finicky eaters and other tails

This is Tess trying a new diet. She doesn't seem to care too much for the veggies - lol. Kobie has been battling ear infections for close to a year now. My sweet boy is very stoic, and I usually don't realize that he even has ear problems until they're full-blown - which is perhaps a big part of the problem. But since the first of the year he has been under the care of a doggie dermatologist, and a week ago we decided we need to do allergy testing to see if we can get this under control. The good news would be if the special diet works - the bad news is the food costs $52.00 for an 18-lb bag (the largest size they package). Both dogs have to eat the same food for the testing to be valid. My two lovelies eat about 18 lbs a week - easily. I'm hoping I don't have to go out and find a full-time job to pay for their food and vet bills!!! Yesterday the vet told me I could add certain veggies to increase the fiber content - hopefully that would mean they'd be eating less of the expensive food. Both dogs meticulously picked out each and every piece of vegetable and spit it on the floor. It was pretty funny to see. If I offered them each a bowl of chicken pot pie with vegetables, they'd inhale it, of course. I'll keep you posted.

Look at my growing collection of gently-used knives. When we were married - oh so many years ago! - we bought the best knives we could afford - Chicago Cutlery. But recently Mark started buying Wustof at sales and on eBay. We have a couple more on our list to try and find - but I am loving the ones we have so far.

Last weekend we hit an estate sale and found two treasures for me. The first was this herb cutting knife and bowl. We cleaned and oiled them, and I think they're going to work really well. Now I can't wait for summer and fresh herbs from my garden!

The second find was a new foutain for the gardens. The auction listing said "garden sculptures" - Mark was unimpressed with what he saw sitting in the snow. But I noticed these cattails and thought they might look pretty cool with my grasses. When we went out and started digging a little, we discovered that the cattails were part of a small fountain. Even better!! The entire group is copper and has a beautiful patina. The cattail pieces are sitting on rods stuck in the cement base - and all of that sits in the basin. I think I'll probably add some rocks to hide the cement. The pump attaches to one cattail stem. I can't wait to see it hooked up and working - after we're finally done with freezing cold weather, of course! The top photo is so cluttered, I'm not sure you can see the cattails - but I'll be showing you more photos when it's sitting in my garden.

Tomorrow marks my one year blogiversary. I can't believe I've been doing this for a whole year. I'm planning to put up a post that tells you how it all began...

warm thoughts on a cold day

I realized today that Mark won't be home on Valentine's Day. I was not happy. Over the course of five weeks, he will have been gone a total of four. Believe it or not, I actually prefer to have him here! :) It was so cold this weekend that we didn't even go out for an early celebration. Maybe we'll do something fun next weekend. In the meantime, I said no to roses. I LOVE roses - but I much prefer them in the summer gardens. This time of year I'm yearning for tulips and daffodils. A nice little winter get-away to a beach somewhere would be very welcome also!

One of my favorite Valentine recollections is of one several years ago. Mark left work early and met me at a theater complex to see the 4pm showing of Chocolate. It was so fun - so out of the norm - to go to a weekday matinee. I loved it.

Mark caught Kobie and Tess this week on a warmer day - the bright sun had them squinting, but we were all enjoying the relative warmth.

I am in love with the European Peasant Bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It has a little rye flour and a little whole wheat flour, and the taste is wonderful - kind of a nutty flavor I think. I've also made focaccia from the olive oil dough. I think I'll probably have to try all of the doughs in the book - what a hardship! LOL

restocking what melted

We've been enjoying some warm temps which means melting snow. But tonight it's being replenished. The dogs came in covered in big fat flakes. Kobie was nice enough to pose for me. By the time I got the camera it was melting fast, but he was such a good sport, let's let him think he was still covered in white.

there was enough for everyone

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving - I hope you all did too. Our son who lives in Minneapolis was out for the afternoon on Thursday - to enjoy a holiday meal with us, catch the game, and do his laundry. It was great having him here, as always. The pooches enjoy holiday dinners too - there's always a handout if they're patient. Here, Kobie sits attentively while Mark carves the turkey - and then lies attentively when he realizes this is a BIG job!

Thursday night/Friday morning we had our coldest temps so far this season. There was a light skim of ice on the lake Friday morning. It was cold again last night, so this may be permanent. There is open water trying to push through the ice - but a few more cold nights and it will be solid. The bigger bays are still open water. I love it when the ice is first forming and when it's breaking up in the spring. As the open water collides with the ice, you can hear a "tinkle" that sounds like crystal - it's very pretty to listen to.

I put an iron tree on the dock. In this photo it looks like barbed wire! - but those are tiny red lights. At night you can see it from across the lake and all up and down the shore. I think it looks very cool. I'll try and get a photo at night to show you. I turned on the outside lights Thanksgiving evening - and have only had to replace one strand so far! I'm sure there will be more that decide to stop lighting before I'm ready to take them down in January!

Our cold nights are taking a toll on my flowers. I have a few rosebuds that still look pretty - but other than that, we're down to sedum. All in all, it was a very good year for my gardens - and I'm already thinking ahead to next spring.

I wanted to share some more info with you about the oil warmer and scented oils. I won mine in a contest Sandra at http://sandrasdance.blogspot.com/ sponsored on her blog awhile ago. A couple people have mentioned that they were going to look for the plug-in warmer. Check out Sandra's site at

www.yourscentyourway.com

She sells the warmers and oils - there is an extensive list of oils available. I love mine!!!

let sleeping dogs lie

We've had lots of outdoor time lately, and I guess Kobie needed a nap. He makes a very cute garden ornament, don't you think??

Things That Rock

About 2 weeks ago, Chris & Laurie over at "Miss Flower" tagged me for a meme - 7 Things that Rock. It takes me awhile to think of things for these memes, but I have finally come up with some good ones. Hope you enjoy them too. (Thanks Laurie & Chris for tagging me!)

ONE: Gardens, of course! But especially beautiful tropical plants growing in a Minnesota garden. That ROCKS, right? This is called "Christy" (so I had to have it!). It measures almost 12 inches! WOW!

TWO: Living with a lake right outside our door totally ROCKS. This year we've added kayaking to the mix, and we are having a ball. Today was our longest ride - we did 4 miles this morning. Way fun!

THREE: Fun things in the garden ROCK. I go mostly for rusted iron, but one of my favorite decorations was a birthday gift from Mark several years ago - this cool gazing ball. You can see through it, but it also reflects everything around it. I love it!

FOUR: About 11 years ago, we replaced a deck with this very cool porch. It fits the look of our house so perfectly and is a wonderful place to sit and read, eat dinner, entertain. It's screened because we do live in Minnesota where the state bird is the mosquito - so it ROCKS.

FIVE: Our glider literally ROCKS! This glider originally belonged to Mark's grandparents - for as long as he can remember it sat out at their farm. When his grandfather died, Mark's parents moved the glider to their home. When we moved into this house in 1980, they gave it to us. I sit out here and read or watch the lake or enjoy my gardens almost every day. The dogs love to glide with me - I don't plan to ever part with it!! (If Mark's dad comments on this post, we may learn more history...)

NOTE: A comment left by Mark's dad, Everett: Supposedly Mark's Grandpa bought the swing from Sears & Roebuck in 1929. I fixed it up in 1949 for the first time and then maybe three times later. I bought it on the estate sale and it is so good to have you have it.
Thanks, Everett - Mark and I are both happy to have more history on the glider!

Mark has put new wood on once and painted it a couple times since we've had it - and it's due to have both painting and new wood again. Not bad!

SIX: The great lazy dogs ROCK my world. Pets of all kinds rock - but standard poodles are really great dogs. Ours are naughty and undisciplined and drive me crazy - but I would be totally lost without them.

SEVEN: I can't show you any more photos - but tomatoes from the garden ROCK!!!! We inhaled our BLT's - soooooo good! AND, the best part, there were 2 more turning red, so yesterday we had cheeseburgers with fresh sliced tomatoes - can you say Cheeseburgers in Paradise? YUM!

Let me know if you decide to play along!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSH!!!

what were they thinking????

I think the photos say it all. At 8 am Mark went out and took some garden photos for me. The top photo shows how beautifully the rhubarb had recovered from the poodle assault.

The second photo was taken at 11:30 am. Stupid dogs.

BIG stick

Today while I was mowing the yard, a pretty good sized branch fell out of the old maple tree. I'm thinking this tree will not be with us for many more years. Several years ago it was hit by lightning, and it's been in a slow decline ever since.But Kobie saw this as a great opportunity to get some fiber in his diet and sharpen the old teeth a little.
Tess turned on the puppy-dog eyes - I want a big stick too.

Mark is afraid of these teeth - he jumps back when the teeth come out. I spend a ton of time with my hands in Kobie's mouth. He's a big goof with a very soft mouth.
(All of these photos will click big)

My little Madison rose bush is blooming. I have two of them in the front of the west porch rose garden. These are from the Town and Country roses - they don't get very tall, but spread out a lot. I love the tiny little blooms - the color - and that it will keep blooming from now until it freezes. Very sweet.

I also have some light pink and some yellow lilies in bloom. One of my repeat blooming daylilies has started. And today the first hollyhock bloomed. I'll show all on a future post - very windy out today.

And, we have tomatos! Still little, but I can almost taste them. Yum!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MIKE & ELAINE - a day late, but you know we were thinking of you!

a new adage

Back in a post on April 29th, I shared a saying with you.

An African saying that translates:

"When the elephants fight, the grass suffers."

I told you that at our house, we said it slightly differently:

When the big dogs play, the grass suffers.

Well, as of yesterday, we have a new saying:

When the big dogs and the small chipmunk meet,

the rhubarb suffers.

I can't even show you the chipmunk. It was too sad.

a day in the life of...

This is Vivid Rose - isn't this a gorgeous peony?

Vivid Rose again - it's my only true pink peony. I had two others many years ago - Sarah Bernhardt and another one - but they had tall, floppy stems - and just when they would be loaded with huge, fragrant, pink blooms, the stems would bend and all the blooms would be lying on the ground. I lost patience and gave them away. I have kicked myself many times since. But I still have Vivid Rose - and it's a gorgeous peony.


I think this one is called Samba - but when I tried to find it on some peony related websites, I couldn't. So I could be mistaken. The color is really hard to photograph - but this is close to the true color - so here you are!


William Baffin. You will be seeing many photos of Baffin - it's a huge rose bush and is covered with buds. When it's in full bloom, it is pretty awesome. I have only had one good bloom per year with this rose, even though it's listed as a repeat bloomer. But you'll see it has so many blooms the first time, I kind of have to cut it some slack.
Baffin again - it's a very hot pink - almost too hot really - but I love this rose and the way it performs in cold climates.

Miss Tess - keeping cool in the grass.

Kobie - Mark woke him up to take this photo. He likes his sleep time.

This is a corner of the lakeshore garden. We inherited an old rusty wheelbarrow when we bought this house. A few years ago I stuck it in this corner and put pots of flowers in it. It was almost impossible to keep the containers watered without dragging a hose through the garden or scrambling over the rock riprapping. A couple years ago I put these iron pumpkins in it for a fall display and decided since they don't require quite as much watering, they would get to stay year round. I am thinking the cement block can probably go - it's just not adding the look I was hoping for :) (The wood in the upper left corner is a wren house. All three bird houses have sticks and other nesting materials in them - but I haven't seen a lot of activity around any of them.)

This is the good news, bad news photo. The good news: the lake water is warm enough for swimming! The bad news: the lake water is warm enough to get in and start pulling seaweed.

I spent a couple hours this afternoon in the lake with a small windsurfer board (without sail etc). I pulled the seaweed and put it on the surf board and then hauled the full loads to the dock. Tomorrow I'll get to haul all the weeds up to the compost pile. Once we start this, the fun just doesn't end! We clear all around our dock and a path out to where the boat traffic is so I can swim without touching weeds. I hate having weeds grab me when I swim. There are a ton of weeds, so I have a lot of work ahead of me.

More goods news: the seaweed makes the best compost for my gardens. Makes it all (almost) worthwhile.

While I was playing in the lake, Mark took some photos of the gardens. This is what I call the river birch garden. It has the fairy, river birch clump, and a mix of shade and sun lovers. Right now about the only thing blooming is spiderwort. This area always seems very restful to me.

This is the west lake garden: gazebo, about half my roses, armillary, etc. It's mostly hot, full day sun. Right now the bloomers are the roses, bearded iris, siberian iris, spiderwort, mountain bluet (just winding down), catmint, clematis on the gazebo, and a couple perennial geraniums. The bare spots on the right side are a new space I prepped last fall. This year I just have a couple things I bought at the Arb sale and a bunch of dahlias. Next fall, I'll probably plant it out when I dig up the dahlias.

The dahlias and mini glads I planted are starting to come up. I've never had either before this year, so that should be fun.

buds yesterday, blooms today

This has been the most fragrant year. The lilacs earlier were wonderful. And now the roses and bearded iris are fabulous. When the wind is right, the house is filled with a wonderful scent, and the yard and gardens even more so. It's great!

This is Carefree Beauty - yesterday I showed you a closed bud. This was one of the first roses I purchased - many years ago. It's been moved a few times, and just keeps on keepin' on. It has a slight fragrance - some days very fragrant, other days not. I love it.

This is the Japanese or anemone peony that I showed just opening yesterday. I don't think I ever really knew the name of it. It's one of my favorites - I love the single bloom - so loose and blowsy. It reminds me of a girl at a summer dance.

This isn't a great photo - I really do have to learn to use this camera more effectively!! But wanted to show you how much prettier the fountain is with blooming things at its base. Here you see Marie Bugnet rose and the Japanese peony. It would have been good if I'd cleaned the fountain and turned it on too, no doubt!

This is Marie Boisselot again - these blooms are the size of my hand - just huge. (Well, my hands aren't THAT big, but you get the idea - big blooms.)

One of the pretty little spiderwort plants I have scattered throughout my gardens. Such a sweet little bloom - and they have a really long bloom time. Some people don't like how wild or messy the leaves are, but they fit into my gardens perfectly.

This is Kansas again - this is really much redder in the garden - not a true red, but darker than it shows here, I think. I have it planted beside a false indigo, which is in bloom now too. The combo is very pretty. (of course every photo I've tried to get of the two together has not turned out)

This is what I did yesterday - the garden originally ended at the fairy's feet. I'm not real big on borders usually, but this shady area does have a border of variegated hosta. So I continued the border - making it deeper - and (maybe by next year!) fuller. I think I'll stick a few caladium corms (or whatever they are) in here this year just to fill it in a bit later this year.

This is Kobie's favorite chair in the yard - it's in a nice shady spot just for him. Sometimes he shares with me, but he always seems to hog most of the chair. However, if I have the super expensive cushions out on the other chairs, and he has dirty feet, those are his favorites. He's really a joy to have around.

I just finished this book - "The Divide" by Nicholas Evans. I enjoyed his previous three books, and this one was really good too. He tells a good story and really develops his characters well, I think.