Recurring

It snowed again last night! I can't believe we've had snow two Saturday mornings in a row. We only got about half the amount of last week, but it was still pretty.

Shortly before dawn:

 

Then a couple of hours later when we took a walk...

Apparently January 29th is a good day for snow in South Carolina, because these popped up on my Facebook memories from this day in 2014. We had just adopted George the previous month.

I sure wish Ginger was here to romp in the snow with George again. She's still loved and missed. 

Just coping

 Hi everyone. Thank you all for all the kind and supportive comments on my last post. I can't respond to them individually at this point but please know that I've read and appreciated every single one of them.  

I fear this is turning into the My Dying Dog blog, which can't be very much fun to read. I'm sorry. Life feels like it's in this weird transitional period, a kind of shitty and depressing limbo between our old life with Ginger and what comes after. In a little over a week I'll return to work full time after 5 months of being at home. Establishing new routines and getting back on a schedule will have to help. 

That said, I'm glad I have another week at home with George. He's going to be alone during the day for the first time since we adopted him, and another week with me will hopefully help him adjust a bit more beforehand. He's having a really hard time with Ginger's passing. He's confused, anxious, and sticking to me like glue. I catch him listening hard to the slightest noises in the house, and looking around the porch and backyard sometimes. It's pretty obvious he's listening and looking for Ginger, and doesn't understand what's happened. He looks at me sometimes with these big, sad, questioning eyes and it's heartbreaking. We're trying to be cheerful and matter of fact with him to help curb some of the anxiety. We're taking him for extra walks to burn off some of that tension, too. I don't know what else to do but to give him time. 

You know what doesn't help George (or us, for that matter)? Marco calling several times a day, "GINGEEEERR! GINGER!"  Every time he hears us call for George, he has to follow up and call for Ginger, too. It's really sad. (Be aware of these things if you ever get the crazy idea that owning a parrot would be nothing but fun). It makes us sad to hear him call out to her, and it's pretty obvious he's wondering what happened to her and where she went. Maybe he's missing her, too. We had her already when he came to live with us all those years ago.

I've discovered that grief is exhausting. Gregg, George, and I have all been feeling tired and listless. In an effort to take care of us all, I did some cooking yesterday afternoon. I made spaghetti sauce from scratch and let it simmer for hours, filling up the house with a delicious smell. When I looked in on the boys after finishing some stuff in the kitchen, this is what I saw.

Poor guys were both worn out. Gregg never naps, so this was a surprise. I stayed as quiet as I could and let them sleep for the next hour or so.  Later we had big bowls of delicious spaghetti, the best (and biggest) meal we had eaten in many days. We both felt a little better for it. I made a lot of sauce, so the extra is slowly heating back up in the crockpot for tonight's meal. It smells even better today.

So that's it. We're hanging in there and coping with this transition for our little family as best we can. Thanks again for all the support. It really means a lot.

Wednesday odds and ends

Last week a surprise package arrived at our house with goodies for me and the dogs--all the way from Arizona! Thank you Parsnip for the lovely gifts and for your thoughtfulness!

A pretty windchime for the porch!

The dogs playing with one of the two toys sent for them. There were also yummy chicken treats included in the box that they love!

So it's officially summer break. I still can't believe that in a few weeks I'll be starting my fourth year at the school. I feel so fortunate to have such a great schedule these days, with summers off. I don't have any big plans for the summer. If we can resume most normal activities (with precautions like face masks, social distancing, etc) I'll be satisfied with that. 

My book club will be meeting later this month for the first time since February. I've really missed those women! The book for this month is The Gown by Jennifer Robson. It was a fictional story of two women who worked as embroiderers for Queen Elizabeth's wedding gown. This book was.....okay. The writing was kind of thin and the ending was predictable. It was a quick easy read, though. I also went ahead and read the book we'll be discussing in November, The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine. It was trashy fun, like a soap opera, and a good mindless summer read. It would be perfect for the beach. I also downloaded a copy of The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England the other day, thinking I might enjoy it after my Phillipa Gregory kick last year. I'm halfway through and to be honest, I doubt I finish it. It's really kind of boring, and all the names start to run together after a while (particularly Henrys and Richards) and are difficult to keep straight. Oh, well. It was only $1.99 to download it onto my Nook app so at least I wasn't out much money.

We're still seeing lots of birds at the feeder, including the pair of Painted Buntings. We've also been spotting small rabbits by our back fence! We see them almost every day lately. I've taken to putting out leftover (wilting) salad greens and chunks of cucumber whenever I have them for the rabbits to enjoy. The other night we saw a deer run through our neighbor's yard, and this was dead on the road near our house:

A harmless corn snake. We're not sure what happened to it.

So that's about it for today. We're still spending lots of time on our porch, enjoying the (still relatively cool) summer weather and all the birds and wildlife. Speaking of which, let me show you how spoiled my dogs are. We were out there the other day, and tried to get the dogs to come out with us. But it was a little bit on the warm side, and they preferred to stay inside where there was a/c....except they wanted the door open so they could look out which also let out the cold air:

Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled!

Sunday photo parade

I actually have some plans to socialize this afternoon! Yippee! Marla is coming over later and we're going to sit on the porch (6 feet apart, of course) and drink wine and spend some time hanging out. It will be the first time in months that we've had a chance to catch up! I gave the porch a good cleaning yesterday to get ready, and this morning I'm going to clean the main bathroom and then maybe bake some goodies. I don't have a lot of time to blog, though, so....

in lieu of a regular post here are some photos I took over the past few days. I hope you enjoy them!Have a great Sunday, everyone.

Graffiti spotted around town the other day.

I was sorely tempted to buy this Pride champagne at the grocery store

 yesterday. I may have to go back for a bottle soon!

Thank you Spo for my raven mask! I love it!

Dog photos are a given.

And of course, Marco can't be left out.

The moon and Venus rising above our neighborhood the other night while we walked the dogs.

Bringing in May

Another week of lockdown has come and gone. The time really flies when you're stuck at home, doesn't it? Our state is slowly opening back up while our positive cases continue to climb and climb. Florence county is leading the way with big daily increases, as well as number of deaths relative to the rest of South Carolina. It's already May so who knows how much longer social isolation will need to be maintained? I'm tired of it all (who isn't?) but since our local numbers keep going up this is no time to throw caution to the wind. I miss normal life so much, though.

Speaking of which, two of my book club friends and I found a creative way to spend time together on Saturday morning! We went through the drive-thru at Krispy Kreme in our individual cars for doughnuts and coffee, and then found an empty parking lot where we parked our cars in a triangle formation and rolled down the windows to talk. It was so good to see their faces!

The back porch and the bird feeder continue to be a daily source of happiness. On Thursday evening, May Eve, we saw two rabbits run the length of our back yard along the property line just before sunset! They appeared to be headed towards the creek. That was the first time we've ever seen rabbits at this house, and it seemed to be an auspicious date for it. Rabbit sightings have always been a sort of personal good luck omen to my husband and me. We started spotting them over and over in the weeks leading up to our wedding (14 years ago now) and during our honeymoon. The Painted Buntings are still visiting our feeder, much to my delight. The male is like a little flying jewel, with all his gorgeous colors, and the female is the most beautiful shade of yellowish green. They're exceedingly rare in this area and I'm shocked that they've stayed around for a full week already. The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were only here for two days, sadly, but I expected that because they're known for migrating through our state but not sticking around. I feel lucky that we got to see them at all.

We're not the only ones enjoying the back porch these days.

Marco, Ginger, and George all enjoy spending time out there, too. Not at the same time though!Marco can scream so loud that both of the dogs avoid him as much as possible. They dread those ear-piercing shrieks (so do we). When we bring Marco out, both dogs make a beeline back inside the house. Which is for the best, considering that they don't like him much to begin with and if he flew down into their faces something bad could happen. We try to be really careful when he's out of his cage around them.

Today is yet another beautiful day for going outdoors. It's still nice and cool, the sun is bright, and the sky is as blue as can be. I'll be out on the porch watering plants, filling the feeder, and afterwards maybe reading a book. How do you plan to spend your Sunday, friends? Whatever you're up to, I hope you're all well and having a good day!

Dog days at home

Remember when I told you that our dog Ginger hated to come inside the house and we had to make her do it to escape the heat? Well, she's quickly come to appreciate air conditioning and now we have to make her go back outside at night! What a change!

Both of the dogs have decided that they love being indoors, and they've mostly been good as gold when they're in here. Unfortunately, Marco the bird is NOT happy with this arrangement because he has to stay in his cage all day (except for a few minutes here and there when I close off the back half of the house where the dogs like to nap) until we put them back out for the night. It's been a real pain, confining him to his cage so much because he screams and screeches with frustration. I don't blame him, either. But we don't dare trust the dogs with him, as they've both been known to catch and kill squirrels in the past. And Marco wouldn't know any better but to fly right up to them with his typical parrot cockiness. This is the main reason the dogs have always lived in the garage, laundry room, and backyard, to ensure Marco's safety....but it's too darn hot for that right now, so we all have to manage the best we can. The dogs are getting terribly spoiled, though.

Speaking of spoiled (and entitled) let me tell you what Ginger did on the 4th of July. I had cooked a special meal to mark the holiday and to have a small break from my diet. We had fried chicken, homemade biscuits, corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, and a baked cherry crumble made with fresh cherries I had spent the afternoon pitting. Well, when it was time to eat dinner we decided to eat in the den in front of the tv so we could watch a movie. We had just put our plates of food down on the coffee table, and Gregg went to the bathroom while I went back to the kitchen for something to drink. When I came back, guess what I saw? Our "good" dog, Miss Ginger, had helped herself to a fried chicken drumstick off Gregg's plate!  I couldn't help but laugh even though it was a very naughty thing to do. As I said, she's our "good" dog, our "smart, well behaved, never does anything wrong" dog....and there she was, a chicken thief! Poor Georgie, who always gets blamed for being a wild child and is always in trouble, wouldn't have dared to do such a thing! Haha.

Marla came to visit the other day and brought baby Carsen. It was their first trip out together without daddy (he was at work). I made George go outside while they were here. He means well, but he's huge (88 pounds) and goofy and excitable and I wasn't comfortable having him around such a small baby. Ginger, on the other hand, is steady and sensible and well behaved, and so I let her stay inside and meet Carsen. She was fascinated with that tiny little human! She sniffed her carefully, wagged, and then sat at Marla's feet and watched the baby closely. Every time Carsen fussed a little Ginger would gently touch her foot or hand with her nose, and her eyes were full of concern. Gregg and I were so surprised at how much Ginger seemed to like her, given that she's never been around babies, and only rarely has been exposed to children at all. It was really sweet!

I feel like I'm spending my whole summer watching over the dogs since they're in the house. George has done one bad thing--he got a paperback novel and chewed it up while I was in the other room one day, and I also caught him with one of my socks in his mouth another time. I'm trying to be vigilant about watching him so that nothing of value gets destroyed, because chewing is his favorite thing to do when he's bored. I feel like I have two kids tying me down these days! Make that three if you count Marco.

Hurricane Hounds

I took Ginger and George for a quick walk this morning before the wind and rain from (now tropical storm) Irma began. We won't be able to go tonight at our ordinary time. I think they appreciated a quick stretch of the legs--those two are always down for a walk.







What they don't appreciate is having their pictures taken. Look at this close up of Ginger's face!

I'm beginning to see reports of power outages around town, so who knows if I'll have power much longer. But we're all safe and well and for the most part, out of harm's way.

Scenes from a morning walk

Daffodils are beginning to bloom beside my house.

Beautiful sky on a windy February day.

Yet another blooming tulip magnolia in my neighborhood.

The dogs just finished leaving "pee-mail" for their buddy Bob the German shepherd.

It's a beautiful day outside, windy and cool with lots of sunshine and big fluffy clouds. I'm still struggling a bit with depression, but time spent outdoors with Ginger and George helps.

(Also, I finally found something new I want to read! Rumer Godden is one of my very favorite authors, and I've never been able to find a copy of  her book "Black Narcissus" which was made into a movie a long time ago. Last night I typed her name into a search engine on my Nook, and several of her books are now available for download...including Black Narcissus! I'll be reading for the rest of my afternoon off!)

Have a good one!

Summertime project for our dogs!

With record high temperatures forecast for the next several days (102°F to 104°F highs accompanied by high humidity) we've been worried about Ginger and George.

They're outside dogs due to my allergies, George's destructive tendencies, and our concern for our bird Marco's safety. They live in our garage, which has access to our main house entrance, the laundry room, and a large fenced yard so it's not like they're really outdoors....but the garage and laundry room are not air conditioned. (There is a large fan in front of their big doggie bed that runs 24/7 in the summer, though). Anyway, their quarters get pretty darn hot in the summertime and we've been looking for a cost effective way to keep them more comfortable.

Well, we found a project on Pinterest and YouTube for a homemade, low cost "air conditioner" and we decided to give it a try. Behold, the finished masterpiece currently cooling down the laundry room for our beloved pups!

It's an old cooler we had stashed away in the garage. We used a Dremel to cut out a hole in the top just big enough to insert a tiny fan purchased at the dollar store for $4. Near the bottom we cut out a hole just big enough to insert a piece of PVC pipe for an air outlet. (You can see it on the left side, just not very well.) Inside the cooler we put 3 gallon jugs of frozen water. The fan on top pushes warm air in and around the ice, and then the air exits through the PVC in a cool stream.

There you have it...easy, energy efficient a/c for the dogs! We can re-freeze the jugs of water at night in our deep chest freezer. Besides the $4 we spent on the fan, and another $1 for a roll of duct tape (to seal the cut edges of the cooler before adding the fan and pipe) this didn't cost us anything as we used stuff we had around the house.

Now there's a small comfortable room for Ginger and George to retreat to during the hottest part of the day!