Here Butch is protecting one of this toys from Bonnie by laying on it.
Bonnie was able to get a hold of it and they started playing tough of war.
Butch is trying to show Bonnie who is boss!
For the most part Butch has warmed up to Bonnie. They chase each other around the house and Butch will bark at here when she hides under a chair and he can't get to her. It is fun to watch and take pictures of.
I almost have as big of Passion about taking pictures as I do about gardening. I believe they go hand in hand. Because if you have a beautiful garden and you want to share it you need to know the basics about taking pictures. You want the pictures to turn out as nice or nicer than the garden.
One thing I have always thought after we bought our first digital camera was how awesome the pictures were. Sometimes I even thought that the pictures looked better than the garden did. Case in point was last year we would take pictures of the garden down to show my mother, so she would have an ideal what I had been doing. My two brothers would also get to look at them. My oldest brother commented one time they the garden was really pretty and he wanted to come see it. I guess this is my own insecurity but I thought "does the garden really look that good?". Then I became paranoid and was afraid that the garden would be a let down when he saw it. My reasoning for this, however flawed it maybe was that when you take pictures now days with the macro and super macro you can get such detail that you really don't see in person. I mean it is there if you look for it.
Anyway to make a long story short. My brother and wife came up this summer to see the garden. They made the normal comments I have gotten from people which was nice to hear and I new they liked what they saw. What really make me think I had done a good job was a couple of weeks later. He called and we talked first about if I was going to be coming back home this weekend to cut Mom's grass and before we hung up he said that he said that he really wanted to tell me that he was impressed with the garden and that it was very beautiful. This comment, coming a few weeks after there visit had a great impact. First was that he was still thinking about my garden after a few weeks and second the fact that he shared that with me. Men in my family usually don't share feelings like this. Now if I had a new truck I could see him saying something like that!
So anyway here are some pictures I took this morning of the frost. Hope you enjoy and have a great week!!
Well this is what has been keeping us busy. Yes a new puppy!! A chocolate lab that we named Bonnie. But don't let the pretty face fool you she is hell on paws!! Still trying to get her house broken. That isn't an easy job as some of you might know.
Will keep you all updated with new pictures from time to time. Enjoy and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!
I have taken pictures of all the little animals in the garden this last summer and thought I would share them with everyone. Not sure what they all are and how beneficial they are for the garden but they are interesting. I am sure I didn't get a tenth of the different insects in the garden. These were the easiest to find and take a picture of.
I sure miss the warm weather and working in the garden. I'm sure spring will be here in no time.
This is the second set of volunteer plants I wanted to show. I know it is slow in coming but they are worth looking at, even if I don't know what they are all called.
The first one is Feverfew. It was a pass along plant from the garden club. It likes to reseed itself anywhere it can but is easly controlled by pulling the plants up. It has been used in the past as an herbal medicine for reducing fever. However the flowers on my plant do not match the flowers on the website that I googled that said it had been used as a herbal medicine. Maybe mine is strickly ornamental. I will stick with asprin or other over the counter medication.
Not sure what this annual is called but it comes back every year somewhere in the garden. It grows blooms and then dies. I wish it would bloom all summer but I think the heat get to it.
This is my black eyed susan. Here again it reseeds itself where ever it want to. Here you see it growing next to one of my miniture roses. This is also one that will bloom and die back. It also has a problem with powder mildew. This year it killed back most of what had came up in a huge patch leaving this bear spot. I just set a pot there too make it look like that is how I planned it.
This is a vine that came up a month or so ago and I have been waiting to see what it is. It is a moonvine. Not sure how the seed go here but it is nice to see it gowing up the torch pole. I like the look of that. Maybe next year I will try and do that with several other torch poles.
Here is a before and after of my stick arbor. The first one was taken the first part of April.
This picture was taken this last weekend. Remarkable difference!
This is looking up on the inside of the arbor. Lot and lots of stems and leaves.
Here is what the flower looks like, if you hadn't seen it before. I have been rather disappointed with the number of blooms this year. In the past I have let it vine on the banister of the deck and the blooms would cover it at sundown. Now there are just a few here and there. I think there is just too much vine and leaves to see the blooms. Over all I am satisfied how the arbor looks and will need to decide what to grow on it next year.
