Pedestrian Access to the Kayak Course off fourth street

I have a friend who is doing the whole cancer and radiation thing and is not a well puppy.  So I do what I can and one of the things is walk his dog.  He lives on the bluff of the stretch of the river that runs through Pueblo between Fourth Street and Union Avenue.  That is also where the Kayak Course is located.  They have done a lot of work down there to include a very nice wide side walk, benches, trash cans, bags to pick up doggie do and also landscaped and planted the steep edges with wild grass and such.  To hold that in place they covered it with net.  Now comes the tricky part. 
That net is doing what it is supposed to do, it is rotting and going back to mother nature.  Well, kind of doing that, but not quite.  The plot thickens.  Click on my little slide show and be sure to read the captions.

The first shot is Pearl and Chapa.  That is right off of Fourth Street.  The fishing sign is 2 blocks away and is right behind my friends house.  So I go out the door, turn left and pass two houses, another left and across a vacant lot and there I am at the big wide side walk.   As you can see it is very nice.  Well, yeah, until it ends!  There I am left with the choice to either slip and slide down down the dirt incline which is rutted and full of rocks and no place a 70 year old woman out to be skittering down!  Or I can angle off across where you see those 3 young'uns walking down.  See that is steep, too.  So if I go at an angle I come to a gentle slope and then I reach the wide, safe sidewalk.  Unless, of course, I catch my shoe in the netting and then I face plant.  Last time I went that way I was so careful and I reached the sidewalk and had one foot in the air on the way down to the sidewalk and the other in the netting and face down on the cool concrete, my fall broken only by my poor old, mistreated knees.  There were two girls there with there dogs who were kind enough to offer to help me up, but the dog I walk is very protective of me, so that did not happen.

So, I have a message for the city of Pueblo.  I notice you have chained the steps that lead up the embankment beside the Chinese Resturant there on Fourth and the bridge heading into the city.  I have no idea what that is about.  How about taking some of those chains down there and draping them across the "Pedestrian Access" behind that big gravel pile in case another little old lady wanders down there and thinks that 3 foot wide sidewalk actually goes some where.  Or here!  Even better would be if you finished that other 30 feet so we could actually get down there safely.  How about that? 
When my son saw my bruises he was in hog heaven imagining the lawsuit we could have against the city.  This is a clear cut case of negligence on your part.  However, I am not a suing person, but you should know there are people out there who are.  I love to walk on that part of the river and that access is wonderful right up to the point that it becomes treacherous.  I am surely not the only one who would like to see that little stretch finished.  It just seems counter productive to do so much work and spend so much money and then not finish the project. 
So, I ask you to either finish it or take down the Pedestrian Access sign and chain that sidewalk, before some one else gets hurt.  I could loan you a padlock if you don't have one.

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The featured artist today is my good friend Robert.

I want you to enjoy the slide show of just a few pictures that I took at the Nature Center today.  I also snapped pictures of a few memorials out there of people I knew.  Karen Straight, Jay Battle and my very good friend Craig Harmon.  I think that is so neat the way they have worked those into the wild flower gardens out there.  
But here, I want you to take a good look at these to pictures.  They were commissioned by Anna Lee and drawn by Robert.  Robert has been drawing and painting for several years now.  Anna Lee usually tries to snatch them up before anyone else has a chance to even bid.  The other one she has is a picture of his cat Beau, or Bo or Bow.  I guess I do not know how he spells it.  I wanted to put a picture of Robert with his paintings, but for reasons known only to me, I did not.  I guess Robert is some one I do not want spoiled by the trappings of the spotlight of fame.  He is just simply, my Robert and I hope to keep him that way.

One of these he calls the running duck, but I am not sure which one.  Probably the one with the blue back ground.  It just kind of looks like a running duck to me!

Well, I guess that is about it.  I just wanted to share some of this with you.  The river is up very high. Usually lower, but I guess we are letting our snow melt out to the people who actually own it.  I am not sure I understand, but who am I?  I do know this, there is a beautiful moon out there tonight and I am tired so I am going to call it an early night and put the tired little body to bed and dream some big dreams.  Sweet dreams to you!

The Llama's will trick you if you do not watch out for them.

 

There you see the Llama next door.  Ah, the picture of innocence. Just gazing over the fence at me while below is the New Mexico Sunflower in full bloom.  It is exceptionally colorful this fall as the nights are very cool and the days very hot, which combined, makes brilliant colors!

 

Here is another shot of the dear Llama.  I see it is a little closer now and continuing to make eye contact.  I feel so special to be able to bond with plants and animals this way.  People in the cities do not have this opportunity.  I will just stand here a while and gaze at the picture before me.

Do you see that!  The Llama is eating my flowers!  Caught in the act, no less.  Caught by me as I stand gazing in admiration.  This is the same Llama that ate my asparagus last Spring.  The same one who has topped out my Lilacs and Red bud tree.  Seems he snacked on a Clematis Vine also.  So much for serenity in the country!

Now the fun part I have to tell you.  If you click on any of my pictures they will get big and you can actually see the detail, like Llama Lips curling around the sunflower!  I just love this Google Blog of mine!

Words of wisdom for this day
Good fences make good neighbors!

The Wily Old Fox and the Helpless Critters!

There you see part of my flock.  The seven critters on the left are what I refer to as the Seven Musk a Tears.  These seven guy and gals all hang out together.  I suspect these are the seven that were given to me when Lyn moved into town.  There are a white and a spotted that hang out; they were litter mates.  Then there are twin gray and whites, a broad banded mallard, a khaki Campbell and another spotted.  There is a renegade mallard that is lighter than all the others.  He is the one who is in love with the goose. He chases her all over the barnyard trying to kiss her.  All this to the consternation of her husband! But that is another story for another time.  The big bird on the right is an African Gray Goose.

The point I am trying to make here is that much like people, the birds in my flock tend to sort of mate for life.  They stay in the group they grew up in and like it that way.  Much like we, as humans, cling to our roots.  The difference being, we can defend ourselves and my flock is just part of the food chain.  Mother fox, you know the cute little Red Fox that is indigenous to this area, had herself 3 babies this spring.  Oh, don't we all know how hungry those babies can be!

At the height of my flockiness, I had 36 ducks and 10 geese.  This morning I counted 14 ducks and somewhere there is a satisfied family of Foxes.  It was one thing when the foxes were eating the nasty old drakes, but yesterday one of my little twins disappeared. That broke my heart. Did you ever give any thought to a duck's defense mechanism?  They waddle when they walk, they have 2 wings and a rounded beak. No defense their.  When they sense danger the stop stock still and do not move. Well, that makes no sense at all.  But it is what they do.

Some people are of the assumption that foxes hunt at night.  They may very well do that, but they also hunt during the day. They hunt whenever the food source is available. Just happens to be daytime around here.  As much as I would like to be able to stand guard over the flock, I do have other obligations.  So, I guess I am open for suggestions on what would be the best solution for all concerned here.

The foxes need to eat.  The Ducks need to survive.  Trapping the foxes on an acre of ground is almost a virtual impossibility.  Keeping the ducks inside a fox proof house is cruel and out of the question.  So, I am open for suggestions here.  Ideal would be if you would come to my house, catch the fox and take it home with you!  Right now, I have thought  and thought and my brain may explode.