To Stink Or Not To Stink.

  No question is Luna's mind.  She'll take being a stinker (literally), any day. Eau du poisson is her smell of choice. 

The salmon have been spawning somewhere up Nathan Creek, which is where we go for a walk along the dyke.    Just about every time we've been down there lately, Luna has managed to find a dead and smelly salmon to anoint herself with.

Here's the setting.  Golden Ears glowing white with snow, and the bare blueberry bushes adding a cheery touch to the flatlands.  And that schoolbus....well it takes a scenic side trip through the bushes.  Actually, it's been sat there for a long time, not sure why.  They use old school buses to transport the pickers. Maybe they are just storing it there, or maybe it's there as a lunch room of sorts during picking season.

And here we are. We had a photographer along this time.  All pictures are courtesy of Meredith.  Not quite sure what I was yapping on about here.  Practicing my flying technique may?  And the dogs, well they are there somewhere.  Jake and Luna are probably already at the swimming hole, which we tell them is closed for the season.  That's where those pilings are out to the left of my left wing arm.  The water level is quite low, and the swimming hole has changed a bit. Now there's more sand, which Calli thinks is a great thing.

Jake is ever hopeful.

Got a stick, or a ball, or damn it, got anything?

This is the only fish we saw. Calli just gave it a quick sniff, and here is looking for the rock that she had been carrying.  We don't think that Luna even noticed it, although really we weren't keeping a very good watch for Luna and her fish shoulder roll at all. 

We did get in a bit of water play near another set of pilings. If we haven't taken anything with us, sometimes it's hard to find a stick that will even float. Most of the wood is waterlogged stuff that has been washed downstream.

Jake was the only one that got any swimming in, and not much of that.  There was a bit of ice along the edge in spots, so the water would have been very cold.  When it comes to fetching, Jake doesn't have any common sense, so we have to use ours.

Jake on stilts, or maybe pilings.

See these teeth woman.....you'd better throw that stick

It was a gorgeous afternoon, the third of four dry and relatively sunny days we had in a row.

And there were three tired and happy dogs

When we got home, I was taking my jacket off in the utility room, and all of a sudden I'm wondering why I'm smelling fish.......

Luna was about eight feet away.  I went over to smell her. Sure enough.....

Meredith gave her a whiff, and she thought it was just the remnants of the previous trips.  I didn't think so, as I hadn't noticed the smell before.  There was no evidence of anything gross stuck to her back, but I got out a soapy rag and rubbed it over her shoulders anyway.  Cleaned her off, repeated a couple of more times, and now there's just a hint.

No doubt she'll be looking to top it up on the next visit.

And those four nice days we had, well they are now just a memory, because look what we have this morning!

About 7 or 8 inches of heavy wet snow:(

Bad photo, but that's Nelson checking it out.