Monday, August 30, 2010

Meet Jim

This is Jim. He's our temporary foster dog. I picked him up on Saturday at the transport and he's staying until Tuesday when his foster mom can pick him up. I already am in love and want to keep him forever but I won't. He gets along well with Bobby. They play bitey-face and tug of war. We haven't introduced Java to him yet and we probably will not, seeing how rough he likes to play. Not that she'd deign to play with him, mind you. He'd receive a sharp correction and hopefully back off.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

We're going to build a pond


We're going to put in a little pond in the backyard. It will have water plants and goldfish, along with a waterfall or two and a little stream. I have loved water gardens for a long time and used to have that whiskey barrel garden until a few years ago. The new pond will be about 15 feet by 12 feet and be surrounded by bark mulch with plantings in it. I'm going to put my bench beside it as well. I probably won't put fish in it until next spring, so our 11-year-old goldfish will have a nice new home if he makes it till then. I bought him for the whiskey barrel garden 11 years ago. It's hard to believe a little 12-cent feeder goldfish can live that long.

Originally I was thinking of putting the pond in the front yard, now that there's more room due to the trees coming out. But Robert thought we'd get more enjoyment out of it if it were in the back, and he's right, we will. So putting the pond in the backyard involves making a new dog yard so that we don't have dogs splashing in the pond. No chance of that with Java but Bobby is another story. The landscapers are coming Tuesday to clear the brush from the new dog area and a new fence will be put in in late September. We want our pond to be put in sooner than that, so we'll have to get some temporary fencing in the meantime.

I'm looking forward to sharing the progress and the pictures.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Back to real life

I'm back from the Gathering in Rochester. It was a blast as always, but especially so this year. I really enjoyed myself and learned a bunch of new things. I took Caitlin Hyde's class afterwards. I don't usually love post-Gathering classes because it's a little bit of a let-down because all my friends are gone but this year the fact it was a post-Gathering class was fine. I was ready for some down-time. I still prefer pre-Gathering classes because of the anticipation, but I won't be afraid to take a post-Gathering class anymore.

I spent last weekend at the lakes - Newfound and Northwood. I spent a few extra days with my family because my sister Martha is on vacation. We went to the yarn store and ordered the yarn for our next major knitting project - the Einstein Coat. I'm going to use Lamb's Pride Bulky in Cafe au lait. It's really pretty.

I still haven't had a chance to make beads yet but I think I will do so this week.