Well, I wanted to post these pictures last week but I just didn’t get around to it….so now that it’s cold here again and even snowing a bit over the last few days, it seems like a good time to post about the few spring days that we had…and hope that they will be back soon!

The weekend before last, hubby and I were out taking out Sunday morning walk with Ayla. The weather was so gorgeous that we decided to take the long-ish version of the walk over the cobblestone path….

This path runs parallel to our usual walking path where there are a bunch of apple trees and other fruit trees…a really nice treat during the summer and fall when you can just harvest your own snack along the way.

Along the cobblestone path are a few small garden plots like this one as well as some larger agricultural fields.

This particular garden had some sheep…but when I tried to take a better photo of them, they all turned their backs on me. They also didn’t want anything to do with Ayla…most strange 😉

Since the day was turning out to be so nice, we decided we would just keep going. Before we moved in, I once ended up on a walk with one of the neighbors which lasted about an hour. I was pretty sure I could find the route again backwards although I wasn’t too sure about getting there forwards. It winds through a bunch of the farming land behind our town and goes up into a small forest as well…plus we figured it would wear the dog out and give us some time to work and these days we can never have enough time.

As you can see, there are a few more orchards along here but these are private property. But one of the really nice aspects of the area back there is the rolling hills.

No walk is ever really complete without floogers. I wasn’t really sure this photo would come out because it was so bright out that I couldn’t really see what I was taking a photo of.
As it turned out, I got a pretty good photo of it lol. She was excited about possibly getting to meet a German Shepherd which came along the path…but that didn’t really work out because the owner was keeping him at a distance. I always have to wonder if it’s the owner’s that make their dogs antisocial from the start or whether the dog has a reason for being that way…but around here, German Shepherds tend to be the worst about aggressive behavior.

About half way through the walk, we approached the riding centers. There are two centers, one on each side of the road. One has an indoor and outdoor riding ring and even hosts a summer camp for kids.

We also got the impression that one of the houses up there is a bird farm although we have no clue whether it’s just for fun or actual profit. As we approached the farms, we glanced over and thought we saw statues of geese in the wood stack…and then they started moving and multiplying. Ayla, of course, never even noticed them but since they are often pretty mean, it’s probably better that she didn’t.

At the riding center with summer camp, Ayla also almost made a new friend. This little guy came out and greeted us but I guess we lingered a bit too long because after a minute, he started barking at us to move on. He was really friendly at first though…I swear lol. Ayla didn’t care much either way. As soon as he started barking, she just ignored him which was quite funny.

Past the riding areas is a path through the forest. It’s not a long portion of the walk but if it’s really warm outside, this part would be nice to cool off a bit. The rest of the walk has no shade but in here it’s quite cool.

After we came out of the forest, we happened upon another personal garden which looked really interesting.
When I took a closer peak inside, it turned out that there were 3 large ponds just inside the fence. There are a lot of koi and aquarium fish breeders in this town so we figure it might have something to do with that. We even looked it up on Google maps and it seems that there is another huge pond behind all this. We were thinking that it would make a great Newfie haven in the summer although we would fill in at least one of the ponds in the front portion because you don’t need the Newf to be that wet.

Afterwards we made our way home and definitely noticed that Ayla was worn out. Before we joined the last leg of our usual walk, we ran into the British guy in our neighborhood with two Pugs. We’d never really had the chance to talk to him much before so we took the opportunity to get to know him a bit better. You can never know too many English speaking people when you live in a foreign country. This conversation even earned him an invite to our housewarming party when we finally get around to having one.

It turns out that he is actually a lover of big dogs and really wants to get a Great Dane (I was shocked by that comment also lol). He said he got the first Pug because a big dog wasn’t possible while he was living in an apartment…and then he got the second on sort of on a whim. Now he’s living in a house, though, and is anticipating getting a Dane when the little ones go to the Bridge. When he told us that the Pugs need to go out 5-6 times a day and he has a dog walker for them, I knew we had not made the wrong choice about not getting a small dog when we lived in an apartment.

One other really interesting tidbit we learned from him is that there is another Newf in town!! Apparently they basically live on the other side of town but they supposedly go into one of the bakeries every Sunday morning so perhaps we’ll have to hang out there with Ayla and maybe bump into each other. It seems that it’s a boy since our neighbor said he’s much larger than Ayla and it sure would be nice for her to have a Newfie play friend in the area. Hopefully he’s still young enough to hang with her 🙂