It started with my raspberries…  While picking, if I happened to drop one precious berry, zoom came Bailey to gobble it up.  It was only a matter of time until she put two and two together and realized that she could nibble off the red, juicy, dangling berries with ease.  Now when ever I’m weeding, and hear a rustle rustle coming from my berry bushes, I know her face will pops out with a red raspberry grin.  Stinker!

Unfortunately…  that same two and two became apparent in my pea patch as well.  She watched me pulling and picking plump pods and began helping herself.   She pulls pods right off the vine, yes she does…crunch, crunch, crunch.

I wonder how long it will be until I find her digging up carrots, snacking on a radish, or enjoying my salad greens.

Needless to say I no longer wonder where Miss Bailey has gone when she disappears from view.   I know she is where I wish I could always be, dodging honey bees among-st the tasty things that are growing in my garden.  And to think I have been worried about the deer…

I gratefully live in a pristine area of the country.  The Sand Hill Cranes were in my front yard last week, the Canadian Geese were squawking on my rooftop yesterday, and I often share a carrot with the neighbor’s horse and mules’ right over my back fence.  I like to walk the golf course across the street in the off season; littered with mountain views and babbling streams.

Early this morning with a spring snow falling, my doggy and I were meandering along on our walk.  I noticed someone else had been on the golf course ahead of us as large booted and four legged footprints stretched out across the snow.  I was lost in thought and meditating as I walked along, and hadn’t realized that I had gravitated to “their” path and was following the footsteps ahead of me.

As I became aware of my following, I looked around at the wide open golf course and to all of the untouched snow.  My dog Bailey booked it out in front of me, wild and free, paused and looked back with her head tilt of “well are you coming?”

Excitedly  I veered off in my own direction sinking my booted feet deep, making my own prints in the snow.   A snow angel may have even been made.

I tend to stay in the lines.   My husband often chuckles as he is taking short cuts and I am following the trail map.  Most days, I tend to like the sidewalks with their delineated lines, or pathways with their inviting turns, but not today.   Today, I am grateful for the simple reminder that indeed I am the captain of my ship, or more importantly today the driver of my boots.

Don’t worry!  I left some for the bees…

I chuckled as I was going through a box of papers from my younger years and found diary after diary with only a few entries at the beginning.  In each of these sad displays was written “I am really going to be better about writing this time”.  The rest of the pages were blank.   Continue Reading

I was arranging these tulips the other day and came a cross this crooked bloom in one of the bunches. Continue Reading