Wordless Wednesday: Male Cardinal in a Snowstorm

Mellow Monday....

" Ma, wouldja please get the blasted camera outta my face?? I'm tryin' t'sleep! "

Ahh....the Redbone breed, they're a mellow bunch. Unless they're playing tug 'o war, chasing a ball, or hot on the trail of a coon or squirrel or rabbit or cat or ....in Duke's case, huntin' television! (He really does watch the outdoor channel and "hunts" the animals, whichever one! )

Well anyway, there's nothing like these redbone coohound dogs when they're relaxing and all mellow! Our dog, Duke, (above) plays it like he's a man and stretches out on the sofa, making sure his head is somewhere near the pillow and he stretches, yawns, and snores. Soon, he'll turn over, and grunt and groan and afterwhile he'll snore some more.

And when you wake him up, he has that startled look like "Huh? What'd you do that for? Is there a fire somewhere?" (In case you need to know, Duke's accent when he talks is similar to Forrest Gump's. After all, he's from Alabama!)

Now our beautiful redbone granddogs, below, are much more reserved and don't necessarily show all their parts like Duke, their relative, up above does. (I had to really crop the top picture or you would have seen all of his, ummm.... kiwis, as we like to call them.)

These two granddoggies are just gorgeous when they sleep and they don't have their skin all in bunches like Duke does. These two are pretty enough to take pictures of when they sleep. They're the definition of MELLOW!

Dixie (l) and Bryant (r)

SIMPLE SUNDAYS....Fishing at the Pond

The church we attend is a country church and sits on a big piece of acreage, almost park-like. There's a huge lawn with a baseball diamond at the rear, and a grove of maple trees with a good pavilion and a nice-sized pond. Occasionally, on a Sunday afternoon in spring, summer or fall, Lem and Luke load up a cooler, get the poles and grab some worms from the garden and head off for a pleasant couple of hours fishing at the pond. Their favorite to catch and release are the big bass there.

And every chance they get after a church potluck in the pavilion, they'll head over to the pond, like many other dads and sons. I thought I'd share today a couple photos of a simple Sunday afternoon pastime. There's something so simple and pure about fishing: you don't need to do much to feel a kinship and companionship, and nothing better for a dad and his son to make quiet memories to tide them over during the hectic and busy days of their lives, not just now but forever!