Starting Anew

It's been over 2 yrs. since I last posted on here but find that I am interested once again. I see that lots of things have changed and so this is a test-posting to see just how things work now.

A Saturday Morning Find

Hey, look what I found today at a local garage sale…..

                                                                        

                                             

I love it! It is real wicker, not vinyl, and though it has a few nicks and chippie  paint, it fits in with my shabby chic décor. I wouldn’t think of painting it.

The seller told me it was an old piece but I’m not sure exactly just how old. Doesn’t matter. She was asking $10 (!!) and I got it for $8. Can you believe that? Washed it up (a nasty old spider had spun his web on the underside) and it is drying in my laundry room.

Amazing what you can find on a Saturday morning on your way to the post office !

A Rainy Morning Under the Patio Cover

After a week of sun scorching, hot/humid weather we are having a rainy day and are grateful for it.

I sat in my backyard this morning with my coffee, newspaper and Ipad, under our patio cover and enjoyed a steady, soaking rain.

                                                                                                                              

So refreshing – I loved it!

I hesitatingly admit that I was the same one complaining about all the rain this past spring. Funny how a change of season (to say nothing about the hot dry summer) changes your perspective – and brings you something else to complain about!

Have a nice weekend.

A Frantic Search

Well, we certainly had our share of excitement here last week. My husband was setting up the sprinkler out front and had Jenny with him. He says he turned his back for one minute to wave to a neighbor and the next minute she was gone!

He yelled in the door that she was gone and I hurried out to help find her. Usually if one of our dogs wanders off, they are just a house or two down, sniffing and doing their best to ignore our callings but this was different. She was nowhere to be found.

God bless my neighbors, even some from the area that I didn’t know. Everyone was in search mode, calling her name while walking block after block, slowly driving thru the neighborhood and calling her etc. Some unable to leave the house said they would pray for us.  Word got around and for almost a 6 block radius people and kids were searching. All of this continued from 6 pm until 9pm, to no avail. My husband and I searched with flashlights until well after midnite.

She has been implanted with the HomeAgain microchip and I called to report her missing. Neither of us slept that night.

The next morning, 8am, a nearby shelter   called to say that our Jenny had been found and was waiting for us to pick her up – no worse for the wear.

When we arrived we got the story of what happened and where she was found……seems she got on a nearby freeway off-ramp, walked 8 blocks against traffic on the side of the road and was approached by 2 cars trying to catch her. The Sheriff’s dept. happened along, reprimanded the cars for stopping, sent them on their way and then closed the freeway and were able to catch her themselves!They then took her to the shelter where we got her back from.

Office of the Sheriff

My goodness, when I think of all that could have befallen her I shudder.

So, thank you to my neighbors, the people who tried to get her on the freeway, the Sheriffs who succeeded and the shelter that cared for her overnight.

And I also don’t doubt that we got a little help from all those prayers too!

One Thing After Another

Haven’t been posting or reading blogs for awhile as there has been a multitude of things going on around here. There was the neighborhood rummage sale last week that I organized , Father’s Day and the accompanying party held in our backyard last Saturday, helping my 90 yr. old father which is almost becoming a constant lately and now a few dog problems. Regarding my dogs, Chaps, my 15 yr old chihuahua has been having some incontinence problems that the vet is successfully treating – and I’ll be doggone (ha-ha) if little Jenny, my 3.5 lb’er isn’t now having piddling problems! This piddling started right after we got her this past February but lately has gotten worse. This seems to be an involuntary problem and mostly when we go to pick her up. Now you may think “well just don’t pick her up” but in dealing with this little thing, there are many times that we do need to pick her up……when she is on a walk and a big dog is coming towards her, when she wants to get off a high bed in the morning, when she refuses to go outside because it’s raining or because the temperature isn’t to her liking and many other times too numerous to mention. The vet has done blood and urine tests and we are waiting for the results. As you can imagine, these “specific” problems lead to much cleaning and washing of floors. I have to admit to getting a bit overwhelmed but love my dogs enough to work through to a solution. I am working on not getting overly excited when one of these accidents occurs, as I have noticed Jenny running away frightened of getting hollered at and then finding her like this…….

Empty Nester Again

Well it happened, I’m an empty-nester again! The 3 robin babies and 2 robin parents that we have been sharing our patio with have deserted us.

It’s not that I didn’t expect it. My last blog was barely posted when the next day I went outside to see the first baby flutter down to the ground and immediately hide in my deutzia plant.  Turned around to see this….the second baby who was sitting on one of our new outdoor chairs (we hadn’t even removed the plastic yet) and within seconds he/she also took off to a different part of the yard.

At this point I whip my head around to see the last of the nestlings, standing tall and contemplating exactly it was where he would head for….which turned out to be a crash-landing onto the grass. Both his father and I were distressed to witness this but he was fine. Papa Robin immediately ushered him under some of our hosta plants.

I could hear the 3 babies calling out to their parents periodically through out that day, all in their various hiding places and their parents dutifully would bring them food.

Today, 3 days after they left “home”, I still see and hear them from time to time, always with a watchful parent not far.

Honestly it was so endearing to watch nature at it’s finest. I just loved it!

Wondering why I feel so sad then……..

The Robins Nest In My Backyard

My last post was about a robin’s nest that is located very close to our back door and is occupied by mom, dad and 3 of the cutest baby birds you have ever seen.

To think that when they first built there, the beginning of May, I was worried about the mother abandoning the nest after she got a load of my 3 “charging-out-the-door” dogs, but she has gotten quite used to all of us.

Then I was worried about all the windy days (sometimes gusts of 35 mph) and cold nights (plenty of 40 degrees). Every night I would lay in bed and brace myself for the possibility that either the nest would’ve blown down or the featherless babies wouldn’t survive the night. So each morning I would hesitantly open the door to find her, still sitting on her precious eggs and then babies  so patient but I’m sure wishing it would warm up.

 

Well in the past week, we have finally warmed up. Thank the Lord, the looong winter is finally behind us!

 

The robin parents are feeding frequently, whether we are out there or not.

 

My dogs can even be sunbathing on our brick patio, not far from their nest and they aren’t bothered by them.

I suppose one of these mornings I’ll go out there and they will be gone. I watch them stand up in the nest and stretch their little wings that are not completely feathered yet,  readying themselves for their coming adventure.

I’m enjoying watching this little bit of nature – and I’ll miss them when they leave us.