We’ve been working pretty hard lately. We needed some play time on the Palouse.

The rescue promo has been a huge success, so much that I’m continuing to offer it at a price reduced from my regular session fee (details below).

And now that it’s spring, there’s yard work to be done.

So. Much. Yard. Work.

When this week’s topic for our Project 52 blog circle was announced, I knew what I had to do.

Play time.

Bella, it’s time for a play day.

An annual spring thing

At least once a year, most often in the spring, I pack up the camera and put Bella in the car for a day on the Palouse.

The Palouse is a landscape photographer’s dream.

Rolling hills as far as the eye can see.

Century-old barns in disrepair.

Farmhouses left abandoned for reasons unknown.

This is how we play.

(I used to blog this kind of stuff regularly on my adventure site, Our Great Escape, but I’ve been letting that site go fallow for a while.)

When I hit the open road, the tension subsides from my shoulders.

The thoughts about marketing my business fall to the wayside.

The responsibilities of adulting are forgotten.

There is only Bella, my camera, the Palouse and me.

On the Palouse with my flower girl

It was only a few years ago I thought Landscape Photographer was how I wanted to spend my days.

I booked a day-long workshop with a locally known photographer to develop some skills and explore the Palouse. He and I “played” with our cameras all day, finding old one-room schools, broken down cars and beautiful vistas.

I came home with an image I’m proud of to this day.

For this play day, though, I had something else in mind.

A client booked in May asked me if we could find a flower crown with which to adorn her senior pup for her portrait session.

I knew exactly where to turn.

A vendor at the recent Northwest Pet Expo is a crafty kind of gal. She makes bandanas and paw-centric welcome signs, among other pet related products.

Dorothy of Buddy Bows sells her wares at the Greenacres Vendor Mall (next to URM on East Sprague in Spokane Valley).

I beseeched her to help.

She wasted no time, crafting the most beautiful flower crown and a flower collar with a ribbon tie.

It was time for play day.

Our first stop was at one of my favorite barns just south of Rockford.

It’s well off the beaten path and, if my husband knew I was bouncing around dirt roads in Eddie, our relatively new Ford Edge, he’d probably ground me for a year.

But we stop there every year.

We drove around for a while before it was time to hit Colfax for lunch and then our ultimate destination: Steptoe Butte.

The state park is a heritage site and one must wind one’s car along a narrow paved path around the Butte to reach the 3,612-foot summit.

I could never be a passenger in a car ascending the Butte. Surely, I would look out the window and throw up.

The edge is sharp, the descent is steep.

As a driver, I white knuckle my way to the top.

But I knew what I wanted and I was determined to get it.

Palouse-y goosey

These images of Bella aren’t the best.

In fact, they’re downright soft, thanks to a combination of factors.

Not the least of which was the blowing dust brought on by the high winds that are common at the Butte summit.

It can also be difficult to get a very stubborn dog to stand still and tolerate a flower crown.

It sure isn’t a job for the faint of heart.

That just means we need time for more play time.

Because if at first you don’t succeed, you try, try again.

And that’s never truer than for a Maremma mama. With a flower crown.

Other ways we play

Last week, I shared with you some images from our hike to the top of the Rocks of Sharon in Spokane Valley.

Two days later, we were off for a hike at Q’emiln Park in Post Falls, Idaho, with my good friend Terry and his corgi, Maverick.

Bella and I love to hike.

It’s definitely another way we make use of our play time.

Check out a few of the images we got (don’t I just love the one of Maverick peeking over the rock!).

All around the circle

Play time is the topic for this week’s worldwide blog circle.

Now let’s see how other dog photographers came up with.

Start with Colleen of Simply Col Photography, who works for the love of photography and pound pups. Read her Play Time post then click the link at the bottom to get to the next one.

Travel through the circle and when you land back here, you’re home.

Right where you belong.