Lillie, a Bassett Hound who shares a residence with a good friend of mine, gives me the eye through a special opening in the gate to her territory.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

My good friend Dick Warriner recently replaced the gate from his driveway to his yard — and not a minute too soon. In my travels, I have observed crumbling barns in better shape than that gate. But then Mr. Warriner is legendary for squeezing the last bit of value from anything in his possession.

When he installed the new gate, to his credit, he made an accommodation for his companion Lillie, a fine and feisty Bassett Hound. When I first saw the new gate with a nice-sized hole about nose-high to a Bassett, figuring out why it was there was not a Mensa problem.

On Super Bowl Sunday, Dick completes preparation of a stock pot full of gumbo, the real thing, brimming with okra, smoked cajun sausage, smoked duck — and no telling what else. Regardless of the uncounted secret ingredients, the results are always the same. GOOD! As I approached the gate to pick up my gumbo, Lillie presented herself at her hole, properly greeting the guests she knows and warning those she doesn't that caution is a wise course of action. It obviously did not take her long to figure the purpose of the hole either.

Here's a good look at the gate with the Bassett hole. Congratulations to Dick Warriner for taking care of his companion in a special way.

Lillie is a rescue. She presented herself to Dick in the White River bottoms. She was emaciated, flea-bitten, and tick infested, but with a good attitude. Dick saw a jewel in the rough, and the rest is history. Which gives us all something to be glad about.

N O T E S:  
Nikon D300, ISO 200, Nikon AF-S VR Nikkor 18-200 G ED, all. Lillie, 1/25@f5.6. Gate, 1/40@f4. Post Processed with Photoshop CS5 Extended.

SEE ANOTHER
picture of Lillie and her gate
at Weekly Grist
for the Eyes and Mind,
along with an example
of how to make a flower garden
out of an old service station
gas island. Also some wild posies. Click and go.

Click the jump wings to see the previous Photo of the Week.

Click the camera for an index to every Photo of the Week.

Most of the time, there is more to the Photo of the Week story than can be told in an essay. And most of the time there are more pictures to be seen. Presuming that some folk will enjoy being privy to this trove of information, I have created a blog, “Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind,” where I am showing and telling “the rest of the story." There are also some blatantly commercial mentions of some of the things we do to earn our beans and taters. Click on the Weekly Grist logo and go to the blog.  — J. D.