July already!

Good Grief, how did it get to be July already????

This past week the weather was really lovely. While Sunday it rained off and on rather heavily, for the most part the weather has been warm in the day and cool at night. Just great NEPA weather.

I was using the grill over the past several days - and used the pressure cooker to make a blueberry cake.

Honey improves every day! She has more or less calmed down and while she has here crazy times, she has stopped the biting she was doing. She is also jumping up less. We try to praise her often when she is doing what she should and ignore her when she is bad. In this picture she is relaxing on the sofa in the living room which I keep covered with a sheet. She just came down to "ask" to go out so I'd better take her.

A rainy weekend

     What a rainy weekend. No, not constant rain but enough to dampen plans. Yesterday we (The Friends) held a book sale at the library that was held inside due to the rain. We had a good sale considering the wet weather
     Today we went to breakfast and I had blueberry pancakes - very good! Also nice not to cook as I've been doing breakfast several times a week. I got laundry done and dusted the glass tables in the living room. With the pollen and such in the air they were quite dirty - at least my efforts showed!
     I made peanut butter cookies and I really don't remember ever making them before. No recipe in my files so I went on line as well as checked cookbooks and ended up making one found on simplyrecipes.com. It turned out well and we are enjoying them (Honey liked them too). Dinner is in the oven - a small roast. I'll pop some potatoes in and that will make a nice meal with not too much for leftovers.
    The exciting thing was the snake we saw on the patio. We have seen snakes around the property in the garden. A week or so ago a snake slithered in the bushes as I was moving the hose in the front. Today I was looking out the kitchen window and saw what appeared to be a snake curled up by the fire pit on the back patio. I called B over and yep, he agreed. He went down and sprayed it with something and it slithered off. Earlier we had a bird bounce off the sliding glass door off the living room - it was a wildlife day!
    And finally, Honey has eaten the face off her favorite toy better known as "the alien". It is this orange wobbly shaped rubber toy that makes (well, it used to) this very distinctive sound (even I can hear it) when squeezed. She runs around with it and offers it to one of us to squeeze or throw. She has been focusing on it lately and it was starting to show the love --- and then I saw her chewing with the alien in her paws minus the nose. Awwww - poor alien --- and sad Honey! She has now moved on to a rawhide chew so I guess she is out of her sad funk.
   A busy weekend!

At Last - Warm Weather

May has been a very cool and wet month! Wednesday it started to warm up and we actually had sun! Thursday was down right HOT! It was muggy with temperatures in the upper 80s. After heavy thunderstorms and a tornado watch last night, today is clear, dry and comfortable. A great way to start the Memorial Day weekend!

Honey has been enjoying using the deck since we got the gates. She especially enjoys laying in the sun.

On Thursday B headed out to Kmart to get a small kiddie pool for the girl. Our first lab enjoyed playing in a small pool, splashing the water and staying cool. So, we wanted to get Honey a pool also. At first she thought it was just a big water bowl. However she is figuring out what it's really for.

Honey tries the pool out while empty

B then filled it up for her

After lapping the water, she took a cautious step.

Happy Mothers Day

What a lovely morning! Honey and I were outside at 5:25 this morning as she needed to take a walk. Right now I'm at the breakfast table and can see outside the front windows. We put the hummingbird feeder up and I saw three hummingbirds swooping around. Naturally they disapeered when I went over to take a picture. Taking pictures through the window is a great motivator for keeping windows clean. Fortunately the window is too high for Honey's nose prints.

Honey has been enjoying the upper deck that runs around the front of the house. We crack the sliding door a bit and she can get out and walk around. Sometimes in the early morning, when it is warmer than 40, we go out and play toss the rope. This is not her bathroom area so we still do walks for that!

The picture below is Honey out on the deck. I had to remove the pots I had in this area as she was digging in the dirt and bringing in clumps of dirt. Notice her crooked tail..so cute!

A relaxing day

One of the nice things about retirement is that you set the pace. Normally I have an idea of what I want to accomplish during the day. B has a daily list and so I thought I'd try that – and it worked.What doesn't get done moves to the next day's list. But today I did nothing – and that was on my list. Now I don't mean I did NOTHING... I made breakfast and lunch and will make dinner. I made the bed and cleaned up the kitchen and even cleaned a bathroom...but I had no list and spent the day on the Internet and reading a book. I also took Honey for a walk, and then a walk, then he took her for a walk and then I took her for a walk... well, you get the idea!


Rain again last night and we cooled down considerably. Right now it's 48 out and is raw, damp and cloudy. It's been drizzling off and on often in sync with when we take Honey out. At least it isn't snow!!


Maybe tomorrow will be more productive – I've started a list.