Yesterday afternoon we stopped by Traveler’s Rest again, and Cocoa actually let me take her photo. The dogs love this place because there are so many wild sniffs. In fact, I guess that is what jazzes them about living in this area—no common city smells for them anymore. They get to smell where the “wild things” live. Below, Chipley is playing with a chip of wood from one of the pine trees at Traveler’s Rest. Sticks and pieces of bark continue to be his favorite (and not allowed) toys.

I finally decided to post this short video. It’s nothing much. Anytime I create a video in YouTube, it is automatically posted on my Website. So, rather than delete it, I’m going to just leave it here for a wihle. Early this past Tuesday morning, Cocoa and I decided to check out the snow before it really started coming down.

Cocoa Joy is camera tired until she here’s the name of her famous trainer at Dog School 101.

Every morning I notice these little chairs just hanging out in front of a very unassuming store. They always seem to be calling out to me to stop and take a few minutes to “sit awhile.” But it is far too cold right now for outside conversation and fellowship. Still, it won’t be long—just a matter of a couple of months—before we turn our thoughts to warmer days and the opportunity to be outside with neighbors and friends.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” — C.S. Lewis