Dawn in Germany
I flew to Athens today to visit Marina and Socratis. Good Friday was a good day to fly to Athens because everything, but the airport, was closed in Germany.
Besides finally meeting Marina and Socratis in person, I made a couple of new canine friends as well.
Marina’s mom’s yellow lab
Hera
It was raining in Geel this morning
You can’t have my cake or eat it either, Niki!
You can’t eat the Eurasian Magpie, either…
Or the Eurasian Collared-Dove…
Or the Eurasian Jackdaw..
Or the cute Common Chaffinch!
“What? Are you just going to let me starve?”
Herman took me to aother old church this morning.
There were several of these locked, grated grottoes around the outside of the church with lighted votive candles inside them.
A man driving a small utility truck filled with lighted votive candles in the back stopped and said hi to us and explained to Hermin in Flemish that his job was to keep the candles lit. He had done it for ten years and loved the job.
Nike was watching for us to return from his bed in the garage.
I got back in the late after noon, and returned the rental car. Then we went straight from Enterprise car rental to Trivia at the Irish Pub. There were a couple of Golden Retrievers that came to Trivia Night. The white one really like me, and I had to pet it most of the time. It would put it’s head in my lap when I stopped petting it.
Tristan snuck a picture of me petting the dog. We are not supposed to use phones while a trivia round is in play.
Freyja and I went on a long walk in the forest this morning.
There was lots of fungus among us. I believe these are called polypores.
There are so many trails, it can drive you nuts!
I could hear birds chirping, woodpeckers pecking, and what sounded like an owl, but I couldn’t find a single bird in the forest full of trees.
Our walk
Freyja was worn out
Atlas was putting on the cute, again
We went to an Irish pub own by a fellow from Romania for St. Patrick’s Day dinner.
Speaking of fungus amongus, the band played “Proud Mary” and “La Bamba” as part of their moldy oldies repertoire.
Paddy on bass. Herr Elton John on drums. Herr Traditionell spielen, singen und auf der Gretsch richtig Gas geben.
What was funny about the band is that it brought back memories of when I played in garage bands in the mid to late 70s. Way back then, we had to know three songs to play in clubs, for weddings, and special events: “Proud Mary”, “Brown-Eyed Girl”, and “La Bamba”. We didn’t stick around long enough to see if they played “Brown-Eyed Girl”.
The menu included Irish stew
Roast in wine sauce and mashed potatoes or
Shepherd’s Pie or Lamb Shank
and Apple Pie
Bis morgen! Tschüss!
The wind blew away Dawn’s color
Buddy giving the old pesky paparazzo a “Squint like Clint” look. “Go ahead, punk! Make my day!”
There was a little more color at sunset.
Jake turned 9 today. For some reason, I thought he would be turning 7, but no. He is 9, and old man like me. He got to sleep in for his birthday. We had leftover pizza for breakfast. Jake got the pizza bones (the crust) after his regular breakfast. We went out for our morning walk at noon.
We walked down to the beach, and Scoopy took Jake for a scoop on the wet sand.
Then Jake claimed his own island in the middle of the Rio Grande.
He made a couple of laps around the beach in celebration of his island.
Jake was a little dirty, a little tired, but satisfied with his birthday celebration on the beach. The rest of our walk was uneventful.
On our evening walk, Jake romped with a miniature Austrian Shepherd and made a new Japanese friend.
Dusk
Daddy Owl hooted “Happy Birthday, Jake” from the top of a tree.
Dusk sky
Sunrise on VD
Besides making a great name for a rock band, Love & VD seemed an appropriate title for VD. The popularity of both in 2026 may be in question as fewer people have been hooking up and shacking up in recent years. For old, married folk, there is plenty of romance to be found in a heart-shaped pizza!
Jake and I walked through a tangled tunnel of love with pink markers this morning, and ran into…
The cranes were not in a loving mood
Jake found himself with a river to the left of him, bosque on the right. There he was, stuck in the middle with tree.
Does anyone remember “Tunnel Of Love” by Dire Straights?
“BIG YAWN! That’s what I think about Love & VD. There’s no way I can love a dawg, especially not a Virtual Dawg!”
We ran into a sweet Bernese Mountain Dog on our evening walk.
The Sandias were a nice VD red at sunset
Scoopy tried the Scoopcan mind-meld with Jake at dawn.
Played mind games at dawn
Mind meld and transporter failed
Held fast to the beach
Scoopy tried to abscond with Jake to another dimension.
Scoopy: “I have your back, Jake!”
Another Twilight
Cranes in the shallows
Waining Snow Moon reflecting on iced river
Il Paparazzo’s long shadow from the waning Snow Moon waked Scoopy from his slumber on the frozen beach.
Scoopy gave Jake a hug! ♠️🦵🏼❤️, 2 = Shovels (spades) need love, too!
Mist on the river. It was 22º F (-5.6º C) this morning.
Black-laced tree at the Winter Moon. Black-laced tree at dusk.
Spunk, Gwendolyn and Silver
Daddy Owl
Sunrise
WiFi symbol in the snow
After making a WiFi symbol in the snow by opening the gate to the ditch, it reminded me of my mispent youth back in the 20th century, when us boys peed our names in the snow, while the girls made snow angels. Any of us whose snow monikers were in our girlfriends’ handwriting were like super groovy back then. A snow WiFi symbol seems fitting for our 21st-century tech.
Sandias at noon
Sandias at 1:00 pm
Spunk in the catio
Silly Spunk
This is the best tree when it snows
Laurie got Jake happily running in the snow.
GIF by Laurie
While Jakes was out running around, the cats lined up on the bed to nap, with the odd cat out.
A jungle kitty
Basked under a blue grow light
Daylight in Darkness
Glenda
Treed
Off Center & Not Even 