in the car all the and foamed at the mouth. Felt horrible for her. Very few road trips since then. 😞

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Hot Puppy

Though it was a great and wonderful afternoon for us humans, poor Dale was getting really, really hot!

I took her off the hot sidewalk and let her play in the shade of the trees in the park.

Of course, she is not happy to stay in one place at a time. So, we went to all the shady parts within the park.

She was insistent on staying in the shade! 😊

After about one hour, she gave up and took a little nap in the shade under some bushes where the ground was moist and cool.

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Beach Friend

We met another dog and his owner at the beach.

This was Dale's first trip to the beach. She loved the sand and being able to run leash-free.

Although she was afraid of the waves, she really loved playing with this little brown fella.

Punch!

Tackle!

Fortunately, the other dog wasn't the least bit fazed by Dale's antics.

Dale -- passive aggressive.

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Green Sand

Took Dale to the beach for her first time to see the ocean. She was scared of the waves but had fun playing with her Frisbee.

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.