Category Archives: gardening
Busy Sunday
The day started rainy. No surprise. Early in the morning we noticed a visitor who was hoping to come inside and dry out.
Katie and I spent most of the day outside working in the garden. Last fall we dug up a lot of overgrown perennials and now we have a lot of open garden. The good news is we get to choose some new things to fill in the blanks. The bad news is with all this rain weeds had already taken up residence. After several days of weeding we’re almost ready to get to the fun part.
Katie supervised most of the work.
The tree peony is beginning to bloom…
…the viburnum is in bloom too.
Yet the pansy’s still look good. I love this time of year!
This morning only one baby robin was still in the nest.
One of his siblings was over in the yard…he eventually flew, a little wobbly, into the shrubs by the flower garden. If you click on the picture to make it bigger you’ll see the little adolescent spots on his back.
Late in the day we had tornado warnings and a lot of wind and rain. By then all three baby birds had left the nest; I thought it was a bad time for them to take off on their own. I hope they’re all right, wish they had stayed in the nest one more night, but I guess all parents, even foster bird parents, feel that way no matter when their little ones fly away.
So tomorrow maybe I’ll work on the vegetable garden which is, of course, a disaster. Katie will do her usual supervising
It must be hard work, cause she’s sound asleep, upside down, pressed up against my leg as I sit in bed writing.
Silly dog.
Training Challenge #7
This week’s challenge for Katie was going for a long drive. We are wondering how she’d travel, so we took her over to Michigan State University which is just over an hour away from us.
Next year, if I get the opportunity to drive down to Alabama, I’d like to take her with me rather than have her stay at a kennel. But sometimes she gets feisty even coming home from her school, and I can’t envision a two day car trip with a sheltie barking at me!
But on this trip Katie settled in on her princess pillow in the back and seemed content to just nod her head sleepily. Maybe because we did this last Sunday, after her Rally Trial, and she was exhausted. LOL. She wouldn’t put her head down, but her little eyese were closed and her head was bobbing up and down until she’d catch me watching her, then she’d try to look alert.
We were visiting the ornamental grass garden on campus. It’s out near the farms, on the grounds of the sod farm where they experiment in making grass that golfers love.
Katie was really happy to get out of the car and explore.
The gardens were beautiful. We had a nice time checking out the names of the grasses that we particularly liked, and considering where we might be able to add a few varieties to our own landscape.
Katie drank some water and peed on the pretty green lawn, just to make sure everyone knew she’d been there. Then back into the car we went for the hour trip home.
She did great. Maybe some weekend I’ll see if I can take her a little further from home. Because two hours is not two days and I still don’t want to find myself somewhere in Tennessee with an unhappy girl.
Know what I mean?
Still summer
Even though it’s cooler now, especially at night, I want to remind myself that it’s still summer. At least for a few more days.
I was out weeding last week and noticed all the bee action on a couple of sunflowers. It never ceases to amaze me that this giant plant can come up out of a single little seed. I planted quite a line of these, but only a few grew this year. Still, those that did are beautiful.
See all the yellow on the leaves below the flower head on the photo above? That’s pollen knocked off by the bees who are themselves covered in the yellow stuff. Fascinating to watch.
Way more fun to watch then weeding.
Wordless Wednesday was gonna be
…but then I went outside and found this!
🙂
Wordless Wednesday in the garden
Thanks for visiting!
Peaceful morning working in the garden…and stuff
Last night I set up the little tent even though rain was predicted for early this morning. I don’t mind the sound of a bit of rain when I’m camping, but Katie is definitely an anti-rain girl, so she stayed inside with her Dad. I spent the night listening to the bullfrogs, traffic on the freeway a mile away and the breeze in the trees.
Sometime during the night I woke up hot, and sat up to unzip the window coverings. Outside, across the yard and under some trees were dozens of fireflies! These were the first I’ve seen this summer and there were seemingly hundreds of them – dancing among the branches and in the long grass of the dark night shadowed lawn. I watched and held my breath – they looked just like magical fairies dancing in the night and I was entranced. Finally sleep claimed me again and I didn’t wake until I heard the gentle patter of morning rain on the roof. I lay there and enjoyed that too, wallowing in this opportunity to sleep past 6:30, Katie’s normal “got to get going Mom!” time.
When I finally ventured back into the house, about 8 a.m. I found Katie curled on the sofa, nose hanging over the arm, facing the front door (waiting for me to come home?) sound asleep. Such a guard dog. I snuck right up on her and she only had time for a quick yip before she was all wiggles and tale wags and licky-licks. As I was petting her I suddenly realized that Katie had an appointment this morning! She was supposed to be at the groomer…like right NOW! As soon as I started to quickly move around the house, getting myself dressed Katie realized what was up and went to hide. Silly (smart!) girl! She shook all the way to the groomer and was visually shaking when I handed her over to the groomer. I felt so bad I apologized to her, which probably made it worse.
While Katie was getting a bath, and probably talking ill of me to all the other doggies, I got a lot of gardening done. Husband has planted more than a dozen trees and they all needed watering, there were weeds to grab, and a bed of wildflowers to plant. All done without interruption, because chief interrupter was off getting groomed.
I was going to sleep out in the tent again tonight. But thunderstorms are predicted, so I guess I’ll sleep inside. Good thing, because as gusty winds came up this afternoon my little tent rolled across the back yard. Guess I should have staked it down.
Katie is now back from the groomer. She looks pretty!
She’s a bit mad at me, but was willing to do a bit of recall given I had treats!
Now she’s sleeping, the better to keep me up tonight when it’s thundering. A Sheltie has to be prepared at all times you know.
Change Is Hard 