A sombre Sunday.

I don't like to be reminded about our little dog's death.

But at times, we have to check on a tree that we planted in honour of him.

So, come and join us for a walk along the river, to see where we planted the tree in our local doggie park. A bit of recent history, if I may. Many of the oak trees in the park had to be cut down due to an invasive borer beetle damaging the trees, so a project was launched to replace the trees with young local trees. The park is visited regularly by many people who take their dogs out for a walk, and the idea was to ask the dog owners for donations to buy and plant the trees.

A doggie fun day was held, and at one of the stalls plaques were available to place messages of love for animals that passed away. Paint and brushes were supplied, and my wife painted a message to honor our little dog "Troy". He was a family member that lived with us, from pup, for 17 years. After his death, the house had become as silent as a mausoleum as there were no more early morning barks and evening bedtime songs.

This is the first view that we see when we stopped at the park.

A wider view of the tree in the first picture that was cut down. I suppose that it would be a big job to get the roots out of the tree. Maybe they will just leave it to rot away.

The stark bare tree will soon be putting on its summer dress again, and the leaves are a bright yellow.

About another hundred yards to get to Troy's tree.

I wish I could paint as a fire ravaged this area a few years ago, and look at that big dead tree against the skyline.

We have arrived at Troy's tree, and the plaque is still in a good condition. This was our message to him at the planting of the tree, when the tree was still small about 2 years ago.

The tree is called a White Karee Tree, and it was knee high when they planted it for us. Obviously, a fast grower specie.

Then we walked back to a bench that we normally sit on at the river, but we had to wait before we could sit.

Oh yes, we had to wait for this little visitor to go, because he was there first. We call these birds "teabags" due to their size. The specie name is African Dusky Flycatcher (Muscicapa adusta).

We love to sit on this bench in silence and just meditating about the beauty in nature, and the vast blue skies. I always have my camera ready, and occasionally some beautiful birds will appear in the trees around us, or also in the sky. Over the years I have posted lovely birds that I took photos of while sitting on this bench with birdsong in our ears and the sound of the water running in the river over the cobbles, it is an ideal time to do some inner introspection.
Such is life.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

Thank you kindly for supporting this post.