Spring Pairings

I just couldn’t resist posting pictures of some of my favorite spring pairings. This lovely couple comes to the feeder every day – he gallantly stays underneath the feeder, pecking at seed on the ground and watching for trouble, while his little lady feeds heartily at the feeder. In this picture, he’s looking up at her as if to say, “You okay up there?” 🙂

Hey, babe! How you doin’ up there?

And this mourning dove couple visits every morning and always stay close together on the ground, going for the easy pickin’s. 🙂

Always together, in all kinds of weather

And then there are the confirmed bachelors…

I stand alone, thank you.

I think we can see why this guy is a bachelor:

Look, I’m a bird pretzel! Hey, my feet taste good!

I love this tree pairing–

SO pretty!

And how about this fun pairing of cat lovers and dog lovers pastas? 🙂

And then there’s Miss Daisy, who’s always paired up with one of us. 🙂

Happy spring! 😀

We’re part of the Thursday Barks and Bytes blog hop!

Snowy Spring, or Winter’s PS

Look what happened on the first day of spring!

We woke up to a good 6-8 inches of snow on the ground!

Which drew birds by the dozens again, including some of my winter favorites:

I love how these little beauties nestle into the snowy branches.

Later in the day, a brilliant blue sky let us know spring was keeping an eye on the untimely snowfall…

And a wonderful thing happened – Daisy suddenly started enjoying the snow! She didn’t avoid it like usual, she went right into the thick of it, and after I stopped taking pictures (of course) she romped into the deepest snow in the middle of the yard – chest-high on her!

Hey, this snow isn’t so bad after all! It’s kinda fun! Now let’s go for the deep stuff!

Of course we paid the inevitable price – 20 minutes of blow-drying ice balls off her feet, legs, chest and stomach. But it was well worth it! I hope she takes to the snow much sooner next winter.

Our daffodils – the four-inch stems that had managed to push through after the ice, snow, and a flooded flower garden – took it well and now that the snow is gone, they’re giving it their all. What hardy little troopers!

And given the “all clear”, a few of our purple crocuses hurried to show their beauty before the next storm could shut them down – there are about four buds in this picture, two of which are just waiting to burst open (you can see that the garden hasn’t been cleaned up yet after winter – there are still some small snow deposits around).

We’re part of the Thursday Barks and Bites blog hop! Join in and see what everyone else has been up to!

The Cone of Shame Returns….

What is going on in this family?! First I sprained my back, and yesterday one of my fillings started disintegrating in chunks….and my dentist can’t see me until tomorrow. I HATE needles and I know I’m in for a series – UGH.Plus I don’t know how my back will handle that chair of his. AND – now Daisy is back in the Cone of Shame! GEEZ!! Is there a target on us?!

Over the past week, we noticed Daisy was scratching at her left ear a little more than usual and shaking her head insanely like she was making a milkshake inside it. She’d just gotten her ears plucked a week ago, and that usually causes her to scratch and shake for a couple of days, but not to excess like this.

This time, she didn’t stop. But it did lessen.

Until yesterday.

After her morning walk yesterday, the shaking and scratching went into overdrive. She was shaking her head so hard that her ears were flapping like crazy – they sounded like a helicopter coming in for a landing. She was also scratching at the inside, which alarmed me the most.

Do I really have to wear this thing again?!

We had looked inside with a flashlight during the week and didn’t notice anything wrong. But yesterday the inside looked reddish-purple and raw.

Fortunately, DD was still home, so she arranged to work from home to take Daisy to the vet, since I can’t manage that yet (my first trial car ride over the weekend didn’t go so well…). The dear man took her in almost immediately. When he looked inside her ear, DD said he made a very disconcerting sound. Diagnosis: severe spring allergies made worse by the plucking. He didn’t use the word “infection” but I think she was close to getting one. Apparently it’s worse in the left ear but has started in the right as well.

This medicine sure makes me pant a lot!

So he gave her a shot and put some gunky stuff in her ear, which we have to do every day. This isn’t going to be fun; she really doesn’t like it, and I can only imagine how uncomfortable it must feel to her to have her ears filled with oily gunk. And now her ears are all oily on the outside too. Ick. Plus she has pills to take as well, though she’ll enjoy them since they’ll be in peanut butter – the thin silver lining. 🙂

If these things continue, she’ll have to have some allergy testing done. I’ve never had a dog with so many issues!

We had to resort to the cone to stop her from scratching her ears. Poor little thing – so sweet about letting us do what we have to, but I’m sure she’s not happy about it at all!

So….is there an expiration date on bad luck????

Monday Mischief – What’s Really “Bugging” Daisy?

Well bug season isn’t wasting any time getting an early start here in the northeast – what can we expect when it hits 90 degrees in April?! Mosquitoes, bees and other creepy crawlies that we shouldn’t be seeing in such quantities yet emerged back in March, and they’re (unfortunately) bigger than ever. We’re also hearing that it’s going to be a record year for ticks – wonderful, just wonderful. 😦 I’ve already been through a bout of Lyme disease, I don’t relish the possibility of going through it again.

So today’s mischief is being played upon Daisy, rather than by Daisy. See, Daisy doesn’t quite see buggies the same way I do. She finds them to be quite fun – it’s like they’re playing a game of Catch Me If You Can as the flying bugs zip past her and the chase is on: bugs buzzing, Daisy snapping at them.

Well this gigantic mosquito decided to tease Daisy from a safe place – the other side of the glass door. He must have observed that big black cat last week and decided it would be safe to taunt her from a fraction of an inch away, as long as there was thick double-pane glass between them!

Hey! What's this thing on my door?!

The mosquito blends in a bit with the concrete behind it, but just look up a bit from Daisy’s nose – see the l-o-n-g legs attached to a thin body?

::Snap snap!:: I'll get you yet!

When snapping didn’t do the trick, nor did it scare the mosquito away, Daisy started trying to lick her way through the glass.

::sigh:: I better stock up on glass cleaner this summer! 😉

We’re in the Monday Mischief Blog Hop! Check it out and see what other fun pets have been up to! 😀

Goats, Farms, and Flowers!

The weather has been so beautiful lately – cool, sunny, 50s-60 degree temps – that DD and I decided to take a drive around some neighboring towns. Our favorite one has an interesting combination of wooded areas, farms, and huge mansions; we like driving aimlessly and discovering new sights by taking small roads we’ve never noticed before. 🙂

Well, this weekend we discovered a goat farm! Take a look at these cuties:

Hello there! And who are you??

Mr. Cool, the loner of the herd - look at that funny little tail sticking straight up!

It felt SO good to be out in the wide open; somehow the air always feels fresher and possibilities seem as endless as the views. Areas like this – and in the woods – always bring a smile to my heart.

Can't you just feel the cool breeze on your face and all that fresh air in your lungs?

Although I’m much more of a cottage person than a mansion person (my dream is to live in a charming little cottage by a stream with a wildflower garden), I do enjoy ogling the multi-million dollar estates. Even more, I love looking at the gorgeous flowers their gardeners so lovingly care for.

Outside the long driveway leading to an estate.

Daisy stayed home with DH this time, but next time we’ll take her along so she can enjoy the scenery and new scents. 🙂

I can't wait to go exploring! 😀

Mesmerized Bird

I had plenty of time to take a photo of this guy – he landed on the perch, ate a bit, and then stared into the bird feeder for more than 5 minutes straight. Just stared. Absolutely motionless.

Did the sight of all that food mesmerize him?

Was he trying to figure out a way to eat all of it at once?

Was he counting the grains?

Did he eat too much and fall asleep?

Was he playing a game of 1-2-3 Freeze??

Was he listening to Madonna’s song “Vogue” on a tiny bird iPod and he “struck a pose”???

What’s he doing?!?

Have a happy weekend everyone! 😀

The Rose Bush That Wouldn’t Die

When we moved here, there was a split rail fence around our 3/4 acre yard. For some reason, the people who put it in also had split rails extending across the center of the yard, with a wide opening in the center. It was as if they were delineating the front half of the back yard from the back half, but we couldn’t figure out why.

Roses on the never-ending rose bush

Anyway, there were rose bushes planted all along that part of the fence that cut through the yard. It looked pretty, but when we eventually took the split rail down, the rose bushes had nothing to climb on and looked weird standing meaninglessly across the center of the yard. We tried transplanting some of them, but they didn’t take.

Removing them opened the yard up to its full size, which we liked much better. Even though we didn’t want to, we had no choice but to cut the rest of the bushes down to the base, which did away with them.

Except this one. It hung on year after year, defying the odds, no matter how far down we pruned it.

We decided that any living thing that shows that much tenacity for life deserved to continue living, so we left it plopped in the center-left of the yard, and now we just prune it normally to keep it from growing out of control. And every spring it proudly rewards us with a bounty of red roses. We give it no special treatment, no fertilizer or anything, but yet it thrives better than anything else.

I’ve come to love and respect that little bush. To me, it’s nature’s way of saying that no matter how much you may get cut down, pushed around, tossed aside, or ignored, you can still shine if you just keep pushing on. This beautiful bush is living proof.

Buds ‘n’ Blooms

Ah, spring. New life. Growth. Beauty.

This is my wordless salute to the regenerative glory of life. 🙂 Happy Friday everyone!

Bud....

 

 

Bloom

 

 

Bud....

 

 

Bloom

 

 

Bud....

 

Bloom!

 

 

 

 

“She Felled Me Like A Tree….”

That quote came from DD after a particularly bruising experience with Daisy this weekend. 😦

I'm sorry, DD. I just wanted to play with the bird.

Yesterday DD took Daisy out back for her morning run. As usual, Daisy spotted a bird on the ground and gave chase. No biggie there.

BUT – as they got close to the bird at top speed, the bird didn’t fly away. Its wing was broken, and it just stood there, probably terrorized. DD tried to stop Daisy but the grass was wet and slippery from an early morning thunderstorm. And Daisy, although small, is VERY strong – this pup’s ALL muscle.

Well, Daisy kept pulling and DD tried to stop running and the next thing she knew – BAM! – she had slipped on the wet grass and hit the ground on her hip. “Felled like a tree.” By a 15 pound Havachon. Who’d have thought it possible??

But that’s not the worst of it. Daisy spun around and kept pulling with all her might – and she backed right out of her harness! She immediately charged the poor crippled bird and was on it before DD could scramble to her feet. All I heard from inside the house was “NO! DAISY NO! NO!”

I looked out the window and saw DD standing over Daisy, trying to pick her up and having a hard time with her. I saw Daisy pawing wildly at something on the ground – I figured it was a rabbit nest, but it was the injured bird.

Finally DD got Daisy into her arms and came panting back to the house, dragging the limp leash and harness behind her.

They were a mess. Soaking wet and covered in wet grass clippings; Daisy’s white paws were green. Poor DD was so upset about the bird and the fact that Daisy had escaped from the harness!

Psst - don't tell Mommy, but I really enjoyed catching that bird!

I’m happy to report that the bird was okay. We saw him a little later walking around by the fence; I hope he was able to make it to safety somewhere.

We discovered that Daisy had slipped her harness because it was just a little too loose around her body, and when she yanked backward, it slipped over her front leg shoulders and set her free. Thank goodness we weren’t on a busy main street somewhere! And we were lucky that the bird had her attention, otherwise she’d have been almost impossible to catch if she’d raced around our big yard. Plus she could have escaped in one of the areas where the soil has eroded under the fence, giving a small dog like Daisy enough clearance to army-crawl under it!

Lesson learned. We were so concerned about Daisy’s comfort in the harness that we didn’t realize we’d loosened it too much. Now it’s fitting snugly again and we tested it on her to make sure she can’t escape.

We’re still a bit jittery from the experience, though. Especially DD, who’s nursing a big bruise on her hip – but that pain is nothing compared to the painful thought of possibly losing her Daisy!

Sometimes People Surprise You…In a Good Way

DH was out of town doing a fund-raising MS bike ride this weekend, so DD and I had a Girls Weekend. We had SO much fun!

We went hither and yon – lunch out on Saturday, dinner out on Sunday; we went to an antiques auction, played a couple of our favorite games, did a little fun shopping, and went to a movie. AND we got to sleep in on Saturday!

Image via http://www.free-wallpapers-free.com

There’s still a good amount of wildlife in our area, even though there’s been more development here over the last couple of decades than I’d like to have seen. Spring is gosling time, and we have plenty of those cute little fuzzy babies toddling around with their protective parents. Fortunately, they don’t come into the residential areas, but near lakes, ponds, and – strangely enough – in roadside grassy areas, you see the little families waddling around, foraging for food.

But why, oh why, do they think the grass always look tastier on the other side of the road?!

It’s not that big of a deal on the quiet country back roads, but for some reason they also like to nest at the edge of the main roads too. And that’s where the problems come in – when they decide to cross the busy main road for dessert.

Lots of people who live in my area were originally from New York. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island and Staten Island have lost thousands upon thousands of families to our area – people who work in the City but want to live in a more countrified-suburban area. And New Yorkers are not famous for their patience….remember DeNiro in Taxi Driver? “Hey, I’m walkin’ here!” Yup – he nailed it. The deer, raccoons, ground hogs, rabbits and other poor critters lying squished at the side of the roads are a testament to that. So are the harried restaurant servers, sales clerks, and other folks who deal with the public and are always ready for battle – you should hear the stories they tell.

Gratuitous Daisy photo. LOL 😉

Well, I was so happy this weekend to see traffic backed up in both directions along the main road in town while 2 large families of geese slowly waddled their way across Main Street while people smiled and clicked their phone cameras through open car windows. Mama Goose followed by a line of cute little yellow-gray fuzzers, all followed up by Papa Goose, who squawked loudly and cast threatening looks at all the cars. It’s just too adorable.

And so my faith in humanity was restored. I think we need more “gosling moments” in the world….