No new-comers to get introduced today  and the parade of regular Wednesday visitors started early with Bronco's arrival followed by Merle and Maybelle. It's a cool morning, perhaps the coldest one so far this autumn, but everything is still green and growing including the grass, so the lawn mowing gang will be here this afternoon to take care of that . 

Stephanie gets our breakfast ready and Lucy G gets dropped off, looking very pleased with herself. She actually came through the gate without her human so it just goes to show that even the most apprehensive dogs eventually begin to see the fun in this place and enjoy their visits.  

The Wednesday crowd are all big beach goers except for Lucy E, a beagle.  Need we say more.  Kelsea arrives with her two Black Labs, LaVie and Ocean, and she takes us on some long walks around the fields while she does Poop Patrol before the mower gang get here. We are also waiting for the tide to drop so we will have more beach to run on and by eleven o'clock, it looks like we might be ready to do our race down the hill. Today, both Stephanie and Kelsea accompany us and there's more time to take lots of photos of the splashing and other stunting. 

Today is one of those rare days when, looking East, there is the illusion of an island floating in the sky above the horizon, called a superior mirage or Fata Morgana. It's one of those things that the humans find interesting but we don't pay much attention to this phenomenon. 

    

That's because we're much too busy playing, exploring, posing, marching and fetching.  

   

   

Did you ever see a Doodle with long pointy, stand-up ears? Now you have. These low hanging clouds feel like they are full of rain and it makes the day seem much darker but we enjoyed lots of sun throughout the day and no rain fell. Bronco sticks close to Stephanie, thinking he's going to get all her dog biscuits. 

    

When we returned from our beach walk, Mary had lunch ready for Kelsea and Stephanie and soon the lawn mower gang arrived and got busy.  We watched as they spread out with their machines and an hour later it was all done and they were ready to leave. That's when Mary got her garden fork and went looking for a giant potato in her patch but, alas, no oversized spuds to be found so no entries in this year's Great Potato Weigh Off. If only there was a Great Leek Weigh Off! 

Oh well, when fate gives you small potatoes and big leeks,   make Vichyssoise. 

 

 

 

Yes, today was memorable for Molly   as she was finally able to go on the beach walk with all her friends and Stephanie. It seems like just yesterday when the rest of us had our first beach walk as a member of the pack and it was like a debut or being launched. We were a little nervous and we wanted to make sure we did everything right so we watched our peers closely and followed their lead. 

Molly, on the other hand, launched herself into the adventure with great enthusiasm as you can see from the photos. 

      

   

   

The rest of the pack didn't need to show Molly the ropes ... she had it all in hand. 

  

   

When we returned to the house, our friend Otis   had arrived and he was happy to see so many of his buddies even if they smelled like seaweed and dead fish.  A short while later, Nikku was dropped off for his three-week stay along with that big cooler of home-made meals whch always smell so good. 

It wasn't long before Jake's humans arrived to get him and they had, at Mary's request, stopped at the dollar store on the way here and picked up some pie plates since there were none to be had anywhere local. This coming weekend is the Seaforth Hall Great Potato Weigh-Off and Pie Auction and Mary will be preparing her famous Raisin Pie as well as a Squash Pie for this community fund-raiser. Stephanie  has plans to get some big bids on her Pecan Pie as well as a Chocolate Pie but all of the pies donated so far sound scrumptious, including Coconut Cream, Lemon Meringue. Blueberry and so on. Mary also has to get busy and start digging up her entry for the Great Potato Weigh-Off. This year again, the event will be done virtually and bidding on those pies has already started to heat up. Stay tuned for more News.   

First, there's the traditional wildlife some of which we see every day, others are more reclusive and, the ones in the last photo are the McGuinea family who like to pretend they're wild. 

     

  

 

Then there's another type of wildlife, the critters who spice up their life doing some wild and crazy stuff. These little critters can find lots of ways to show off their life skills, like 'ball stalking'  while others keep a watch out for ball-hungry predators. . 

   

 

Then the third group are the 'wild-at-the-beach' bunch who get a lot of enjoyment out of experiencing the wild side of life when they are on the beach. 

   

   

One things for sure, Stephanie  always has her camera ready to capture the variety of wildlife  and these canine critters, just like the McGuinea family, are prepared to run wild until dinnertime. That's when they change their tune and sing the praises of domestication.  

Yes, we call her the Streak but her given name is Pepper  and she's got a great physique. Not one ounce of fat to be found. When she turns on the after-burners, look out, as she moves faster that anything else around here. Pepper inherited the family of one of our oldest friends, Boots, who none of us had ever met . She is a great gal, very sociable and she can move so fast it almost takes your breath away. 

Below are a series of photos that Stephanie took of her on Sunday morning and she had done many circuits of the front and back yards before stopping for her portrait. 

           

 

    

This was  Pepper's first weekend stay and we are quite sure she enjoyed herself while making the rest of us experience whip-lash as we tried to anticipate which direction she would go in next. 

Saturday was warm and sunny and Kelsea  took a bunch of us down to the beach, in the morning, for a very long hike and lots of fetching and swimming.  

   

 

It rained on Saturday night and showered on and off throughout the day on Sunday  and we welcomed two day-visitors, Harry and Ellie, in the morning. Since they are both big dogs, they played with Finley and Max while Lily, Baxter and Nala enjoyed frequent naps and Bailey, Tonique and Tommy took some short walks with Mary. 

We had to say so-long to Pepper, Max, Lily , Lumie and Finley as their humans arrived to pick them up. We all got a kick out of Nala's attempt to herd the McGuinea family when they flew over the fence into the front yard. She got lots of exercise patrolling the fence line during the afternoon, keeping a close eye on the birds and stopping only when she heard that dinner was being served. 

The steady rain began in the early evening and Mary made all of us go out with her for a late walk and now we are drying off before we go to bed.   

I'm Lily and I was the last on to arrive in Seaforth today, as an overnight guest, so I get to make the day's report for the DogBlog. Because I wasn't here all day, I had no idea what the rest of them did, so I had to go round in interview them and get some intel. 

These two little ankle-biters, Tonique   and Bailey   ,  told me about how busy they were showing Bo the ropes. Today was Bo's   first visit and he was a little overwhelmed at first but by the end of the day, they tell me he was one of the gang.  I introduced myself to another newcomer, Max    , and he was polite but said he didn't have time to stop and chat as he had to find his buddies, Finley and Tucker, so he could tell them a joke he just heard from Finnigan .

Q. What breed of dog tells off-colour jokes?   A. a smutt!   

   .

When I went to find Finnigan and ask him about the joke, he had his blue ball in his mouth and wouldn't drop it because he thought I would grab it from him. Imagine! Where would he ever get an idea like that? 

Next, I stopped by and woke Parker   up so I could say hello and ask him if there was any juicy gossip he wanted to share. The closest he could come was to tell me that Mary cooked three winter squash today, two Butternut and one Buttercup and Hunter had a plan to make sure they had some with their dinner tonight. 

I picked up more info about what was happening at the beach from Baxter and Nala  and they said they were seal watching  but there were no sightings today.

That left Tommy, who was thrilled that he got here just in time to join the beach walk and Lumie who brags about what great shape she's in to anyone who will listen. I suppose the fact that she recently reached her sixteenth birthday and has been on a beach walk hundreds of times can't be ignored. I hope I'll be in as good shape and doing the beach when I hit sixteen.   

    

Both Kali and Ollie had left for the day by the time I got here but from all accounts they both had a good day and enjoyed making some new friends.  

 

So that's it, I've done my duty and it's time for bed.  If I mispelled anything or forgot some punctuation, don't you dare write or call to complain. Remember, I'm a dog.  

 

     

   

After last night's thunder and lightning storm, we awoke late having overslept because the clock-radio didn't wake us. Fortunately, Stephanie and Ellie didn't miss the school bus and she was on time to meet Bella. 

Kelsea arrived with her three Labs today. This was our first real introduction to the newest member of the Kelsea Clan, Maple .  That's her in the middle and she was very respectful of her elders while still curious about her new surroundings. 

There was the usual beach walk with a group of the bigger critters and they enjoyed showing Maple all their favorite haunts and the best swimming spots. 

   

The remaining critters, including Finley  , went to the beach later with Stephanie and had loads of fun going over all the previously inspected items of interest and peeing on them as is the custom. 

Mylea shows off the eel grass that she discovered and Bailey stands on her pile of kelp while Marlea hangs on to her very own orange ball.  

     

Joey warns Finley that he better not be coveting the special orange ball that he found but Finley is a very patient guy.

 

Hali sits on top of her beach throne, queen of all she surveys. 

In addition to all of our beach adventures, Maggie went home today after her long stay and the main floor of the house was the subject of a thorough cleaning. Mary made a trip into the city to pick up Horse and Guinea Feed as well as dog biscuits. Though she tried to keep it a secret from us, she also brought home a pizza for herself from Basha's Pizza in Cole Harbour. She takes her own Pizza pan with her and they put together their best medium with the works and extra cheese, place it in a box and Mary cooks it for her dinner after she gets home. Oh, the smell is mouth watering. 

The regulars started arriving early as Bronco, Merle and Maybelle were dropped off and the parking lot was busy with fourteen more arrivals, all wanting to rush through the gate and have some fun. Kelsea and her two older Labs, LaVie and Ocean joined us at nine o'clock and there was a management meeting with Stephanie to organize the diverse group for beach walks.  Kelsea took most of the large guests first while Stephanie would wait until that group got back before heading down with the large number of small ones. 

So, this was Kelsea's bunch and they were all well behaved and no one got into any trouble and they posed for some portraits. Kelsea also got some great action shots.

 Bronco at a full gallop and Drake with Oliver showing off their fancy footwork while Lucy waits for a ball to come her way. 

     

What ball? says Harry.

Maggie wants her best side captured while Nala and Baxter adopt their most popular pose.

 

Meanwhile, back at the house, Stephanie was keeping busy taking some photos of Merle and Maybelle.  

    

The second group were getting restless but Stephanie insisted that they had to wait for the Wild Child, a.k.a.  Bailey  ,  to get here because she really loves the beach and swimming.  While they were waiting, some of the group organized games of hide and seek , follow me and tag. 

     

    

Kelsea's return with the first beach walkers, made it possible for the rest of us to race down to the shore but, like most good friends we waited.  Finally, Bailey drove up to the gate and raced through, very excited to see that we had all been cooling our heels. She didn't even stop to  say hello, so we all barked our encouragement to Stephanie to let her know we were ready to go.  

We watched that little Bailey head right for the waves and most of us raced in after her, determined to get as wet as possible and splashing one another along the way. 

   

   

   

      

You probably noticed that there were enough Doodles on hand today to call a General Meeting of the Oodle Club but the members in good standing, which included Hali, Lucy R, Stanley, Snickers and Rolo, were much too busy having a good time.

The rest of the afternoon flew by after we returned to the house and welcomed another one of the 'small but mighty' gang, Tonique, who will stay with us for a few days. Soon it was time to say goodbye to most of the day-visitors, have dinner and try to enjoy a nap whilst listening to what sounded like a herd of elephants racing through the house. It was Tonique and Bailey showing off for one another to see who could get around the circuit in the fastest time while making the most noise. Mary let them work off some excess energy in the hopes it would mean they would go to sleep and stay there for the full night. 

They were doing pretty good until three forty-five in the morning when an unexpected thunder and lightning storm moved in shaking the house, producing torrential downpours and turning on all the dusk to dawn lights. Fortunately, the storm passed over fairly quickly , everyone stopped barking and went back to sleep for a couple of hours but we slept late due to the clock-radio not coming on as expected.

It's always great fun to have more than one puppy joining us for the day as they provide a non-stop source of entertainment. Tuesday is usually Rosie and Molly day and today they were joined by Lucy who is in the same age group. To make it even more fun, Finnigan, joined in even though technically, he's not a puppy anymore.  The four of them played together non-stop and it's a good bet they will all be exhausted when they go home at the end of the day. 

   

Maggie looks like she's not thrilled to be  the governess to these four rascals. 

 

We also had a good time on our beach walk, today, and one of our seal friends was watching us from the swells, no doubt quite amazed at some of our antics on the shore. If we looked up to the top of one of the dead spruce trees we would have seen this handsome Bald Eagle taking it all in, as well.  

-o       

 

Here are a bunch of photos that didn't make it into the October 10th DogBlog but were too good to miss. 

   

      

   

Monday was a day of comings as well as goings, as many of the regular Monday visitors arrived to spend the day with us, while seven overnight guests were picked up by their humans and returned home. Stephanie arrived in the morning to get our breakfast ready and then arrange to take many of us to the beach to enjoy the warm temperatures and the great bathing. 

   

   

Our Water Dog friend Rico  , joined us in the late morning and we promised him that he would get to the beach with us tomorrow so off he went to have some fun. Throughout the afternoon we said goodbye to Ellie, Jake, Chase, Tali, Marley, Parker and Gracie and Shamsky got to stay later and have dinner with us. Once Shamsky departed, it was a very quiet household with only five overnight guests left so we had our pick of the best beds when bedtime rolled around.   

 

 

We got an early start on Saturday as the gravel truck left the depot at seven o'clock headed our way with the first load for the driveway. Randy arrived around seven-thirty, met the driver and got the first load spread while the truck returned to the depot for the second load. 

Meanwhile, we welcome Kelsea, had our breakfast and generally tried to stay out of the way of all those machines. There were several arrivals throughout the morning, all of whom were totally familiar with the routine and joined in the fun as we followed Kelsea around.  Little Molly   was back for a second day of fun this week and she provided lots of entertainment. With the arrival of Parker, the Brittany gang   now numbered three. It's quite a circus when all three of them decide to 'talk' at the same time. Theo and Remi really get into the vocalizing while Parker likes to keep the melody on track. For sure, if Hunter were here, they would be hitting some very high notes trying to keep up with him.  It was hard to tell if Tali   was pleased to find Molly having so much fun or a bit miffed that she seems to be making herself right at home.  After all, Tali has been the top Toller around here since 2016 and she's sure that she was a much cuter Toller  when she was Molly's age.  

  Mary was busy getting some of the other jobs underway after the driveway was finished and soon all five of the garden raised-bed boxes where in position having been moved by the big tractor with the fork attachment. 

Kelsey had a bite of lunch and then she went into the city to get some veggies and meat for Mary and we kept ourselves amused until she got back so she could take over and let Mary get back outside to oversee the work as Randy had moved on to grading the big graveled area around the front of the house and barn. Once that was done, the last job was to load up the truck with some old railroad ties to take to the refuse depot. Finally, just before we were going to have dinner, the final piece of machinery was loaded on the float and Randy made his exit. Of course, we had to get out there and check out all of the renovations and soon Kelsea was ready to leave for the day. 

After getting her nose sunburned on Saturday, Mary was determined to have a much easier day on Sunday so we all slept in until six forty-five. It was another sunny day but not as warm as yesterday and we welcomed some more friends including, Gracie B, Ellie T and Chase who livened the place up a bit. Late in the afternoon, Stephanie came by to take us down to the beach with the kids, Ellie and Monica while her sister, Sheila, stayed and had a chat with Mary. Stephanie returned with a bunch of wet and happy critters and got our dinner ready which we enjoyed before they all returned to Stephanie's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Tonight, we are having naps and going outside to bark at nothing while we get ready to retire for the evening.