WHAT IS THAT MUSTY SMELL?? AND HERE'S MY DECISION

PATHWAY LEADING FROM THE ROAD TO THE WEST SIDE OF OUR HOUSE

I could tell Pheebs was really missing Kelly so with a break in routine Sunday night I took her for a Jeep ride into Bayfield and back.  I think that break in routine is something I should be doing more often.  And speaking of routine I am trying once again to break myself of my bad television news habit.  Guess it's that inquisitively undeveloped latent photo journalist mind of mine.

A FEW SAILBOAT NAMES

Rains were upon us by 8 o'clock and we just made it back from a morning walk in time.  Pheebs and I took a short walk to the area where they are putting in new units near us.  It had been a nice spot over the years for peaceful walks and I remember our first dog Max and I walking there many nights to stare up at the night sky through a break in the tall pine trees.  The pine forest is being torn down to put in more units.  For some of us progress is not always a welcome thing but I guess we wouldn't be where we are right now if someone had not come in here and tore trees down in the first place decades ago.  It probably upset someone somewhere at that time too who I am sure also grumbled about 'progress not always being a welcome thing'.

SHORT ON PHOTOS TODAY I GRABBED A FEW OUTSIDE SHOTS TO SHOW THE LUSHNESS OF SPRING THIS YEAR

Saw 'Little Red' in the front yard this morning and again tonight but neither time no attempt was made to climb the tall shrub and leap over onto the feeder.  I think the last branch I lopped off about 5 days ago has finally done the trick.  And yet the suet I had out was disappearing quickly.  Hmmmm??  When I got up this morning there were 3 large Crows perched at the Suet Smorgasbord Counter.  Mystery solved but now I have a Crow problem!!

NO THESE ARE NOT CROWS THEY ARE GRACKLES

NOTICE HOW OUR NICE GREEN CLOVER IS REALLY FILLING IN

YEP THAT'S OUR PLACE

With an all morning rain Pheebs and I didn't go too far.  Coffee with Richard and Gayle at their place and Pheebs got to see her old Pal, Bronson.  Bronson is R&G's Golden Lab.  On the way home later I was aware of an odd smell in the Jeep.  Knowing my own smells as well as I do I was convinced it wasn't me for a change.   By the time I got home after a little drive around Bayfield I had narrowed it down and figured it out.  The smell was coming from my big ten gallon Cowboy Hat.  With my Mojave Breezer hat currently in Spencerport I had hauled out my big wide brimmed cowboy hat this morning.  It's the one I always wear when we are in New Mexico, Arizona, and California during the Winter months.  Out there in the wild west I fit right in with my big cowboy hat because most everybody else is wearing big cowboy hats as well.  I don't normally wear it here in Ontario Canada because people stop and stare and point at me and I can sometimes here them saying, 'what the hell has he got on his head'.  Anyway, back to the smelly hat.  The mustiness was familiar to me and I knew I had smelled that somewhere before.  The smell was old, very old, from an era a long time ago.  My mind in it's search through my olfactory archives finally pinpointed it to a specific location.  Now the type of western cowboy hat I was wearing is called a 'Tombstone' hat but even before remembering that my sensitive nose had taken me back to (coincidentally) Tombstone Arizona.  On Tombstone's main street stands an old original building from the late 1800's that has stood there basically untouched with it's interior and furnishings (and bullet holes) still intact and unchanged for well over a hundred and thirty years.  It is called the Bird Cage Theatre and was frequented heavily by the townspeople including Wyatt Earp and his brothers.  Kelly and I took a tour through this old building and being the only two people in there I can tell you it was downright creepy.  And it was the same smell inside that old building that wafted into my nose this morning directly from my 'Tombstone' cowboy hat.  So why hadn't that hat ever smelled like that before??  Well because in this morning's rain it was the first time I had ever got that hat wet since I first bought it in Sierra Vista Arizona about ten years ago.  Now why that cowboy hat when wet would take on that same smell from the Bird Cage Theatre I have no explanation.  A bit uncanny but I'm sure it has something to do with whatever that genuine cowboy hat of mine is made of.  I can't remember if I was wearing that hat in the Bird Cage Theatre the day we were there or not.  Couldn't find the exact date we were at the Birdcage but here is a blog link of mine referring to the Birdcage theatre and if you read it you will notice that at the time I talked about the smell in the over a century old theatre.  Tombstone Arizona.  You will also find some of my photos from inside the Theatre as well.  In this next link I reference just a few of our adventures in and around South-Eastern Arizona over the years.  In search of Old Original Ghost Towns and Historic Places.  What a great trip down memory lane this afternoon while putting the above paragraph together and it was a definite lift for me.  This era of our Winter southwest travels years ago was by far our best RV traveling years.  I sometimes get myself too caught up in the now to remember the good times of the past.  And we did have a lot of good times back in those years and I am so thankful now that I took the time to maintain a blog diary with numerous photos to take me back there anytime I am willing to saddle up my mind and ride on out there:))

SORRY FOR SCARING YA BUT THIS IS MY BIG COWBOY HAT AND NO MY BEARD IS NOT BLONDE IT'S WHITE BUT I WAS UNABLE TO MAKE THE COLOR CORRECTION IN MY LIMITED PHOTO EDITING  PROGRAM

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and concerns regarding a paragraph in my Sunday post.  Let me just say this for now.  Like so many others our age we have reached a stage where medical concerns have been encroaching further into our lives.  Kelly's results from her recent liver biopsy were definitely not good and the results from my latest PSA test showed my numbers had spiked and a prostate biopsy is now scheduled in three weeks.  Prostate cancer is in my family on my Mother's side.  These combined with a few other things are the current changing realities I've been wrestling with lately to decide whether or not to mention anything about our looming medical difficulties or just try to write my blog around them.  But how can I not mention them or pretend in my daily blog that everything is wonderfully marvelous each day when in fact they at times are not.  'RunNRose' in a comment summed it up well when she wrote, "The problem for you is, how do you pretend nothing is bothering you when something IS bothering you.  Faking fair weather when it's pouring is not something you are inclined to do."  Along with 'RunNRose' and everyone else I again thank you all for your thoughts and concerns.  It's clear to me now that if I am to continue this daily blog of mine in an ongoing honest manner I must carry on including the rainy days with the sunshine.  In a humorous comment a couple days ago Kelly said, 'maybe we should change our name from 'The Bayfield Bunch' to The 'Biopsy Bunch,'  Welcome to the so called 'Golden Years' eh.  Boy oh boy if I ever fined out who coined that 'Golden Years' phrase I am going to give them such a thrashing!!

THIS IS THE GREEN SPACE BETWEEN US AND OUR CLOSEST NEIGHBOR TO THE WEST.....THAT GROUND COVER BY THE WAY IS PERIWINKLE

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A tour bus load full of noisy tourists arrives at Runnymede, England.  They gather around the guide who says, "This is the spot where the barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta."  A man pushing his way to the front of the crowd asks, "When did that happen?" "1215," answers the guide.  The man looks at his watch and says, "Shucks! Just missed it by a half hour!"
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Camper: "Look at that bunch of cows.
"Farmer: "Not bunch, herd.
"Camper: "Heard what?"
Farmer: "Of cows."
Camper: "Sure I've heard of cows.
"Farmer: "No, I mean a cow herd."
Camper: "So what if they heard? I have no secrets from cows!"
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