You Dirty Dog!

No seriously, this is one dirty dog!

Lulu  goes into the pond just about every day, which isn't a problem, but the other day she found herself a mudhole.  She could not have been happier (or dirtier).  She was a lot less happy when she had to get a bath!

Getting into messes has been a theme lately - here she is sporting green highlights, after attempting to drink paint. 

Stopping to smell the flowers?  No, she's discovered lizards lurk in the flower pots, and she gets into staring contests with them.

I don't know if there is an armadillo in that hole, but Lulu is willing to wait there all day to find out.

Guess who has 4 beds in this house but still prefers sitting on the people seats? She's not even chagrined about being photographed in the act!

It's a dog's life alright. 

Spring is Sprung

Spring has been a long, drawn-out affair this year with lingering cool weather.  That wasn't so great in March but is very welcome going into May.  We're spending every spare moment outside, working on gardens and landscaping before the infernal (seemingly eternal) heat of summer sets in.

We're also enjoying spring veggies out of the garden.  The radishes have done well, but the peas haven't produced yet and may not make it before they succumb to the heat.

Easter Egg radishes

Landscaping the island was one of our goals this year, and we're just about done with that, but then we added in land scraping.  The top of the hill is a nice vantage point but it is steep and rough, not easy to get up there.  So we figured what the heck, let's see if we can't even it out.  Craig put the box blade on the tractor and (slowly, gingerly) backed the tractor up the hill to scrape the top off evenly.

Photo bonus: Lulu on point, probably at a frog.

The front of the hill has a mostly easy slope, until you get near the top.  The other side is a fairly steep drop off, which looks even higher when you are perched on top of something with wheels!  There was only one area that had enough room to get the tractor up.

You think he's nervous...I was downhill!

As he went down the hill he smoothed out the slope.  The downed tree in the picture below fell weeks ago, but we won't be able to remove it unless/until the water levels drop in the pond.

Or maybe Craig used the tree as an emergency brake?  I'll never tell.

Eventually we'll put a bench atop the hill for enjoying the view.

View from the top of the hill

We also recently put in a small garden patch, using an old gate and tools we found in the barns, and featuring the lovely purple martin house that Craig's Mom got for us.  Of course we didn't manage to attract purple martins yet, but we do have a family of bluebirds that don't mind high-rise living.

We started with just a few flowers...

...and are slowly filling it in with more.

But while we wait on the new flower garden to fill in, the garden we started last year on the side of the house has really put on a show.  Full of coreopsis, larkspur, dianthus, and more.

The watering can wind chimes (thanks Aunt Wanda!) are very apropos!

Grandma's snowball tree put on quite the display, too.

Of course, as we get busier outside we slow down on blog posts, but we're hoping to get started on the vine arbor soon.  Stay tuned!