Pink Poodle and a Trip to Whole Foods

My part of the world is rather rural.  I occasionally see my neighbors while walking my dog. We chat with them from time to time, but for the most part, other than a couple exceptions, everyone keeps to themselves.  It’s easy when someone who is your next door neighbor lives a 1/8 mile away from your house.  This becomes a challenge when your neighbor-friend tells you about a pink poodle.

Getting a picture of the pink poodle was more difficult that you would imagine.  She only lives 3 or 4 houses down, but this is 1/4 mile away and I’ve never met her owners.  It wasn’t as if I could show up to her house and ask to do a photoshoot with her pup.

So instead Cooper and I have been walking in the morning trying to bump into her.  Our timing is always off.  Cooper doesn’t mind, he gets a morning walk.  But this morning we finally got to see her in all her (already fading) glory.

Note the wagging tail, she was happy to meet a boy poodle on her morning walk.  Poodles aren’t that common in the countryside.  At least not big ones and she’s much bigger than Cooper.

I asked her mom why they dyed her pink, this was the extent of my interviewing skills.  I didn’t even ask for the dog’s name.

“My niece is a dog groomer and she wanted to try it out.”

Seems like a reasonable excuse. At least they didn’t spend big bucks on the pup’s hot new color.  But there you have it, that’s what a poodle looks like when she’s dyed hot pink.  The owner probably thought my poodle looked pretty silly with his ungroomed and filthy look.  To each their own.

In other news, living in a rural area means we don’t have a local whole foods.  I found out recently that there is one close to were I work (I commute an hour each way daily).  I decided to go check it out during my lunch hour.  Note to self, lunch hour is not a good idea to go to whole foods if you don’t want to feel funny about taking pictures in the store.

I had a Whole Foods near my apartment when I lived in Boston.  It was a very small store, it was super expensive, and I didn’t have an appreciation of good and healthy food at the time, so I didn’t go often.  I hadn’t been to a whole foods more than once or twice in since then.  Certainly not since I have been on my whole foods mostly vegan track.

It’s amazing looking at a store through a different set of eyes.

I was so excited to see the variety of produce the store had to offer. Conventionally grown, locally grown, organically grown, heirlooms, rare varieties, I could have bought one of each.

I didn’t really plan on buying much while I was there but I did pick up some beets. I’ve seen some recipes for golden beet salads on the internet but had never seen one in store.

The bulk section was even more impressive.  I regularly do bulk items at my local natural food stores and at Hannafords, but this was a whole other ball game.  I quickly found some pearled barley which I substituted with wheatberries in the recipe I’ll be posting next because I hadn’t been able to find it.

The most impressive part of the store was in the bulk section.  Machines that made nut butter for you, right then and there.

I hate peanut butter. Always have, always will, but one machine was offering almond butter ground up with only almonds.  I grabbed some.  If its as good as the almond butter I make in my food processor I may have to come back for more in the future.

Skipping over entire areas of the store to the bakery/salad bar area, I was pleased to find the local (Concord, NH) Cafe Indigo’s amazing vegan cakes had found their way to Massachusetts.

I grabbed myself some salad bar for lunch. The selection was amazing, at least for a vegetarian.  But I was extra impressed by the trail mix bar.

It was a good experience, but pricey.  I think I’ll stick to my local food stores for now, and make lists of unusual ingredients for the occasions where I visit a Whole Foods sized store.

What do you think of my Neighbor’s Poodle?

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