August 18 2010

We just had our second annual American Brittany NY/NJ/CT Picnic this past Saturday, and while once again Brian and I came dogless, we had plenty of doggie pals to keep us busy. Unfortunately, the CT contingent, consisting entirely of Arley the Adorable and his parents Helaine and Bob,could not join us because: a) they are packing up and hitting the retirement road in an RV with Arley and his soon to be brother Joe in a few days; and b) because I recruited Helaine as the only other CT contact I had to help me bust Sadie out of doggie jail and get her back here (more below). But we still managed to be a two-state picnic, as Baby Missy was kind enough to bring her folks, Marianne and Joe, up from NJ.
As you can see, we had perfect weather, great food, beautiful dogs, good company, and all one could want in an outdoor event. This is especially significant since it's been raining/pouring in 5 minute intervals for weeks now - so an entire sunny day that was NOT 104 (yes, seriously, we hit 104 for several days in a row, of course while our air conditioner had died)was a real treat.

Other than Baby Missy and senior (10+ years old) Rosie
getting a bit growly when they were introduced to dogs while on leashes, it was very congenial. And the growly girls were easily managed by their devoted folks.


Thurman, the liver and white dog who is part of Tracey and Lynn's ever-growing pack, was the only male in the entire group. He is a sweet and fairly goofy, deaf, beautiful boy that was just astonished when Missy did not appreciate his friendly overtures (everyone else did!).

We had such a good time that although we had agreed to leave by 5, it was 6:30 before anyone headed out. I just LOVE this group, once again the picnic was the highlight of my summer.

And as for Sadie, who arrived here the day after the picnic, the story is surprising and sad. Apparently the vigorous exercise rollerblading several times a week, and the dog-friendly but very busy neighborhood where she lived was just too much for her.
After months of friendly and positive calls and emails, with absolutely no hint that things were anything but fine, I got an email with the subject line "Sadie needs to be returned", informing me that my little angel dog was currently in quarantine for a dog fight which resulted in someone allegedly getting bitten. Yes, I was shocked, it was as if someone just informed me that my Tante Annette, a tiny and petite woman who lived to be almost 101, had just ax-murdered someone.

As I scurried around trying to wrap my head around the horrible attack dog that was now being describe, and find out just what doggie jail she was in, and get a transport in place, I reviewed every single document I ever got about Sadie, from the very first NC contact. No one, and nothing, indicated anything other than she was "skittish around other dogs" and a very shy girl. Now in my world, skittish and unmanageably aggressive are not the same thing. Over the week and a half I had to get everything done and prepare for Sadie's return, I got more information from Helaine, who had graciously volunteered to dogsit Sadie when her adopter left for a vacation he'd planned prior to adopting her. She "went for" Arley the very first time they were introduced (both on those extendable leashes I now have another reason to loathe). I guess Arley came up too fast for her comfort. She lunged at him and fortunately grabbed his harness instead of himself; Arley shrieked (Arley shrieks at the lighting of a match as well), Helaine inserted herself, stuck her hand in Sadie's mouth, and Sadie let go. They all went inside, Helaine agreed to still keep her, and for four days and nights, when the adopter was absent from the scene, she had not one more problem. Sat on the floor with a dog on each side getting pets, walked them one on each side of her every day - does that sound like a ravening wolfish killer dog? Not to me either. This was the first "episode", and I can almost understand why no one told me. But what about the second, third, etc?


So Sadie is back here, just as I remember her but with a bit more pulling on the slip leash (I'm guessing the rollerblading sessions had Sadie in the lead). She looked so sad when we finally met up with Helaine and Bob, and didn't much react to either Brian or to me at first. But when we got home and got her out of the car, she seemed to recognize the place, and relax a bit. Now, three days into our next chapter of life with Sadie, she's been to the vet, had any physical reason for her strange behavior ruled out, and I am composing paragraphs in my head to post on the net that will be fairly accurate but not scare off any and all potential adopters. Suggestions welcome!

As for the garden, you might guess by the lack of photos just how poorly the vegetables are doing this year. 4 zucchini, 2 cucumbers, 4 tomatoes, lots of basil and of course hysterically happy sunflowers are what we've eaten so far. The eggplant and chilis are still tiny and I have yet to spot an eggplant, though I can see the flowers are setting. There are 4 tiny chilis, about 3 inches long, on one of the six tiny plants. I have no explanation for this. However, the goldfinches are wildly enthusiastic about the sunflowers, no doubt because they are so color-coordinated, and regularly swarm the vegetable cage except of course when I head out with my digital camera - poof, they're gone! And the squirrels too are having a great time climbing up and down the chicken wire, pulling off wilted sunflower heads and sitting on the top of the cage throwing out what they don't want to eat. That too would be a great photo if I could ever get it - but I am just not dedicated enough to set up and wait, so you'll have to use your imagination.

That is the up to date report. Having a dog with a rap sheet is a new experience for me, but thankfully Sadie is oblivious and just wants to sleep, eat, and get some affection, all of which can easily be managed. And your news?

July 28 2010

For the first time I can remember, I'm deliberately growing sunflowers (as opposed to the appreciated but unplanned sunflowers the birds plant) and I'm impressed! We got two kinds of seed last year. Our neighbor George was growing some three-foot bright orange sunflowers in a planter, and we gathered some of those really tiny seeds in the fall. And the monestary had huge yellow sunflowers in their garden, and, as always, was very willing to share. So I carefully kept the seeds separate, and tracked where I planted what.


As you can see, they are all beautiful, but not one single short orange plant in the bunch. This same thing happened to me with white marigolds, seeds of which I got at my sister's place years ago. The flowers from which I got the seeds looked just like regular marigolds, except they were creamy white. The plants I got at home were three feet tall! and in some cases, instead of marigold petals, they looked like pinwheels! I guess all this cross-breeding and such make it hard for an amateur like me to know what to expect. Maybe that's the point?

The other garden news is that tonight we ate the first tomato and it was spectacularly sweet! Our plants, alas, are skimpy, but the few very big tomatos that are on them look good.


While the sunflowers, ecchinachea and hydrangea are having a decent summer, the lilies are all dried up, and the vegetable garden (aside from it's completment of boisterous sunflowers) is struggling.

We've gotten a few zucchini already, but two of the four plants rotted at the ground line, and I'm not quite sure why. Five of our six cucumber plants had a close encounter with something awful early on (I'm thinking skunk or cat pee) and died overnight, leaving just one frail survivor. The basil is growing, and I've gotten some batches of pesto cubes done, but the plants are much smaller than last year. And the peppers look about the same as when we planted them months ago.

The month's nicest surprise was when Lisa and Josh called from the road, on what they thought would be a day trip with the girls from NYC, and ended up being an overnight stay with us. Chef Brian sprang into action, and we all enjoyed the result.

And the next morning, most of us went frog hunting down at the pond. Hyla came prepared with her own net! Too much fun!




Not quite everyone went on the hunt; they also serve who sit and watch!

July 3 2010

Dog News: Just in time for Independence Day, Baby Missy went "home" forever this past Tuesday. Her new family, Marianne and Joe, already think she's the best dog in the world - and of course, for them, I agree! She's our seventh rescue, and while every dog has been very different, each one has brought such joy (and, I must admit, occasional moments of chaos bordering on hysteria). Little Missy was by far the youngest dog we've fostered, as our vet put her age at no more than 3, and probably closer to 2.
She is such a baby girl that even I couldn't resist putting a bow on her for the going home trip - which is quite unusual for me. Last time I had such an impulse must have been decades ago when Day Rose K. was a baby herself - and she's now a married woman in her 30's.

Missy's new dad is wheelchair bound from an old motorcycle accident, so Baby Missy is going to learn a few new helpful tricks, and be a semi-service dog. I'm sure she can do it. She bonded instantly with her new mom, as you can see by the photo. Marianne was ready to take her home from the very first meeting, but wanted to take a week off work to settle her in with Joe, who works from home, so we all had to wait another few weeks till she could get someone to cover for her. And in between, they drove up for a visit (2 hours each way, this couple was REALLY committed to adopt this dog) which was lots of fun for us all, even though Joe had to patiently wait in the driveway by his van, as our house is not wheelchair friendly. But Missy graciously checked in on him whenever she was walking by, and stopped for friendly pets as well.
It's still a bit weird and too quiet here without a tail-wagging, nails-on-floor-clicking little furry pal around, but I am using the time to good purpose (the War on Weeds, which is longer than any other war as it is endless) and will be ready for another foster soon; just not till I get a few more mornings where I don't have to get up at 6 a.m. and let Missy out.

Garden news: After several weeks of too much rain, we've hit a dry spell. The formerly soggy terraces now have weeds that seem cemented in, despite my best mole imitation efforts to pry them loose. But some plants are happy in the heat - just look at our yucca! When we first moved to West Virginia all those years ago, I was astonished to see yucca plants along the sides of the roads, as I thought they were only desert plants. But much to my surprise, they do well there, and equally well here, as you can see. Our bergamot (bee balm) is also bursting with joy in the heat, and apparently is going to continue to grow straight up to heaven unless I intervene. Each year the plants get slightly taller - and this shot is AFTER I topped off quite a few to bring in the house for flower arrangements.
They have what I think is a very nice garlicky smell, but the deer disagree and won't eat them. Thus, along with the peonies and irises, these are the ones we dare to leave down in the lower terraces. Unfortunately, not so with our sunflower starts. We got some seeds from our neighbor, and also from the monastery, and planted them liberally all over the property. The pots on the front porch are fine, and the one stand next to the back door is too, but all the rest are just sadly truncated stems. Having not seen deer for a while, Brian and I made the wrong assumption that they were not here. I guess they were just waiting for their favorite buffet treats...

Other new: Yes, there is a bit that is neither dog nor garden related. In March of this year I began teaching a beginning calligraphy class in Middletown, about half an hour away. The class was only scheduled for 4 weeks, which I told my coordinator could not possibly be long enough to teach an entire alphabet, but she said to just start and see what happens. So we did, and at the end of each 4-week session, I had enough folks really wanting to learn the entire alphabet to continue!
So for 12 weeks I have been teaching what is essentially a secret calligraphy class, as none but the first of four sessions ever made it into the official calendar. At the third week of each session, my happy calligraphy ducklings promised to go on line to register for the next four week session - and did! So we are now in our 13th week, and will finally finish the Old English capital letters by the end of this session. It's my first calligraphic employment in New York State! And while the pay is predictably disappointing (less than half what I used to get in SB), I have never had a more enthusiastic or hard-working group. They are just great, I hate to let them go and am plotting to recruit them for yet another secret class of perhaps Fractor or 16th Century Tudor, if I can keep them coming back. I dream of creating a calligraphic community here, with all the great things we used to do in SB: fairs, picnics, meetings (okay, not everything was so great, but at least at the meetings we all got to see each other).
And here are a few happy faces sharing their works - these were done after only the first 8 weeks, when we hadn't yet begun the capitals. Their final project will be the same quote, only this time with ALL the letters properly done!

June 7 2010

Peonies: Yes, it's that time of year again. While these make look remarkably like last year's peonies, I just can't resist taking more shots. They are so spectacular! And each flower is unique, especially the pinky-whites, with those random flecks of red here and there. Though to be fair to the reds, they are more prolific (we've already started a second terrace of them when we divided last fall) and smell better.

Party and Pups: .
We had a small gathering yesterday to celebrate Brian's 68th birthday (yes, we are indeed getting older faster). Here's Brian with one of his kindergarten friends, Jerry. The other, Sanford, came with his wife Maria. Also our Newburgh friends Ken and Carole came by. Old friends and new, all were welcome



And I waited till the party was over to share with you our new foster dog Missy, as I wanted to see how she did. In a word: wonderful!
Little Missy was abandoned at a dog park in Long Island a bit over a month ago, by a woman who had her only three weeks. Fortunately there were a couple of much kinder women who worked for a vet, taking a break there. Missy got out of a small hole in the fence, and the unkind woman told the vet techs that she had gotten out of her fenced yard, and she was done with her. How horrible! The vet techs took her back to the clinic, removed ticks, bathed her, and brought her up to date on her shots, then called American Brittany Rescue to find her a great home. As I was not available right away, another volunteer took her, and within the first 24 hours she got away from his place too! Though in Missy's defense, an open door/gate policy is not likely to work with foster dogs, at least not right away.

So here I was, expecting people, kids and dogs, with a dog that I'd been told was not only an escape artist, but also rather snappish at first with other dogs. I was a bit apprehensive... okay, more than a bit.


Lisa, Josh, Hyla and Ayro arrived first. As you can see, no problems there. Then Daniel and Tim came with Ruby, the perfect dog - she can be unleashed and actually stays right by their sides (unlike any of my dogs, including dear departed Saul who lived to run down the beach at Santa Barbara becoming a smaller and smaller dot on the horizon, completely oblivious to the repeated appeals to return).

Then in quick succession, Tracey and Lynn (the superwomen who have a permanent pack of eight and frequently foster bringing the total to a dozen) with my former foster Brittie and their (sadly) blind girl Chilly (shown here wearing her kerchief that boldly declares: "I'm Blind!" - Tracey and Lynn think of everything!). And more people, and food on the table, and much commotion.
Missy outdid herself, kissing everyone including the babies very carefully, laying down next to each dog, and wagging and smiling at everyone that came in. Snappish? Escape artist? She couldn't get close enough!

And Hyla, who loves dogs dearly, was not only happy with the pack of four, but decided to try out the alluring crate - as you can see, she kept herself (and me and Missy) quite amused!

So that's the news from here. Though it rained hard, off and on, all day, and we never did grill anything, everyone was fine inside and the food (potlucks are always so good) was delicious and abundant. We all had a wonderful time, and when Brian headed out to the train station with Lisa, Josh, Hyla and Ayro to take them back to NYC, I looked around at my dog-hair-covered house, the remains of gift wrapping and paper plates, and an exhausted dog, and realized there's a reason why people should have kids when they're young. Now, for more sleep!

April 26 2010

The garden is really changing daily now - daffs mostly just a fond memory,
bleeding hearts the most spectacular bloom this week, rhods and peonies and allium and so much else just waiting for these three days' rain to pass to burst into color. We are working on the triangle section mostly these days, as we had a tree right in the center removed last year, which of course changes everything. Too bad it had to go, but several ornamental trees, thought I guess to stay small forever, grew over twenty feet since we arrived and were just too close to the house for comfort. When the big winds come up (and they are really BIG WINDS) even the huge oaks get whipped around like grass, so we like a nice wide barrier between us and anything that might crash through the roof.



Aside from gardening, two other news items worth mentioning. First, the ongoing plumbing problems, which have been plaguing us for several months. We had pipes blown out, water softener system rerouted, septic tank cleaned (thankfully that was NOT the problem, insert your own joke here), and finally Brian pretty much dug up the dry well and we had all that reconfigured too. I am delighted to report that for the last two weeks, we've been able to run the dishwasher and the washing machine without any mopping up of floors (our laundry room got very clean in those months of overflow). Please note the charming pink duct tape (thank you, Maia) that helped these efforts.





Second, both Brian and I have finally gotten some classes to teach, both on Wednesday evenings. His is being funded by a grant, so the class is free to the students, and you can imagine how happy those students are to get Brian's level of expertise for free. Mine are through SUNY Orange in Middletown. I've got a rabidly enthusiastic group of 13 for Old English Beginning Calligraphy, so enthusiastic that they literally demanded a second 4-week course so we could get through the alphabet. They are lovely people, so nice to each other as well as to me, it's a delight to teach. I had forgotten how much fun it is to share calligraphy skills and stories with such a rapt audience. And I also did a one-time workshop teaching the hand-done Japanese bind for small books.
While only three women showed up for this one, I still enjoyed the time spent. I've been wanting to run these classes for the entire seven years we've been here - so at last I have two hours' gainful employment each week. Does this mean the economy is really picking up? As I've been in the sad category of "stopped looking for work" for quite a while now, my statistical improvement may not be the spike the economy needs.

That's it from here, what news out there?

April 4 2010

At last, the rains have stopped, the snows have melted, and we are able to take stock of what survived both, and what did not. The spate of warm weather right now has opened most of the narcissus, jonquils and crocus, along with the big forsythia bushes that are now bright yellow all around the property.
The photos here are of just a fraction of what we had to cut off after the Big Snow, to try to clean up the snapped branches inside the fence. Those on the other side of the fence, amazingly, apparently just laid on the fence itself under mounds of snow until the warm weather liberated them - and now they are waving their yellow plumes a good three feet above the six foot fence! Ah, the resiliency of plants, wish I had as much!

March 3 2010

February 2010: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, over and over again all month.

February trip to Illinois, Best: a visit to Mom, who while still not completely recovered physically from five months of various illness, still has her spirit, sanity, and beauty intact. She is and has been the most resilient and remarkable woman I have known personally, and even at ninety-plus, the rock of our family. Just being with her is calming, reassuring, and entertaining as well. Also "best", seeing my ever-accommodating nieces Abbey and Kim, along with their ever-entertaining children, Catcher, Dakota (Abbey and Eric's twins, now three, and Cameron, Kim and Brian's son who had his first birthday last November) and in Kim's case, my stalwart nephew-in-law, Brian the Younger. Dakota is so like her mother at that age, determined, very smart, with lots of opinions. Catcher speaks exclusively in exclamation marks, as in "I'm a BIG boy now!" or (my own favorite, told to me by Mom: "I took a HUMONGOUS poop!") Cameron is just starting to talk in English (he's been babbling in his own language for quite a while, we just couldn't get it), and amused us all by pointing to every photo in Mom's apartment and repeating "baby", no matter what was in the frame, and then pointing to the TV and saying "hockey" over and over. He also decided that Mom's cane, turned upside down, was in fact a hockey stick, and is surprisingly accurate at anything and everything that serves him as a puck - sometimes including his own mother (if she's on the floor and he's in the mood).

Worst: would have been getting delayed two extra days due to horrible weather, but the taxi to the airport won over the weather by the proverbial mile. Beginning with the driver not being able to work the walkie-talkie (or whatever device has superseded it these days) and spending the first ten minutes not looking at the road AT ALL, so that I had to rather forcibly remind him that the light was red and he really had to stop, and continuing as we careened onto the tollway, where I watched every single vehicle pass us as if we were standing still, while he informed me that there seemed to be a small problem with the motor, culminating with our running out of gas (due to the small problem, I assume, but maybe completely unrelated) and coasting at a snail's pace to the first safe spot anywhere near my terminal. Travel is always so interesting, in the Chinese sense.

The Westminster Dog Show at Madison Square Garden, Best: we went thanks to our generous ABR buddies Daniel and Tim. We drove out in (once again) terrible weather to the train station, ate our sandwiches aboard, then met up with the guys and Tracey and Lynn (Brittie's mommies and leaders of the pack of eight) and Sue, my ABR state coordinator, with whom I've exchanged hours of phone calls and emails but had never met face to face.

The dogs were just amazing! I've never seen a big formal dog show before, and I was in heaven! Of course the Brittanys were adorable, and we all noticed that these show pups were about half the size of our equally adorable but much less pampered rescue dogs. When I had the chance to go "backstage" to the benching area, I asked around to the various breeders and handlers, as to why that might be, and got some insight about it all. The most coherent answer seemed to be that show dogs have to conform to breed standards very rigidly to be shown at all, but the "backyard breeders" are just trying to get as many pups as possible as quickly as possible, so are often not aware, and almost always don't care, that the breed standard is something like 22 inches and 35 pounds. Even my smallest foster Bonnie was bigger than that - not that I love any of them any less, but it was interesting. Fickle heart that I am, I fell in love dozens of times, as dog after beautiful dog locked eyes with me across that crowded room and insisted I come over and chat. I must admit my most favorite of all the hundreds I saw was a spectacular English Setter - wish I had a photo to share, as words really can't do him justice. But as Brian and I couldn't find out whether or not we could bring digital cameras, just that unofficial videos were forbidden and those cameras would be confiscated, we decided to leave ours home. We were the only persons in attendance that made that decision! If we go again (I hope so) we will definitely bring a fully charged digital.

Even the breeds I normally don't care much about, like the Italian Mastiff (the Harry Potter three-headed dog was originally one, and I think they are just inherently ugly to my Brittany-loving eyes) looked adorable, and were so perfectly groomed even I had to admire their shiny coats and well-trimmed nails. And walking down an aisle of Great Danes and Bernese Mountain Dogs and Mastiffs is just incredible. There has to be another word than huge to describe these dogs that are WAY bigger than miniature horses (and in some cases bigger than regular ponies). Two of the Mastiffs were lying down in the aisle, already crowded with people and dogs more than LA freeways are with cars, stretched out to somewhere between seven or eight feet from head to tail, surrounded in both cases by a dozen little children petting them everywhere. They just smiled and wagged - which occasionally knocked down either a kid or a brush. No wonder they are considered such great family dogs!

Worst: the weather, which was non-stop sleet/snow from the time we left our house to the time we got back on the train. We left several hours earlier than planned because we were both getting anxious about the drive home from the train station. Fortunately by the time we got back to Middletown, the snow had stopped, but we (and all the other commuters) had to dig, sweep and shovel our cars out, all of which were now indistinguishable mounds of snow. Yikes!


The Big Storm: Worst - our power went out on Thursday February 25. We had the generator and our downstairs woodstove to help out, but by Friday, still without power, roads unplowed, and the generator rapidly running out of gas even though we shut it down completely at night, I was really getting worried. Brian called the road crews, to find out why even the bigger feeder road to our private road was untouched, and was told their crews couldn't get there because there was a tree down on the road entangled in wires, and that they, the road crews, had called the electric company to notify them their crews had to deal with it. We then called the electrical company and for the only time in five days, got a human being, who seemed surprised at that information, surprised we had no power, said they couldn't get crews in because the road wasn't plowed, and that he'd switch the call to the appropriate line and then hung up on us. Friday night as I was talking to Sue to find out what was going on in NYC, the phone line went dead as well. I was up most of the night anyway, stoking the fire and going to the window in hopes of seeing some sign of a plow.


Saturday morning a plow finally got through, and Brian went out in search of gasoline for our generator, and another five gallon container for even more gasoline. He'd been shovelling many many times a day, just paths to the car and the generator, but it was exhausting. The snow was wet and heavy and endless, the first two days I couldn't even see our own car out the window, just white blurry snow. When he made it back, he reported that one mile away the power was back on, and we were hopeful. Ha!

Late Saturday our phone line came back on partially. We have a phone jack that came with the house, like so much else that makes no sense, conveniently located against the wall next to the refrigerator in such a way as to make it almost invisible, and very hard to plug a phone into. It's always been the one line that worked even without power, though the feedback is impressively deafening. So I began to call the electric company emergency lines every two or three hours hoping to get some real information. Again, ha! By Sunday, one of the two "emergency" numbers was telling me when I dialed that it had been disconnected, no other explanation and no prompt to go anywhere else for information. That left just one annoying voicemail number to use. The electric company has cleverly figured out that there's no point in talking to any of us crazy, cold, frantic folks, and no longer allows access to humans, just voicemail and endless loops of how one can conserve energy.


When we drove out Monday afternoon, March 1, to pick up gas and Brian's pitifully small check for the school bus driving (he'd been snowed out of work along with everyone else for most of one week and part of another), the crews were already within blocks of our house. I had some faint hope that when we got back, we'd have power. But not. Then, later, when I staggered out to the mailbox, the crews and their two enormous trucks were directly across from our house - but we still had no power. When I saw them beginning to drive away, I flagged them down and told them that - they seemed really puzzled, as they'd cleared the line all the way down Roosa Gap, and we could all see that there were no trees or lines down around our house. I guess I must have looked pretty deranged, because they followed me on to our property to check the electric meter, to be sure it wasn't running. They were very nice young guys, from out of state (that's why they were so nice, I believe) but said they had no explanation as to why we weren't back on the grid. I pretty much pleaded with them to be sure and let the ever-unhelpful folks at O & R know that for sure, as I'd already gotten their annoying voicemail line telling me the restore times were hours after I was calling. That had been happening for days.

Why it went back on when it did, about four or five hours after we were able to speak in person to real human beings, I'll never know for sure. But it was a real delight to actually cook a meal Tuesday night at last, and to go to sleep Monday night with at least a reasonable hope that neither of us would have to get up every few hours to tend either the woodstove or generator.

These photos were all taken BEFORE the extra 30-plus inches of snow fell - the little shrub was completely covered when it was over, as were our forsythia, many of which were bent completely to the ground by the weight of the snow, and lots else. And, these were not supposed to be black and white, they were shot with color (theoretically) but these big storms just reduce everything to a very limited palette.

Best: It's over! I did get out Tuesday and carefully liberated our only surviving lilac bush, and was relieved to find it was only bent, not broken. But as for the snapped evergreens, the forsythia, and I'm not sure what else, we'll just have to wait until the snow melts at least a bit more to assess the damages and do some pruning.