Yes, Santa did

My dear wife Karen outdid herself this year. From the grandest gift to the simplest gift, she knows how to make everybody in the house happy. I think so. Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle thinks so. Daughter Elisabeth and boyfriend George thought so as we enjoyed family time for Christmas Eve last night. Son Daryl…

The corner is long … and dark

We passed the Winter Solstice mark Sunday here in the Northern Hemisphere, officially moving into the fourth season, the coldest season. The darkest season. We are gaining light. That corner is always turned on the solstice, designating the day when the tilt of the earth begins to move us more prominently toward the sun for…

If you buy Barb Taub’s books, you’ll help homeless pets

Barb Taub used to write a column over here in the United States. Now she lives on the other side of the big pond, where she’s a novelist, and a blogger on WordPress. Her words are eye-catching to me. On Dec. 4, she wrote a piece titled “Tap-Dancing on a Wire,” with the sub-head “If…

Snow in the Syracuse backyard? Ellie B digs it

As I’ve written about the snow piling up around our Little Bitty the past few days here in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, somebody asked me in a comment about the reaction of Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle. Well, Diana, I do believe you will be able to see for yourself. Not one of…

I think the squirrels will be up in the air this winter

Back when I last changed my header photo two seasons ago, my friend Bill of Evil Squirrel’s Nest shouted that he saw one up a tree. A squirrel’s nest, that is. In a tree. In a photograph. In my blog header. Anyway, that’s obviously stuck in my head because walking Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle…

Keep your head high and your eyes wide

Snow kisses my backyard in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood as we stir on this Thanksgiving morn. It covers the ground and the shed, and hangs on the boughs of those towering pines in the neighbor’s house behind. Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle welcomes the sight and the feel of it. She’s ready for…

A walk with Ellie B takes flight

A long loop walk with Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle this week took us behind the apartment complex more than a few blocks away from our home in the Syracuse city neighborhood home of Eastwood. I noticed a Fed Ex truck stopped on the extreme right side of the lot, hugging the bit of unkempt…

Ellie B earns the dreaded double leash

My around-the-block with Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle turned into an unwanted adventure last week. The dog slipped her gentle leader. Oh, my wily beloved rescue mutt has managed to free her nose from the black circle of mesh before, but as we walked down the hill on our street, four houses from home in…

Looking out my back porch door

Stepping to the top step of the porch to let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out to do her backyard morning thing, I couldn’t help but look right and left to check out autumn’s progress in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. The empty lot to the right has a brightly yellowed tree hiding out…

Fall isn’t coming as quickly as I thought it would

Taking a walk with Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle around our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood in my shorts and T-shirt, I noticed the dog panting and myself working up a good sweat. So I stopped to snap a snot of the tree above with my iPhone 4, foremost to give the dog a breather…