Okay... Napa season is over....

... and by that I mean no more whining about the weather!

Last year's Siberians

We had a glorious day, in the 80's! A single degree away from an all time high set in 1967. I spent the day hurting myself in my yard. It was worth it though. We had lots of rain the last couple days and everything has turned bright green seemingly overnight!

We did have a few tremendous thunderstorms. One dropped hail the size of marbles and up to quarters! That storm worried me some. Here in the Not-So-Great-White-North, hail is often followed up with tornadoes. I watch those storms carefully. We've had our fair share of twisters over the years.

I'm now anxiously awaiting the birth of the Alaskan flower seeds I brought back with me! I put them in last fall, and will have to make sure when they start popping up to be careful with my weeding! I don't do gardening 'rows' I do 'areas' so any weeds that shoot up will get to live long enough for me to determine if it's a new flower! HA!

I have some started in containers. Large, random container gardening is very popular around here. I have an old wash tub that was my Grandma's, some old enamelware dish pans, vintage pots and such. I also thought it would be a good way for me to start the new flowers, some I'll leave in the container until they're strong enough for transplanting, the others I'll leave in if I like the way they look.

There are a couple I want to transplant right next to my house because they get tall. It will make for a nice display of color against the dove gray siding of my house. Those seeds are assorted Iceland Poppies, so I don't know what color they'll be, but my Oriental lilies are assorted too and I love the variations of colors.


I'm also anxious to see how the wild irises look near my Siberian irises I had for years. (Pictured above) The wild ones I saw in Alaska seemed quite a bit lighter in color. The Siberians are very dark purple. I hope the new ones grow well. I'm sure there won't be any flowering this summer but I may get a surprise.

I'm hoping the Arctic Lupine flourish as well. I think they are so pretty! I also have Forget-Me-Nots, Wild Roses, Wild Columbine and Shooting Stars. So if any of them flower this summer I'll be very happy. I love flowers and I love that these can be grown here!

Here's hoping for a successful summer of flowers!

So stupidly....

...the day starts out somewhat like this. Gray, rain... even some thunder & lightning. Then Holy Cats!!! The sun's out! It's staying out! It's almost 70 degrees outside!!

... so I'm thinking, this is great! Finally spring is here to stay. So, masochist I am, I check the forecast for the weekend. It's supposed to be 82 degrees tomorrow!!

82!

With severe thunderstorms, massive amounts of rain with flood warnings because the frost isn't completely out yet. Oh yeah, then more thunderstorms as the warm air moves on with the cold front pushing in.

This would be the same cold front that is predicted to bring the temps down to the 40's by Sunday.

Oh... we're expecting snow up to 6 inches by nightfall. It was bad enough with the last snow we had, the poor Robins looked so confused. I felt sorry for them so I went to the bait shop and bought them some night crawlers... trust me, those worms never had a chance!

So, since I can't afford to move, I'm planning on going back to bed until May.
I might have to make another bait shop run first though.

I swear, I'm fricking moving!

I wanna live here.

So we finally got our spring. It got into the 50's, then the temperature teased us with 60's... then gloriously we had a weekend in the 70's! Woo - hoo!!!!!!

Then back came the 40's. The 30's. The freezing rain. The sleet. Inches of snow! (I'm talking six to ten inches to the Not-So-Distant-North!)

It rained all day yesterday.

Most of the night too.

It's raining now.

My brief flirtation with shorts, t-shirts and bare feet has transformed back into sweat pants, a t-shirt, a long sleeved flannel shirt and slippers.

Cripes.

I guess I could go do a load of laundry.

Or better still... fire up the electric blanket, crawl under it and sleep until tomorrow.

Too bad I'm already on my second pot of coffee!

I'm hoping tomorrow will be bright and dry.

What can I say?

I dare to dream....

Well this weekend just went to the dogs!

It was almost like a Dr. Seuss book... there were big dogs and little dogs, dopey dogs and funny, dopey dogs, dogs that are just way too smart, and those that you are forced to wonder about.

Sneak attack kisses, "Agh! My mouth was open!"

Cripes.

"Yes, I think it's dead. Butch did it."

Sunshine... big, floppy tongues hanging out... miniature killer dogs barking at a seriously big dog they couldn't reach. Maybe better was the fact he couldn't get to them! I'm fairly sure the seemingly amused Great Dane was probably thinking, "Ooo... snacks!"

"Give me water."

Little dogs racing around like greyhounds (impressively too!)

"No! Don't jump up on...!"

(Note to self, pre-treat little, muddy dog paw print

on shirt and jeans.)

Big dogs chasing sticks, then chewing them to bits so that each throw had less stick each time.

"Yuck! How can you possibly get that much spit on this in under 15 feet away!?"

Coulda' used the Chuck-it... Although it's rather a unique experience to see a dog roll his eyes at your completely inadequate throwing skills.

I got even though... as the stick got shorter, I'd fake 'em out, they'd run looking for it and I'd just toss it off the porch a ways and then tell them to "Hunt it up!" Kept them busy for a few minutes each time!

"She's by the stove, think she'll drop something?" "She's klutzy, so yeah... maybe."

Of course there was lots of hugging & loving....

"Oh man! You know that wood tick stuff works for you guys, but it's really just a mass transit system for the damn things to get on me!" (Yeah, that left me feeling 'crawly" for a couple hours...)

"What is...? OH! Give me that!"

"Hey! Harley! Oh man.... (Note to self... pre-treat large, muddy paw print on shirt.)

"Will you guys be quiet! It's just a squirrel!"

"JAX! I'm on to you blondie... STICK AROUND!"

"Oh! Poor Butchie! Did she take your bone?"

"Hi! Yeah... it's really a beautiful day! Don't mind them, they think they're Dobermans."

I have decided one thing though... Butch and Miss Sunny are no longer considered "small dogs" Their personalities are far too large. They are now just big dogs that shrunk when washed in my book!

Butch & Sunny sleep off their dog racing imitation.

Close encounters of the weekend of "Dogs that chase parked cars"

I rest my case.

So this past weekend was a first for me. I was chosen to take care of a pair of pugs for a friend. Now, most of you know I'm not a "small dog" person, but from my first encounter, I was thrilled because they are pretty much big dogs, just in smaller packages.

They settle down, they play hard and (this is the one that I like the best) they know they are lap dogs. This is especially nice as I didn't have to deal with dogs over 80 lbs that cannot grasp that concept!

They were put in a unique position this weekend. Mom left. Without them! Then there's was me. Gees! What's going on here! But I got them comforted, got them interested in something other than the strange turn of events... and was then sorry. (Kidding!)

I'm just going to ignore you. On the other hand... I'm watching you!

When I agreed to care for them I was a little worried. Would they behave? Would they band together as a "pack" and kill me as I slept? Would they eat their treats? (This was a yes on the doggie snacks and no on the carrots. No, seriously! They love carrots and I actually saw them eat them!) Would they pee on me? (Don't laugh... it's happened before!)

After about the first half hour or so it appeared that it would be okay. This was a great relief as I had been quite concerned about their well-being. Once they discovered I was really a pushover... all was well. One of the first issues addressed was jealousy. Just like kids, a "Oh you're just such a pretty girl!" brought about a quick jump on my lap by Butch the Bully as he nosed Ms. Sunny out of the way.

Men.

It was around this time that Sunny discovered an interesting phenomenon... they are used to sleeping on the tops of the couch cushions. As you can see below...

Well, Sunny decided she wanted to be closer to me. Well... it was probably more along the lines of, "I'm tired of sleeping on this cushion." So she proceeded to walk to the one on the other side of me.

She accomplished this by heading to the other cushion... and simply walking across the top of my boobs as if they were just a convenient way to get there. She seemed to think this was pretty cool and couldn't wait to share the info with Butch.

While it had me laughing hysterically, I now sport the bruises to prove it! It became a game. They tag-teamed me, I swear! Sunny would get on my lap, snuggling and being just too darn cute, when suddenly my face is full of the side of a Pug fur.

"Hey Butch, how's it goin'?"

I understand that while I have an ample chest (and admittedly my chest is pretty soft and squishy much like the sofa cushions) it was a point of contention. Mostly because these "small dogs" aren't really all that small!

I did get "even" for the lack of a better term... their schedule is much tighter than some of my other, average 'Happy Dog' schedules. These guys are usually asleep before 9:00 p.m. and up around 5:30 A.M.!!!

Cripes! WHEN is she going to go to bed!?

Me? I watched DVD's, I read, and I took them outside to do their thing around 1:00 a.m. (Confusion reigned let me assure you.) The good thing came when they didn't get up until just after 6 a.m. I questioned if they'd have gotten up that early at all but I had to go, so they did too. Being oddly fogged (because we were all out of our normal routines) was never so apparent as when I opened the blinds on the patio doors and pulled them aside.

Snow! I swear... I looked outside, they looked outside... I looked down at them, they looked back up at me and we came to the conclusion. Living in The-Not-So-Great-White-North does on occasion... really suck.

Cripes. The first weekend of April and two & a half inches of snow!

Is this still payback for the 6 a.m. wake-up call?

We were more than content to go back to bed and forget the weather. All things considered, this isn't exactly something we're not used to. It's mostly just really annoying.

So we all survived our first weekend together, I'll be going back soon and I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure it'll go just as smoothly. All I have to know now is whether or not I can take them for a car ride.

I have to find out from their Mom as to whether or not they curl up on the seat and snooze until we stop... or if they're the type of dogs that will want to help me drive.

I try to avoid the latter, as most law enforcement agencies frown upon canine assistance at 55 mph.

Of course, one of the funniest moments of the weekend came when I took them for their daily walk. It just so happened that Momma called to check-in on how it was going while we were out walking.

I asked her how long she usually walked them. It was around 15 minutes.

Oops.

We'd already been out about 45 minutes and by the time we returned home it had been nearly an hour! We had started out with them basically taking me for a drag!

By the time we turned around to head for home they were walking behind me. I even picked up Miss Sunny to give her a bit of a break. They happily ate a small treat once we were home and then proceeded to sleep the walk off. How can you tell if a Pug is really tired?

Their sweet little corkscrew tails uncurl!