Java has meningitis. Her scan came back showing no significant changes to her spine, which is good. But it didn't explain the extreme pain she was in. While Java was under, the vet did a spinal tap just to rule out meningitis. The results came back on Monday. The remedy for this is high doses of steroids. She has been on them for a few days now and is feeling much better. She is also eating like a pig, which is helpful.

Java is in the hospital; we brought her in on Thursday due to extreme neck pain. She's been there since, on an IV with pain medication. We're waiting to hear whether she should have an MRI and possibly an operation, so that's why I pretty much quit posting the pond pictures.

I did take the pictures, though. Here's what it looked like Thursday morning. They are filling it.


Here it is pretty complete, except for the water plants and the plants that will surround it:

After the big rocks come the little rocks.


The next step is to rinse the rocks of the stone-dust, that's what's at the bottom of the pond now. They'll vacuum that up and the water will be clear when it's filled.


A close-up of the waterfall:

A different angle:

This morning they are lining the pond with rocks and building caves for the fish to hide in.

Pond Progress

After the hole is dug, the pre-liner goes in:

And then the liner:


And they build up the area for the waterfall:

Pond

This morning the workers came and started on the pond. I'm excited! I will post pictures as they progress. In the meantime I have to watch. I love watching machinery.

Snow Farm

This weekend Robert and I went to Snow Farm, a craft center in Western Massachusetts. The Boston Chapter rents it out for its members and offers classes in glassblowing, fusing, welding and bead-weaving. I chose to lampwork and made butterfly beads for Beads of Courage. Robert welded and made a nifty stand for his gas-powered forge.

Here's our comfy room. We have to bring our own bed linens. I used the ones from my guest room. I love them because they're cozy and warm and I only get to use them this once a year.


The campus is really special. It is on a hill, surrounded by other hills and has fruit trees and other ornamental trees all around. Also, there is art every place you look. I love that. Here's the pond:


And a big bullfrog:


Here's Robert explaining to me what he's making:


This is the welding barn. I love the decoration on the doors:


The view as you drive up:


An apple tree:


The dorm we stayed in:


Some knitting time after torching:

So last week Jim went to his foster home. It was hard to say goodbye, but he's going to have a great life with a wonderful family and it doesn't have to be me.

The landscapers came and cleared the brush for the new dog yard. This is what it looks like now. The plan for the pond is that they will come next week and dig it and put it in. I'm looking forward to it.


Little Java is having another flare-up of her back problems, which is strange because she just saw her neurologist last week and had a good report. This time, we put her on prednisone right away, we didn't muck around with painkillers like Rimadyl. I didn't want to have to wait for a "washing out" period if she got worse. Last time she had a flare-up, we had to take her off the painkiller before giving her the steriod and it was awful seeing her in such pain with no medicine for such a long time. It kills me to see her in pain, and she still is, but she's moving around a little better. I just had to put her in her crate, because she wanted to jump on the chair on the porch and we can't have that happening.



I haven't made too many beads lately, but I have been working on a little fund-raising project. I'm going to make a Boston Terrier themed Christmas tree and auction it off to benefit rescue. Here are some of the "ornaments" I made. They're beads and I think it'd be cool to wire wrap them so you can take them off the ornament hook and wear it like a necklace or on earrings. I'm not sure how to go about doing that, but I have some time to think about it.

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.

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.

A few pictures

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.

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.