I really should be shredding

It's that time of year.  Another season worth of files can be shredded.  But if I do that, it will make a lot of noise.  And at the moment, doggo is sleeping, and I don't want to wake him up.  We just did a 3 mile hike at Thompson Park, including a section of ups and downs on the Reservoir Loop that we haven't done before, and another trail that got me a little bit lost, on the way back.

All that to say, doggo is tired.  So am I, but if I take a nap now, it will be hard to get to sleep tonite.  Besides, doggo is sprawled across my part of the bed.

So.  We met this little guy on the trail today.  He had just found something tasty to eat, and wasn't interested in moving aside to let the big scary dog and his attached human go by.  Eventually he moved enough for me to get doggo to walk on by, but he really wanted to get up close and personal with the little guy.  I reminded doggo about the "no hunting" signs that are all over the park.

It's mostly leafless now, but...with all the leaves on the ground, it's somewhat harder to follow the trails, as it isn't always apparent where the trail is as opposed to the not-trail.

Some areas get wind-cleared, but then in other places, it's up to doggo's nose to tell us where to go.  Lucky for me, he has a good nose.

I figured we'd go to Thompson today, because this week has afternoon high tides at the beach, which reduces the amount of places available to walk.  We were at Sea Bright yesterday, and noticed there has been a lot of beach erosion on the ocean side, and a big flooded area at the corner where I used to live, which NEVER flooded while I lived there.  I'm not taking either as a good sign.  The place where my Mom lives just rebuilt their bulkhead on the river, last year, which is lucky.  There's pretty much no beach on the river side anymore (there used to be a nice one), and I think the parking lot and eventually the building would be threatened by the higher waters in the not so distant future.  The bulkhead will put off the inevitable for a few years, at least.  Mom is 93, and she's not moving.  So I hope it all holds off a while yet.

Last time we were at Sandy Hook, one day last week, we got to explore an area new to us, where we had previously turned back due in part to a higher tide, and a plethora of birders, who are horrified that anyone would dare to take a dog out in nature.  So I got a pic of some Brant Geese, but I think the pic is more notable for the texture of the water than for the geese.  Wild geese (ie, not Canadas) seem to be camera shy.  (also keeping in mind I'm doing all this with a dog attached to one arm)

My recent favorite, tho, was this guy giving us a WTF look.

He had a bunch of friends nearby, so we prudently decided to go another way.

Gets exciting around here, some days.