Amira was so excited to go trick-or-treating.  We headed into downtown Poulsbo and joined the throng of revelers (wow, did they ever come out in droves!) walking up and down the avenue.  I got separated early on from Paul & Amira because I had decided it would be “a good idea” to bring Chaya along with us.  Sweet Chaya was, to say the least, overwhelmed by the number of people and how very *different* everyone looked.  There were certain costumed passersby that she would stop and not move one inch until they were out of her site.  She enjoyed meeting the kids who were intrigued by her, but the intensity of this
“socialization event” was more than she was expecting.  I didn’t expect it to be as hard on her as it was.  Given this, we went at a snail’s pace.  It was good learning and practice for me and the puppy.  But, I was disappointed to not be walking along the streets with Amira & Paul.

Amira declared the evening a triumph: “That was the best Halloween ever!  Thank you, thank you!”

It was a lot of fun to see all the kids, parents and gaggles of teens milling about.  Even the pets were brought into the festivities.  We saw a pug dressed up as a pig, a standard poodle parading as a giant pumpking, and a few daschunds slinking about as lizards.

Oh and surprise of surprises, the relentless rain… relented.  The clouds parted and we had enormous sunset lit clouds and then stars splashed across the sky’s canopy.  Gorgeous evening for Halloween!

Amira draws these little guys about 85-90% of the time.  She calls them ‘Growly Gus’.  They vary in details - but they are always present.  I thought Growly Gus was a perfect little Halloween character for today. 

… and she has a name. Chaya. (pronounced “chai-ah”).

This little girl is hard to take photos of.  She’s so close to my side at any given time, it’s a challenge to get far enough away to get a good shot.  Paul and I gave her a bath last night.  I wasn’t expecting it, but she loved it!  Good news when it comes to bathing a Dane! 

She’s making herself at home pretty quickly.  She’s silly, playful and makes so very many grunts, squeaks and moo-like sounds.  Paul joked last night that we should name her ‘Vaca’.

It’s fun getting to know her and I get the impression she’s enjoying getting to know us.

Big day here.

She’s 4 months old. She’s a Great Dane. She’s now a member of the Moment family. Her name… well, hopefully coming soon!

I took a slew of terrible, lowlight, fuzzy photos of her this evening. I’ll get some better ones soon. Until then…

Amira, Tova, Spine (Ahmis’s awesome cat) and I went for a walk today.  I didn’t get as much done today as I wanted.  But, lucky me, I did take in the full beauty of the day!

Good morning you guys!  How are you?  I’m doing good.  It’s a beautiful foggy morning here.  The fall colors still burst through the fog.  I stepped outside with Tova for a bit and listened to the wigeons singing their squeak toy choir (seriously, they sound like squeak toys!) and the chipmunks chirping and arguing amongst themselves in the trees.

I’m so behind with you - I have several posts I need to catch up on.  I’ll try and fit a couple in today so not too much more time sneaks away from me.

One big change that’s been happening around here is I’ve been eating primarily raw food.  I’m eating entirely raw until dinner and then at dinner I’m eating 60-75% raw.  I started about 2 weeks ago and have been, dare I say, loving it!  This, for example, was breakfast.

I’ve been juicing breakfast and loving it.  I’ve never been a big breakfast eater and juicing has been perfect.  This morning’s breakfast… romaine, spinach, celery, parsley, carrot, apple and lemon.  I’ve been surprised how much I love these green juice breakfasts.  Right now, they are just a split hair away from being an addiction.  They taste great to me and feel even better.

What’s been making you feel great these days?  (food or otherwise)

I’m excited Ahmis is coming over for dinner tonight.  I’m making a modified goat cheese and vegetable lasagna, a side of asparagus and I’m still trying to think of another side.  I’ve got an hour to come up with something… surely I’ll figure something out.

I’m sitting at my desk looking out the window at the wigeons on the pond and the hot sun yellow of the tree on the island.  It’s not sunny today, but who needs sun when you have brilliance like this out your window.  This picture doesn’t capture the intensity and glow.  I tried.

I hope you don’t mind that I’m just throwing in a mishmash of photos into this post.  I’m finding I have more photos to post than words to write.  I don’t think it’s going to stay that way for long though…  consider yourself forewarned. 

There are so many thoughts going through my head, I think I’ll sink under them if I don’t start putting some of them down.  It’s all good… it just needs to be processed and I always find benefit in sharing too.

I committed a crime against you and myself today.  I went through my day without my camera… and without a doubt, today was the most perfect fall day yet.  Gorgeous.  It was hot in the sun and chilly in the shade.  The colors of the trees were so bright and rich.  I kept finding myself shaking my head in wonder at the beauty of the day.  It wasn’t something I could get used to… it kept assaulting (in the best possible way) my senses.  It was so beautiful, it was hard to keep on my charted course from this errand to that.   There was an insatiable urge to stop everything and just worship and delight in the magnificence.  Amira & I did for some short magical moments.  But, I kept pushing us through our day and what we had planned.

Looking back on it right now, I don’t think I made the right choice.  Days like today are sacred.  I’m thinking now the errands could have waited a day.  Spending a day present to the intersection of heaven on earth, which today was, is worth a day’s worth of errand delays.  Don’t you think?

Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods
And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.

William Allingham