In my mind I saw as the ghost of time replayed their planting:  Uriah grabbing a sapling running off with a happy bounce, expecting, hoping I would chase him down.  Zeus ran in a circle teasing Uriah with his favorite stuffed toy hanging from his mouth.  Samson barked at the trees keeping real and imagined foes hidden in the trees.

Pain shimmered as reality stopped and slid around me like
the mists that form over the dew laden grass.

Maple leaves clapped in the reappearing blue sky and sunshine,
and a warm breeze drifted past.

I felt the ghosts of
my dogs move through the tall grass.  I heard them panting as they ran, happily barking and playing between the trees, sounds that drifted from my memory into this warm October afternoon.

I fell to my knees as tears streamed down my face.  I stroked  Uriah’s thick fur  gently as he lay panting. He looked up at me then looked away towards the trees. I felt we were both hearing the same echoes.
He drank from his water bowl.  I whispered how happy I was to have known him
and what a good dog he had been.

He didn’t cry. I was the one who moaned as I pulled myself upright, leaning on my cane, he watched with a worried look and tried to stand.

I told Uriah I loved him so much, and it was time to run and
play with Samson and Zeus, and one day we will all walk together again.

I helped him into the house, where he fell asleep and never woke up.

When Uriah died tonight I thought of everyone here, and how much this blog kept me writing. I hope everyone is doing well.

I posted this poem for today’s prompt “write a snapshot poem” this afternoon I also took this video with the new camera, – it’s a Nikon.  

Link to poem a day challenge: http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/2011/04/16/2011AprilPADChallengeDay16.aspx

 I used up the Cannon after eight months and the Sony barely made it a month.  I had bought the extended warranty at Best Buy so I was able to try different cameras. So far the Nikon is the best.

Michael is beginning to think cameras don’t’ like me. I keep explaining that some electronics have gremlins in them

I thought I would have trouble with setting up a video, then I found using, Microsoft Live I could fix it and upload it to YouTube

Here’s April 16^th, 2011’s poem..

“Freeze Frame”

by Gerardine Baugh

It is snowing

Uriah runs up to me

His thick coat is covered in water droplets

Looking up, he gives me a doggy grin

Knowing what’s coming I cringe and step back

He begins to shake

That, slow movement

Only his pudgy, furry body can accomplish. 

Where he turns his head one way, and

His body fat slips in the other direction

Water is launched from the ends of his fur

Encompassing him in a shower of reflected light 

I turned my back on him and the wind  

Time stops…

My hair covers my eyes

Snow blasts past me

An invisible serpent writhing as an updraft

Bellowing out my coat it slides up the naked trees.

Gathering up dry leaves from the ground, and

Playing with them around the tree tops

In a millisecond, sound stops

Then, the winds skate back down the trees

Letting go

Raining brown leaves within the white snow

Slipping across the grass, then

Like a playful child, pulls at my legs

Snowflakes hit my face stinging cold

Uriah doesn’t seem to notice the wind, or the cold snow

Staring expectantly

He whines and nudges at my hand for a treat

  http://www.examiner.com/writing-in-chicago/day-thirtieth-of-the-national-novel-writing-month-winners-rejoice-at-endings

Add in the thirty videos, and I had a busy month.

 Then I got sick, and posted this video. Cold medicine makes me loopy. 

I started out without an idea, storyline or characters.

Then, I decided to use an odd character I drew up a few years back, she was never developed. Problems in my writing are caused by not rounding out characters, or just over thinking them.

I have a different storyline I have been working on and I didn’t want her to take over that universe.

So this one had to tell me who she was, what was her secret and flaw.

To keep her straight in my head, and allow her to move about. I followed what Michael told me, keep your ideas in one universe. I thought that will work! It would keep all my characters, and their reality’s straight.

So this character, -protagonist- is in the same world of a different storyline I am working on.

Once I set her in their world, the words started to flow.

She was not part of my first idea. She has her own problems. I am having fun.

I have no idea on what I will say in the videos beyond the date and word count. The videos last about two to three minutes. On Saturday, I was watching a Doctor Who marathon-well; we went hunting out the Doctor! I think lack of sleep is getting to me. I have to laugh at myself

This is to let everyone know, I am alive and well-crazy.

I hope everyone is doing great.

Winds picked up, as the clouds literally touched the ground. The view was magnificent!

 As I faced east, the blue sky had disappeared and the sunlight came out of that dense and dark low cloud. I could see its top. A yellowish-gray, making everything look oddly, dirty yellow, like I was wearing yellow tinted sunglasses. 

I took Uriah for a walk, in that defused yellow light

When I turned and faced west, the sky was filled with higher, puffy white clouds slipping underneath a beautiful deep blue sky. I turned back and forth so many times I though I would get whiplash.

I stood off on the very back of the path, and watched the clouds touch the ground east of me. The rain in that area must have been heavy. Streaks of blue-black clouds raced across the sky, some of them losing the battle to stay air borne, and dropped to the ground in an equally dark curtain of rain.

Uriah decided to take a break from sniffing and running between the trees. He stared at my pockets, where I remembered to put his biscuit.   

“Uriah! Look the rain is coming towards us!”

He gave me a goofy grin, and then stared out over the empty corn field.

I watched the dark line of rain marking its path across the plowed field, edging slowly towards us. I heard the pattering sound, before I felt the sharp pieces of ice rain.

Uriah stood up, shook the ice off his coat and started back towards the house. He looked once back at me, as if he were telling me to get moving.

I laughed, and held my hands open to catch the frozen water. “Hey, Uriah! It’s snowing!”

 Uriah shook his head at me and looked miffed, as he disappeared into the tree line.

Once again, I am participating in the 2010 National Novel Writing month. I have posted four articles on the Examiner, dealing with writing.  And I will add short videos that will be posted with the articles.

I went into this without a plan. I had a character that I created a few years ago. Every so often I try and pull her out, she refused to be involved in any story line, until this year. 

If anyone has an idea for a topic or if there is something you want to see. Maybe you’re busy with your own NaNoWriMo writing, that’s great!  Drop me a note, when you’re done.

If you want to, add comments you can do it here, or go at the examiner, or on Youtube. Email is even great. gerardinebaugh@gmail.com

Youtube – http://bit.ly/91BE8d

Examiner- http://exm.nr/cdqOQ3

I shortened the links at this site:  http://bit.ly/?u=&searchButton=Shorten

This past week I watched as a farmer harvest his soybean crop in the neighboring field. I grabbed my camera and took a video as he roared past me, kicking up the usual intense dust storm, which always comes out of a soybean harvest.

The grey heavy dust had me coughing and teary eyed, I made a fruitless attempt to blink away the haze and itch behind my eyelids.

As I watched, twigs and rocks spray back onto the shaved off field.  The harvester moved slowly, roaring past me. 

Holding the camera in my right hand I waved with my left and the farmer waved back. I could barely see him between the dust and the darkness inside the cab.

Vibrations from the massive John Deere Harvester rippled under my feet. The tractor’s size and close proximity, passing a few feet/meters in front of me- reminded me of a charging elephant in a Tarzan movie.   

Add in a sunset and lengthening shadows.  Then toss in a thick, grey swirling dust cloud that quickly encompassed the world. 

 I could feel the hair rise on my neck. This scene had an eerie feel…  

I kept thinking something bad was about to happen.

Guess I’ve been watching too many horror movies…? Too close to Halloween..?

Uriah kept rolling his eyes and pacing. Finally, he gave up trying to get me to move away from the fence and walked back to the house.  Smart dog!

From across the field, on the end of ‘Bob’s’ property, I saw a flicker of light.

I headed up on the deck to get a better view.  I saw flames shooting up illuminating an old Oak tree that sat at the backend of his property. Not quite on ‘Bob’s’  land. It belongs to the farmer. 

 I haven’t lit a fire for a couple of months.

This summer’s air may have water soaked, but the ground and foliage has been very, very dry.  Dangerously dry!

I watched the flames licking at the lower tree branches and then blazed higher. Orange, red and yellow flames reached up into the branches, so bright I could make out each limb.  I was positive that tree was toast! 

About fifty feet, to the north, is a cornfield.  A very dry, not yet harvested- cornfield.

The farmer’s tractor’s lights glowed white; I noticed a second tractor in that field. I have never seen a soybean field stripped that fast. I wondered, if they were worried that fire?

When I couldn’t stand on the deck and breathe, I headed inside.

By midnight the air had cleared.

The fire was out, it hadn’t spread. (Add sigh of relief here)

Still today I am wondering, “What was that guy thinking- lighting a fire when a field was being harvested?”

Any thoughts on this?

For the second day in a row I stepped outside to frost on the grass, and plants that looked like I stuck them in the freezer, all wilted and mushy.

I had slipped on my sandals and headed out back. 

My toes felt the cold first. With the sun shining brightly the rest of me really wasn’t cold.

Uriah ran on ahead and pointed out the raccoon scat right in the middle of the back path. I was relived when he looked back and me and walked past it, I was not in the mood to give him a bath.

I walked past the odd sounds coming out of the tall grass to my left, Uriah couldn’t help himself. He stopped cocked his head to the right and whined.

“No way! Uriah, keep walking!” I shouted out the command, then turned and continued walking.

I was hoping he would follow. I wasn’t in the mood to run into any wild animals today.

Uriah sneezed at the grass, then trotted after me. He jogged past like a middle aged over weight male, pretending to be in shape. He stopped after about twenty feet, panting and waited for me to catch up.

I tried to avoid the large stones that had been kicked out of the muskrat’s hole.

I walked around a scraggly mulberry tree.

I walked looking at the ground as I passed under the cedar’s low branches.  I could see the odd, large,- I think mushroom- I haven’t look this thing up, yet. It is the size and shape of a large watermelon with the look of an old dried out football. Brownish with a yellowish powder, when I touched it the surface broke easily, similar to a cooked meringue. I found a second one, on the other side of the cedar tree.  I never saw anything like it. Have you?

As I hit the back section of the path, I made the turn to head home. At that point, Uriah disappeared into the trees and started to bark. His bark changed to a scared howling sound. I stopped, worried.  

“Uriah, Come!” I stayed on the path and waited.

I heard him bark.

Still I stayed on the path.

This is the area where Uriah and his brothers had killed a forty pound raccoon when it tried to attack me. His brothers are no longer alive and I know Uriah isn’t strong enough to kill anything bigger than a small rat. 

So I stood my ground and yelled again. “Uriah, Come!” 

He came out of the trees doing a fast jog. I knelt to pet him and he raced right past me. I glanced at the trees. I didn’t see anything coming out, but why wait for it.:-)

By the time my dog slowed up, he had put fifty feet behind him. We both walked side by side quickly, which is unusual for Uriah.

I check him over when we walked into the yard.

Nothing bit him. He seemed fine.

Deer like to hide in those trees. Maybe that’s what he ran into, a momma deer will kick at him and Uriah doesn’t like to be kicked.

Uriah didn’t stop at the there. He took off to the house. Glancing back at me, he crawled under the deck.

I don’t know if you saw my video of the three deer that came to visit. Here it is.

Here’s a link on BigFoot

http://bigfootsightings.org/2009/08/31/bigfoot-in-illinois/

 I know what I enjoy, and this Blog is what I love to write.

 I still have my change jar in the back of my closet, slowly filling with dollars, for that elusive laptop which will help me write anywhere in the house, or on a jaunt outside. I see that happening by spring.  

I plan on finishing a novel, and submitting some of my writing.-I should get competitive about this.-

I am well, happy and back.

 This evening I was sitting on the couch watching, Julia & Julia, and lost track of time. I had left Uriah outside, in his kennel, and forgot to bring him in when it got dark.  

 I had to turn on the outside lights and then the bathroom light downstairs, the one closest to the dog kennel and the office where this computer is located.  

 I turned on the driveway overhead light as I opened the garage door.  

 It was a clear dark night. The air was cold enough that I saw my breath. Lights were shining out in the cornfields behind the house, near the back path. Farmers were out harvesting crops, trying to outrun the rains.

 Uriah started whining when he heard the door open. He hasn’t been very brave the past few months. When he hears a noise in the dark he would rather stand next to me and growl, than run off barking.

 This past Friday, Michael and I made a pretty good attempt at waterproofing the deck for winter. We never got around to cleaning up, that will be done maybe tomorrow- or not.  Everything is lying around and will need to be stored away for the winter anyway, so I’m in no hurry to straighten up the outside when I can barely stand straight today.

 I stumbled over a board and the hose I had left out.  

 When I got to Uriah, his kennel was lit up due to the glow from the bathroom light. I was very glad I remembered to turn that light on.

 Uriah stuck his nose in his large empty water bowl.  I had moved it to work on the deck and now it was empty.  I pulled it back under the deck where it belonged and felt around in the dark, in the cold damp grass for the end of the hose.

 Uriah stood patiently waiting. As I finished filling up the big water bowl, I spotted in the shadows his small water bowl, still filled to the brim. While Uriah was slurping up water, I looked inside the kennel.  His water bowl in the kennel was still filled.  I laughed and shook my head. Silly dog!

 As I waited for Uriah to relax and roll in the grass; I stared up into the dark night sky, a string of clouds drifted near the eastern horizon. The rest of the sky was clear. Pinpoints of white lights glittered overhead. 

 Have you ever stared upward, with out blinking, so you could see stars beyond the ones that caught your attention? I could do that tonight.   I could see clusters of stars out of the corner of my eye, if I looked straight at them they would blend into the blackness.

 Supposedly, tonight has a waning crescent moon tonight, 29% full. I didn’t see the moon.

 Star gazing has been getting harder to do with the naked eye. With all the lights and pollution our children and grandchildren are loosing out on this simple pleasure.

 Rumbling of farm equipment and the occasional rustling in the garden were the only sounds.  Uriah nosed around in the Blue Spruce next to the garage I let him, I didn’t want to go backing into the brightly lit house, not just yet.

I didn’t get a picture tonight, but here is a video I took last week of a sunrise.

Martins will dive bomb anyone that comes out the door.  They have a fit when I’m standing on the back deck. They will swoop and whistle. Nearly hitting me and Uriah! The cats watch from the inside windows and love the attention they’re getting from those beautiful little birds.

I have never seen feathers that matte black, it reminds me of charcoal. I have to admit my camera isn’t able to capture their beauty.

I love having them around. I will overlook their mud nests because they eat their weight in mosquitoes daily.

Purple Martins have nested around my house for years, sometimes with dire consequences. They can build a nest fast; within two hours they can set up home. My first summer in this house, I made a mistake of leaving the garage doors open while I cleaned out the garage. I had no idea they had made a nest on the electric overhead garage door opener. So when I was finished I closed the birds in the garage, accidentally. The only reason I knew they were trapped, was when one of my cats brought a bird into the house and let it go…

Last night I took Uriah for his walk a little later than usual. I was trying to avoid the mosquitoes by heading outside when it was nearly dark. That didn’t work. They were busy buzzing, and bugging me just as they did and hour earlier. 

Wednesday is garbage day. I have notes posted to remind me of the fact. I only had a couple of bags I debated dragging them down the driveway, but last week when I attempted that, Uriah though we were playing and grabbed one of the bags, breaking it, and spreading the trash all over the driveway…

This week, I tossed the two bags on the hood of the car and slowly pulled out of the garage.

 I rolled down the car widow as slowly passed that large Blue Spruce when I felt a pinch on the side of my face. My immediate thought was, “Mosquitoes!” I tried to brush it off out the window, except it wouldn’t move. The small inset struck itself to my skin. Without even thinking, I peeled it off with my nails. I was still slowly moving towards the road. (I have a four hundred foot driveway.)

I glanced at what I pulled off the side of my face and stared at it. It was upside down and wiggling its little legs furiously. It was cute in a way. Sort of! The shiny back body sparkled in the sunlight. I was not amused, when my eyes adjusted and I recognized it as a tick. Still irritated when I pulled back into the garage, I told my husband all about being ticked when I rolled down the car window. He couldn’t stop laughing,..at me!  He said, between laughter, that he never met anyone who attracted so many ticks the way I do. 

He called me a tick magnet! 

I would rather be a money magnet!  

*I have been out of it for the past couple of weeks. I realized I had written the above post on Thursday, July 1^st and never posted it to my Blog.  Way too many things have been creeping up around here and I’m not including the mosquitoes, or the odd looking flying bugs. I even made a video that I never posted…  Ooops! Had to find it! Here it is! It is a little long- four minutes.  You are walking with me among the milkweeds near the front pond, and you won’t be bothered by the bugs.

The weather has been interesting. High heat and humidity and storms that attempt to blow the house down.

Today, July 10 is our eighth wedding anniversary.  I know I’m on the internet updating. Michael is still sleeping so it’s okay:-)

My husband’s health took a turn for the worse. I dragged him kicking and screaming to a new neurologist. He now has tests all this month. He can’t drive until we know what’s up. He is not happy about that..

I have had thyroid problems my entire life, I no longer have a thyroid and it still causes issues. Heavy Sigh! 

Just before my husband’s doctor’s appointment, I decided to try for examiner.com and they accepted me.  I will write articles on, Hampshire’s plant life.  If you stop over there I would appreciate any comments.  Or, just send me an email and tell me what I am missing.  Or, just read.  I need to work on the set up of the articles.

If anyone wants to try to write for the examiner and needs some advice on how to get noticed- ask me. I will be very happy to help.  

 If you give them my examiner ID number  56021  I get a referral fee.

I will keep posting here, this Blog is for me and all of you who like to take a walk without the bug bites:-)

I hope everyone is doing well.   Be happy and safe!