Hi Marie! It sounds like you're having a great time and we'll be looking forward to those toddler pictures... Your baby Bouv. here is doing well. I consider all puppy accidents to be the fault of us humans for not paying attention/reading the signals right. It takes a bit of time to adjust to read her particular language so some accidents were expected... Today was a very mellow day here. Misty has now fully accepted Phoebe as a member of her pack - she initiated her into the joys of head wrestling today...:-) Head wrestling is a game she and Copper invented. The only rule I enforce is that the big beast has to keep her feet on the ground. The way it works is Misty is on higher ground (the lounger on the back porch in today's case) and the big dog is standing on the floor beside her. Misty pounces on the big dog's head and that dog tries to grab her and flip her over. They then proceed to wrestle back and forth until one of them tires of the game. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera with me so didn't get any pictures, but maybe some of you remember the pictures of her and Copper playing on the loveseat. The same thing was going on with Phoebe this moning on the lounger on the back porch. Barb was here today. She and Phoebe got along very well and they had a vigorous game of chase-me (Barb pretended to chase Phoebe and Phoebe joyously raced around the paths...) We all went for a walk past the library to drop off some books. I like this picture, in part because the sign on the library window says Laugh Out Loud - a comedy reading program for kids - seems appropriate for Phoebe! Here's the classic Woody's Doggie Holiday Camp picture from this afternoon (just after this picture Phoebe nuzzled my waist with her head, rooted in the training pouch with dog cookies that I'm wearing, and absconded with a cookie or two! I handn't realized the pouch was unzipped... She's a smart dog. Misty and Phoebe are definitely much mellower together now. When Randy got home tonight, we went for the third walk of the day. Zoe (yearling Rottweiller) was out on her driveway so introductions were made. Phoebe was skittish but eager; Zoe was dubious :-) A generous dose of cookies was applied all round. It takes more than a strange big hairy dog on her driveway to keep Zoe away from her cookies! So Phoebe had a good day at camp today :-)

Oh, 'bug, how wonderful! The hobbits would surely feel at home in the field and woods there and the Gaffer would approve of the veronicstrum with those lilies. I would be quite content there myself. Also loved the picture at the folk festival! I wish I had been there to hear k.d. lang-she has been a favorite of mine since she first started!

Dawn, believe it or not I do have peach colored ornaments. Nothing traditional for me. My peach tree is sterile so the only thing I have is web worms which have already started. I refuse to have the tree sprayed so I will take my little torch and have a web worm barbque. That is how my grandfather did it and he never lost his trees or burned anything he was not suppose to of course I was always on garden hose watch. I got where I would get my tomatoes just before ripe and put them in the kitchen and let them ripen indoors. The mockers were not eating them, just pecking like they were playing. The problem seems to be they figure out which are ornaments and which are tomatoes, according to some of the garden lore, so you have ornaments hanging and the tomatoes are stilled pecked up. The mockingbird goes back to the same area where they were born to raise their little ones, so you end up with mockers that are like family members. I have one that meets me each morning before I leave for work and flutters around while I do garden inspection. Then each evening he is back by the backdoor waiting on me. Guess I have a pet and dont know it. MH: I did not have any cardinals for years. I started putting song bird food out all through the year and now they make morning runs and evening runs to the feeder. Cardinals are very picky about where they eat. They are not big on the usual bird feeder but prefer the saucer type that is hanging from the trees or poles. I also put my feeders in the shade with quite a bit of shrubs and a large tree nearby, they feel better protected. I also have a shallow bird bath for all the birds. My father was a bird watcher and raised birds so I got a some data from osmosis from him. If you give them the right set up they will eventually show up, it may take a while, but it is worth it. I have had as many as 5 males at one time eating and fluttering around. Oh, I did notice, dont hang your hummer feeders close to your regular feeders. The hummers in my area seem to be very aggressive and run the other birds off, well, not the jays or the mockers, but they are really not your usual bird. Oh, yeah, bird feed they seem to like: small oil sunflower seeds or the song bird mix you get at the old wally world seems to be the diet of choice. Well, that was probably more than you wanted to know, but I got on a roll and Dawn and Susan can tell ya sometimes I do go on. Happy gardening and bird watching. Steffie

Congrats. They are such good bug hunters and fun to watch. Just love my Phoebes. I've had them nest in my old open shed every year for 12 years. Now a tree fell on the shed and we built a new one so I keep the doors closed. I put some nesting shelves up so I hope they still come back! Cathy