Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Mailbox

This is our mailbox. We planted that Zebra  Grass about five years ago. A one gallon bucket plant  has grown so large that we've divided it a couple of times and replanted pieces of it in other areas. Last year I put annuals up here, and it looked nice. I decided this year to put in perennials. I want the area to have more variety, and I would rather spend the money once to put in perennials that will grow and fill in. 

Here is what I chose: two types of hearty rosemary, Salvia East Friesland, Cheddar Pinks Tiny Rubies, two different colors of Ice Plant, a Hyssop, and a Creeping Phlox Candy Stripe.

 

 Trying out placement of the plants.

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 Planted and mulched.

We have also had some professional yard work done. We had the huge junipers that you can see behind the mailbox removed and a bunch of things moved around in the front yard. We had about half the back yard fixed up. Only half, because our budget was only so big.

Here are some pictures of it almost completed.

Next to the front door we have new evergreens and a trio of pincushion flowers on each side. So much nicer than the mess of weeds that used to be here. The Acuba that used to be here were moved to other spots in the front yard. Everything is small this year, even the Acuba were trimmed back. It will all fill in during coming years, I hope!

They laid fescue sod, and made us nice beds filled with lavendar, pincushion flowers, yarrow, shasta daisies, artemisia, rudbeckia, ornamental grass, assorted shrubs, and some coral bellls.

Thomas is also putting up a second raised bed near the first one. The first one is planted with peas and potatoes and I'm going to put tomatoes and peppers in the new one. Here he is, building it:

We'll miss you, grumpy old dog

This is the first picture I ever saw of Dru, it was the one that went along with his CSAC adoption write up. He was 7 years old. He was the victim of a divorce. Their marriage split up and no one wanted the Cocker Spaniel. They took him to the vet to be put down. The vet didn't kill healthy animals, he said, "Leave him with me, I'll find someplace for him to go." He had stress colitis that got better when he went to the kennel. That must have been some stress filled home for the kennel to be a better place!

We brought him home on a Thursday, June 17, 2004. He was so handsome! A large Cocker Spaniel with color that ranged from almost white to pale gold/caramel.

He loved to swim. He liked running in the park. He liked food and treats. He liked to chase birds and one time he even caught (and killed) a pigeon in our yard.

He also had a lot of fears. He hated having anyone touch his paws. He couldn't stand being pushed or pulled by the collar, but would walk nicely on a leash. Putting medicine in his eyes or ears was, at first, traumatic for him and for us...he reacted like we were trying to kill him and he was trying to take us with him. A couple of times I cried after putting medicine in his eyes because it was so scary and upsetting to see him lose control.

Things got better when he learned to trust us a little more and we learned how to manage his fears. We got a muzzle and used it so we weren't so afraid of being bitten. I still got bitten a few times and have the scars to prove it.

I wrote a haiku one time about watching him run in circles in the park, he was like joy on four legs, running for the sheer pleasure of running.

We took him to the beach and he chased the waves up and down. He chased the shadows of the sea birds along the sand. He plunged into the surf and swam fearlessly.

He was always grumpy and particular about how you handled him. He was smart in his own way, the only dog we've ever had that came and asked to be let out. When Dru wanted to go to the yard, he came and "gave us the paw," using one of those huge paws to scrape the bed, the chair, the leg, until we got up and escorted him outside.

He loved riding in the car, loved it! He always started out in the back seat, but on long car trips that big nose would start poking into the front seat, or resting on someone's shoulder. Like the camel that got into the tent starting with its nose, once Dru's nose made it into the front seat, forty pounds of Cocker Spaniel would eventually follow. He looked out the front window the whole trip while the other dogs dozed.

He always liked sleeping on the cool tile of the bathroom, even in winter. He didn't like toys much unless I would play with him. We'd play tug of war with a squeaky football, or I'd roll him a ball and then pretend to want it back. He'd chomp the ball and dare me to get it.

He lost his vision to progressive retinal atrophy in 2009, he was about 12. He adjusted. It made him slower and more hesitant, but he managed to get everywhere he wanted to go. It made us sad that he could no longer run, and he stopped swimming.

He had typical old dog health problems: arthritis, a heart murmur, growths on his butt. Other than that he was like the Energizer Bunny, he took a licking and kept on ticking. He still wanted to go on the walks every day, and he sniffed his way around he neighborhood. Woe betide the person who tripped on him or accidentally stepped on his feet; that person had better move fast to avoid the fangs of Dru!

He was banned from four groomers for bad behavior! I had to laugh because that was Dru, he was particular about who touched him and how.

Earlier this year we could tell he was winding down. He didn't want to go on the long walks. He slept a lot more. Last week he stopped eating more than a mouthfull of his food. He was in pain and very weak. The vet took an x-ray and diagnosed cancer. We brought him home and spent the last few days giving him bacon, hamburgers, cereal - any food that tempted him.

We took him on one last car ride yesterday. He was too sick to enjoy it, groaning as Thomas lifted him gently into the car and held him. Our good vet, Susan deLeon, gave him the two shots. Thomas and I stayed with him until the end, patting him and telling him that we loved him and would miss him.

He was not an "easy" dog. He was sensitive, opinionated, and touchy. But in the 7+ years we had with Dru, not a day went by without us laughing at something he did, smiling at his eccentricities, and admiring his good looks. We used to say, "Dru doesn't have to be nice, 'cause he's so gooooood looking!"

Rest in peace you droopy Dru. I love you.

White Horses and Air Logic

I'm reading White Horses, one of the few Alice Hoffman novels I have not yet read. So far I am finding it depressing, but am holding out hope that it will get better. Even when her subject matter is sad, that woman writes beautifully.

I'm also re-reading Laurie J. Marks first three Shaftal books. I sure wish her last book in the series - Air Logic - would come out! Laurie J. Marks and Rosemary Kirstein are both making me wait for YEARS for their latest. Darn it! If you want to read some thinking person's fantasies, I recommend both of these writers.

Listen to the music of the pouring rain

Yesterday after work and dog walking, I went to my second yoga nidra evening. Toni went along for her second round of yoga nidra in one day. She's working on getting extra meditative!

At this studio, the way the teacher, Vicki, handles yoga nidra is that first she has you do a round of gentle yoga, and then you settle down on a stack of mats and blankets, with whatever props you need, and you do aobut 40-45 minutes of the meditation. Well, last night our gentle yoga turned into something a little more strenuous than I was expecting. She threw something called a Moon Salutation there at the end which I just could not do. At one point I lost my balance and tumped over. Luckily, I fell from sort of a crouching position and directly onto my bolster! Lucky that, because injuring yourself at a mediation evening would not be in the spirit of the thing!

Today I mailed two quilts off to the long arm quilter.  I also washed some dishes, took a long nap, helped Thomas clean up in the yard some, clipped Dru a little, ate a hamburger, and spent an hour at the bookstore. Now I am home, wishing my ear would clear up, and listening to the rain outside in my muffled way. The earth needs this rain very badly. I heard on the radio that our area gets an average of 20 inches of rain per winter and we've gotten 2 this year. Not a good thing, so all moisture welcomed and appreciated!

Somewhere under all this fat I have a muscle!

I had a teeny tiny little bit of realization (a Revalation-ette?) at yoga today. While still very much a Large Fat Person, I have increased my fitness level noticably in the past 4.5 months. Things that I was Not Able to do in January are Do-able now. Yoga positions that left me trembling and weak-kneed in February are still challenging, but no longer wipe me out.

There is a bit less of me these days, and that's gotta help, but also (please picture me running up the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum while a cheesy 80s band wails "Gotta Fly Now") I am stronger! A reasonably fit high school kid could still kick my ass, but I could probably take your 80 year old grandma. Not that I would though, because, duh, I'm doing YOGA...and I don't want to mess my chakras up or ruin my karma or anything like that. I'm sure violence against old ladies would be anti-the-spirit-of-yoga.

In other news, I just re-read Alice Hoffman's Seventh Heaven and Ice Queen. I am in a Hoffman-esque mood. I still have White Horses to get through too. I also read Sandra Dallas' latest, Whiter Than Snow. It was good, but dang, also sad. It tells the story of a bunch of people in a small mining town in CO in about 1920. Each chapter covers the sad lives and history of a bunch of people whose kids have been swept up in an avalanche. You know nine kids are missing and only four of them are going to be found. So from the git-go you are trying to figure out which sad people are going to have even MORE sadness added to their already full plate of sadness. I like Sandra Dallas, but think that if you haven't read something by her, start with The Persian Pickle Club or Prayers for Sale for a less wrenching introduction to a fine Western writer.

Monday it was 90 degrees here in Maryland, and Thomas and I slept with the ceiling fan going. Today it is about 50 and rainy and my feet are cold to the bone and I'm ready for the weather to settle into something warm and balmy. I want my month of perfect spring before the humidity shows up.