Categories
Out and About

Late Spring at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Today, my mom and I checked out the 40,000 blooming tulips and completed the Three-Mile Walk at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, Minnesota.

Red, orange, and yellow tulips
Pink tulips
Red and white tulips
Idyllic path near the beginning of the Three-Mile Walk
Athyrium filix-femina, the lady fern
Fallen Quercus rubra, the red oak
Scenic view
Male red-winged blackbird on cattails by a pond
Mushy path in a bubbling bog
Signpost along the Three-Mile Walk
Categories
Out and About Pug Life

Carver Park Reserve Off-Leash Dog Park in Autumn

Today, my mom, puggles, and I made it to Carver Park Reserve Off-Leash Dog Park in Victoria, Minnesota. This dog park is actually the only dog park we knew about after getting Pugsley, and it wasn’t for quite some time that we found out about all the other dog parks in the area.

According to the Minnesota DNR’s Fall Color Finder, now is the perfect time for fall colors in Victoria. However, fall colors this year are not as spectacular as other years because of the drought we had this summer. Nevertheless, it was a nice day to visit a dog park and get some photos.

Missy and Pugsley by a fence
Pugsley deciding not to go in the woods
Pugsley by a fence and entrance to the area for small dogs. Ours were the biggest dogs there.
Missy and Pugsley take a break off the path to enjoy the smell of grass
Pugsley smelling more grass with my mom and Missy walking toward Lake Zumbra in the background
A nice portrait of Pugsley in the grass
Missy walking over some fallen leaves on the path
Categories
Out and About Pug Life

Road Trip to Tennessee

For Memorial Day, my parents and I traveled by car to visit the family of my brother’s fiancée. All but one of these photos were taken when we stayed at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at The Arch in Missouri, though I do have more photos that were taken with my iPhone. Unfortunately, I can’t open the photos taken with my iPhone on this Linux computer because they are .heic files, which this computer does not recognize. That being said, I am grateful the weather cooperated when we were at the Gateway Arch, since these are some of the best photos I’ve taken with my Canon EOS R.

A portrait of my mom in front of the Gateway Arch
The Gateway Arch next to the St. Louis skyline
My mom walks our dogs by the Gateway Arch. (Yes, the Hyatt is dog-friendly.)
Missy and Pugsley near the Gateway Arch
The Gateway Arch
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (in Tennessee)
Categories
Gear

Buy a Hummingbird Feeder, and the Hummingbirds Will Come

A couple months ago, I read a gear review on Wired.com about hummingbird feeders. Since my mom is a huge hummingbird fan and has tons of hummingbird decorations, I told her to read the review. We decided to buy a hummingbird feeder—and, later, a second one—and ever since we have been frequented by hummingbirds. If you like hummingbirds, it makes so much sense to have a hummingbird feeder (or two) so you can enjoy hummingbirds every day rather than waiting for perhaps one the entire summer.

Even though the high was around 60 degrees today, and I’m guessing the hummingbirds are beginning to migrate south from Minnesota, I only had to wait about 30 minutes before I captured this hummingbird at one of our feeders this evening.

A hummingbird drinks sugar water out of a hummingbird feeder

The hummingbird feeders we use cost $30 on Amazon. We followed the instructions for the sugar water that were included with the feeders, and the hummingbirds seem to love it!

My mom has a view of the hummingbird feeders from her new home office, which I assembled

My mom had previously counted about 20 days in a row seeing hummingbirds.

And that is so much better than just one sighting for the entire summer.

Categories
Pug Life

An Evening in Centennial Lakes Park

Centennial Lakes Park is a 24-acre park and man-made pond located in Edina, Minnesota. It’s my mom’s favorite park, so we went there with our puggles, Pugsley and Missy, this evening.

Missy and Pugsley pose for the camera
My mom and puggles by the pond
My mom and puggles by the miniature golf course