Autumn comes to Bowie

It's been getting cooler and the autumnal finery is on display.  I was talking to a friend just back from Texas about the joy in seeing different seasons.  So, for my friends in Texas I put together a collection of shots from our yard that I took this morning.

The former owners left us a Red Maple on the back hill.

Another shot of the Maple.

One last shot for this collection.

We still have some Foxglove blooming in the side yard.  I haven't seen any bees lately, it's getting too cold.

This beauty is in our neighbor's yard, but about a third of the canopy is over our yard.  If I have to rake the leaves (in a couple weeks) I'm going to claim it as being in our yard.  We get to enjoy the early day shade in the summer and have a protected refuge for birds and chipmunks during the whole year.

Another angle of our shared tree.

I haven't had to rake the leaves yet, but that will probably have to be done in the next couple of weeks.  After that I'll start working on the Christmas lights.  I want to have them all up by Thanksgiving (at least the outdoor lights) so that we can turn them on the day after Thanksgiving.

Happy Layla

We lost another dog to cancer last night. Here is a post written by Gloria.

Happy Layla – that is who she was. She touched so many hearts in her short time in OBG. Shortly after coming into OBG it was discovered that she was a very sick little girl, but without looking at her labwork, you would never know it. She stole your heart immediately. She was such a happy little girl. Her little nub was constantly going at a speed that couldn’t be clocked. Despite being blind, it didn’t slow her down. She would practically beat me down the hall to the bedroom or into the kitchen. She was right at my feet. She enjoyed simple things, ear scratches, belly rubs, sleeping in a pile of clean clothes, squeaky stuffed toys, and homemade pumpkin treats. Her favorite thing to do was get up in bed and nuzzle up next to us on her back and have her belly rubbed. She didn’t like being alone and would let you know it immediately if you left the room. She enjoyed evenings in front of the TV where she would go to sleep in my lap as we were winding down for the night. All that mattered to her was that she was loved. She passed to Rainbow Bridge last night in her sleep. She was a beautiful little girl. We are honored to have had the opportunity to love her and be loved by her for her last weeks. To be able to be that content and happy despite everything that has been going on in life is a gift. Thank you Layla, for sharing your precious little life with us, you will forever be in our hearts and home.

Our Old Man Hardy

On Tuesday we had to take another one of our furbabies to the Rainbow Bridge.  Here is a memorial shared by Gloria on Facebook.

We took a walk today! One that is all too familiar and that we don't enjoy. But never is that walk done alone. This evening we walked our beloved Hardy to the Rainbow Bridge. In your previous life you were tossed aside and wanted no more. 15 yrs was too old said your owner. You were blind and deaf and a hassle to deal with. We heard your story and sight unseen you stole our heart. Angels Terry Maguire-Casillas and Publio Casillas in Mississippi shared your story and Angels of the airPilots N Paws brought you to us. You were so adorable and all you wanted was to be cuddled and be loved. Your favorite spot - mommies shoulder, not daddies, but mommies. Snuggling had to be right between mommy and daddy. Food you knew exactly where it was. The eyes and ears may not of worked but the nose most definitely did. You grew older and slept longer and had a hard time standing up at times, but you still loved life and food! The memory started going and life seemed to be going in circles, but you still loved be cuddled by mommy and food well you're a cocker what more needs to be said. We are honored to have shared the last 2 1/2 yrs of your life. We walked you to Rainbow Bridge tonight with tears and much sadness. We held and snuggled you for the last time we gave you kisses and told you to run free and look at the beautiful colors and hear all the beautiful sounds at Rainbow Bridge. You took a part of our heart with you tonight, but left the rest of our heart with love and wonderful memories. Sweet runs and dreams our dear Hardy and until we hold you again!.

Early Fall visitors passing through

On Sunday afternoon we saw a few visitors that we hadn't seen before in the yard.  I went to get the camera, but didn't take time for the tripod, so these shots were "freehand" and some at high zoom.  But I wanted to get some pictures.

This was the first one that caught my eye while I was out with the dogs on the patio.

I haven't seen any monarchs, so I was excited to get some pictures.  He was probably migrating through, given the time of year, but it was still fun to see him. He was checking out some of the late blooms on one of the butterfly bushes.

While I was out there with the camera I decided to get some shots of the daisies. They're finally blooming and adding a lot to the garden.

They were having their own visitors too.

But then I spotted this guy.

Thanks to Google Image Search (where you can upload a picture and search for similar images) I was able to identify this as a Variegated Fritillary.  The site where I found the other pictures like this had a lot of examples from North Carolina, so he could have been migrating south as well.  I haven't seen him before, so I'm glad I already had the camers to get a couple pictures to be able to identify him.

I'll be using the Google image search more often to help me identify the plants and visitors in the yard.  One of my goals is to identify the different plants we got when we bought the house.  It's been over three years now and I want to be sure I know how to care for the plants, and how to identify what might be toxic to the dogs.

What it's all about (at least in part...)

I don't raise vegetables, or fruit, or herbs. I have fun working in the yard trying to make it look attractive and peaceful. A welcoming and relaxing retreat.  Some days I work in downtown Washington DC (about 1 block from the US Capitol;) some days I drive 40 mileas each way through rush hour traffic; and some days I work from my home office.  So the back yard is a place apart from all three of these.

Last weekend we were able to share this retreat with a group of volunteers from the program that Gloria used to run.We spent weeks planning and getting ready to share our retreat with her friends.  We wanted to share the joy we find in relaxing out there and wanted to be sure we had plenty os seating.  We had invited about 40 people, so we needed seating.

So, I pulled out every folding chair and shade canopy we had in the shed and got to work.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to invite these friends to our home. As you can see, the garden is a big part of our outdoor home. Being able to share the results of the work outside gave me a great feeling of satisfaction.  It felt so good to be able to set a welcoming space for our friends who had volunteered so many hours to Gloria's program.

For me, all this time in the yard, and researching the plants, shrubs, and trees is spent trying to craft a space to share.  I wouldn't do it just for myself, it has purpose when I can be a host and share it, especially when I can share it with the love of my life who has shared the last 22 years with me.

Of course we were also able to offer them the chance for a stroll up the garden path:

And did I mention food?

And here's fair warning to Jacob and Amanda - she's getting a baby fix!

New Fosters and Old Friends

The Dog Days of summer are over and the garden has finally been getting some heat and humidity, but I think the planst are off cycle and we haven't seem the rolling blooms as the season progresses like we have the last two years.  I did discover a hibuscus growing in the front yard.  I didn't think that hibuscus could grow outdoors here, but this one has.  It's been blooming in the front corner of the house and is over 8 ft. tall.  It's been growing with a nandina and is intertwined in the multiple stalks of the nandina.

Inside the house the Dog Days arrived a couple weeks late.  With the passing of Sadie and Austin within 2   months of each other this summer, we had a dog shaped hole in our home.  Truman was enjoying getting all the attention since Hardy is sleeping most of the time these days. But we were feeling a gap in our lives and our laps - Austin was a cuddlebug who soaked up all the lap time he could get.

A call came out from Oldies But Goodies Cocker Spaniel Rescue (OBG) for fosters to help with the end of summer holiday crunch.  Thanks to all the fosters, OBG has not closed to new intakes, but the foster homes are getting full.  Since Gloria is not working outside the house she has had time to help with some transports for new dogs and has met several of the new dogs as they are being taken into OBG's care.  When the call for fosters cam out, we knew that we had space and love to share with some of these new kids.

The middle of last week we brought Precious and Fallon into our home as temporary fosters who were scheduled to go to a long term foster on this coming Wednesday.  If you're paying attention you've noticed that I used the past tense for those plans. Yep.

Precious - I found my forever mommy!!

What are you looking at?

Truman was even enough of a gentleman to show Precious where the food is kept, they're watching Mommy in the pantry getting dinner dished up.

Precious looks so much like Sadie that we are thinking of her as a younger Sadie. Precious does have a new mannerism that we're having a lot of fun watching.  Whenever we go to the sliding glass door to let her out, she crouches down, like she's taking a starting position.  And as soon as we open the door she goes tearing out the door, across the patio towards the bird feeder.  She runs up into the garden a few paces, turns around and runs across the width of the yard.  We don't think she's caught any birds yet, but she's scared some of the ground feeders.

Precious has gotten along well with Truman and Simba and leaves Hardy alone, for the most part.  We've decided she is filling the hole in our home and we've decided she has found her forever home, we're going to adopt her.

At the same time that Precious came for her "temporary" stay, we also got Fallon for a week before she moved on.

Fallon hanging out looking pretty in the living room.

Gloria got an email from someone in VA. who was interested in adopting Fallon.  Yesterday we took Fallon about 1/2 way there and met the potential adopter at a Petsmart for a ""Meet and Greet" to see how Fallon did. 

Can I have a forever home too?

You've probably guessed - Fallon has an adoption pending, One of the other OBG volunteers is doing the home check tomorrow and we are making plans to get Fallon down there, assuming the home check passes (a good bet since the same person has adopted 3 other OBG dogs in the past.)

A couple days after Precious and Fallon arrived, we got two girls who were scheduled as long term fosters.  They are bonded sisters and one is blind.  Since we are experienced with blind dogs, and we had room for a pair, we were a good home for them to come into.  The girls are named Bella and Leyla.  Bella is a year or two younger, Leyla is the blind girl.

This is Bella chilling out on the loveseat.

Bella getting some Mommy time.

It's hard work being so cute.

Right now she is laying/sleeping in my lap and I need to reach over her to get to the keyboard.  She's not adapting too well and we need to keep her crated most of the time to keep her from attacking Leyla, Precious, or Truman.  We've had make the decision  that our home is not the right place for her, even though she is a cuddlebug. If she could get along with the others then she could stay; but we don't want to keep her in a crate 20 hours a day.

Bella's sister is Leyla, a slightly more mellow girl who doesn't let her blindness slow her down.

Leyla spending some time stretched out in Daddy's office.

Nap time

Is it time for the next photo shoot?

Leyla is another sweetie, but she's nor adapting well to all the other dogs.  She's been fighting and we've needed to keep her crated as well.  We really want to find them a long term home where they don't have to spend the majority of the day in a crate. But we know that that home is not here.

And along with the new fosters, Truman and Hardy have been great.

Truman is waiting his turn to go outside with Mommy.

We're trying to give them all attention and loving, but going from 2 to 6 in a couple days has decidedly made this into a labor day weekend.  It's a labor we chose, and we love, but a labor none the less.

By the way, I'm going to blame all the typos on Bella, she is still asleep in my lap.