Lazy Saturday

White Seaspray Rose

Robins in the Serviceberry

Spinnaker & Mizzen

Guess who has a vet visit at 8:20am today!

Why we're getting a new fence next month...

Buttercups

Rene's Bluebells 2012

I wanted to post these special memorial Bluebells that Thankful and I planted in my garden several years ago in memory of her darling brother Rene, because today I am headed to a memorial service for my friend Peter who died this week.  He too was a darling man, sweet and kind and much missed. 

May the souls of all we love rest in peace and ever bring wisdom to our hearts about what matters. ♥

EARTH

Two Kits a la 3lbs and 4lbs!

Baby Robin

We shooed this little fellow out of the road and onto the grass where its mother was calling loudly.

Hallo August! ♥♥ Happy 25th Anniversary Renee & Demetrius!!

Goodbye, July!

Now I call that raising a Garden!

Happy Sunday!

Clematis?

Outhouse

State of the Art...never needs flushing!

Annabelle Hydrangea

Wednesday I transplanted into my yard this renegade Hydrangea that my neighbour didn't want.

Guess What!

On Wednesday I watched this Butterfly lay that Egg! 

(It's a tiny round white dot just left of that big leaf's center line, just below half way down.) 

See it? (Click to enlarge)

Plus!  Littlest*Grandduaghter is currently observing Monarch caterpillars spin their chrysalises.

She also says, "Guess what!" a lot.  And today she is 3 years old! ♥

Deer in Daylight

(Photo taken through a dirty car window)

Soooo sleepy...

SeaSpray Roses, ahhhhhhh

Nauset Lighthouse, Cape Cod

Bald Eagle at Nest

Good-night CapeCod

Sunset over Cape Cod Bay

Midweek Rest Stop

At Dennis Port Beach looking SSW from Cape Cod.

Beach Flower (name?)

Beachgrass A-Light

Time for Sundae School!

The Power of the Ocean, even on a fine day...

Hopefully all these beach photos have been helping folks stay cool through the heat wave!

SPLASH!

It's Friday the 13th!  What could possibly go wrong? ;-)

High Tide

Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod

Wheel at the Barn

Waiting for puddle...

This Tiffany Angel is my favourite window inside Christ Episcopal Church in Montpelier, Vermont, just a short distance from the State Capitol building.

My great big puppy

Perkins got away again last night. In the dark, when I was taking him out for one last potty break for the night. I ran to try to keep up with him--clearly a lost cause, but I need to keep him from getting TOO far ahead of me. Whoever he was running to greet apparently ignored him, and he started to run back in my direction. I called him, but he just started to run past me. 

Then I tripped. I have no idea who it was that suggested pretending to fall as a way of getting a dog to come back. I wasn't pretending when I fell, but I remembered the idea at that moment and stayed down. Perky came to me, and I was able to get a grip on his harness and lead him back to the house.

Anyway, we are now reevaluating how old this boy actually is. Socrates, the first cat Demetrius and I adopted together, died when he was allegedly only 8 years old. I say "allegedly" because that was his accurate age only if he was genuinely 2 when we adopted him from a shelter in Chicago. Since that time, I've learned that shelter are often only "guess-timating" when they tell you an animal's age. Absent any dental evidence to the contrary, it seems like adult cats of unknown origin are always two years old. 

It seems like the opposite may have happened with Perkins. Supposedly, he will be 4 in September. He sure doesn't act it. But I assumed what the shelter told me was accurate due to his circumstances. According to his description, he ended up in the shelter after his owner died. I thought he'd been brought in by a family member, but apparently that is not the case.

All I was able to find out is that the mailman found him, got someone he knew to look after Perkins temporarily, and it was *that* individual who signed the release papers at the shelter. So it appears there is no "solid" evidence that I actually adopted a 3 1/2 year old dog. And he sure still has a lot of "puppy" in him!

Lucky for me, my boy is not always on the move...

Sunbath

To gain this vantage point, some teamwork was necessary. First Mizzen and Spinnaker had to knock off the windowsill a very nice ship-in-a-bottle.  Fortunately, it rolled onto the couch and is fine.  Proof positive that it's the sails that control the boat!  LOL!  Note that Mizzen is now nearly as long as Spinnaker!  Spinnaker is still taller, being lanky and having rabbitesque hind feet.  But Mizzen is over 2lbs now, and Spinnaker is approaching 3lbs.  Meow!  =^. .^=  =^. .^=

Sleepy Sisters

Looming Weather

Anvil Cloud over Vermont's Green Mountains

The tree in our front yard

Since so many here are not on Facebook--and since Facebook has a way of making it really likely that you will miss the stuff you actually want to see, I thought I'd go ahead and post a few pictures here. (Demetrius still isn't done bundling the sticks up yet, and since he's seen evidence that some of the branches are being nibbled, presumably by termites, he would prefer to get them moved ASAP. Sadly, weather is predicted to remain in the 90s for the rest of the week.

Original view from the front of the house, right after the limb came down.

This is the second major limb we've lost on that tree. And neighbors were pointing out that another major limb looks to be not long for this world. The question is, if it does come down in our next big storm, where will it land? Demetrius doubts that it would actually land on the house, and, even if it did, homeowners' insurance would have to pay. Somehow I'm not completely reassured by that statement. Certainly, even if house damage could be repaired without out of pocket costs, there is the matter of the life upheaval that would be involved.

The positive side to all of this is that, upon seeing Demetrius hard at work trying to cut some of the branches down to size, a number of neighbors came by and offered the use of their more efficient, effective tools. Some provided hands-on help. So this kind of reaffirmed my faith in humanity a bit.

Here are a couple of "after" pictures (after hour upon hour of sweaty, grueling work).

Anyway, we have hot weather and storms predicted for a few more days. I really hope we don't lose power again. That sucked in a pretty major way.

INDEPENDENCE~!!

Sis with singer Chris Isaak - June 30, 2012

Ready to Celebrate?

Wigwam

Guess what this is!