{Nesting}

My friend over at gogovivi.com began a photo challenge a few weeks ago called The View From Here. (Be sure to click and follow her links in my sidebar). The photo entries have been beautiful, often coupled with thoughtful prose on the week's topic.

My blogging style is relaxed to say the least. I often write as an outpouring of what I've been ruminating on, and thus, posts come weeks after the actual event, and never daily. Yet, the idea of an assigned topic was interesting, and this weeks topic of "Nesting" correlated perfectly with the increasing autumnal feel of Qingdao's October weather.

As I started thinking of what to try to capture with my "point and shoot" style, I saw our sweet old pup, exhausted at the day's end, stretched out in the awkward way she favors. Something about the way she relaxes at the end of the day (and in the middle of the day, and in the morning just after the bustle of activity trying to get three girls out the door on time) makes me feel like she has the idea of nesting figured out perfectly.

Most days, she chooses to take her lazy snoozes in a space closest to wherever the nearest family member is. (As I write this, mid-day on a Thursday, she has plopped down on the hardwood floor, directly behind my computer chair.)

But after the girls go down at night she fully resigns herself to her proper nest. She paws at her bed as if digging, and gives the fabric cover a tug with her teeth... before finally declaring it properly feathered.

Then she lays down, often with her head dangling down on the cool marble floor ... and nests.