09.05.2022 Summertime

 We are all enjoying the last days of summer. Even though it has been hot, really hot, we are doing our best not to complain as soon it will be cold, really cold.

It has been nice having my little sailboat Mimi back in the water. It is a good break from being landlocked and I do enjoy the time sailing. And the views of the city skyline at dusk are always very special!

 Our drought is ending much to the relief of everyone, especially those of us with water wells and gardens. I refrained from watering the flower beds and they do look sad. Spent most of the time pulling out dead leaves from the lilies so when it does rain we won't have mold!

Here are the last of the summer flowers. The Stella d'Ora is a twice bloomer, once early and once late so it is a welcome site. This is the last of the blooms.

Mandevilla  - A very pretty tropical vine and one of my favorite flowers. Not many flowers this year but we will take what we can get! I bring it inside in the winter and so far it has survived the indoors and summer drought. Have  you noticed I have a lot of favorite flowers??

We have become fond of marigolds.  This is our one and only marigold so we are enjoying it. For some reason the plant is about three feet tall! A bit unusual!

Unless the garden shop gets some monkhood plants, it looks like we will have very few, if any to bloom. They are a fall favorite as they bloom well into November until the hard frost. They have these beautiful blue flowers that are showy and blend well with the lilies that are past bloom. But only a couple have survived the drought - barely survived. Maybe we will just get a few mums for color around the porch. I did get a black-eyed Susa and potted it. It is one of the few plants that I will water. Not putting it in the ground because of our bunny.  Run Bunny Run! 

Much to our surprise, the apple tree has done great. There have never been so many apples and we all are enjoying them - me, the boys and a few critters that get to them before me! They are small green apples and are mildly tart. But they are delicious.

Everyone has healed and all are doing well. Fionnegan still has a few setbacks from time to time from the Lyme disease with joint pain and Gunnarr had a late wound complication from his earlier surgery (what would you expect from a surgeon's dog??!!).  Shorty has been doing great and is as good as they come. They are a delight and good company. Sometimes I think it might be fun to take them sailing but then reality strikes me and I know that would be a very bad idea. Best to enjoy my boat without them! 

Fionnegan and Gunnarr just had a haircut, so Shorty and I spent some quality time together on a special walk. It is so much easier to walk one dog who is rather indifferent to other dogs on the trail! 

Am not only trying to learn my birds (taking another Bird Academy course online) but I am also trying to learn the birds by their calls. I have an app on my phone that identifies bird calls, so now I know who is singing early the  morning and who is a night owl! The one rare bird that I saw was a barn owl. It started calling outside the bedroom window in the wee hours of the night, then started perching in the trees alongside the driveway. I think he had his eyes on Fionnegan and Gunnarr. But that allowed me a chance to see him in all his glory and watch him soar to a different location twice.  Maybe he will return next year. But we have a great horned owl and a few barred owls nearby to entertain us in the night. .Must be good critter hunting ground for them.

One night a Carolina wren was buzzing past us in a tizzy. I was sitting on the porch doing my bird courses and playing a few bird calls. Maybe too many for her! So she flew into my sun umbrella! It was getting dark but you can still see her face and eye markings! I was wondering if she had a nest in there but it seems she just flew in there for cover!  She is a beautiful little bird and we have had a pair here for a couple of years. She also sings early in the morning. 

Do you see her in the umbrella?

Here is a closer look at this little bird.

It started to rain early this morning and so we will all just rest indoors today, no gardening or sailing or cookouts on Labor Day. Today I am going to make cauliflower soup as there was a special on cauliflower at the market and I decide why not? Something good to do while it rains outside. I am not much of a cook, but the dogs are happy to eat what I make for them so it cannot be all bad! Of course, they will not get the soup, but just a few pieces of cauliflower.

I do hope you are having a good Labor Day weekend. If you have travel plans please be safe.

And please check out Shorty's blog - he posted a few cute pictures of him and his brothers! We are trying to catch upon our blog postings on this rainy holiday morning! 

09.05.2022 Lazy Days of Summer

https://mydogshorty.blogspot.com/2022/09/09052022-lazy-days-of-summer.html

Until we meet again .............

08.07.2022. Summer, Gardens, Sailing, my boys, and the locals

What we really could use now is a nice, long and steady rain. Not only is it hot and humid, but the earth is parched, and the gardens are dry and some of the well established plants are struggling. Fortunately I did not plant many new shrubs or flowers. We had a sprinkle of rain yesterday, not even enough to call the dogs inside the house. 

We are seeing the last of the daylily blooms. This one is delicately colored but quite large.

The last tiger lily bloom.

Stella d'ora reblooms.

The star gazer lilies survived the bunnies!

We have quite a few little grasshoppers that seem to like the daylilies.

We have a resident Mr. Toad to add to our menagerie of animals around the house. He stays on the kitchen porch, quite often just under the kitchen door step. He also sleeps in the flower pot that contains a large rosemary plant. On occasion he has been "watered" before I notice him half buried in the soil! He doesn't really seem to mind. But I have to teach the boys "no touch" as they are very curious about him. Fionnegan in particular keeps a close eye on him. While Gunnarr and Shorty will ignore Mr Toad after a minute or two, Fionn will recline on the porch and just watch him.

And I have mentioned the bunnies. They are voracious eaters and have enjoyed all of my black eyed Susan's and daisies. Last night we watched one on the other side of the fence nibbling away at the leaves on a low branch of an azalea. The dogs were all excited and barked but settled down on command. Leave the bunny alone, I tell them repeatedly. Leave the bunny alone. So Fionn and Gunnarr just sat in the driveway laser focused on him as he happily nibbled  his dinner.

We have planted flowers to attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. We do have all three is the gardens and it is especially enjoyable to watch the hummingbirds. No good pictures yet, but here are some of the bees and black swallowtail butterfly. Maybe the butterfly is just as happy on the grass!

Happy bees.

The boys are staying cool with ice cream and watermelon treats.

Nice, cold watermelon hits the spot.

We have one new visitor to our yard. There is a barn owl that has been here at night and in the very early morning hours. One night it was calling and woke me up. I had never heard of such a call and thought it was the snoring of one of  the boys. An online search brought me right to the bird. One night it perched on a tree along the driveway. So I was able to get a good look at it and watch it fly from one tree to another. Fortunately it did not bother Fionn or Gunnarr as they were just outside for their late night excursions.

And yes, my girl Mimi has stretched her sails and had some nice adventures in Boston Harbor. Here she is on her morning. It is also enjoyable to just sit on the deck and watch the sun set. I now have an electric motor for her. It does make it easier to get to the mooring. 

We also have early morning walks when we can. I was trying to get Gunnarr to look at the camera, promises of treats and kisses didn't work. So I asked them if they wanted to go for a walk. That got their attention, so we did. After the photography session, of course!

. So off we went, walking in the cool of the forest.  They love the walks. And it is refreshing. And they love the cool of the car air conditioning when we are done!

How have you all been? Are you surviving the heat? What do you do to stay cool? 

Stay cool.

Until next time........................

 

 

07.24.2022 Summertime Gardens

 Summer gardens are in full bloom and the variety of lilies makes the view really special. The beebalm (bergamot) has spread along the garden down the driveway and it is really a pretty site.

It is very hot and humid, just like when Shorty and I lived in Yap. It hasn't rained in a long time and the gardens do look a little sad and dry. And let's not forget the bunnies that ate all of my daisies, black-eyed Susans and purple coneflowers. And then there are the trampled paths from my boys chasing the bunnies and froggies. I have not watered the gardens as we have a well and I do not want to risk depleting my only water supply. So brown plant leaves it is! But the lilies still bloom and I do enjoy them very much.

We still go for our early Sunday morning walks. The dogs love the walks through the woods. You should see how excited they get when the sense we are going for a walk. This morning as I was changing my shirt Gunnarr sensed that we were walking so he lets out one excited bark. Then Fionnegan comes running into the room all excited and jumping up and down only to be followed by Shorty. Three excited dogs, how could I not take them on a walk?

Last week we watched two trees crash to the ground just behind us (see Shorty's blog, mydogShorty.blogspot.com). We went back to see if the trail was cleared and the two trees were cleared but a third tree had fallen in the exact same place. I could actually walk under it so there was no obstruction to our path. We took a different route home, partly along the road and I don't think we will do that again.  I have to keep them on a very short leash and there is no time for sniffing or marking, so probably not much fun for them. There is a sidewalk that we can follow once we got that far, but it wasn't shaded, so we all were hot by the time we finished. Good thing we made an early start. I do keep water and a bowl in the car and Fionn wasn't much for sharing! He drank almost the whole bowl and then reclined right next to it. Fortunately for Shorty and Gunnarr it is a two minute drive to home and lots of cool water. After a cook-out (we ate inside) they all took a much needed nap.

Here are a few photographs of the lilies. Hope you enjoy them. The colors range from white, yellow, orange, pinks, apricot, purple and reds. They are early bloomers and late bloomers. With luck, there were still be a few lilies blooming for another two weeks. 

This stargazer lily is very fragrant. I planted a few in flowerpots as the gophers like to eat the bulbs. As it turns out, the bunnies like to eat the stems. They are close to the doors so we can also enjoy the fragrance inside the house.

The white lilies were very prolific, and also spread to new areas of the garden.

Pretty pink lilies, one of my favorites.

The ruffled edges make this one very attractive lily.

The pistils remind me of ballerina slippers!

    

Grasshoppers seem to like the lilies, too!

A little speckled but the deep purple is still beautiful. 

The bees and the hummingbirds have been buzzy around the gardens all summer.

Maybe that is enough of flower pictures for now. It took a long time to restore the blog. Somehow it went missing and I thought I lost all of my Yap blogs from 2014 - 2016. Then all of a sudden, after about an hour of clicking and searching, it retuned!

I do hope you all are well and not too hot and uncomfortable.  Until next time......

Three happy doggies - Fionnegan, Shorty and Gunnarr.