Outside

A Dog's Day

On Sunday I finished reading the book, Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog. It was one of those heart-warming "life of a dog" books which ended just as I expected it would: Merle dies. And of course it made me want to do something special for my own dog.

I looked over at Brix and decided to bring him to the dog park - for the first time ever. Our old dog, Dexter, wasn't all that great at the dog park. He didn't really like other dogs and tended to pay no attention to the humans in his life. But Brix is a bit more focused on us, and according to the doggy day care people, he loves to play with other dogs.

So, off we went. When we got there, I parked a little bit away. I was nervous - I had no idea how Brix would be. I finally got up the courage, brought him in and let him off his leash. Brix was in doggie heaven. He had a wonderful time, played appropriately with other dogs, greeted humans appropriately, and even made good friends with a little blond-haired boy.

I had fun because Brix had fun.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

        ~ Robert Frost

Elm leaves in early morning sun.

Rainy Day

Brix thinks today is a perfect day for a nap. With steady rain and temperatures in the mid-50s, I think I agree with him.

With any luck, it will rain itself out tonight and tomorrow I can finish up my garden clean-up, complete with pictures.

Sun in Spring Willows

I love the green-gold color that dusts the trees in early spring.

It's Still Winter

It's been dreary and gray, with temperatures in the mid-20's. It looks like it's back to the deep freeze this weekend with below 0F temperatures. Bah, humbug.

The neighborhood deer herd seems to have expanded. Below is a picture of one deer on the pond. More difficult to see are the seven deer on the hillside on the left-hand side of the photo. The herd has been at five pretty consistently for about a year, but I've been seeing eight for the past few weeks. They're not fawns, so our five must have adopted three more from somewhere else.

Tired of the Cold

It's been a cold, cold January here in Minnesota. After over a week of below 0 temperatures in the middle of the month, we had a bit of a warm-up, then back into the deep freeze. When I left for work at 7:15 am this morning, it was -16F, with windchills up to -40F. I suppose I should be happy that we're having a "normal" Minnesota winter, but after the last few years of "global warming" winter, I think I became soft and spoiled.

With the cold, it's been difficult to think about gardening. At left is the garden two weekends ago, as seen through the ice covered porch windows at -10F. The good news is that February is almost here - it will still be winter, but spring is getting closer all the time. This weekend I will finally start putting my seed orders together. One day it will be warm again!

Paths into 2008

It's bright and cold today, a fine way to bring in the new year. Looking over the pond from our living room window, we see the many paths made by the wildlife that passes through our yard and neighborhood.

What a privilege to share our little piece of land with animals like deer, snowy egrets, opossums, owls, turkeys, and even the pesky rabbits.

This winter we've added another wild inhabitant: a coyote. We first saw him in broad daylight on Christmas Eve day. Today he made another appearance - carving a new path across the pond.

It's a new year and a time to scribe new paths. My goal this year is to add to my life: increase and enhance the natural ecosystem of our yard, seek out and embrace new ways to be successful in my business, purposely bring more joy to other people's daily lives.

Winter Solstice

It's the first day of winter, and last night we received a fresh dusting of snow to make it look pretty.

I realize my posts have continued to be few and far between, and when I do post, they're pretty short. But I'm working through some "stuff" that I think I'll be ready to write about after I've had some time to reflect - and I don't think I'll have much reflection time until after the holidays.

Plus, with the days so short and me working all week, I never get to take any pictures until the weekend. Which is a bummer because I got a nifty new camera this past fall (which I also haven't taken the time to write about - I'm getting way behind).

I'm Back

I can't believe it, but I've been away from the blogosphere for almost 12 weeks! If there is anyone left who might still look at my blog, you may well wonder where I've been.

A week after my last post, I had surgery on my shoulder for a glenoid fracture. It turns out, when I dislocated my shoulder, I also fractured the glenoid, which is the "cup" that holds the "ball" of the shoulder joint. It's a fairly rare injury, and one that required immediate surgery once discovered. The surgery itself required the doctors to disconnect the piece of bone that had been fractured (it was healing in the wrong place), put it back where it belonged and attach it with screws. To get to the fracture, they had to disconnect the deltoid muscle and cut through the rotator cuff muscle, then put that all back together, too. Needless to say, it was not the most pleasant experience - one that I don't recommend to anyone!

The surgery and recovery are essentially the same as any other non-arthroscopic shoulder surgery. I was in a sling for 6 weeks after surgery, and am looking at about 6 months before I have (hopefully) full use of my shoulder again. At this point, recovery is going about average. I can lift my arm about 3/4 of the way straight up, and have similar motion in other directions. I go to physical therapy twice a week - although that might be going down to once a week fairly soon - and have daily stretching and strengthening exercises to do.

So, I have not done a bit of gardening since the initial injury on August 12th. Until just a few weeks ago, I was pretty p.o.'ed about it, too. When I first dislocated my shoulder, the vegetable garden was at its peak. I had planned to plant a whole new garden this fall. And even though fall clean-up isn't my favorite thing, I could hardly even help with that. Luckily my DH was kind and understanding, and helped with everything.

And, now that the gardening season is 100% over, I'm finally at peace with the fact that I had to drop everything, and am ready to look forward to the new year.

So, to anyone who's still out there - Hi! It's great to be back!

September Break

I haven't posted for awhile because my shoulder - dislocated three weeks ago - is still in recovery. Although it's much better, the doctor has specifically forbidden most garden tasks for the time being. Given this, I haven't had much to blog about.

Not only does my shoulder need more rest, but my mind does as well. Work has been crazy.  Plus, I'm also the (volunteer) president of a regional trade group, and our annual convention is next week. I have lots to do and definitely not enough time in which to do it.

So, rather than try to keep up with the blog over the next few weeks, I thought I'd leave you with a picture of our pond showing the transition to autumn that will no doubt be happening soon.