Sophie's Turn: Nature Walks

Where did autumn go? I was wondering this on Monday, the last day of November, as I took advantage of a little sunshine and warmer temperatures (50's) to put up Christmas lights and take care of a few neglected gardening chores. A few geraniums were potted up and brought inside, and two of the potted mums that still showed some signs of life were planted in the garden in the hopes they will survive until next fall. Everything else that didn't get done during this wet and busy fall will just have to wait until spring.




With the garden put to bed for the winter, this is a good time to sort through some unused picture files and finally put together a post I had planned a month ago. In an attempt to enjoy the last remants of fall, I've taken Sophie on a couple of nature walks. She has plenty of room to run around our yard each day, but I thought it would be good for her to have some different experiences. This week we visited one of my favorite places to walk, the prairie restoration area at Meadowbrook Park, and earlier this fall I took her to a local forest preserve just a 10 minute drive from my house, which we refer to as Homer Lake.



Sophie often lies by my side as I sit at the computer, and since Toby and Coconut have been allowed to guest post here, I've decided to let her provide the narration for the photos. Please keep in mind she just turned a year old, so she's not too literate yet, though she is quite articulate in making her wishes known. Here is her perspective:

On my birthday this week, my Mom took me to Meadowbrook Park.

We had to walk over a bridge. Mom stopped to look for the beaver dam she had read about in the paper. She thinks that might be one of them at the far edge of the river. But I didn't smell any beavers here . . . um, what's a beaver?




This is the path we followed on our walk. Mom said we had to stay on the sidewalk, but I wanted to follow all those strange smells off to the side. There must be lots of creatures living in these trees and shrubs.

We stopped to look at trees, like this one with berries on it.

And we looked at plants. Mom says this is goldenrod.

And these are milkweed pods. Mom says that butterflies like these, but I didn't see any. I wonder where all the butterflies are? I like butterflies; they're fun to chase.

Most of the plants were all dried up like these. Mom says they look really pretty in the summer when they are different colors, but I like everything in black and white anyway.

We had a good walk, but Mom grabbed my leash and made me sit when I saw a squirrel running next to the path. I really wanted to chase that squirrel! I bet I could have caught him, too. We also saw some other dogs, but Mom kept a tight hand on my leash and wouldn't let me say hello. I don't know why not; I just wanted to play with them.

We saw other people, too. Mom finally let me say hello to a nice lady after I whined a lot and the lady said she liked dogs. She was a nice lady. Mom says I can't go up to strangers. But I don't know what a "stranger" is. I like all people. I really like the little kids who come to visit me; they're fun to play with. But I also like the man who drives a brown truck and delivers packages to our house sometimes. And I like the man who fixed the furnace and the men who brought some furniture to our house--I helped them unload their truck. But I really liked the man who put new carpeting in the spare bedroom. I watched him all morning, and he didn't mind when I took some of the old carpet to play with for awhile.

Okay, Sophie, we all know you are definitely a people-lover and that all you want is a little attention. But could we get back to our walks, please?

Okay, okay. The park is nice, but my favorite place is Homer Lake. The first time we went there the trees had all their leaves, and it was warm.

The next time we went there, most of the leaves were on the ground.

There are lots of neat things to see and smell. Mom says this is a bird station,

but I didn't see any birds in it.

There are trees everywhere. Some of them are kind of strange

and don't have any branches like this one.

And there's lots of water. I bet I could swim in it if Mom would just let me.

But Mom wanted to look at other things. Especially the trees.

Some of them still had leaves and what Mom called "fall color."

There were pretty orange trees on the road into the park.

Mom lets me lead the way most of the time, so I don't mind if she wants to stop and read a sign.

Or stop to take a picture of a flower. She said this was goldenrod and that she was surprised to see it still blooming in early November.

Most of the flowers weren't blooming any more. But I like the white fuzzy things on their heads.

I like to smell wildflowers. But I don't like cock-a-burrs. Sometimes I run into them when I'm chasing rabbits. They stick to my fur, and Mom has to help me get them out.

I'm glad these aren't those sticky things. They're pretty, aren't they?

My favorite place in the whole park, though, are the trails. There's a new smell around every corner. I sure hope Mom takes me back here soon!

As long as the weather permits, I want to make these infrequent excursions with Sophie more often. Besides giving her a chance to survey new surroundings, these walks are great exercise for me. Not only the walking, but being pulled on a leash by a 67-pound dog has to be some kind of weight-bearing exercise, I would think. But most of all, both of us enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of our surroundings; it's a sensory experience we both can enjoy.