Walking the dog.

So youngest daughter and I thought the dog was getting a little flabby and decided to take him to the park for a walk.
So

Youngest daughter with The Pooch.

This is one of the twin lakes. Yep it has been dry for a while now.

 You can tell it is the beginning of fall because of all the beauty berries.

 

 

I love the symmetry of palm trees.

Only one bundle of flowers on this crape myrtle. But what a beautiful bundle.



This old oak with its strange appendage has become an old friend over the years. Before picnic tables it was the only bench.

This old hickory is suffering from a hole, perhaps put there by a wood pecker.

Here are some hickory nuts that were strewn about. It looks like the squirrels are making their stores for winter already.

The way out.

After a nice long walk The Pooch was ready to head home. Boy is he out of shape.

Turtle

My Puppy thought this was a new kind of dog and tried very hard to smell it's butt.

Eventually he got board and went looking for something more interesting.

He found some honey suckle in bloom.

 

He found some lizards hiding in the four o' clocks.

 

 

Four o'clock's bloom in the morning and in the evening when the light is low.



He decided he was going to sit here until I pulled all the weeds.

Walking the dog at Haines Creek/ Blount Island

So... in our neighbor hood is a secret place. People have lived here for years and drive by it everyday and don't even know it is there. The entrance is not that of some big fancy park and there isn't any fancy jungle gym or much of anything really. Just an island that is tucked away off the road.



Entrance to the park.

So I thought I would show my friend CG, who also lives in the neighborhood. We got our faithful companions and decided to drag them along. And in the case of my spoiled dog that was about the truth of it.

Sitting on the swing at the Haines Creek part of the park.

 The front part of the park has a nice picnic area and a cool bench swing to sit and enjoy the beautiful view of the canal. So of course we had to try it out.

CG's dog checking out the knolls.

 CG's dog DD decided to have a look at the cypress knees. I've always heard them called cypress knolls but I guess they are also called knees. When I was little I was told it was the tree's noses. And I remember thinking how gross it would be if they sneezed, it would land right in the water. But I guess that they are now saying these are not the tree's noses, that help the roots to oxygenate the tree when under water. They are to help keep the tree stable in the wet area where these trees grow. So it's like they are sticking their knees up. I think the nose story sounds better. Plus you can say you touched a tree right on it's nose.

Close up of cypress knee's. They even look like noses.

Under the bridge that leads to the island

 A few years ago you could drive right on the island but I guess the bridge got week and now it's foot traffic only. Which is just at well because it's such a nice walk.

Looking off the bridge

All around the island is a canal that leads out to the main part of Haines Creek. I don't know if the canal was man made or not. Each person keeps up there section of it so some have sand bags and some docks and some it's just natural dirt into the water.

Sign at the entrance of the island.

 Most of the trail is over grown with muscadine grape vines. Some areas the vines grow right over the trail and it is like going through tunnels.

On the trail.

Leaves!

Hidden in the tons of grape vines is black berry bushes. I'm not sure what variety but they have lots of thorns! I'm glad the park service keeps them at bay but I'd hate to see them smothered out by all the grapes.

Muscadine grapes on the vine

You can get an idea of the size of these grapes.

Some fresh green ones growing in the Florida sunshine.

I read some where that muscadine grapes were native to Florida and at one time all the grapes in France got some sort of decease and were at risk of dieing out, so... they took native Florida grape vine roots, which are very hardy and can live through about anything, and grafted the French vine onto our roots. So next time your drinking fancy French wine just remember your really drinking  wine that wouldn't exist without the help of the good old Florida muscadine.

Butterfly!

 There were lot's of other things to see besides grapes. We saw lot's of butterflies and some really pretty flowers.

Not sure what this flower is called but it was sure putting on a show.

Beauty berries. Similar to Poke weed but the berries are bunched up more.

Looking into the middle of the island

The interior of the island looked like a ancient jungle with all the vines and huge ferns. And I guess my dog thought he was in the jungle because he soon wanted to be carried. We had to stop and give him water and encouragement to get him moving forward again so he would stop jumping up and down in front of me with that carry me mommy face.  

We brought lot's of water as the weather was hot. And some coconut water too, to help rehydrate us.

Here is my baby getting some encouragement form CG's dog.

As out of shape as this dog looks she was gung ho the whole way. I guess it was the hound dog in her.

Lead dog!

On the way back to the parking lot my dog was at the front dragging me the whole way. But I think he had a good time. I know I did. This turned out to be an excellent place to walk our dogs.

The war on fleas!

While at the annual New Years party my dog contracted a bad case of fleas. In fact the worse case I've ever seen. Everyone at my house is allergic to fleas except me. So..... getting rid of them is a huge priority around here.
As soon as we came home New Years Day I threw the dog in the tub and scrubbed him real good with the ol' flea and tick shampoo.  About 30 fleas floated off. I don't know how so many fleas could have gotten on a dog in one night. So.... he was still itchy I figured it was from the bites. He's allergic and he gets huge whelps and they stay itchy for days. But I looked and more fleas! Ahhhh...... I grabbed him up and washed him again. This time I made him sit in the tub and let the flea shampoo have a chance to take effect. Then I rinsed him and drained the tub and then scrubbed him again just to be sure. Once again though, he was still a little itchy but by this time it was after all New Years Day and I needed to pass out.
So.... this morning I checked and he was covered in fleas. So I ran out to the pet shop to get Cap star, it's this pill you give to the dog and in 30 minutes any flea that bites him is dead, we've used it before and it really worked well. If you make the dog sit still you can see the dead fleas fall off of him. Well....It didn't work. Some fleas died but I don't know there was some kind of super flea stuck to him or something cause thirty minutes later the fleas were eating just as good.
So.... I put some of that bio spot stuff on him. It's suppose to kill fleas for up to 30 days with one application. Nope! Still scratching and now my husband is getting bit.
So....I ran out to the store again and got some different flea shampoo. You know cause we've had that other stuff for a while and maybe it's expired. I also bought some stuff called flea breeze. We've used it before and it takes a while to work but it seems to work really well to get the fleas out of the carpet and furniture. Plus then everything smells good. And now it's probably dawning on people that I didn't say I vacuumed and that IS the main thing you do to get rid of those little evil terrorist but I did that. So.... the husband gets his hands on the flea breeze and starts spraying everything in site. And it says right on the bottle not to let the dog on it until it dries and don't step on it bare footed, which of course I was, as I scoop up the dog and run out the back door.
So... Now I'm sitting around feeling a little floaty. The dog is over in the corner laying on his back with his feet sticking straight up in the air and I checked there isn't a flea on him. Ha Ha!
See my theory is that it's like antibiotics if you don't kill enough of the germs (or fleas), you know by using the right one in the right amount for the right length of time, they get stronger and come back as super germs (or fleas)  which is what my dog must have gotten infected with.

So.... kill fleas responsibly by using every kind of flea killing chemicals at your disposal. Only you can prevent supper fleas!  Hopefully I did. Oh, The dogs bedding that I washed and threw in the drier is done.

New Year's Day Reese must have been saying "I've got fleas!"

Reese's view.

 Yes! I'm out side. Look at all mom's  oregano! They still haven't straightened up that bird bath. People.

 I smell something. What is it?

Oh.... It's a....

Rainbow!

And the day before the hurricane is suppose to hit too. Hope that's a good sign.

I hope these peanuts that mom planted survive. I love boiled peanuts. Especially the spicy ones.

I think I'll pee on those chives next time I come out. Ohp time to go in.