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Out for a walk just the other afternoon, admiring the primroses on the Place du Chateau, and looking a little dubiously at the rather green water, wondering if green water is suitable for reflections, given that it is almost Friday and will soon be time for James' Reflections weekend . . . There was indeed a bit of a green around the gills reflection. . .
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But then I suddenly realized that not only was the water a rather brilliant green, but that it was inhabited with life, and the life in the water was swimming toward me. . .
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And it wasn't alone !
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What could be more thoroughly serious than, "Stick... get the stick ! Swim at same time, but get the stick !" ? Total concentration on that furrowed brow . . .
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Talk about making a splash !
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Our cat Amande just shook her head when she saw these photos . . . and went off in a huff . . .
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Posts
71 comments:
Fabulous photos of the dogs doing tricks and keeping cool on a dog day afternoon, Owen!
I would have been heading for the hills with no thought of recording events because two big dogs fording the stream would have given me the heebie jeebies. Your cat was right...
Those dogs have the right idea. I think if I had a permanent fur coat I'd be fetching sticks from nearby lakes and rivers too...
I love the spinning cat-head picture! That water is very green indeed, not usually a desirable shade for a river but your photo makes it beautiful. :)
These pictures have made my day. Wonderful! :D
If the water is clean enough for the dogs, it might be clean enough for human fun. Jump in!
All great photos but especially the cat with attitude.
Ma préférée c'est...Amande ! ;-)
Fascinante photo...
J'ai réussi dernièrement à prendre un bâillement de mon chat Léon, mais c'est nettement plus effrayant :€
Bises !
Puurrfect group of pix for this heat wave.
A cat will never undestand the mystical bond between a dog a stick and water.
Wonderful photographs...I felt a little cooler for them.
What a fetching post!
So funny! Happy dogs on a hot day. Cool shots! I just posted a local incident about dogs and the river. Check it out when you have time....dog days here too, I guess....
Great picture, you are so right, it looks like total concentration, and I have to admire their coordination and determination to hold a stick in their mouths and swim at the same time. Wow.
I wondered where my BoxerBoy was...Heat emergency here and smog alert. I'm coming over with the dog:>)
I love, love, LOVE the top photo. The dogs have the right idea. I can't believe how hot it's been. The past week has ranged from 97f to 102f in Newtown today is supposed to cool down to 90f.
What an exciting story ! I like the cat in the end !
How fun! It is so hot here - and my daughter insisted on going to a nearby gorge... So many dogs jumping in after sticks! Hardly room for us humans! :) The water was not green... just so very cold and clear.
So nice to see Dogs everywhere have the same idea! :)
How alluring a sight. With temperature on the increase over here, as well as inflation, currently rated at about six per cent, surely would love to take a dive into the water as well and afterwards discovering what this castle may have inside.
Thank you for this escape in the middle of the night once again. Please have you all a great Friday.
daily athens
::Whispers:: Psst Amande, you need to stage a blog coo!
It's an unreal green color; almost like someone dyed it for a certain holiday. Which I am glad is not the case.
It amazes me that you got shots like that of someone else's dogs! (They are not yours, are they?) You must be the Pied Piper of dogs for them to swim toward you and pose together in the water like that. Bonbon and Abby agree with me; they do not think they would pose like that for anyone but you, and us (but we have treats and they know it).
Your cat's purrtrait is one of the best action images of a cat ever. Feather, Shiva Lullaby, and Willow totally agree.
That made me chuckle. Dogs are so funny. No wonder cats treat them with total disdain. :-)
I love your new masthead. What a great photograph of that boat.
rain here... and only 14 degrees... just to continue my obsession with how bad the weather is with us all the time... I've missed some funky posts!.. and some excellent photos :-D
Dear Owen, first off, you are just too funny for words... and creative, too! As if you didn't already know that. I'm saying this in reference to your reply on my comment to your previous post... quite entertaining! I loved the "gored and flowing" bit... only you, Owen!
And these beautiful shots... I do love brackish green water... it's very Ophelia-esque, if you know what I mean. But really, you capture some amazing moments in life... always a reminder of just how beautiful life is. And speaking of beautiful, since I'm now officially stealing your pix, I'm gonna go ahead and help myself to that vertiginous shot of Amande, too. She is precious! And that photo is just alive!
Thanks for sharing, Owen. I wish you a dynamic weekend in beautiful France that I can't get enough of seeing on TV these days because my husband is an avid cycling fan and he's hooked to the Tour de France. So, I just watch for the views of castles and mountain peaks and greenery... and the floods of memories.
Have a good one!
Nevine
Owen absolutely! You've got a boxer and a Dogue de Bordeaux swimming together and the one on Riviera Dogs was a mix between the two. How about that! Snap and double snap.
What great photos of the dogs in the water. Love the one with the sticks and also the one where whooooosh, they jump in! Fabulous!
Amande is adorable!
This post IS a remedy - just the comic relief I needed!
J'aime beaucoup cette photo de chat qui se secoue la tête ! ! !
Enfin, de l'originalité photographique, de l'imperfection, de la fantaisie, du flou...:)
Et tu assumes aussi ta nouvelle tête !
Juste deux mots sur ton avatar... Tu as enfin compris que tu n'étais pas éternel et que tu pouvais le devenir...:)
Ciao amigo de l'autre bout du courant électrique qui passe par ma prise pour alimenter ce putain d'ordi ! ! !
Ciao...:)
What a terrific post, Owen! Love your photos -- the reflections are superb, the dogs are delightful and I love your cat! What a fun read! Hope you have a marvelous weekend!
Sylvia
Very cute. Such an awesome reflections!
" Regina "
Dear Pliers,
Hope you haven't been traumatized by dogs in the past, if they inspire a desire to head for the hills... I'll always be a dog lover I guess, except for the idiot dogs that are bred to be vicious, and then their owners let them out to terrorize the neighborhood... just saw another story in the news about a pit bull that got out. IMHO the police did absolutely the right thing by shooting it after reports that it was chasing kids. Take care et à bientôt...
Thanks to all for these charming comments... will be back to answer, but blogging time is short while slogging through long days at work... but just stopping in here and reading your thoughts makes the slogging alot easier... and I thank you for that... now I'm gonna go fetch me some beauty sleep...
:-)
Steve, I'm sure a permanent fur coat could be arranged for you... there are all sorts of medical miracles out there today...
For a price...
Great fun.... they look absolutely gorgeous! We all seem to be suffering from the heat these days:)
Just loveing that cat, love her name and the photo is a classic!
That water looks so cooling....
Love the spinning cat's head!
Fabulous reflection and shots. I love the shots of the dogs in the water.
In my next life, I think I want to be a dog. Nobody has as much fun as they do.
Hi Jess,
Surely not very desirable, such green water, some sort of algae bloom going on in there... but the dogs didn't seem to mind. But I'm sure no cat would be caught dead drinking that stuff...
:-)
Hey Priya, ah, if they made your day, then that makes mine...
:-)
Dedene : No WAY !
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Oh Squirrel King.... many thanks, you'll be getting some extra tasty nuts if you keep that up !
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Chère K'line.... ah, mais qui pourrait ne pas aimer Amande ? She's a sweetheart. Bon, j'espère que nous montreras Léon qui baille un de ces quatre ? Please please...
Et cela me fait penser que j'avais affiché un assez terrifiant baillement de chat il y a un moment, si tu es aussi curieuse que les chats, tu pourrais allez ici :
http://magiclanternshowen.blogspot.com/search/label/Cat%20Photographs
Et puis descendre dans les "older posts" en bas de la page, c'est dans la deuxième page de toutes mes photos de chat déjà sur le blog.... bon, tu me diras si tu le trouve, le chat qui baille ?
:-)
Hey Bill.... thanks ! Hope all is purrcollating right along in the art world of NYC...
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Dear Fly,
You are so right, a cat would never understand dogs and sticks and water because their magnificent intellects are working on a plane so far above that looking down from those heights, they can't even see the dogs, sticks, and water that the rest of us mere mortals might take pleasure in...
:-)
Dear Mad Lynne.... what a fetching comment ! But a bit brief... Cat got yer tongue ? Or is it just that your eyes are still going round in circles trying to follow the movement of Amande shaking her head...? I couldn't believe how nicely that photo came out of the camera like that, no touching up necessary...
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incredible. My fave the first one.
Have a great weekend
Will be back to answer more later tonight or tomorrow, while not watching the final of whatever it was there has been so much hype in the press about lately; but for now :
Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to work I go ! ! !
The incredible demand for straight jackets seems to be increasing... which keeps straight jacket makers like me hard at work. My pet theory is that the incredible contradictions of our "modern" life based on the foundations of "progress" to allow for ever greater numbers (seven billion and counting) to enjoy economic prosperity (while hundreds of millions are starving to death) are in fact causing more and more poor humans to lose their marbles, and thus require straightjackets. Simple, eh ?
It's almost as good a line of work to be in as condom and birth control pill makers had at the height of the sexual "revolution", before the appalling spread of sexually transmitted diseases put a little bit of a damper on things...
Hey ho, hey ho, it's off to work I go !
:-)
The cat picture disturbs me because I'm afraid she's going to start spewing green stuff and speaking in a terrifyingly growly sort of voice like Linda Blair in The Exorcist. But then, I guess it's not all that unusual for cats to behave in such a manner.
There were some very frightening sounds emanating from my back yard last night, and my own wee cat was out there somewhere in the dark: yips hoots growls snarls and animal screams. "Someone's bit it (in more ways than one)" I thought...and no sign of the kitty this morning...Oh, wait a minute...there she is on her favourite chair. Cats!
Just catching up on your Wild Ride through France, and "What a strange trip its been." Swimming dogs in a beautiful emerald green, the vibrancy of the street scenes, onto the exquisite skulls and the wonderful post processing which I thoroughly enjoyed, and then the graveyard, the cupid is my favorite of that series. The weathering and subtle coloring are just gorgeous! I can see why it caught your discerning eye. Now off to catch up with all the other fun, talented bloggers I have met thanks to you!
The beautiful cottage reflection in the green tinted water ... threw me off for a minute. I thought i was at the wrong Show! Of course you didn't let me down ... leave it to you to find the best action around - and the adorable stick-chasing swimming dogs. No wonder Amande is shaking her head!!! And no wonder I'm smiling!
wow, the perfect summer pictures, primroses reflections, playful dogs in jade-glimmering waters and doubtful Amande :-)
suddenly it doesn't feel so hot here any longer (though this has been the coldest summer i can remember, the last two days have marked a change and we've started to remember that we live in a place which will turn into a desert in 50 years from now or so - grim predictions!)
Coucou Owen!
Je viens te remercier pour la très belle surprise trouvée à l'instant sur mon blog;o)
Et je profite pour admirer tes magnifiques photos. J'ai une préférence pour celle des deux chiens nageant chacun avec un bâton dans la gueule! C'est trop mi-mi!
J'ai essayé de faire comme ton chat, mais je me suis démontée le cou! C'est mon côté casse cou!
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Bisous et un très beau dimanche*******
Hi Mythop, I did indeed go and read about the wheelchair with dogs attached sailing into the river, must have been a gosh almighty splash, would have loved to have caught that on camera...
And enjoyed the little trip into the late night visions of the Milky Way, especially the nurses...
;-)
Hi TechnoB... swimming and holding onto a stick all at once is no mean feat ! But these fellers were up to the challenge !
Dear Distracted,
Smog and heat ? Sound like good reasons to fly the coop, so bring boxer boy and come on down, I'll be happy to show you where this little canine paradise is, it's not far away. Just need to pick up a few suitable sticks on the way over there...
And do bring a file folder with some of the poems you manage to find...
Hope you can find somewhere good to beat the heat !
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James,
The dogs woof their thanks... and boy, 102 in Newtown, that's getting up there. But remember, global warming is just a scare theory dreamed up by some fear mongering anti-Progress folks, right ??? I'll drink a cold beer to your health tonight...
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Hi Namaki !
Every good story should end with a cat... what is more important in life ?
Dear Laundress !
There you are ! You can see how I treasure the Zebra award...
How lucky you are to have a daughter who incites you to come along for a trip to a gorge, where dogs rule the water. Sounds fabulous...
Which reminds me, when I click your comment here, I get your profile, with the lovely Toulous-Lautrec redhead, which I adore, but there is no link to a blog in the profile. And when I click the link to "theshylaundress.blogspot.com", a message says it's open to invited readers only... well, far be it from me to want to invite myself anywhere, but I have to admit my curiosity is on a level akin to Amande's here, as to what Toulouse-Lautrec's redhead may be blogging about...
:-)
I forget whether I mentioned at some point that I absolutely fell head over heels in love with a Toulouse Lautrec redhead in the Barnes Foundation collection (Merion, Pennsylvania) which you can see here :
http://www.encyclopedie.bseditions.fr/article.php?pArticleId=174&pChapitreId=34505&pSousChapitreId=34507&pArticleLib=Toulouse+Lautrec+%5BL%92art+en+France+entre+1850+et+1900-%3EL%92art+en+France+entre+1850+et+1900%5D
It was clearly the same model in fact, for both your profile image and the Barnes collection piece... now that I look at both side by side... that's fun...
Tag Robert...
Well, if you wish to dive in the green water, you are welcome to, I think I'll leave it to you and the dogs... as for the chateau, it is a ruin behind a high wall, private property, no entrance, unfortunately, I'd love to see what is behind the walls.
Jeanne d'Arc spent a night in the chateau back in the 1400's apparently, but it fell on hard times since then...
Hope you can beat the heat, and the inflation in Athens. Maybe a Sunday evening dip in the Mediterranean could help ?
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Hi Fin !
Sshhhhhh, you don't want to be encouraging Amande to start up her own blog, she already has a big enough head as it is ! If she starts seeing how some people let their cats lounge on the dining room table, and other cat shenanigans in the blogosphere, she'll become unmanageable...
:-)
Amy,
It could very well be a leftover from St Patty's day... who knows... I almost like that explanation better than some bizarre biochemical algae process caused by fertilizer or some such... There have been some fairly grotesque stories in the press about beaches along a bay out in Brittany getting inundated with huge quantities of green algae washing ashore, provoked by fertilizers running off into the ocean from the whole region of heavily fertilized farm fields. Last year people and animals were sickened, and I think a couple of horses died, killed by the gas given off by the decomposing algae... so I'm a little leery of green water...
Hi Lydia,
You are right, they weren't our dogs, just a passing stranger's... and I don't think they cared a bit about me leaning over the stone wall with a camera, the only thing they had on their minds was "Stick ! Get the stick !"...
So I understand correctly you have two dogs and four cats ??? Wow, quite a menagerie... must be a real frenzy at meal times ?!?
Glad you liked the action portrait of Amande... (she's smiling...)
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Hi Jo,
I guess dogs and cats live in separate universes, and the twain shall never meet... and glad you like the boat, it is a real fixer upper project, if if hasn't sunk by now...
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Hi Vicky !
Rain and 14° ? Oh boy, that's not July weather in my book. Where've you cats been ??? Under a heavy pile of quilts by the fireside, I'm thinking, drinking hot grogs instead of cold beers as one should by all rights at this time of year... I wish you warmer, sunnier times in your northern climes... thanks for dropping in, and happy if you had some fun with the funkiness...
:-)
Ah, Nevine, you are too kind by far... from this gnarled old toad just hopping along through this world, stopping to linger at some of life's brighter moments, like dogs splashing in green water with sticks...
There were, however, no signs of submerged sleeping princesses in flowing white gowns and long golden hair, will have to check again, maybe dredge the pond there...
Am thrilled if you like Amande so much as to want to hang onto the photo, she's a sweetheart, she may get more hugs than just about any cat in the entire galaxy...
I just went to see if there is an e-mail address in your profile, but there isn't... If you could drop me a line to owenphil at wanadoo.fr , I'd be happy to send you a larger version of the photo of Amande... her head shaking is cropped out of a bigger image, with a full shadow of her on the floor...
Hope you'll get some good scenes of France then behind the bike riding hordes... I can't say I enjoy watching the Tour de France much, simply because I'm sure I'd hate having to ride in a big bunch of tightly grouped bicycles like that, with alot of very sweaty men around me, and with the ever present risk of one little mishap causing a whole crowd of them to take a big spill where broken bones are the usual result... or at least bad scrapes and cuts... no, not my idea of fun... but to each their own...
:-)
A fine Sunday to you !
Hi Jilly,
Now that is what I call serendipity, with the emphasis on the "dip" in the water...
What are the odds of two bloggers at opposite ends of France posting in the same week nearly the same dogs unbeknownst to each other ? I think we'd better play the lottery this week, maybe between the two of us we'll have a winning number ?!?
And Amande is glowing, blushing at your kind words...
Hi Jill,
Comic relief is always a good thing, methinks...
:-)
Hope your squirrel is either on the mend or gone on, but not still suffering...
Salut M. Jeff !
Je me demandais pourquoi je sentais un drole de vibration en touchant ce clavier ou en allumant ma petite lampe de travail... cela doit être les fréquences spéciales que tu as rajoutées sur le courant éléctrique de base pour envoyer tes salutations du sud vers le nord... bien reçu, bien reçu... Alors, tu aimes notre chat que se secoue ? Elle est contente donc, et le photographe aussi, bien que, je peux certifier que cette photo était un accident... comme quoi, parfois certaines bonnes choses dans la vie sont purement des accidents...
Bon dimanche soir à toi... et comme tu peux voir par l'heure à laquelle je tape ce message, je ne suis pas devant la télé en train de regarder le truc ce soir, on pourrait presque dire que... je m'en foot...
:-)
Ciao pixmaniaque
Wow! Seems it is hot in a lot of places in the world! You do a great job in responding to reader's comments. Makes it fun to come back here to read everyone's thoughts. (Except one's in French, which I don't know. But,that's my problem not theirs.) I know, you are busy, but keep it coming!I
Lovely series. Thanks for the humor.
Sylvia,
Thank you so much... am working on the marvellous weekend part...
:-)
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Greetings Regina... thank you !
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Joanne,
Many thanks for dropping in here, however you found your way to this obscure little blog... I was just over taking a look at some of your past posts, enjoyed the Day of the Dead at the British Museum, of all places...
Dear Saj, of course you can love the cats name, even if I can't say we named her after you, or, maybe we did, but just didn't know it back then, eight years ago or so when she was born late one night in our basement...
And the dogs ??? Woof !
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Lesley, many thanks !
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Lucka, ah, dropping in from James Reflections perhaps... what a great place to find other blogs... many thanks !
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Hi Deborah,
Be careful, you might just get what you asked for... may be a good idea to specify which type of dog you'd like to come back as... might not be so much fun being a chihuahau (sp?) and always having to worry about being stepped on... but yeah, I know what you mean, when they have it good, they have it very good...
Dani, greetings, and many thanks ! Never dreamed I might meet, even virtually, someone from Macedonia... a pleasure this blogosphere of ours...
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Dear Lynne, but of course, all cats are possessed by demons, and although Amande has yet to start spouting pea soup like a geyser, she's working on it, sometimes there are puddles of half digested cat food to clean up... and you should see her when she gets crazy and runs at full speed from one end of the house to the other, and back, and forth, as though chased by the hell hound of the Baskervilles... but she is the most malleable cat I've ever known, loves getting picked up and hugged... all day we could do the same routines...
And did you see the video of her on YouTube ???
Glad to hear your kitty survived the night outside...
Dear Stickup,
Ah, so very good to see you back among us, after riding off on that ass into the desert, and good see you're feeling a little more chipper now... (burp) Maybe if you go up more slowly next time ?
Thoroughly love your latest mountain sky photos... what a treat !
Hi Roxana !
Well if Europe must turn into a desert, I hope there will be an oasis or two where us travellers will be able to get a drink and some dates to nibble...
It's hard to go wrong with dog and cat photos, they almost always have strong appeal, and here, I'm reeling, I don't think there have ever been so many comments on a single post in these pages... the more the merrier, ay ?
Hope you are having a lovely summer in Craiova, even if cool, better than in NYC where it was over 40° most of the past week... If it does that here you'll be able to see me in the green water with the dogs, despite any worries about whatever bacteria are making the water green... (Toads can handle green water...)
:-)
Greetings Ruma,
Thank you so much... I think you may be the first visitor from Japan who has left a comment I could actually read... so I'm really happy for a visit from so far away. I'd love to go to Japan some day... do stop back...
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Bonjour Cildemer !
J'espère que ton cou s'est remis en place... c'est dangereux d'essayer d'imiter des "stunts" que l'on voit parfois dans des films ou sur les blogs... mais le chat qui fait tourner sa tête 360° c'est particulièrement difficile comme exercise, mieux d'avoir fait plusieurs années de yoga intensif avant d'essayer...
:-)
Bonne semaine...
si ce n'était pour la couleur de l'eau, j'aurais bien fait un plongeon moi aussi !
After 70 comments what can I add but that these are just great shots. The one with the sticks is too wonderful for words. Bravo mon ami!
V
Love this, from serene to energetic!
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