One of the best parts of living in the North Carolina mountains is that it is relatively cool.  While Charlotte, or Nashville, or Atlanta might be baking, we are usually quite comfortable in the summer.  Not this weekend.  Absolutely miserable.

Ok, ok, maybe not as hot as some of you.  Yesterday at the house, we got to 81 F (27 C).  While you may not think that is hot, I have had summers where we never got to 80.  And, in the valley, they were north of 90 F (32 C) yesterday.

So we are hiking in the mornings and the dogs are sleeping in the afternoons (while we were running a chain saw and a brush cutter, but that would question our sanity, not theirs).  I figured the dogs were dreaming of something like this:

Now the back story.  The idea for the header of this web page came to me from a picture taken when we were visiting Damascus, VA (Winterfest hosted each year by Siberian Husky Assist) this winter.  A photographer took this picture and it was on the Damascus Visitors Page.

So, how hard could it possibly be to get such a great picture, right?  The picture of the dogs walking up the Blue Ridge Parkway in the snow was one of a hundred plus pictures I made before I finally got one that would work for the header.  Clearly taking the Stormy Zoluschka Kryschtal School of Siberian Studies classes on how to cooperate for pictures (The Army of Four).

Personally, this next picture is one of my favorites I have taken while walking on the Parkway in the winter.  I will leave you with this thought (and wondering why I couldn’t get the dogs to pose in the middle of this picture).