It's summertime, and the living is easy. One of our favorite summertime things to do is spontaneous picnic dinners up on Hug Hill. Yesterday, all the rumbles of thunder ended before our normally late dinnertime, and so we did a quick hike to eat while watching the sunset from Hug Hill. It was warm and relaxing.
By the time we headed down the mountain, hiking on a main trail, it was dusk. One eerie thing is that, due to my trail cameras, I can find out when we've been very close to a mountain lion. Last evening, we were definitely close to one. I bet he spied on us either during dinner or as we hiked down.
This was fairly close to the trail that we hiked down, and the lion is coming from the direction of where we ate dinner.
He was a sinewy looking feline. He left a territorial scrape mark just outside the view of my trail camera.
To be honest, we had no idea he was nearby, and our leashed dogs gave us no signals that they smelled him. That's how he wants it - he wants to invisibly move through the landscape of our increasingly populated world. He let us pass in peace last evening, as mountain lions almost always do.
This morning, Shyla and I were back on Hug Hill, playing games. Her enthusiasm makes me smile!
But, for us, it was hot. It's now 80° in the shade, which is very rare up here in the mountains. I cut Shyla's morning run short so she wouldn't overheat. She looked ready to snooze as soon as we got close to the house.
Yes, that's Shyla's antler that she found a few weeks ago. She sends a huge "thanks" to the Runner who brought it home for her after I nearly destroyed my bad shoulder trying to carry it.
That huge and heavy elk antler was what revealed that my shoulder has become quite unstable since my surgery in February. I'm now doing an intensive shoulder strengthening program that is already helping. When my shoulder "pops out of joint", it is downright excruciating. I have to use my other hand to gently manipulate my bad shoulder until it pops back into joint. Thank goodness that it's happened only twice since my PT started my new strengthening program. I am really lucky to have a Physical Therapist who knew exactly what to do when the instability reared its ugly head!
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| Shyla says "mine, mine, mine"! |
Happy Summertime to you!
