Happy Halloween!

Our little pug didn't do much celebrating this year. She had to stay home while we went out to a costume party, but for tonight she managed to cuddle up in Holly's lap and is fast asleep. I figure this is the way she likes to spend the holiday best, so that's ok by us.

BOO!

Welcome to the haunted season

On our lunch break the other day, Louise and I walked over to the Olympic Village to check things out. Well to be honest, I was just curious to see how progress was coming along for the new London Drugs location as it is super convenient in relation to the office. Sadly, they are still painting the walls and such, so it is still a few weeks away from opening.

While there we did discover an overly tall patch of decorative grass, and I managed to persuade Louise into getting a couple good shots. She didn't really mind and we had a pretty good walk before heading back to work.

Fast forward to this morning when we headed out for our morning walk. Louise was raring to go, so we decided to head down to Coal Harbour to see the boats. We did that, but there wasn't much going on. I guess it's not really boating season anymore. On our way back though, Louise found some really nice leaves to rummage around in. The only complication I had was that it made it a little more difficult for me (as dog owners, you know what I am talking about) to pick up after her.

Still, Louise was not perturbed and we carried on our way, encountering more sidewalks covered in leaves. Oddly enough, we didn't stop to chase any chestnuts, although I do recall seeing her searching for some.

Later on we were out for our afternoon walk, and noticed that there was a 'citizen protest' going on against the proposed rental tower to be built in our neighborhood. There were dozens of people gathered, listening to various people take turns to speak. We took a pamphlet and kept going home though as by then it was lightly raining and Louise was pretty much done walking.

Octoberfest includes Chestnuts

Okay, this first photo is of Louise with yet another chestnut in her mouth. What is unusual about this one is that she decided it was the right one to start chewing on, and managed to drive one of her K9 teeth so deep into it that I had to pull it off the tooth for her.

At least there was no risk of her choking on it. Sheesh. Still, she has oodles of fun with this, as evidenced by her furious tail wagging. I took a brief video of her chasing chestnuts, which I will add to the end of this post.

Of course, chestnuts aren't the only thing going on this time of the year - oh no. Last weekend while on our morning walk we got a call from Holly who was wondering what we should have for brunch. We decided that it would be a good idea to go to Starbucks and get some pumpkin spice lattes, along with a few things to eat as well. It was a bit of an indulgence but that was okay because Louise just loves waiting outside a Starbucks coffee shop - I think she assumes that there will be some treats in it for her if she does. She sure likes her Vancouver Island oat bars.

Of course she's right too, when we got home we ate our snacks (and shared a little with Louise) and drank our drinks - but ultimately concluded that the pumpkin spice latte is far too sweet for it to taste good. We have also tried a similar drink at Blendz but had similar results there too. It might be nice to find a pumpkin spiced drink that had the spice like a chai tea and a good pumpkin flavour without being filled with sugar on top.

Not that Louise cared one iota. She got her oat bar.

Autumn Antics

Vancouver is a funny place when the seasons change. Not all of the cherry blossoms come at once and similarly, not all of the trees drop their leaves at the same time. Instead, the season stretches out for weeks, as trees of different types react to the colder weather on their own schedules.

Incidentally, this is quite possibly Louise's favorite season - it's still nice and warm during the day, yet not too hot to be bothersome. Also, she has that habit of chasing after chestnuts and well, they are dropping quite regularly this week. I'm surprised people still park their cars under chestnut trees during fall, since the dropping nuts have been known to dent them.

In a week or so I expect the wind to pick up and when it does, Louise should have some good times chasing after the leaves. As you can see by today's photos though, she isn't much interested in them at the moment.