Good news!

Katie came through her surgery fine. They found a corn cob in addition to the squeaky toy. Naughty girl.




The baby robins have fledged. I didn't see them leave the nest, but I saw the last one all by himself and then on the ground a few minutes later.

I'm getting ready to leave for the Gathering in Rochester, NY. Here is a shot of my trade beads:

My two nieces

Today my two nieces are in my thoughts. My human niece Elizabeth turns five today. It's hard to believe that she's so old already.




The other niece in my thoughts today is my dog niece Katie, who has to have surgery to remove a toy she ate last week. Her mothers are beside themselves with worry, but as someone who has been through more dog surgeries than most people, I hope to assure them that there is nothing to worry about and Katie will be just fine.

Bird pictures

Here are some bird pictures that I've taken recently. They're not all good because they were taken through a window or from a long distance, but I'm happy I caught them.

Here are the 4 baby robins waiting for lunch. The 4th one's beak can be seen behind the baby on the right.


A chickadee checking out the wren house.


A cardinal enjoying a bath. I caught him mid-shake.


Mrs. Robin looking for worms.

Frogs!

I stepped outside last night with the dogs, looked up at the robins and saw something stuck to the side of my house. I looked closer and saw that they were frogs! Tree frogs to be exact.


This one is a grey tree frog. You can tell by the yellow on the underside of his thighs.


I don't know if this one is the same kind or not. They come in brown to grey to green, so it could be a grey treefrog even if it's brown.


Why are they stuck to my house? Later in the evening, Robert figured it out. They are right by the livingroom window where we leave a light on all night for the dogs. This attracts lots of bugs and the treefrogs are a-hunting! Here's the grey one from inside the house.


And here's the brown one hanging out on the edge of the window.

10 years

10 years ago today this little black dog entered our lives. I can't believe it's been that long, but I'm grateful for every minute. She's fussy and demanding but we love her anyway. I wrote a haiku for the occasion:

Little black-faced dog
Center of the universe
"please tickle my chest"

Can I tell you how dry it has been here? This the patch of lilies of the valley that Bobby was laying in in the picture from a few days ago. I took that picture probably two and 1/2 weeks ago and here's what it looked like yesterday. Yellow and brown. Everything under my feet crunches. It's terrible. We need some rain.

Helplessness

I think the worst feeling in the world is helplessness, either for yourself, somebody else or another creature. It turns my stomach. It is how I feel when Java is in pain or when I find a baby bird that has fallen out of the nest and I don't know where to put him back. It's also how I feel when I find out my vet's husband has brain cancer or when a friend of mine has lung cancer. It gnaws at my insides. I think "maybe if I send some money," but no, that doesn't help the individual. There is nothing I can do and I hate it. I want to take away the suffering and I can't. I want to wipe out the disease and I can't. I want to reunite the baby bird with its parents and I can't.

Another of my friends has passed away. We were not terribly close, but when we saw each other we had plenty to talk about as she was a lampworker as well. I am lucky enough to have a couple of her pieces, so I'll treasure them. Rest in Peace, Rhonda. I'm glad your suffering is over.

Elizabeth's Birthday

Last night we went to the Lake to celebrate Elizabeth's 5th birthday. It was a fun evening filled with family and delicious food. It's hard to believe that the girl is 5 already.

This morning we went out to breakfast and then to the farm stand for some veggies. I got some Massachusetts corn and some Maine tomatoes. I can't wait until the New Hampshire vegetables are ready. They're so much better than our neighbors'.

This afternoon I'm going to make beads to trade at the Gathering. I don't have a lot at the moment so I need to stock up.

Dogs at the Lake

There were four dogs at the lake last weekend. It was relatively peaceful, once my dogs went home. There was a fight between two of them and some barking at 2:30 in the morning, but other than that it went well.

Java loves to lie in her bed in the house when we're at the lake. She's not an outdoor girl at all.


Bobby on the other hand loves to be outside and even splashed in the water a bit chasing his toy. Here he's hoping to get Elizabeth's pretzel, or at least some of it.


Katie is the Queen of the lake. She loves to swim and loves to take a boat ride.


And Rocky, the newest member of the dogs-at-the-lake club, found out that he loves to float with his mother, my cousin. He was dunked a few times to keep him cool and he did not like that at all, but as long as he's with his mother he's a happy dog.

Playing around with my camera

My camera is pretty cool. Not only does it have an incredibly long zoom, it also does tricks. I know you can do these kinds of things in photoshop, but it's fun to have the camera do it too. I've showed the panorama pictures it can take in previous posts, and here are some of the others. It will make a drawing, which is fun.



It can mimic a pin-hole camera:


A fish-eye lens:


This sunset is a setting called "pop art." It turns the colors very vibrant.


It has a fireworks setting as well as a multiple fireworks setting. This would have worked better if I had had a tripod.


More drawings, just for fun:

Loons

During the coffee cruise, we came upon a family of loons. The mother and father were there, feeding the chicks. They are so small and fuzzy and cute. The mother would stay on top of the water watching the babies while the father dove under and hunted fish for the babies.



Dad didn't like us being too close, so he tried to scare us away by flapping his wings.





I took about a gazillion pictures, but not every one came out because the boat was bouncing up and down and my camera's zoom was maxed out which is hard to keep steady anyway. So these are the best of them. It was really fun seeing these beautiful birds up close.

Sunset Cruise

I spent last weekend at Northwood Lake. One of our favorite things to do is to go on a slow cruise around the lake on the boat. Usually we go for a "coffee cruise" in the morning, but Sunday night we went on a "sunset cruise" and were we ever treated to a spectacular display.


It started out iffy because it had been cloudy in the afternoon. We even got a few sprinkles around 4:00. But clouds make the prettiest sunsets sometimes, so we held out hope for a nice one.


I love the rosy glow that the sun gave to our faces.





As it descended into the hills, the sun gave us even more color.


It was a beautiful evening, shared with my family. We got sentimental and missed my dad but for the most part we were very happy that we were together and sharing this beautiful evening.


We knew he'd be happy that we are all happy and are all together.



When I was little and saw a sunset or a pretty cloud, I'd think that my dead grandmother was up there watching me. When I see something like that now, I think my dad is up there too, watching.