More garden pics

Last weekend, I built some scaffolds for the garden.  I think it's typically called a trellis, but that implies a certain aesthetic features that these lack.

The butternut squash:

The watermelon:

Additional pictures

I think this view is probably the most beautiful arrangement we've ever had in our garden.

The "charlie brown" magnolia. 
Two years ago:

VICTORY

Abby and I have been playing THE HOSE IS SO FREAKING AWESOME.
And I wonder why the dogs are so stinky.

The garden!

The garden!  I took the camera out to take a pic of the squash plant before it dies from the borers which are the bane of my existence.  [ETA: I find it ironic that one of the best organic pest treatments involves IV drugs BT.] I figured I may as well take some other pictures of the garden, which is gorgeous.

The squash plant

Teh butternut

The menardia really is magnificent.  Honestly, I was in favor of considerably thinning it, but Chris insisted, and I'm glad we kept it.  But we're definitely going to thin it a little before next year.

Menardia plus sunflower with magnolia on the side:

Menardia plus bellflowers plus hardy geraniums

...plus hydranga

The gourd plant is doing very well

Check out those tendrils!  So twisty!

Ta da!

Abnormally cute, even for Abby

Maxin' and relaxin'.

 When I took that first picture, I woke her up a bit.  Can you spot the difference in the second pic?

Going on two years!

Probably not a record for craptastic blog upkeep, but maybe close.  Just took some absolutely absurd pics of Chris and the doods, and ran across some equally silly ones of me.  The only way Chris won't send me a cease and desist for this post is if I keep it balanced by incriminating both of us.  The crime?  Excessive indulgence of lazy, snuggly animals. 

In my defense, Delilah settles down in my lap, on my hip, next to my head, etc, almost as soon as I stop moving.  It's not like I'd been there for a long time.  Really.

And...uh, basically the same story, minus Delilah.

Buster getting into position on the couch... 

Before:

During:

After:

This next set was taken the same day as the absurdity on the couch.  It's like this every single day.  We move from one pile of ridiculousness to another.  In Chris' defense, it's really cold, an I'm being a brat about the heat.  I mean, why run the furnace when you've got all that doodle?  (Did you see me walk right by the furnace/furry pun?  Walked right on by.)

 

 

Yes, Buster's tongue is poking out between his teeth while he's upside down and stretched out. 

Thus ends my little break from grading/writing/dissertating to share some cold Sunday afternoon silliness.

Grading or gardening?

Well, it's the last day of classes today. I took my French final last night, so I am now officially, non-negotiably, completely done with coursework. (I need to get a 12% on the final to get a B in the class, which is the minimum grade to fulfill the requirement. I probably didn't ace the final, but I'm going to go ahead and assume I got my 12%.)

So I meant to spend the morning finishing up some grading and get set up so all I have to do is plug in their final paper and woosh be done. Instead? I weeded. And took some long promised pictures of the plants.

Christopher gave us a bunch of red tulip bulbs last year, which we actually planted, in what I feel was a major turning point for us, since we had a poor track record on following through with planting (more on that later). The tulips are lovely.

They're the only early blooming plant that's survived, so while some might say it draws attention to our sparse bed, I prefer to think of them as regal, commanding all they survey.


I'm planting a pair of red twig dogwoods at the street-side corner of our patio fence. I'm not going for a screening effect; I just wantto break up the line of sight from the road to the backyard, giving us a little privacy. I've only planted one so far, and the still-potted yellow twig is going on the other side of the house near Maple Tree.


Speaking of Maple Tree:



We obviously don't want privacy from Colin and Christopher, both because we love them and because there's a lot of distance between our houses. However, the rental house on the other side is, like, 10 feet from our bedroom window. Said rental house is currently occupied by a young man whom we call the "Little Drummer Boy." Oh yes, he's a drummer. And not very good. It's not unusual for him to drum as late as midnight, and, on the weekend of the Little 500 (a week long Bacchanalia in Bloomington), he drummed for a solid 20 minutes at about 4 in the morning. This all bugs the shit out of Chris, understandably.

I, however, think LDB is a blessing.

We exist in a state of mutually assured destruction: he can never bitch about our dogs barking, which occurs not infrequently. When we have fosters, it can be a non-stop bark fest for days at a time. But LDB can never complain about it. And I find that reassuring. In return, I'm willing to ignore his pa-rum-pum-pum-pum.

At any rate, we do want privacy on that side, so I planted several Rose of Sharons outside our bedroom window (white flowers on either end, and a pink in the middle). If they do well there, I'm going to plant more.




And, uh, don't call it a comeback, but Operation Overseed is going well. I'm going to try to convince Chris to do some landscaping in the backyard this summer, but there's no telling if it'll happen or not. Note the dogs' path around the table.



And, finally, the Charlie Brown Magnolia. We sing the song often.


This little trooper has been in the garden for two years. It spent rather a lot of time on the porch, waiting to be planted, so the first year was recovery. Year two, it added maybe one leaf the whole season. I was assured by certain naysayers that it was either of inferior quality or had been irreparably offended by its early treatment. But this year, it's finally growing! Granted, it's still the Charlie Brown Magnolia, but I love it all the same.



So, that's the news from B-town.

WILLIAM HART IS ON HIS WAY!!!!

He's a few days earlier than expected, but I just got the message that he's on his way and yelled WAAHOO. Hooray!

Abby is two years old!

Well, our Halloween doodle had her second birthday yesterday. I thought she would look really cute in a witch's hat, but we had neither the time nor the occasion.

As some of you may know, we've been training the dogs to have jobs around the house. Abby is the drawer and cabinet closer, and hopefully by the time we come home for Thanksgiving she'll have generalized beyond our types of drawers so she can be everyone's kitchen helper. She'll take her compensation in turkey, thankyouverymuch.

Another foster come and gone

Well, Caroline went a couple of weeks ago to a family in Carmel (near Indianapolis) to be "fostered" but I hear they fell in love with her, and she's likely to stay. It was so hard to see her go, since we'd helped her through such a dramatic transformation, but we had our hands and house full with another foster, whose name is now Rudy. Rudy had a really, really hard life, and he's been on death row more than once, in various circumstances.

When he came to us a month ago, we knew that he was not good with other dogs, but we also knew that he did not deserve to die for it. So we brought him in, divided the house in half, and started looking for a better equipped foster home. Out of nowhere came Georgia, a wonderful woman actually in Bloomington who was an ideal fit. She applied for a doodle thinking she wanted a blonde Goldendoodle, but when she met Rudy (a charcoal Labradoodle), it was love at first sight, and they're a great match. Last I heard, without the stress of having other dogs around, he's quickly coming out of his shell, showing off the happy waggy guy we got to see from time to time. He's totally terrified by cameras, but he's usually much happier than he appears here.







So, Rudy was placed last week and we've heard nothing but good things from his new mom.

Update on Blanche (who is now named Caroline)

Blanche has been renamed Caroline after a wonderful little girl who found out that there are doodles who don't homes and asked the people who came to her birthday party to not bring gifts but money to donate to IDOG. Blanche needed a new name (obviously) so it fit!

Some pictures from when she first arrived. My mom and sister were here on their way to take Suze to DC (she's sounds like she's doing great!), and Caroline was so shut down that they thought she was going to die--just waste away. Oh, how much that little girl has changed!






And some pictures from yesterday! She's a whole new, happy, bouncy doodle! I have a bunch of video I need to edit together, but it's just fascinating to watch them play together.












We listed her on petfinder today, so she's taken the first step toward finding her forever home. We'll be sad to see her go, but she's going to make a wonderful addition for the right family!

New Foster!

Her name is currently Blanche, but I anticipate that changing soon. She's teeny, underweight, freaked out, and sweet. Fascinating pack dynamics in the house.