Dixie ~ How can I help you?

Morris watched me get dressed with only mild curiosity.
I sighed, I miss the little dog that would literally spin himself inside out any time he saw me getting ready to go outside and hike.

I dearly dread the day when he will leave us. However he still provides us with fun doggy dementia moments that we instantly feel awful for laughing at.

I gave up all thought of hiking with a tripod this time with Dixie. I wanted to just enjoy a nice hike along the creek after the recent snowfall. I took my Tamron lens on the older Nikon. It is like dragging a ton of bricks compared to the Olypmus Mirrorless OM-5 I normally take. Of course I had the Lumix pocket camera too. The Pink Fugly camera had been misbehaving since its last submergence in mud before deer season.

I headed out with Dixie who gave me one huge bark of joy and then began to walk alongside of me. She kept touching my gloves with her nose as if to make sure I was still coming.

We headed down into the valley. I admired Mother Nature's handiwork.

Dixie seemed to be all work. Her nose was on supercharge.

She did end up finding a mouse nest. I must say, that nose is incredible.
We admired the beauty of the creek and then came out into the open valley.

When I lifted my camera to take this shot it literally took my breath away. I was stunned. I guess you had to be there. But to me it was incredible. We'd just busted through a narrow tangled cluster of willows and thorn bushes to come out to blue sky and pure white snow.

I walked down to the snowmobile crossing. We haven't had enough snow this year for the snowmobiles to run at all. I stepped down next to the creek and took a shot of the water blasting through the culvert.

I then turned and made a huge mistake. I glanced up and behind me to look at the old cottonwood tree against the sky and my foot slipped. I have no idea how I did it but I landed on my left side with a horrid lurch and it was hard!
In my right hand I held the snow splattered camera aloft. It appeared that I saved the camera and lens but damn!

And then the pain hit me. My elbow burned and my leg hurt something awful. I did what any good woman of my age would do in that situation.
I let out a yowl and started cussing as loud as I could. I was hurt, I was angry at myself for not looking and I was really really mad!

I would have sat in the cold snow next to the noisy creek for a long time ... but...

my screeching brought Dixie on the run. The next thing I saw was her big huge snow covered face with frozen slobber across her snout. She stood between my legs where I sat and wobbled her jowls while trying to decide if I should be licked or nosed. The look on her face was as if she were saying.

"You called? How can I help you?"

I started to laugh, still holding the camera aloft, ... now to keep the slobber nose off from the lens. Dixie started to wag her tail furiously. She shook her head and frozen gobbers flew across my glasses. I couldn't help it but laugh harder.

I eventually sorted it all out and decided that I hadn't broken anything or damaged myself too seriously.
I had frozen dog gobbers on my glasses, my upper leg hurt like hell and my elbow was protesting.

Dixie had given me a once over and decided I was over my fit. She went back to hunting interesting smells while keeping an eye on me.
I hobbled along the creek and to the old oak.

I decided to come back to this spot without Dixie next time and set up along exposure if we still had snow.

Then I turned and headed back towards the trail home. Suddenly going home seemed like a dandy idea.

No way to get lost on the trail home. Dixie retraced our footsteps and guided me as if it were now her duty.

I walked past the 'elevator' and decided to follow the creek upstream to another spot that I could climb out.

Dixie went ahead on our frozen creek through the fresh snow. I'm sure she was checking on the safety of the area, assuring herself that there were no obstacles for me to trip on again.