Today I learned about the new chihuahua movie

I always learn something from neighbor Fred, with his female chihuahua Shelby who is a friend of Yuki. We parallelled our walks for about a half a block. I now know that a chihuahua is kidnapped in this movie....can't wait to hear the whole plot after Fred takes his daughter to the movie this afternoon....

Quality Donuts

Everyone who lives in Millsmont should know about Quality Donuts. This is the only shop within walking distance except for Seminary Gas. It's a stop for people going to work on 73rd Street/Hegenberger, and for a while there, it was a daily stop for Roxanne and I and Yuki. Since it's on the opposite side of the neighborhood, it makes a good goal (except for the calories part). On this day, we had Elizabeth and Yuki's boyfriend, Henry. Notice Henry waited patiently for us to emerge with a donut scrap, and Yuki is captured here in full bark mode. It took a few weeks, but now she also will wait patiently for me to emerge from the shop and give her a crumb of my favorite, a plain old-fashioned. In my opinion, that's the only thing to order here, but Roxanne enjoyed chocolate covered and buttermilk donuts. The last time I stopped in, the dear lady behind the counter asked after "my friend." She sent warm wishes back with me.

Dogwalking University, Missing companion

These days I walk with my iPod and listen to NPR Technology, Bill Moyers, To the Point (a radio show from Santa Monica), a lecture series on psychology at the U. of Wash., and recently found a new series on veganism, a podcast from compassionatecook.com by Colleen. That doesn't mean I'm turning vegan, yet. But today I needed to pay attention. Almost got jumped by the "white wolf," a dog who lives on Simpson and sometimes gets out of his yard. He actually hides behind a fence, then comes out and bares his teeth at my dog. I retreat and turn the other way. It was a bad day for loose dogs. A black pitbull (well cared for, not starving) was sniffing around in front of my house today, and I had to wait till he went around the corner, to slip in my gate safely, with Yuki close beside me. We had a staring match for a few minutes, before he lost interest. I still haven't gotten in the habit of carrying a big stick (like others I've seen!). 

For two months, I walked and talked everyday with my neighbor around 9am. All the experiences I blogged about and wanted to blog about (but really didn't have time) were experiences I had with her. She hasn't left her house now since mid-August. Her illness has returned and now we visit her with food or just company. I put all the pictures I took on our walks onto a giant poster that I framed and gave her for her birthday recently.  She was so weak that she looked at it once and I don't think ever again. I realize the pictures are for me now.  Someday I'll manage to get them on here, and try to remember what I was thinking when I took the pictures. Some of them are blooming plants that she especially loved, and I planned to take the pictures to a nursery to identify them. I have many good memories of those walks, but they are bittersweet.

The mysterious pyramids

For months, we've been noticing a growing number of mysterious pyramids outside of the cute house on Delmont, home of the "creative couple" as I now think of them, who grow succulents and vegetables on their rooftop. The female half is a graphic designer; her black puppy and my golden dog played together a couple of years ago in her front yard. The pyramids have been hatching at a slow rate, maybe two a month. They are made of a concrete-like material and have rebar as an armature. They also have squarish holes through the upper part. Finally today, we met the creator. Seven of them, when completed, will be installed at Temescal Park, with telescopes inside them, aimed at "faux" creatures made of bronze, parked at various locations within the park, for kids and other curious ones, to spot. It relates to the idea of the "faux" stream that they created at the park, a stream which had been undergrounded, but is now pumped to run over the ground.

Yuki and Jazz

The house with 13 cats on Mokelumne Avenue includes this cat who likes my dog. Her chase instinct turns off when he comes around. Most of the time Yuki now ignores him, but on this day, my dog decided to be polite. At this season, late spring, in the early morning, the sun shines directly into our eyes as we are walking down Mokelumne. Next time I will be sure to include a picture of the "munchkins," the unusual cats with extra short legs.

Wild Turkey artifact

This photo is documenting a wild turkey on Nairobi Place, around the corner from where I live, near Chimes Creek. I swear it's in there. My dog was pulling on my leash and barking at the time, and I always manage to capture my finger with the camera phone. Yuki is very animated around large birds. Ravens sitting on telephone posts and vultures also set her off.

Find the turkey in the picture: If you look at the Y shaped branch, a crooked branch crossing the upper part of the Y with sunlight on it, you will see a small greyish turkey shape perched on top of it. Really!

A Hardscape in the Making

Today we talked to a resident of Hillmont Avenue who has been slowly constructing a hardscape in her front yard with her bare hands. Her hands show all her hard work. Her clothes are as old as the ages and show all the materials she has ever worked with. She has a husky who barks constantly at my dog as we pass by from behind a gate. This woman has intimate knowledge of different kinds of landscape cloth, how large loose rocks need to be so your blower won't blow them around when you are cleaning off the leafy debris, how to pour a concrete path using special forms so your path will resemble flagstone (without the cost), the costs of coloring concrete (one product is cheap, one not). She cut off a piece of landscape cloth to give me. It is gray, the better to blend in with rock, and apparently does not let in runners, which are the bane of my existence. I had black landscape cloth and gold rock on my sidewalk strip but it has all been taken over entirely by the crabgrass. This woman's plantings will consist mostly of birds of paradise. Since they have been successful (and have been there longer than she), that's what she will plant. The secret is to dig a hole at least two times as wide and one and a half deep. In Roxanne's opinion, they are messy, but I love to cut them and in my old house, I would arrange them in a black vase purchased especially to show them off.

You get to know your neighborhood through walking

I live on an island, a hilltop neighborhood sandwiched between the 580 freeway and MacArthur Blvd., Seminary Ave. and Edwards/73rd Avenue. Because my dog Yuki demands it, a daily walk occurs nearly every morning around 9am, and my neighbor Roxanne usually accompanies me. These walks and talks have spawned a constant stream of discoveries--about the neighborhood, about us, and about Yuki. She tells us which way we go, quite often. Quality Donuts pulls one way, Yuki pulls the other. Sometimes a house comes on the market, and we visit, because Roxanne is a real estate agent. We call Yuki, the "real estate dog." Recently, she has seen a fair number of houses. Three or four times the number of houses are for sale in our zip code (94605) than in all of Berkeley. Roxanne can correct this number if she wants. Yesterday, the amazing sight of the day was a wild turkey in someone's backyard, by Chimes Creek, at the end of tiny Nairobi Place. My couch-loving dog suddenly becomes the "bird dog" par excellence and starts barking wildly. Today, a neighbor we couldn't even see, yelled out a greeting to Yuki as we passed by. Today we saw the most amazing giant tulips, on Delmont. Tomorrow?