walk the dog

Occasionally, the subject of Stella will come up with my students or other kids around town. Some of the questions they ask make me smile. Often they will ask who minds her while I am at school. It tell them that she just stays at home and sleeps. They ask me if she will poop (using the Yupik term that I do not know how to spell) in the house.  I tell them that she is trained to go outside.  They will ask me if she is nice and if I trained her to be nice.  My reply is yes and yes.  

Given her sudden change of environment and the process of getting here, Stella is just fine and back to her old self.  She loves Liz, especially sneaking into her bed for a snuggle.  I feel really grateful on so many levels to have such an awesome housemate but I am most grateful that Liz enjoys Stella and is so sweet to her.  

Stella sticks pretty close inside the house.  If I am upstairs she usually is upstairs, and if I am downstairs she is there too. 

She loves to watch the tundra out our front window and is a very good alarm system.  It can get kind of crazy when kids start running around our front porch but for the most part she does a great job of keeping us in the know on who's nearby.

 

But mostly, what she wants is to run.  I try to get her out everyday, weather permitting, for a good run up the road and onto the tundra.

This road runs in front of our house, which is at that backside of teacher housing.  Usually we just hope across the brush and I let Stella off her leash.

The tundra is so spongy and full of great smells.

She absolutely loves it.  I haven't seen her act like this since she was a puppy and I first took her to Indiana.  She will actually frolic in the tundra.  Like a bunny.  It's adorable.

There are so many small plants growing along the ground.  Every rain full shifts it around.  One afternoon I just laid on the ground and it was so wonderful.

I like to at least walk to the high point in the road, for a short walk but every once in a while a nice long walk is needed.  There were a few days during the long weekend when we walked to the bridge, which is almost to the airport.

I love that we have tundra, trees, hills and river.  It is such a diverse landscape.

Approaching the bridge we saw two red foxes crossing the road, but they were gone before a photo could be snapped.

The sunny days are wonderful but the moodiness of a cloudy day can be pretty spectacular as well.

Taken from the high point in the road.

The stream that runs under the bridge eventually meets with the slough.

It is one of my favorite views.

You can see just from the beginning of this post to the end how the colors are changing.  Fall is coming on fast, I guess it does every year.  I've been really enjoying  the color and trying to take in as much as possible.  

The past few days have been pretty rainy, not just the bearable spit but the nice sideways windy kind.  I'm hoping it lets up soon because a walk up the road would be very nice.  And that Stella, she is always ready for a good walk.