Junior dog walker vacancy filled

We're very happy to announce that our little family is growing by two feet.
Junior dog walker is expected to join the pack in June 2016 :-)

Rain, race cars and mud

Months ago Jelte and Ian started planning a trip to go see the F1 in Austin, Texas. Kristin and I agreed to come along after we realised Austin is also a kind of fun place to go explore with funky shops and nice restaurants - kind of like the San Francisco of Texas.

Jelte and I landed in Austin late Thursday afternoon and shortly after we realised that he'd forgotten the tickets at home! After a brief moment of panic we remembered our dog sitter could easily courier the tickets over to our air bnb..

The rain started poring down on Friday and the mud started building up at the race venue. Kristin and I were wise enough to stay away from the qualifying on the Saturday and went to the Texas museum instead. On Sunday the rain had stopped but the mud and wind were still going strong and we spent a very cold couple of hours watching the cars go round and round. And yes those are bin liners we're wearing! Some of the photos below are mine and some have been lovingly stolen from Ian :)

Birthdays, fireworks and shredding

We celebrated America's and Jelte's birthday in style this weekend.

Alfie was taking his duties as wrapping paper shredder very seriously indeed, and helped Jelte unwrap all his presents. I swear that dog thinks all gifts are for him!



The weather wasn't great so we decided to skip the 4th July fireworks and stayed in with a bottle of wine instead. We learned last year that you can't see any of the fireworks through the fog anyway so we didn't miss much!

Dinosaurs, soap and Redwood logs

We totally forgot about midsummer celebrations this weekend, but I think we made up for it with a nice hike instead.
We drove to Samuel P Taylor state park, and walked along the river. Alfie loved every second and all he could think about was how to get down to the water as soon as possible.

We found a path leading down to an old redwood log leaning out over the river and declared it the perfect place for a spot of lunch. Alfie spent his lunch break swimming, digging and looking for treasures on the river bed.

On the way home Jelte dropped me and Alfie off at the pet store and I dragged Alfie into the self serve baths. It's funny how much he loves water outdoors but as soon as you introduce a bit of soap he thinks it's some sort of torture!

Tonight we're planning to go see Jurassic world. I can't wait to see the sequel of my favourite movie of all times :-)

The latest from San Francisco

There's no breaking news from San Francisco, but I'm so happy that I have a new iPhone without a big stain on the lens that I thought I'd share some every day pics.
First out a snapshot from when Alfie spotted the kitten in the cat cafe. Needless to say, barking ensued! The cat cafe is called KitTea, and they're opening up their doors next week.

Then over to Jelte's latest purchase. This is what he will look like at any weddings and parties in the next couple of years.

Finally, a photo from our neighbouring street. When we moved to Hayes Valley I noticed a homeless woman set up camp in an unused doorway at one of the streets where I walk Alfie.
A couple of weeks later she found herself a man and they lived there together until a couple of weeks ago when their family grew with a small dog. This is their home and belongings.

Another day, another hike

It's the last day of the memorial weekend and we packed up some lunch and headed to Coal Creek.

It's amazing how much of a difference the microclimate in San Francisco really makes - by just driving one hour south we left the grey skies behind and stepped into summer!

Alfie ate loads of grass so I'm sure he's planning to vomit all night :-)

Then again he might just dream about the runaway cow!


Jelte pointing towards SF in the distance...

Starting the memorial weekend with a stroll in the sun

We left a foggy and grey San Franciso, crossed the bridge and found some sun.

Romantic Tree

Hello - it's been awhile since I posted anything on this blog, so thought I'd catch you up what we've been up the these last couple of months.

5 Year Wedding Anniversary

On March 6th we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. As you might know, wood is the traditional gift for the 5th anniversary...... and I think we now have more wood than we can use up in a lifetime! Instead of buying a simple wooden frame, or a wooden box - my husband found us a celebratory Redwood tree!

Looking for the number tag

Trees - A Brief History

I have always loved trees and the big outdoors, and as you might remember the theme for our actual wedding was green and brown, the colours of the forest. Since we moved to California, the mighty Redwood forests have found a very special place in my heart, and we both love hiking in the Redwood parks nearby.

So getting an actual Redwood tree for our anniversary was incredible, and knowing that we help support these forests felt really good too.

the number tags were not easy to spot

Finding the perfect tree

We took a day out to go look for the perfect tree in Butano park. Alfie came along and sniffed the entire forest, just to make sure we picked the right tree.

We had been given a simple map showing us roughly where the trees we could chose from were hidden.

Searching

The trees themselves were not marked out in any way, the only way to find them was to locate some of their bigger brothers that were numbered with tiny little number plates and put on the map.

Finding the perfect tree was hard.

Some were too skinny.

Some looked like they might not last much longer.

Some were too crowded by other trees.

And some were just too close to the road.

Then we stepped into a part of the forest where the trees grew further apart, letting in just enough light to create a magical place beneath the canopy.

Magical forest

And that's where we found our tree.

Right next to a fallen Redwood, creating a perfect seating arrangement for picnics right next to our tree.

We named it the Liebrand tree and it's totally awesome.

it's that one

it's the one behind us

Alfie got bored and went sniffing

A Long Weekend in Lake Tahoe

We just got back from a long weekend in South Lake Tahoe - and I can report that we picked the perfect time of year for a weekend of hiking and exploring. The weather was great - not too hot, not too cold, and there were very few tourists around.

Our cabin was okay, a little dated - but it did the job in keeping a roof over our head. Alfie decided the second bedroom was his and he snuggled up amongst the pillows in the double bed - only to return to the comfy snuggler in the living room later during the night.

Alfie also decided that he was in charge of security (nothing new there) and woke us up a couple of times during the night when he felt the need to report on trespassers, bears and other real and imagined dangers. 

We told him to be quiet of course - but I've got to admit I felt kind of silly this morning when I took him out in the garden only to find the gate left open and Alfie sniffing the ground around it. For the record - we hadn't opened that gate so someone had clearly been there during the night. Sometimes barking is just perfect, even if it happens in the middle of the night!

Okay - over to the pictures part of this blogpost. This is where I ask you to scroll down to the bottom of the page and read each section in turn bottom up. I know it's annoying - but I blame Blogger for being so cr**p at picture management :-)

Hiking part of the Tahoe Rim Trail to Lower Echo Lake

After a very cold night (-8) we dressed up warm and drove to Lower Echo Lake. The road there was partly snow covered so we had to park some distance away from the actual Lake and slide downhill by foot to reach it. This trail was so incredibly picturesque we didn't want to leave...

Wearing all the layers

Lower Echo Lake to the left - happy mountain dog and his human on the right

A common sight - Alfie telling me off for slowing down to take photos!

Very, very pretty

Half the lake was covered in ice

Approaching the wilderness

Hiking the Mount Tallac Trail

Sunday was a whole lot colder than Saturday - and I dug out my old trusted wooly hat. Looking back at the  photos I realize it might be time for an upgrade! We decided to hike the Mount Tallac Trail and although the entire trail went uphill (the equivalent of 80 floors according to my Fitbit, or 1300 feet according to Jelte), the view from the top was well worth the effort. 

The pictures don't do the experience justice - there's only so much magic you can apply using an iphone - but we had views over the Fallen Leaf Lake and Lake Tahoe on one side and the Mountains on the other side as we followed the path. As we approached the really snowy and icy part of the path leading all the way up the mountain, we decided to turn back and avoid any broken bones.

That moment you realize that hat is not a good look

Left Lake Tahoe - Right Fallen Leaf Lake

Alfie found snow and was super excited

The sign for the Wilderness

Hiking to the Horsetail Falls

Saturday was sunny and warm and we decided to hike to the Horsetail Falls. Alfie loved sniffing everything, and we had to drag him out of the freezing cold water to continue the hike.

See that waterfall? That's where we were going.

Alfie posing by the river

They put a sign up so you know you've left civilization

A little closer to the waterfall