Last fall I said I wasn’t going to plant another vegetable garden. Too much work I said, too little payback. Could go to the neighborhood farmers’ market and get things cheap, support my local farmers, bla bla bla. And this spring as usual I was sucked into the illusion that I would have better luck, an overflowing garden filled with lush foliage and vegetables. Enough to share with the neighbors, to make it all worthwhile.
It’s mid July now. If you squint at the garden you can sort of recall that once upon a time, many years ago it used to resemble a fruitful garden. This year, however, it has not lived up to my expectations.
And what appears to be an empty bed, toward the back on the right? That was supposed to be my green beans. I planted after Memorial Day and only three bean seeds germinated. Then some sort of bug ate all the leaves off the three plants and they died. I replanted just before I left for the 4th of July, and about a week later I had pretty little rows of green beans, about an inch high. I was delighted. Then something came and ate everything down to stubby little stems. So. No green beans. I do have some beets and some chard though.
And three, maybe four tops tomatoes. Not even many blossoms. And something ate one of my tomatoes. Already.
It’s been a cold, wet summer. We’ve had a couple of days into the 90’s but mostly highs in the 70’s. So maybe it’s not my gardening skills. But still.
On the other hand, the perennial garden seems to like the chilly weather. The cone flowers are unstoppable of course, but other things are pretty this year too.
So next year I’m not doing a vegetable garden. Going to go buy my produce at the farmers’ market. Yep. Not going to put all that work into three tomatoes, no siree. Going to plant flowers in that space instead. Or turf. Maybe make it into a big ole rock garden. Yep. That’s what I’m going to do…bla bla bla.
I haven’t had time to study anything yet, but I have hope! Meanwhile, last Saturday I took Katie to our local pet store and purchased an inexpensive CLICKER! It’s really loud. And worse, Katie HATES HATES HATES the clicker. I sat on the floor with a bunch of treats and called her. Clicked when she came to me and attempted to give her a treat. The clicker caused her to back away, eyes wide. I tried again. She backed up further. Didn’t want anything to do with the clicker OR the treats OR me! I tried several times, tossing her the treats which she gulped down, but she wouldn’t come near me. Over the past 3 days we’ve tried a few times, but she still HATES the clicker. I’m not sure if this is normal and if I should keep trying to get her to come to associate it with treats.
IT DOESN’T BELONG THERE MOM! WHAT’S IT DOING IN MY LIVING ROOM MOM? I DON’T LIKE IT! NOT AT ALL! oh…there’s a treat on the top? Well…maybe…I’ll just take that treat off your hands, you know, just help myself to that tasty morsel… ” 
But that’s about all she would do. She wouldn’t have anything to do with it except to take a treat off the top and stare at it intently.
We played with the frisbee as a treat in between working on our obedience skills, heeling, staying, standing and then running on the board. She’s almost at the point that I can say “Walk the board!” and she’ll go (almost) on her own and run the board. She stops though if I’m not running next to her, to make sure that’s what I really meant. 
She’s not quite ready to just run it herself. She has, however, on occassion, gone over and walked over the board all by herself without any direction at all from me. Then she looks at me and grins as if to say, “SEE? I can do this board thing..where’s my treat?”
