The Seasons…

It’s August. In the past I remember Augusts filled with high temperatures and many days spent playing in the surf at the beaches of my childhood.

As I have grown older I see the seasons in a different light. The light of the sunsets. Tonight was a good example. We had the most beautiful sunset. Pink and coral and yellow. The only problem? This really resembles an Autumn sunset, not an August sunset.

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I’m actually ready for summer to end and Autumn to come to us. I look forward to the first day I can wear one of my sweaters, or light a fire in our hearth.

Meanwhile, I’ll just keep enjoying the sunsets and watch as the seasons pass us, one by one.

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My Girl, Anneliese

Anneliese is growing up. For the longest time she would wander around and you had to watch her, like you would watch a 2 year old child, lest she disappear. In the last few weeks she has started to stay in the yard and seems to understand the boundaries of our property.

She has also started to listen. Now if this lasts, I will be totally thrilled. As a young puppy you would call her and she would pretend that she did not know what you were saying or whom you were calling.

Now she actually turns her little head and even (gasp) comes running to you if you instruct her to do this.

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I wonder if all of this compliance on her part is due to the treats that I try to keep in my pocket to reward her good behavior. Whatever the reason, when I look into those beautiful eyes I melt and fall in love with her all over again.

The Bunny Boy

Each one of our dogs has their own unique personality. They also have their favorite toy, spot to sleep or favorite treat. Fritz has his “monkey”, Greta has a 12 inch rawhide bone and Anneliese has everything else in the house. But none have ever “arranged” their toys the way that Arnie does.

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Arnie will carry his little bunny all over the house. Up on the window sill, or on the sofa. He will even carry it onto my bed and lie there with it if I am taking a nap. He places Mr. Bunny into position and then settle in next to him. The result of his work is priceless.

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We never know when we will see him curled up with his new friend, or if he will share Mr. Bunny with us. (He usually does) One thing is for sure. Mr. Bunny really is his good friend!

PS: As I sit here writing this entry, Arnie jumped down, went and got Mr. Bunny and brought him up in the chair. We are now cuddled together! LOL!!!

Nothing Much

Chop, chop, chop!

I spent the morning pondering whether nor not I had enough cucumbers to make my Moon Glow pickles or not. I stared into the vegetable bin and counted and tried to guage their size.

I decided that I did and so I began to peel, scoop and chop the cucumbers up, with the assistance of the lovely Emily!

We spent about an hour doing this before we found that we had exactly the correct amount of cucumbers needed for the batch! The cucumbers, onions, peppers, etc. are now soaking in a salt water solution until the morning.

I wasn’t in the mood for much more domestic work, but I’d promised Em that we would make a pizza for lunch, so we did do that. Nothing like a home made pizza.

After lunch I was totally lazy and lay down with the puppies and fell asleep in my chair for an hour or so.

Dinner was a trip to Canoe for salads and some sweet and sour calamari with friends.

Stock Up

Have you ever opened up your refrigerator and cupboards and discovered that overnight, all the food in your house has disappeared?

That’s what happened this morning to me. I had one egg, some bread and two hungry people. I thought for a moment and remembered freezing some leftover blueberry pancakes a while back, so Hubby’s breakfast was the one egg, and three blueberry pancakes with sausage. I had toast with liver wurst on it.

Then it was time to make up a list and actually go to the shops. The usual things were put on the list. Milk, yogurt, eggs, cheese, some vegetables and meats. However this time I also included things to make my Heavenly Jam (Peach) and more Moon Glow pickles.

It was also doggy food stock up time and fill the car with gasoline. For the first time in weeks we paid less than $279.9 for fuel per gallon. The price today $2.69!!!

Yes, it was a good day at the market for the Dackel Princess family.

We then came home and Hubby picked more of our peaches. They are ripening and are beautiful. I wish more people could see and taste them. They are truly awesome!

Tomorrow we will be selling more of our peaches to a woman who will sell them at a local Farmer’s Market. Yes, seeing our product go to Market makes us pretty proud!

Peachy

It was harvest day here at the Dackel Princess Orchard for our Reliance peaches. Hubby picked 70 pounds of the sweet, ripe, juicy fruit. This first picking will go to local farm stands and merchants.

Oh they really are beautiful!

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There are about 4 peaches in a pound! They are that juicy!!!

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The next ones to ripen, in a few days, will be the ones I make my jam out of and some brandied peaches. Oh I sure do love peach season!

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I’ve Been Mugged!!!

Did you ever have one of those days? You know, the kind where by the end of the day you think perhaps wearing a necklace of garlic might have been appropriate? Well, Monday was that sort of day. Let me tell you about it.

The day dawned hot and humid. I dressed in my “going to the doctor in the summer” outfit, and Hubby, our friend from Germany and I headed to Boston for my eye appointment. Actually, while I had my eye appointment, Hubby would show her a little of the beautiful city of Boston.

We arrived early and off they went. I’d decided to grab a nice cup of coffee, walk around a little and then grab a sandwich and go to my appointment.

I walked over to one of my favorite coffee shops. A month ago a friend had given me a gift card for this store and until now, I hadn’t had a chance to use it. I went in and talked with the nice guy working there, and then selected my coffee and ordered a cup to go.

I stood at the next counter fixing my brew, and a young man came up next to me with his cup of coffee and started to fix his. What happened next shocked me! You see, in this high priced coffee shop, I was mugged!!!

The man looked at me and then poured his coffee down my shirt!!! I reacted quickly and pushed myself backward, but the hot coffee got the front of my blouse! I stood there for a moment, and the staff yelled at the man and charged toward him, but he turned and fled.

It was then that I realized I’d been mugged!

Not in the usual sense, of course, but mugged nonetheless. I was frazzled by the attack. I was wearing a pretty cream colored blouse and suddenly it was drenched in coffee. We got a container of Tide and I went to work in the ladies room sink. I washed and scrubbed and soon the coffee was gone, but the shirt was soaked. I tried to put it back on, but found I was looking very much like the obscene loser of a wet T-shirt contest!

The staff felt terrible and they gifted me with extra coffee beans and even a sandwich, but I was soaked. So I went to a gift shop nearby and bought a navy blue t-shirt with the word “BOSTON” printed on it. I suppose to commemorate the days events.

I then hoofed it over to my eye appointment and got some really great news! My vision, without glasses is now 20/20 in both eyes!!! The only glasses I need are for reading. Best of all, my eyes have both healed well and Dr. W. is thrilled with the outcome.

I then called Hubby as I left the office so we could meet up at The Parker House. I had started to walk when all of a sudden, the sky opened and it began to pour. With no umbrella, Hubby and I soon were soaked (our friend had a rain poncho).

We headed back toward the car and I realized I needed to get my parking stub validated for the parking garage. So while Hubby went to the car, I raced back to Dr. W.’s office. I walked in and the office staff looked at me! I looked like a drowned rat! Her secretary smiled (she knew the entire coffee story) and giggled a little and said, “Do I want to ask?”. I just laughed and said that today even Mother Nature wasn’t giving me a break!

Despite the strangeness of the day, I am happy with how it all ended.

Chchchanges

Hubby has been taking a lot of pictures this past week and unfortunately I am in them. I say this because even though I have tried very hard to lose some weight, I am not doing at all well. And at way over 40 years old, the changes to my body are not good. Not good at all!

It’s summer. The one time of the year when you feel like eating hot-dogs and hamburgers, barbecued ribs, and all sorts of summer foods that are not conducive to reducing the waistline.

I try to eat a little less, perhaps choose a salad over eating all of the fries, but it is hard. I also have found that during the summer I love to cook and then, of course, I cook what I eat.

It would be far better that I not enjoy eating and just the cooking part of all of this.

But, I digress.

Hubby, taking pictures and me in them. Bah! I thought perhaps there might be one or two that were fairly good, but today when I downloaded the pictures I saw something I hadn’t realized.

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My stomach now looks like I am pregnant. My backside, well we just won’t go into what “IT” looks like! Talk about depressing! Now Hubby assures me that this is not the case and it was just a bad angle, but I am feeling self conscious, and when I feel self conscience I tend to eat.

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Not a good remedy to the current problem.

So I guess I will have to do something drastic, like go on a starvation diet. (Only kidding!) I just don’t want to let this get out of hand so that little children begin to think that Santa Claus and I are related!

One positive thing about my current appearance, my hair is getting long. Maybe it will grow really long and I can hide under it!

The Big Bad Lab!

After what seemed like a perfect day, a walk in the park with all four dogs, a delicious lunch and a visit to one of my favorite shops, we came home to cook out and enjoy a little bit of summer heaven. Baby back ribs, potato salad and zucchini and summer squash.

The temperature was perfect and although there were a few clouds, it still felt great to be outside with the dogs.

Then Hubby went in to get a few things and I was outside with Emily and the next thing we knew a big mean yellow Lab was charging my crew of dogs! He went for the puppies first and that made Greta leap toward him to protect her babies.

The dog jumped at Greta and bit at her (but did not break the skin) and that’s when Fritz jumped in! I was running toward the madness, screaming at the top of my lungs to get the bad dog to stop!

Hubby didn’t hear me, but people from several surrounding towns did! All I could see was that three of my dackel babies were going to be hurt.

Lucky I sound as mean as I look, and the dog eventually was chased off, but it took me several hours to calm my babies down.

Me? I’m still shook up!