Well, the difference a week and the COLD makes. Up until just recently we've been super lucky with our 'winter' weather and it hadn't felt like winter AT ALL. Everyone was joking that maybe we had skipped the season and just jumped right into spring.  Well...winter has finally shown his cold, unpleasant face! Do you remember the swans and all the pretty ducks that we on the lake across from Dad's house just last week? There were these two: And all these guys? And mom's favorite, this guy? Well...a little less then a week later and no waterbirds of any type are swimming around anymore! It's been cold enough in just the past few days that the lake is already covered in a layer of ice. Mom says she doesn't think anyone will be venturing out onto it for skating or anything just yet...but if these 20*F temps keep on, it won't be long until we can walk across the lake and not just around it.

Yesterday for Wordless Wednesday I posted a picture from the walk around the lake my mom and I took. It was a very foggy day... There's a lake behind me, I swear there is! I've taken pictures on this rock before and usually there is a nice lake behind me...you could never tell that yesterday! It was also pretty dang muddy out! No, I don't care to get my paw all muddy, thank you. Here's another picture of what was on the lake yesterday. I showed just one in my photo yesterday...but there was actually a mated pair of them! See the white things behind me? Those white things behind me were a pair of swans! Aren't they pretty? Mom loved watching them in the fog, but went back today to get a few better pictures of them. And this time on the lake, there was no fog and much more then just swans! There were these guys all hanging out together. Mallards (both male and female) Canadian geese, and some other type she'...

Mom and I went for a walk around the lake this morning.  It was before the sun was fully up. She was hoping for some pretty fog-on-the-lake pictures but there was none. Still, it was pretty. She made me do some posing on the little rock that's there. Hello? Anyone in there? There isn't much color happening this time of year...lots of brown and that's about it. Well, I guess there are little pops of color around if you are looking for them.

Or as I'm going to call this post....'A Total Lack of Wesley!' even though this is MY blog! How many butterflies can YOU count here? If you guessed because there were lots of butterflies, you were correct!  Mom just loves butterflies (she even has a simple tattoo of one on her left shoulder) so anytime she spots any she tends to need to stop and admire it until it flutters away. Most of the butterflies were of this variety: Mom thinks, after some researching, that's it's something called a Great Spangled Fritillary , though she's not 100% sure. There are a few different types of butterfly all called that look exceedingly similar and it's making it hard to believe that she is 100% right.  HA! Like that's possible! That wasn't the only type there though! There were also a few of these guys: Now he was much easier to identify - it's called Silver-Spotted Skipper ! The last type of butterfly Mom spott...

A few days ago, before mom went and took me to the torture's  groomer's to have my hair stolen, we went for a nice walk around the lake across the street from Dad's house. It wasn't a super long walk, but it WAS a super nice day. Mom thought that I looked super handsome up against the bright green of these ferns! Not far into our walk, Mom spotted this little guy watching us curiously from tree. I told her he only LOOKED cute, and that he was probably really watching us to gather information. I tried to explain to her about all the crazy suspicious squirrel activity that's been happening throughout Blogville, but she said I was just being silly.  I hope you're right Mom, BUT don't come crying to me when the squirrels really DO pull off some sort of sneaky evil attack!  And DON'T say I didn't warn you! Next on our walk we took a side-trip to the little secondary pond. Mom really likes this area...there...

The community where my dad lives in New Jersey is called 'Sunset Lakes'. It's not a very large community, and really only hosts two lakes. One bigger one, and one secondary smaller one next to the big one. The larger lake is right across the street from my dad's house, and there is a nice little path around it for people to use. It's also stocked with fish so people can enjoy some catch and release fishing. It's for sure pretty to look at. What a nice view! Though however nice the views Mom kept our walk sort of quick, because when you looked under the tree shades all you could see where black swarms of annoying little gnats. This view made me go 'EW YUCK.' But quick didn't necessarily mean that I didn't get the chance to check out what some of the other dogs in the community were saying. Elvis the golden was here! Later this same day Dad, Mom and I went out for another walk elsewhere...a nice long 2.5 mile o...