Night Iijima Park Dog Walk

Took Dale to the Iijima Shimin Park in our neighborhood for her evening walk. 

Their is a man-made creek that runs along the edge of the park with these huge slabs of stone used for bridges. 

Dale loves to run across to the other side and sniff around the water’s edge.

As usual, she can’t resist to jump into the water.

This is a downstream view of the creek.

This is an upstream view.

This is the first bridge that is upstream.

Dale deciding where she should go to jump into the water — from the shore or just jump in from the bridge.

Some strange looking flowering plants can be seen in the park.

These leaves are quite colorful during the day, but slippery when wet!

Don’t know what kind of fruit this is, but all my neighbors have them growing in their yards.

Normally, this flower is red or pink. Was a bit surprised to find a white one growing in my neighbor’s yard.

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

Afternoon Dale Mary Dog Walk

Took Dale and Mary to a local park where they have this big rope she loves.

If you pull on the rope or shake it a little bit, she will try to play tug-o’-war. The rope was probably originally made for mooring a ship — it’s really quite heavy!

Got Mary all bundled up for her walk. She easily suffers from hypothermia, so we need to make sure she keeps warm. 

I bit bright today for Mary. She is so sensitive, but thinks she’s a big strong dog, which seems to be a inherited trait for her breed.

Found some flowers in the neighborhood that caught my attention while walking the dogs.

Due to the warm, dry winter we have had so far, many of the flowers are starting to wilt.

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

Muddy Girl

Took Dale to a pond in a very small park about 15 minutes from home for her late evening walk.

The pond has all kinds of wildlife during summer, but during this time of year, it's just a shallow pool of mud, which Dale loves!

There are no people in this park after midnight, so it's OK to let her off of her leash.

When it's that time of the week for her bath, I let her have all the fun she wants in the mud!

On the way back home, there's a short wall lined with some small bushes and shrubbery. Dale loves to jump up and walk along the top of the wall. I love how she crouches like a cat stalking prey when she crawls under the bushes. (This is a trait that was bred into Border Collies for sheep herding purposes.)

At the end of our walk, we race down the street to the house. She really loves running and racing with me. 

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

Midnight Red

January is one of the coldest months here in Yokohama. Mary gets hypothermia quite easily, so I need to bundle her up in two doggy coats.

After relieving herself, she quickly makes a U-turn and rushes back to the house! It's midnight now, so it's time to get ready for bed. Good night!

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

Little Red Riding Hood

Sniffing out her territory. 

Strike a pose!

Kitchen Dogs

Warming up in front of the kerosene heater.

Somebody found a tennis ball at the park during the morning stroll.

Four Effects

These are all basically the same shots. Had fun playing with the photo editing software to see what it could do without making the photos too obtrusive.

If this were my house, I would have chosen and different color for the wall. As it is, this is not actually a painted wall, but the traditional style of wall surfacing made of some kind of mud mixed with sand. You can literally scrapes bits of sand and dust of this kind of wall if you are not careful.

Tried to focus on the bright tones of the flowers themselves. 

The alcove has it's own light, but it is fluorescent, which makes for some bad lighting.

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