a June 21st, 2009

  1. What’s Happening in the Yard

    June 21, 2009 by MyEye

    I mentioned the Mimosa.  This evening I took photos of the clusters of fuzzy blooms.  In a few days they will shade into lavender, and then, in a couple of weeks, they will all fall off and cover everything.  If I get them up before we have rain, it will be fine.  If not, they turn into fuzzy concrete, coating everything in the yard.

    mimosa-branch-6-21-09.jpg

    mimosa-cluster-6-21-09.jpg

    The Desert Willow just began blooming.  The flowers hang and are a soft pink.  When I planted this tree, it was only as tall as I was, but it is now close to twenty feet tall.  We had a heavy snow two winters ago and I lost a branch due to the weight of the snow.  Another branch cracked, but continued growing so I did not prune it.  It hangs low over a large lave rock.  It could have been planned.  The flowers are so delicate that it is difficult to get one in focus — I think they like it that way.

    desert-willow-blossoms-6-21-09.jpg

     Of course, I have the obligatory color pot.  It has petunias and geraniums and blue — are those forget-me-nots?

    petunia-and-friends-6-21-09.jpg

    Category Plants and Flowers | Tags: | 4 Comments

  2. Sundays are for tracking (and watching Tiger)

    June 21, 2009 by MyEye

    Chase and I were out bright and early with a little bag of rotisserie chicken and our articles.  I’ve found if I throw the articles in a ziplock bag with yesterday’s socks, and leave them overnight, it makes indicating the articles — especially plastic — much easier for him.  Today he wandered off the track to check mail less frequently than he did last week.  His indications were stronger.  On our first track, when he got to a right turn and then needed to go down a curb onto the pavement, he tried to convince me that we should follow an imaginary track that stayed on the grass.  I just stood still and let him flail around for a couple of minutes.  He gave up, made the turn and went down the curb onto the pavement.  Then he tracked directly to the article.  He gobbled up his chicken treat — the prize for indicating the plastic switch plate cover.  I asked him to find more, and he went directly into the landscape rocks to the glove.  He just thinks he’s so smart when he does that.  On the second track — same configuration, but with a left turn, the plastic cookie cutter was in the grass –great indication.  Then the track continued on in the grass, a left, down a curb to the pavement without hesitation.  He found the square piece of leather (wag, wag — chicken, please?).  “Let’s find more” — and he’s off on a dead line to another landscaped area and a glove.  He has this game down pat!  I hope I can keep up with the weekly tracking outing so he can earn his TD this fall/winter.

    Now, it’s time to watch Tiger Woods play golf (if it’s not pouring at Bethpage).  I really admire someone who works as hard as he does to perfect his game.

    Category Chase, Tracking | Tags: | 3 Comments