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Manzanita Mystery

28 Mar

My trails seem to be full of mysteries lately.

I’ve been checking for clues everywhere.

So while I was checking for clues on the last mystery, I discovered a new mystery.

A Detective Dog’s work is never done.

I might have to do some modeling and have my person take some new Detective Dog pics before I wear my hat out.

Besides, I always get extra treats when I model.

Okay, back to the mystery.

It’s a Manzanita mystery.

Because baby Manzanita berries always start out green.

Like this.

And most of the new berries on my trails are coming out green.

They usually get some rosy color later, but when they first appear they’re green.

But I found some berries that just had to be different.

As a matter of fact, even their blossoms were different.

They had pink blossoms.

All the blossoms on the other bushes were white.

And when these berries popped out they weren’t green at all.

They were red.

So I started investigating to find out why these berries, and these only, were different than the rest.

And you know what I discovered when I looked around the other side of the berries?

The berries are red on one side – and green on the other.

These berries are not so different after all.

It’s all a front.

25 Comments

Posted by Bongo on March 28, 2014 in Bongo, dogs, humor

Tags: Detective Dog, manzanita, Manzanita Berries, manzanita blossoms, Mystery, Pets, Photography

Leaf Dropping

15 Feb

What’s this?

This is the wrong time of the year.

And those leaves are the wrong color to be on the ground.

As a matter of fact, Manzanita leaves don’t fall to the ground.

They stay on the bushes all year.

And since this is the only place on my whole trails with a pile of leaves like this, I know there’s some culprit somewhere who is guilty of leaf dropping.

And it’s up to me to find out who it is.

I’m sure that leaf dropper left some evidence somewhere around this bush.

Hmmm. It’s hard to sort out the messages.

I’d better work on it though.

After all it is one of my favorite things to do.

I bet there’s something under here.

It’s closer to the grounded leaves.

I’m sure there’s something under here that will give me a hint as to who the culprit is.

Nothing. Nada. I’m not having any luck.

I’m not finding any clues anywhere.

There’s only one thing I can tell for sure.

Those leaves have fallen and they can’t get up.

16 Comments

Posted by Bongo on February 15, 2014 in Bongo, dogs, humor

Tags: clues, leaves, manzanita, Outdoors, Pets, sniffing, Trail

Trail Block

04 Feb

There she goes again.

Taking pictures of flowers.

I’m in trouble from now till the end of summer.

There’s much better things to do than make your dog sit around and wait just so you can take flower pictures.

Didn’t you hear me?

I said there’s much better things.

Like maybe you should take notice of what’s going on around you.

Like this, for instance.

Just look at this!

Some do gooder is trying to block up my trails again.

They seem to do that all the time.

If there’s two ways to get somewhere they decide you only need one way and they block one off.

It doesn’t matter that everybody’s had those two options for years.

Don’t they know that variety is the spice of life?

Hey person, aren’t you going to do something about this?

Because this do gooder only blocked off one of the entrances to this trail.

So if I enter the trail on the unblocked side – I’ll eventually come around to this blocked part.

And if I’m an obedient dog that obeys all the trail blockings I won’t be able to cross over so I can continue on down the trail.

Then what do I do?

Hey person, if you take a picture of those flowers you’re going to have to cross over this blockade.

23 Comments

Posted by Bongo on February 4, 2014 in Bongo, dogs, humor

Tags: Flower, manzanita, manzanita blossoms, Pets, Photography, Trail, walk

Early Spring

27 Jan

I think I’m in trouble now.

This is January, right?

Isn’t January the middle of winter?

Well, it kind of doesn’t seem like that here – but the flowers should pay attention.

They’re not supposed to show up for months.

But my person found one today.

The first flower of spring – but it’s still winter.

Which means it’s already started.

Those drudgingly long waits while my person gets her camera out and takes picture after picture of flowers.

And it looks like it’s going to be a long season this year.

I don’t know why she does it.

I mean, aren’t these the same kinds of flowers that she took pictures of last year.

And the year before.

I just don’t get people sometimes.

They don’t make any sense.

Okay, I’m done with my rant until the next time my person gets her camera out.

Wait! What?

More flowers already?

I forgot about those Manzanita bushes.

They always start blooming really early.

And then when they stop blooming they have berries.

And my person takes pictures of those.

I think I’d better do something about this.

Maybe I should eat them like I did to those curly weeds the other day.

Oh. Ummm.

This is going to be tricky.

There are a lot of Manzanita bushes on my trails.

Does anybody want to come help?

Click here to find more mischievous pets.

21 Comments

Posted by Bongo on January 27, 2014 in Bongo, dogs, humor

Tags: Camera, Flower, manzanita, Pets, Trail

Flames on My Trails

24 Dec

This is terrible!

Someone is trying to burn down my trails.

I walked around a corner and found this Manzanita bush on fire.

What am I going to do?

My puddle is a long ways away and there’s no other water around to put this fire out with.

I couldn’t bear it if my trails burned down.

How would I have any adventures if there was nothing left but black char?

Maybe if I blow on it hard enough and kick up enough dirt the fire will go out.

Oh no! There’s more fire here.

I’ll never be able to get it all out in time.

Run for it!

Call 911!

Do you think they have a fire truck that’s skinny enough to drive down my trails?

Hey, wait a minute.

These bushes are on fire but they’re not burning up.

This is kind of like the burning bush that Moses saw.

Maybe God lit this fire to remind us of Christmas.

You know, Jesus being born and all that?

I’m not sure about God’s color choice though.

Shouldn’t these bushes be burning in red and green?

I guess you never know about God. He seems to have a mind of His own.

Hey person, I think we’re doing it all wrong.

You’ve got to take down all those red and green lights on our house and put up orange ones.

18 Comments

Posted by Bongo on December 24, 2013 in Bongo, dogs, humor

Tags: Burning bush, Christmas, flames, God, Jesus, manzanita, Moses, Pets, Photography, Trail

What Happened to the Sky?

21 Nov

I know this isn’t so strange for most of my blogging buddies this time of year, but for me it is.

What happened to the sky?

I’ve been looking at blue sky almost every day, but today it’s gone.

Where’d all that gray come from?

And it’s soggy too. It’s a good thing I’m a water dog.

I’ll take water in any way, shape, or form – soggy or not.

But I don’t know what to do with my person.

She’ll look for any excuses to get her camera out and she found some today.

Go ahead person. Keep taking pictures here.

I found some good weeds to munch on.

I finished those weeds and had to drag my person on.

That worked until she found a lost little mushroom that had popped up out of the soil.

It looks like that poor mushroom got dimples from shivering so much. All the other mushrooms hung out when it was warmer.

I finally convinced my person that that mushroom was fine all by itself, but when I stopped in one of my favorite sniffing spots she found something else.

I’m not sure I want to hang around these things for very long.

Some of them have some pretty mean looking teeth.

Let’s get outta here!

22 Comments

Posted by Bongo on November 21, 2013 in Bongo, dogs, humor

Tags: Agave, clouds, fungus, manzanita, Mushroom, Pets, Photography, sky, Trail

Bored with Berries

28 Jun

Last year the prickly pear cactus on my trails had lots of fruit and my person decided to get brave and pick some and make things that were good to eat.

This year the prickly pear only had a few puny flowers so I don’t think there’s going to be much fruit.

But the Manzanita bushes are loaded with berries.

And my person decided she was going to experiment with those this year.

Of course she didn’t ask me first. Most of those berries are really little and it took a long time to pick enough to do anything with.

Hey person, all the best berries are in here.

I tried to help, but my person told me to sit and be quiet.

We picked up a hitchhiker while my person was picking.

Finally my person was ready to head home.

I got accused of getting her backpack wet.

I’m always getting blamed for things and this time I couldn’t even put the blame on Scratchy.

It turned out my person had a leaky water bottle.

Whew! Off the hook that time.

When we got home I still had to sit and be quiet. My person wasn’t finished with those berries.

Finally, the finished product.

I may have gotten off the hook for getting my person’s backpack wet, but I sure hope I don’t get accused of watering the inside of that jar.

27 Comments

Posted by Bongo on June 28, 2013 in Bongo, dogs, humor

Tags: Berry Picking, manzanita, Manzanita Berries, Manzanita Cider, Pets, Trail

Berry Load

02 May

I’ve got to investigate these Manzanita bushes to see what they’re up to this year.

You see, earlier this year they had lots of blossoms. More than I remember seeing on these bushes.

But then all those blossoms did something really strange. They turned into little apples all over the bushes.

I’ve never seen these bushes so covered before. You’d think my trails were one giant apple berry.

I’m going to have to figure out what to do with all these berries.

I wonder if they make good toys. Maybe I could play catch with them.

But once my person tosses them to me and I catch them – what if they don’t taste good. That could be a disaster.

Scratchy likes little roly things. Maybe I could take some of them home and roll them on the floor for him. That would probably occupy him for a whole minute or so. Then he’d probably want me to roll them around for him some more.

No, I guess that’s not a good idea either.

I wonder if my person could make something out of these berries? Are they edible?

They are?

If they’re edible there must be recipes for them. Get online person, and find some.

They don’t taste very good? What does that matter? If they’re edible you’ve got to eat them.

Not me. I don’t have to eat them. Berries aren’t dog food.

Okay, here it is. My person found the instructions for making Manzanita Cider. http://honest-food.net/2010/08/22/manzanita-cider/

Okay person, get busy and make that cider. The days are starting to get warm. You can put ice in the cider to cool off. I’ll just take the plain ice cubes.

What do you mean, you’re not going to make that cider yet?

You’re going to wait until those berries ripen?

You mean – oh no. That means I have to do another berry post later this summer. A sitting out and drinking cider kind of post.

Somehow I think my person tricked me into that one.

Scratchy, here’s some berries. Why don’t you roll them around on the floor for awhile.

21 Comments

Posted by Bongo on May 2, 2013 in Bongo, dogs, humor

Tags: Berry, Cats and Dogs, Cider, manzanita, Manzanita Cider, Pets, Scratchy

Flower Power

28 Mar

It’s that time of year again. When my person is the slowest hiker in the world because all she seems to do is take out her camera.

And when I think she’s finished and we can start moving, she takes it out again.

There are some flowers that bloom around here called Indian Paintbrush. They’re pretty hard to miss when you walk by.

I’ve been lucky though. None of them grow on the trails we usually walk on, and I can usually distract my person when we walk by the ones near our trail so she doesn’t notice them.

But you know what those Indian Paintbrushes did?

They smuggled a couple of them right onto my trail and hid them under a Manzanita bush. But even hidden they’re hard to miss because of their bright color.

And my person noticed them.

And then she noticed that those other ones were in bloom. Those ones I told you about that she usually doesn’t notice.

So she had to go off of our trail and get her camera out. And of course she dragged me with her.

But I discovered something about those flowers.

The bushes around those flowers – the ones they tried to hide those paintbrushes under – have some really good smells in them.

I hope my person stays here and takes pictures for a long time.

32 Comments

Posted by Bongo on March 28, 2013 in Bongo, dogs, humor

Tags: Hiking, Indian Paintbrush, manzanita, Pets, Photography, Trail

On the Trail Again

06 Mar

Finally! Today I was able to get my leash and put it into my person’s hand and take her for a walk. It’s been a week – well, except for one day that I took my younger person. I guess my person is getting better at chasing that bug away now so she can go with me.

I had so much to catch up with out on my trails. I had to find out which of my buddies had been by and which of them had left me messages. I bet some of them were worried when I didn’t answer for so long. Well, I sent them all messages so they know I’m back.

I was so busy sniffing that I almost didn’t notice when my person got her camera out. It’s that flower season time of year.

Wait a minute. What are these doing blooming? I thought I’d managed to get away with no Manzanita blossoms this year.

Last year the Manzanita blossomed in January. What gives?

I guess there’s only a few bushes with blossoms. My person can’t take too many pictures of them, can she?

***

We were almost back home and we’d even gone past all the Manzanita bushes – there are a lot of them on my trails – when I saw it.

I saw the strangest forest creature I’ve ever seen on my trails. I don’t know where it came from or what it was doing there.

I’m not sure what it is, but I think it’s some kind of forest fairy.