WEDNESDAY MORNING

Well it rained. No surprise. And today is wet, with drizzle. Off and on. The dogs are fairly quiet.

We cut two trees down in the yard leaving us with none since they dropped one tree on my little baby Russian Olive that I have nurtured and adored for 4 years, splitting it in half. (Yes I know they hate them out west, but I don't care. They hate coyotes and wolves out west, too, but I don't.)

This is what is left of my precious baby. Since it rained it is especially droopy. We have it taped, and twice we propped it up with a stake and a strap, but someone, some mysterious force, insists on tearing out the stake and dragging the strap around the yard like a dead snake. I won't mention any names.

heh heh heh

But parts of the yard are kind of pretty. In a common kind of way.

 

 

Not all parts. While I was watching the squirrel I got buzzed by a female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. She was out here yesterday too, and it has been years since I have seen any. It makes me wonder if she has a nest close by.

 

These, of course, are the opposite corners of the yard where the trees (Ash and infected with Emerald Ash Borers) once stood. I want to decorate: John wants grass. I sense a long winter ahead....

John piled these along the fence. The dogs sit in back of them and wait for Ori, the Border Collie in back, to come out and start running the fence with them, screaming hysterically. At least we are at the  point now where I do not have to catch them individually: I get them past the bricks by herding them (yeah, I learn by watching, too) and then telling them "get in the house". Amazingly, they almost always do.

 

Yes for those of you who are easily terrified, it is a spider web. With rain. Near a Monarda.

 

And on the Clematis.

 

 

Oooo----camera!!

 

RUNNING

The heat has cooled down a bit and the humidity quite a lot. So yesterday evening I grabbed Doc and Conley and took them out to my friend's house, where she has a very secure couple of acres fenced off for her dogs. Conley doesn't really RUN-- he kind of ambles quickly. He can run. He can run very fast, but there didn't seem to be any reason to do so. The only problem with this place is: there are NO trees.
Well I take it back, she has planted trees along one fenceline, but they do not offer shade.

But Doc, Doc runs. And I love to watch him run, so guess what? You get to watch, too.

Well he doesn't run all the time.

But once he starts

He keeps

Right on

Running

Right at you

And beyond.

 

And his Buddy, Conley

Does his Basset best

To....keep......................up...........but............................

But (no pun intended) really can't.

 

 

And  Doc is off again

 

But not for quite so long this time

And finally

stops.

 

And I am adding one picture because I like it. I am not sure what happened to the lighting but I like it.

 

Mouse? Mole? Vole? Stick?

 

 

BOOM GO THE TREES.

We have two trees with 2 and 3 trunks respectively. One is in one back corner of the yard and the other opposite.
We never knew what they were (until recently) but were told, in our innocence when we bought the house, that they were Rose of Sharon.

BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
I still have no idea what that is but I am here to tell you that is NOT what these mutant trees are.
Maybe they would have been pretty had Commonwealth Edison not insisted on "topping" them every few years forcing them to grow in totally bizarre directions.

Maybe they would have been attractive if a neighbor in back had not lopped off a HUGE branch because it hung over the fence and he said he was building a "structure" (which he never did) and which made me so  angry he actually called the police because he thought I might punch him. (My daughter and I were laughing so hard that  the Cop started laughing.) (At the time I weighed about 120). The neighbor was told by the Cop that in the future he was legally bound to give us 24hrs notice.

But no, they're Ash trees, plain and simple and....they have bugs.

 

That's why we hired the tree people to come and cut them down. And so they did.
Jim the tree guy did the climbing and cutting and I have to say, 99% of it fell in our yard, the wires did not come down, nobody cut off a leg and nobody fell headfirst out of a tree.

 

Almost impossible to see, but there is a person in this tree.

 

 

Jim the treeman

 

 

Almost done.

 

I haven't been outside all day and I know there is something interesting going on.

 

 

 

OOPS

I was promptly told the Basset Puppies vs the Nazis is a fake. And so it is. It is still funny.

MANY LITTLE UNEXCITING THINGS

A lot has not happened since I last wrote this blog. It seems to me that people would rather read something interesting instead of something very dull. I know I would. Usually there is nothing very interesting going on, to be honest.

Doc went to a show and got dumped. His ruff was gone, his endings red-- I told him he looked like a Terv bitch which probably didn't help his confidence any, except I could tell by the look in his beautiful eyes that he didn't have a clue what I had said.
Here is a game.
Realising Doc and Llewis had been outside quite awhile without any noise of breaking patio furniture or garden hoses being torn from the  faucet, I went out to check. I couldn't find him. I came in and looked but he was not in the house.
I went back out, my little heart bouncing around by now, and called. Nothing.
(He does this.)
And then I saw him.

(We are trying to grow grass --bwaaahahahahah) which is why the jerry-rigged fence is there.)

 

Do you see him?

 

 

Well ok, so he isn't real clear. He knew I didn't see him, and decided not to answer.

 

 

But I'd know that tongue anywhere!!

 

Ok. This is a link to one of the all-time funniest clips I have ever seen.

It doesn't hurt that my Dad was in the Army Air Corps in WW2 and talked about this guy, and I believe they worked together but I may not be correct on that one. He certainly knew him.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCFQogH2Ugk

 

I hope it works.

I used to contend that if everyone had to throw very annoyed cats at each other during wars, there wouldn't be many wars at all.

(I do not mean that as a nasty comment about cats. I adore cats. I have had cats and they were never thrown at anyone and lived long and sleepy lives.)

 

John bought me a new thing to put my beads in because they were in a dozen different places in my room, up to and including the floor.

I haven't finished getting them organized but here it is:

 

 

Not the dog. (That's Conley looking especially pathetic)

No, it is a garage mechanic's cabinet.

On my way out the door with them (there are two) three different men commented on what a lucky guy my husband was to get such a cool present. I am not making that up. (I wanted to say "No it's mine, for ammunition storage" but I held my tongue.)

 

 

Wait! What's a squirrel smell like?

MY BRAIN ON NOTHING

It's a hard thing when you start forgetting. What?
Ohhh, like that the dog show I entered way back there isn't next Sunday it's TOMORROW.
Luckily I had managed to arrange grooming for today, late, back when I was still thinking. And it's a good thing because he has blown coat and is sunburned and looks like....a coyote. a big Coyote. And this is a major if all the dogs show up.

 

I have someone coming out today to give me an estimate on cutting down two dead trees in our yard. That will leave us treeless, except for the little Russian Olive I bought several years ago. It is looking good this year, is about 5 feet tall now. The wife comes out and does the estimate. The last group I had like that was a real mistake.

 

 

Beads. Obviously. I bought these and they are not like anything I have had before. The beads shaped beads are African Trade beads and the tetrahedrons are "black rainbow agate". I am wild about this bunch of beads and want to do something amazing with them but haven't figured out what that is, yet.

This is Sam Beagle. He belonged to my husband when I met him back when the earth was green. Sammy was very funny.

 

That's me. I really looked like that once. Sam Beagle knows I am offering him a biscuit but cannot quite decide whether he should really take it out of my mouth or not. He did.

Mailboxes. Clearly. At the edge of the road by Marble City Glass studios in Knoxville, TN. I have weird taste in subject matter.

 

 

The Gallery window when my son and his partner brought Marble City Glass to town.

 

Wendy. This is Nigel and Llewis's sister many years ago at the International Kennel Club Show. I cannot recall her professional name. Ch. Bonsai's First Class Cheesbrgr in Paradise, I think. When she was born I called her "the Rottweiler" because she was huge and black. There was the Coyote, the Rottweiler, Naomi, Nigel, and Llewis. Two un-named puppies died before they ever got going. One is buried in our garden under a bronze house that my son made. The other never made it home from the C-section.

 

Horse barns at Kentucky Horse Park

 

Told you I had weird taste. Saw this when I was in Des Moines at something or other and we went downtown to the Farmer's Market, a huge, wonderful affair.
Not sure why this appealed to me so much, but it did.

And the end. My beautiful Lillies, gone now.