MAGGIE

 POST # 706

Less than a five minute walk from Purl's home, is the home of Maggie. Purl and Maggie are best of friends, so I would like to think that it was Purl who suggested that I spend time with Maggie, but in actual fact it was Maggie's next door neighbours, my friends Pam and Don, who referred me to both of them.

So after I finished up with Purl it was time to settle in with Maggie, and I have to admit that we were buddies right from the get go.  Maggie is less than a year old, so she wins the award for the youngest four legged critter that I have ever had the pleasure to care for.  

We make sure to get out twice a day for a walk, but Maggie seems to be more interested in sniffing everything along the way, than actually getting some exercise walking.  But that's okay, as I am more than happy to let her decide how the walk should take place.  And if sniffing the ground is her priority, then so be it.  Like most dogs, she probably can't work out why the human is so disinterested in all of the various fragrances along the way.  

Aside from our daily walks, there is plenty of time (and plenty of dog toys) to play with when we are inside, and Maggie makes sure to try each and every one of them with the house sitter.  I've had plenty of experience with this, and I think Maggie appreciates that fact.

Of course, after all this walking and playing with toys, it's time for an afternoon nap, which of course we both feel that we have earned.

So we have settled into a good daily routine, and I expect that it will continue for the remainder of my time here, which is now a little less than one more week.

If I ever have the pleasure to spend time with Maggie in the future, I sure hope that the message on the sign on her front door isn't what she will be thinking then.

Somehow, I don't think that that will be the case.  In a very short time, we've become friends, and I think that makes us both very happy.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

SAY HELLO TO PURL

 POST # 705

Say hello to Purl, who lives here in Ladysmith. Yes, that's how you spell her name.  I thought that it was spelled Pearl, but I found out from her owner that it is spelled Purl, as in the saying, "knit one, purl two."  Knitting is something that her owner likes to do, and so Purl inherited her new name.  What she was called prior to being adopted, I don't know.

Anyhow, I arrived here at the beginning of this week, after my return to Canada, from Mexico, with an overnight in Vancouver. By the time I finally got to sleep in Vancouver, after my journey, I had been up for a total of just over 44 hours, which is certainly something I don't recommend.  I hope that I never have to do that again.

But now I am enjoying a very relaxing week with Purl.  She took a little while to get used to the new human on the scene, but I'm pleased to report that we have now become friends, and are enjoying each other's company.

Here she is showing off her big ears.

We make sure to get a couple of good walks in each and every day, even though the hot weather is somewhat of a challenge.  Purl doesn't seem to mind, as there are plenty of wonderful smells along the way to keep her distracted from the temperature.

Of course, after a long walk, it's time to settle down for a nap, and Purl has plenty of locations around the house to do exactly that.  I guess she has earned it.

I'll be hanging out here with Purl for a few more days, and then I will be wandering down the street to the neighbour's home, to take care of another four-legged critter named Maggie.  We've already been introduced, so I think it will go well, once I am settled in there.  

And just to finish off today's rather short post, I'll add a link to a previous post which has photos of my  friend, Blanca, who lives in Cadboro Bay.  Blanca and Purl could be sisters, or cousins or something, as they certainly do look very similar, and they both have the same laid back attitude.

https://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2023/06/another-day-in-paradise.html

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

OFF TO MEXICO

 POST # 704

The last time that I was in Mexico was way back in 1985.  I suppose that I was overdue for a return visit.  So after asking my friends Ted and Doreen who live there, whether or not they would like to have a visitor, I booked a ticket, and last Friday, July 24th, I was on my way. I was flying down on Flair airlines, and my only previous trip with them, was three years ago, and I have to say that I wasn't too impressed with the return journey from Calgary, which had numerous delays.  Thankfully on this trip, we left right on time, so things were off to a good start.

I happened to be seated in seat 26A, which was on the left hand side of the aircraft, and as I gazed out the window, there was Shelter Bay down below, where I had just departed from the previous evening, after once again saying goodbye to Mary and Dora-dog.

Our journey southward continued, and along the way there were numerous forest fires, in all three of the western states. The one above was rather large, but later on there was a fire so much bigger that the entire view was covered in smoke.  Due to the amount of time that had passed since our departure, I made the assumption that it was somewhere in California, but this was only a guess on my part.

As we began our descent into Mexico City, I was amazed at just how large it was.  We finally landed and after a very easy journey through customs, I headed out into the arrival area in anticipation of seeing my friend Ted, standing there to greet me.  But he was nowhere to be seen.  

Now what?  Did his bus have an accident on the way here, or was it something else?  I wanted to contact him, but I had no luck connecting to the airport wifi system, so the only thing left to do was just wait, and see if he was going to show up.  The thought of spending my entire visit to Mexico hanging around the airport didn't sound too appealing.  I waited, and waited, and waited some more, and then after a couple of hours, he appeared.  Boy, was I glad to see him.  

We had to hang around the airport for a while longer to wait for the bus to head to our first destination of Queretaro.  By this point in time I had already been awake for almost twenty four hours, and in spite of the excitement of seeing Ted, I was certainly feeling sleep deprived.

Eventually we arrived, and settled in to the accommodation that Ted had arranged for us prior to my arrival.

The next day we went out to explore some of the city, and we found this sign.  We look like a couple of dodos, albiet old dodos

One of the streets in town has Ted's birthday (September 16) on the sign.  No wonder he likes Mexico so much. It also happens to be Mexico's Independence Day.

,

Yesterday, we continued our journey, and arrived at our final destination of Guanajuato, which is where Ted and Doreen call home these days.  

This morning we had breakfast on their deck, which as you can see, has a pretty magnificent view, looking eastward over the town.

After breakfast it was time to put on our shoes and head out on a journey around town, which begins with a very long and rather steep descent of hundreds of steps. We spent a couple of hours or more wandering around and looking at all of the sights, which I really enjoyed, and I am very grateful to have some locals to guide me along the way, and point out any significant historical locations.

Instead of returning home climbing up these same steps, we took this cable car, which saved us a lot of time and sweat.  Soon we were back home, and I finally had my opportunity to write today's blogpost.

It will be my one and only post from Mexico, because I will be back in Canada in early August to take care of a new dog named Purl in Ladysmith.

In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy my time with my friends, and I will try and make the most of it while I am here.

If anything significant happens during my remaining days, I'll update the blog accordingly.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

Some additional photos this week.

A group of young seminary students who wanted to meet us.

A typical street in Guanajuato.

Hanging out in the local park.

Full moon July 29th.

A beautiful  Bougainvillea tree.         

                                             A  magnificent looking cumulonimbus cloud.

                                                                Ted finds a new friend.

                                    Climbing up the stairs back to Ted and Doreen's home.

(  A total of 312 stairs)

Another spectacular cloud.

El Pipila

A preying mantis.

Okay, okay, just ONE more photo to round things out, again. Ted took this one, as I was entering the bus depot in Guanajuato, in preparation for my journey to Mexico City airport.

WHERE ARE THEY?

 POST # 703

Two days ago, we had some friends coming over for lunch.  They were scheduled to arrive at noon, and I decided it would be better to take Dora-dog for her daily walk before they arrived, instead of waiting until after lunch, so off we went.

We departed around 10 am, so I knew that the ice cream shop that Dora-dog had come to expect her daily dog biscuit treat, would be closed when we walked by.  Of course, she wasn't aware of that fact until we arrived at the shop.  Imagine her surprise when we got there.  She stood there looking up, wondering why there was no human there to give her a dog biscuit.  Where are they?

I think that if I would have sat down and waited, she would have remained there forever, wondering why they weren't open for her.  Eventually, it was time to get going, and Dora-dog gave me a look (below) as if to say, "why are we leaving now?"

But it was time to go, and once we were on our way, she was once again focused on the walk, as we headed home in time to meet the lunch guests.

We have a couple of more days to do our walk to town before I have to yet again say goodbye, but I'll make sure to pass by the ice cream shop when it is open, so that Dora-dog can once again have her daily dog biscuit treat.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

*** Here is a previous post talking about her daily dog biscuit treat.

https://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2026/04/dora-dogs-daily-dog-biscuit-treat.html

BORDER BREEZE THROUGH

 POST # 702

Proof that I made it back across the border into the USA, is the fact that I am standing next to this 9 foot tall sunflower seed plant, which is located in Mary's back yard, here in Shelter Bay.

So yes, the border crossing this time was a breeze. Compared to my border crossing back on April 8th, it was very easy indeed.  On the recent crossing last week, we were driving across, as opposed to my previous trip by train.  There are two border crossings within about a mile from one another, and we happened to cross at the Peace Arch crossing.  We had planned on crossing at the other border crossing, but I accidentally gave Mary the wrong directions, so we ended up where we were, and had to deal with the agent that we had to deal with.  Thankfully it was a breeze, but who knows what would have happened if we had crossed at the other location?  Many years ago, I happened to be on the phone with a border patrol agent, and I was calling him because I wanted to get some clarification on being allowed to visit the USA.  I think that he actually told me the truth all those years ago, by telling me that whether or not an individual was allowed to cross the border, was totally up to the border crossing agent that you happened to be dealing with at the time.  All that is to say, that if we would have ended up at the other border crossing (the one that we had wanted to cross at) we would have ended up with another border agent, and perhaps that one wouldn't have been as easy to deal with as the one that we ended up with. Anyhow, it was one of the easiest crossings that I have ever made during all of these years.

So it's good to be here again, and the weather has been wonderful, as can be seen from the looks of the garden.

The one item in the garden that I am always very interested in, is the rhubarb plant, which had grown by quite a bit, since my last visit.  I do love my daily morning stalk of rhubarb to get my day started.

There were plenty of weeds to deal with since we got back, and so I have spent quite a bit of time doing some weeding, which I'm happy to help out with, and in fact, as soon as I finish this blog post, I'll be heading outside to do some more weeding.  I have my four-legged friend to give me moral support while I'm out there amongst the weeds.

So it's time to get out there and finish off the weeding for today. I'm thankful that I have had the opportunity to once again be here to spend some precious time with Mary and Dora-dog.

Who knows what the next border crossing attempt will be like, but I'll "cross that border" when I get to it.

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

DORA-DOG'S FIREWORKS EVACUATION PLAN

 POST # 701

She may not have been sure about which side of the yellow line that she should be standing on, but she was very sure of one thing, and that was to get away to Canada for a few days in order to be away from the fireworks where she lives.

So last week she boarded a ferry and headed to Vancouver Island for some peace and quiet.  And that is exactly what she found once she arrived here.

As you can see from the next photo, she's looking very relaxed indeed,  while the humans enjoyed some baked goods, and great conversation.  Dora-dog was happy to just be there, and relax.

She also had the opportunity to catch up with her long lost friend, Caper and they had a ball running around together for a few hours, while the humans enjoyed each other's company.

Of course, while all of this was going on, there was still Mr. Leon to take care of, and somehow everything has worked out just fine.

Mary, Dora-dog and myself will be leaving the island tomorrow and returning to Washington.  It would be nice to think that by the time we return, most of the fireworks will have died down, but I do have my doubts.  I guess we'll know tomorrow.

But at least her evacuation plan has worked for a week, and that's better than nothing. 

grateful for every breath,

Paul

The Thoughtful Wanderer

TWO FIRSTS

 POST # 700

"and recently I decided to expand my horizons by joining an organisation which matches houses with housesitters."

I wrote those words on my very first blog post way back on October 21st, 2011.  I joined housecarers at the beginning of that month, which is 5,384 days ago.  On most days since that time, I have logged into the housecarers.com website. Each time you open up the home page, there is always a housesitter featured at the top of the page.  Well the FIRST of today's firsts, is that in all of that time, my photo and profile never came up.  Until today.  It kind of caught me by surprise, and before I logged in, I decided to take a photo.  It was the perfect way to celebrate the fact that today is my 700th post on my blog.  A link to that first blog post can be found here.https://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2011/10/thoughtful-wanderer-begins.html#comment-form

So now let's move on to the SECOND of those two firsts shall we?  At my last milestone of #600 I was right where I am now, taking care of Mr. Leon, aka "the brushaholic".  That was back on May 28th, 2024.

I decided to mention this fact to Mr. Leon today while he was sprawled out on the kitchen floor, and this was his reaction. He decided to take a nap right then and there.  I guess he isn't as impressed as I am with the SECOND of those firsts.  

Anyhow, on that blog post from way back then, I happened to mention all of the other milestones along the way starting with post #100 and so on, so if the reader wants to review any/all of those posts, they can be found here. https://wherespaulnow.blogspot.com/2024/05/six-hundred.html .  At that time, Mr. Leon looked about as impressed with that milestone as he is with this current one.  What would impress him, is if I stopped writing this blog, and go get his brush and once again start to brush him.  Don't worry Mr. Leon, I'll be finished soon, and then I'm all yours for the rest of the day.

I'll end today's post by including the final paragraph of post # 600, which I think sums up today's writing.

"So the next milestone is #700.  That is scheduled to come about on June 28th 2026.  It seems like an awfully long way into the future, but I was sceptical about reaching other previous milestones, so who knows for sure?  In the meantime, I'll continue to post for as long as I am able to do so, as it has been a great way for me to recall all of the wonderful places and more importantly, the wonderful four legged friends that I have had the utmost pleasure in spending time with along the way."

grateful for every breath,

Paul 

The Thoughtful Wanderer