We're baaaaack!

Home from our trip to Arizona, (Hi and Thank You, Mary Jo!) and while I didn't leave the house a total wreck before we left, I did leave lots of unfinished business.  The week's mission is to Un-decorate, work off what extra Holiday adipose tissue, and get the house/bills/menu/etc. ready so next week I can finish dolls!

Schultz and his pal Annie, hanging out while the humans yabber...

Since we returned home, Schultz has been working off his I-Miss-Annie grief with the new squeaky toy he snuck out of my suitcase.  Given the decibel level and the looks I'm getting from Phil, it's probably a good thing I didn't give these buddies their new Squeakies at Christmas.

Happy New Year everyone!

If you can't say anything nice...

...don't say anything at all.  

I'm all out of nice today, 

but I'm working hard to correct my frame of mind.  

So I figured I'd post a picture that makes me smile, 

and wish you all a lovely weekend.

This is the Schultz, when he was about eight weeks old.  

He'd get so excited about his dinner that his back feet would come up off the floor, 

and he'd balance on his front feet...

that is until enough of the food went from the bowl to his tummy, 

then he'd slooooowly settle back on all fours.  

Wish I'd had a video of it.  :~)

Boys...

Yesterday the Phil was out washing the Fat Boy.  The name comes from the structure of the front forks, but never mind that.  So I grabbed the camera and headed outside to sweat with him.  It was a cool 94 this evening instead of our usual 100.  The following random assortment of pictures is just what I wanted to catch before the season moves on and the yard/garden looks different.  As always, click twice to zoom.

My featherless biped boy Phil and the Fatboy.  We live on 1.3 acres of pure sand that has gotten 1.5" of rain since last November.  It's a miracle there's green anywhere.  The giant pile of branches behind him is the "bird sanctuary".  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I think I'll marry him again.

This is our featherless quadruped boy...Schultz.  He's hoping I'll give him a tomato.  Peppers (left) are struggling...waiting for cooler weather.

Baby banana trees and Schultz and a conch shell by the irises.  Banana trees are always boys, and conch shells are always girls.  I realize that's illogical, but ever since I read Tom Robbin's "Skinny Legs and All", that's just how it is.

Baby gourds.  Gourd plants have heart-shaped leaves, and both boy AND girl flowers on each plant.  How romantic is that?  Sadly, the boy flowers die after their job is done, and the girl flowers go on without them.  Phil says it's like that with featherless bipeds, just takes them longer.

 

This is a crepe myrtle I grew from a leafless 5" twig sent from the National Arbor Day Foundation.  He's only two years old now, but he was sprawling all over the path from the gate so the cage is to teach him to grow upright.  It's tempting to think of flowering plants as girls, but this one is a boy, and so are the Trumpet Vines and most of our Canna lilies.  Oh, and in the background is the back end of the featherless quadruped boy. 

These are weeds growing by the gourd plants in the garden bed.  I don't know their gender.

This is an Izzy boy I finished painting.  Long way to go, but I'm encouraged by him, despite his pensive little face.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, filled with whatever makes you (and all the boys and girls you love) happy this summer.  :~)

In the Garden

It's funny...for weeks now, I've thought, "Oh, I need to get blog pictures of all the new green things around here!"  I was busy digging the last of the perennial beds, (the total of which now about equals the square footage of our 2,000 sq ft house!) and planting the veggies, herbs, reseeding the annual flowers, etc.  Each tiny seed that sprouts and each tree bud seemed to say "Hurry!  Get the camera!"

So yesterday I did...and y'know?  It's just not very impressive from a distance.  And it occurred to me; this is still only mid March!  The camera won't pick up the verdant lush nature of this place until mid April or later, once the flowers have started blooming, and the veggie garden actually has some produce.  (Okay, besides lettuce and spinach cuttings every day.)

But I've been so excited after the winter--every little leaf budding out makes me want to shout!  Woohooooo!  Spring!!!

I know--our winter here is only three months long.  And even then it's not so much cold as it is just bare and sleeping.  Come visit in July for an accurate picture of the downside to such a mild winter.  But back to the point.  Garden pictures!

I went ahead and took a few, because I was embarrassed to post a picture of last years' peach blossoms in the last post.  So...for now, until I can get some good April pictures, here is some of the garden.  (Click to zoom.)

Foreground; broccoli and Brussels sprouts, background; peas.

Spinach, lettuce, and more peas!

Mmmmm.  Red cabbage!

More Mmmmm!  Asparagus.  Plants are still too young to harvest.  Maybe a few spears this fall...

The oak to the left has flower catkins on it (you should hear the cloud of bees in it) but the rest of the trees in the distance are still barely budding out yet.  The peach is happy, but we still can't let her make that huge load of peaches or it'll break her branches.  She's just a little over 6 feet tall, with a trunk diameter of about 2 inches.

But she looks awefully nice in her spring finery, eh?

The Peggy Martin climbing rose has grown 8 feet in one year!  Multiplier onions in the foreground...

The last of the perennial beds, and Schultz standing on the new grass seed to fill out the bare dirt.  Silly dog.

Not much rain this year, so not many wildflowers...but we still have our Texas Bluebonnets.

The new bed again.  See the giant fire ant mound in the foreground? 

This is Pete.  He guards the house when we're gone.

Well Puppy Visit

Time to take the Schultz to his well-puppy visit today.  

Five years later, he's not exactly a puppy anymore...but then, neither am I. 

Some days, we just wanna stay home, curl up, and ignore the world.

BUTT...

 

...today we don't get to choose.
Gotta do what we gotta do...

And make the best of our blessings.

Hope you make something great of today.  

My buddy.

Today I finally trimmed Schultz's doggy toenails.  I start telling myself it's time to do it about a week before I actually do it.  Which is really dumb.

He hates this.  I hate this.  The husband hates hearing about how much Schultz and I both hate this.  Yet it's something I have to do or the poor little guy's toes go all wonky and sideways, and that's worse than anything.  I know I could take him to a pro, but then he'd just get all traumatized by strangers.

It's never as bad as we both expect it will be.  I use my Dremmel with a sanding barrel, and it's literally over in fifteen minutes, tops.  The same thing goes with the bath and the haircut.  He's a great little guy, and tries to be patient, but as soon as he hears the water running, and I come to pick him up, he growls a little just to let me know he'll cooperate, but not happily.  Nevertheless, once we're finished, and he's got a special Grooming Day treat (he throws it around and dances for a while in his joy), we're both happy and can forget the d-d-d-dog grooming for a little while.

 

When he was seven or eight weeks old...I could bathe him in the sink.

Now he's big--23 lbs--and he still hates baths.  He doesn't shed, but he gets awfully woolly...

Looking ever so tidy after a bath & haircut...hangin' with his foster cat Waylon.

Flowers!

(Click once for zoom, twice for ultra-zoom.)


Okay, this isn't flowers...it's the Schultz and his foster cat Waylon, bein' all luvy-duvy.


Mexican Elderberry. Apparently I'm going to have to wait until the bush gets bigger (right now it's only 3 or 4 feet tall) before it has enough berries for me AND the birds.


Blackberries. Well, they're blackberries now, right here they were only flowers...or, berries-to-be. Of course they'll ripen while we're on vacation. Hope the neighbor girl likes blackberries. Hmph.


The Red Cascade rose...she's sprawling all over the place, and constantly flowering.
I think she likes living here.


Larkspur, yarrow, pansies, roses (way in the back, probably can't see them) and poppies!


I try not to splurge on plants...or at least buy the ones that provide food, medicine, bird-cover or evergreen landscape value. But this black iris...I just couldn't resist. Too bad you can't smell it on the computer...it's heavenly.

So....
These pictures aren't the most recent--they're a couple of weeks old at least, and I'll load up the more recent ones soon--the veggie garden is amazing now!

For the love of dog...

He trusts me unconditionally
even when breakfast is late.
He brings back morning air in his coat
to give me the day’s forecast.
He saves weed seeds for the
bed-sheets without me having to ask.
He maintains constant vigil against
terrorists, murderers, evil UPS guys
and marauding squirrels.
He is a smile on four legs.