A Walk with Cypress

We adopted Cypress back in 2008, and since then she's had a very active exercise schedule.  It's changed depending on which one of us was available to walk her, whether I was traveling, and how easily we could walk her off-leash.  Now that Rob's gone and I'm working from home, her normal schedule is four  3/4 mile walks each day (8 am, 12pm, 3pm, and 6:30pm).  She's unique in that she is even more routine-driven than most dogs; even if she's exhausted from previous walks or a trip to the dog park she will follow you around the house once she knows it's time for her to walk again.

Over the last few months I've taken her along the same path generally, a private hiking trail just behind our house.  We walk her so often that we actually created a shortcut trail that people have started to use (which is annoying, because they walk through our driveway to get to it). The trail goes up the mountain, but since I'm lazy and don't always have a ton of time, I walk her in the other direction (you know, down the mountain), around the houses below ours, then up the road back to our place.  

I thought it'd be fun to take some photos of one of our walks and share them with you.  I haven't been taking my camera out as much as I'd like so it helped to relieve the monotony of walking the same path every single day.

Her morning walk was later than usual so she had an excess of energy.


I feel like this is very much a "desert" flower, in that its beauty lies in its almost lack of beauty, if that makes sense.


She usually won't go too far ahead of me before looking back.


I hate yucca. I seriously do. Every time I touch one of these things I get the shit poked out of me.  One of those little white string things actually embedded itself in my finger once.


The view from our walk - you can see all of Santa Fe, some of Los Alamos, and a tiny bit of Albuquerque.

One of Dids's favorite things to do when she's anxious is to stand between my legs and get butt scritches.

I've been amazed at how beautiful cactus flowers can be.

Cicada holes. I am seriously so fucking over the cicadas. We had them in Maine, but the trees there are tall so you hardly have to see them.  Since the trees in New Mexico are mostly ear-level, they're 80 times louder and feel the need to fucking dive out of the tree as soon as you walk by.  I'm super jumpy because they've literally flown at my face several times.

Did you know that this is what cactuses look like when they die? I had to look up whether this was wood and actually sits under the exterior of the cactus, or if this is just dried succulent.

When I see small trees I like to imagine it's a tiny forest and I'm a giant.

This is the last part of the walk and my least favorite. It looks relatively flat, but it's actually uphill, and in 90 degree weather with the sun beating down on you it's not a great way to end a walk.

Finally, my favorite non-human. I don't know what I'd do without this little beastie when Rob's gone.

Happy Sunday, all!