52 Snapshots of Life: Below - and Behind

April was a jam-packed month at Casa de Toby, but that's not how I got a - ahem- few weeks behind on the 52 Snapshots of Life Challenge. The truth is, once you are so foolish (week 14) as to miss a week, you can fall out of the habit of posting regularly. Or at least that's what happened to me.

So this week is playing catch-up for a fresh start. It's nice to know that the pet blogger community is understanding of each other's failings…like letting things slide until the sliding gathers momentum and takes your blog right over the cliff - like I just about did. It's a blessing (week 15) to know I can "pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again". Friends and followers are blessings for which I'm thankful. And a little blessing joined the family last month too.
 Meet Veladora, adopted by my daughter and son-in-law, Amber and Billy!

Can you believe someone would abandon such a pretty girl? She's about 7 months old and was found as a stray and brought to the clinic where Amber works. She's making great progress in adjusting to her new home. Vela and Toby have met twice now and get along pretty well. I don't think they really understand each other yet though. One often looks quizzical (week 16), as if what the other is doing is mighty peculiar. 

Last weekend we camped with the kids at Shenandoah National Park (Vela stayed with a foster family). Time went backwards! Not in the sci-fi sense, but we went from coastal Spring in full swing with flowers and bright green leaves on the trees to the mountains where most of the trees are still bare and only early-blooming wildflowers like trilliums and bluets pop in color along the trail. I feel such appreciation of the Earth (week 17)  when hiking. Little surprises - a patch of delicate flowers, a waterfall, a gnarly old tree still clinging to life - are all around.

We spent a long weekend in April at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Toby and Ted are below (this week!) the beach umbrella because we enjoyed ridiculously hot weather for so early in the year. 

And with that I'm all caught up on 52 Snapshots, hosted by The Lazy Pit Bull, and back to posting here on Terra Toby. It's good to be back. Now that I don't feel guilty about not posting I'll be visiting around all of you too.