Finally ...

Kenya has been sending me strong messages since yesterday.

"It is no fun playing by myself," she said this morning as she flipped a kong under the table, and stomped to the back door where she flopped down heavily with a hard done by sigh.

"I just want to finish knitting this slipper foot," I told her finally, "and then we will go out."

Well then I had to do some seams. All the while Kenya glowered at me from her doorway.

Finally I went upstairs to wash and dress. Kenya followed me into the bathroom and from there into the bedroom. Each new location was announced noisily with a thump as eighty pounds hit the floor.

Down to the front hall. Bundling into a jacket and my hiking boots. Putting a couple of good cookies in my pocket. Then the camera. And finally her collar and leash. Only then did the suspicious glowering look leave completely. Suddenly she turned back into my cheerful fellow adventurer.

But she made sure as we headed up the hill to pull me away from the direction of the steps because that way led to the car. And she wanted to walk.

As soon as she was sure that we were indeed going for a real walk her ears perked up and her step became light and bouncy.

We stopped to say hi to Tom enroute and then we headed up to the gated logging road by his place. It has woods on both sides and lots of hills. There is a fast moving stream and most importantly ... lots of sticks. It has been off bounds for the past couple of weeks because of hunting season, but today the gate was locked to strangers and safe from hunters, so it was our destination.




As soon as I unhooked her leash she was off, nose to the ground, following a trail. Then her head rose as she sniffed the air expectantly. A grouse hurried out of its hiding place and she made a half hearted attempt to chase it, but it was not a serious thing. She learned long ago that birds have wings and she doesn't.

She found some large sticks and allowed me to break them into manageable pieces and then we played her favourite game.

"Drop one," I commanded.

No response except for a bounce away from me.

"Drop one please."

She nudged me so that I held one stick lightly. Then she delicately dropped the other one. I picked it up and tossed it into the woods. She watched carefully where it landed, dropped her other stick by the edge of the road and made her way over logs and brush to get the one I had thrown. On her way back she picked up the second stick and arrived at my side panting around the two sticks in her mouth.

"Drop one."

This time she dropped one immediately and bounded off in pursuit.



After a while she became more alert and the sticks became secondary. I sensed that something unusual was in the vicinity. I call this road the bear road, so we turned around just before we got to the stream she likes. When the gate came into view I attached the leash and we headed back sedately to our own road. Then I removed collar and leash and we played fetch all the way home.

I went in but she chose to stay outside and take a swim in the frigid waters of the lake. By the time she asked to come indoors her coat was stiff with ice.

Now she is curled up on her couch drying off and warming up. It has been a good morning for both of us.

In a few minutes I will go down and make banana bread and pear clafouti from the fruit that need to be eaten up, and then I will knit the second cuff for the prototype of the first kind of felted slippers I am making. Once that pair is put together and ready to be felted, I will start on the second type which is made from felt I have made from old knit goods. All the insoles will be made from a mohair blanket I felted. I have to figure out how to give the slippers a bit of grab on the bottoms ... maybe leather?

Any ideas? Or do I need them for adults' slippers? My floors are not slippery slidy unless you are an eighty some year old dog whose hind end doesn't work well. He comes this afternoon by the way.