Fields of gold

So while walking the dog today I remembered to bring the camera and took a few photos of the fields near us. But the dog was a bit camera shy: she wanted to have a good sniff at the camera before she'd give it her ok. Though it's a bit hard to take a steady picture when you have a dog on the end of a leash attempting to jiggle your arm and cause a comedy blurred photo. She chose that moment to let loose a string of about ten sneezes. I was not amused.

It has been a lovely spring day but I have to get ready to leave for work in about half an hour. Last night it was SO busy at work. The night before, too. We run out of clean dishes regularly and then have to put a delay on food. Though I don't mind if it's busy; the only thing is we sometimes finish late because of it. But the time passes really quickly. I'm still working evenings and that means I can get some stuff done in the morning before I have to work. If I work days, I don't feel much like cleaning or walking the dog afterwards. Too tired.

Beans

I will be glad when the weekend comes. Granted, I only have Saturday off, but at least it's a day off. We'll take the new dog to Sherwood Forest for a walk.

We have a new dog. Like Lucy, she's a rescue dog. Her name is Beauty, and she's a tiny who-knows-what-mutt, but she's very elegant and dainty. Partner thinks she looks like a miniature German shepherd: she certainly has the same brown/black coat markings. She's a bit shy and nervous but very sweet and quiet with good manners. We think she's about five or six years old. I also think she may have been neglected or even abused by past owners as she's slightly skittish and very very thin. But I love her already. Lucy could be a bit of a pest and was very headstrong and could be trying. I had to grow to love Lucy. Beauty is just naturally winsome. I am slightly scared though that she'll die suddenly like Lucy did. I know it's a bit irrational. There's no reason why she should. She's up here now with me while I'm at the computer; I put down an old hoodie of Partner's on the floor and she's happily curled up on it.

We walked to the local pond yesterday and saw Mother Duck and her dozen ducklings. They whiz around like they have little outboard motors. I guess they're a little early in the season but then, it is almost May. We also walked through a field of canola plants in rampant flower, like a bee's paradise. I think the smell is absolutely divine though it makes some people sneeze. The color too is enough to drive a nectar-eating insect into a frenzy: bright bright gold, so much that you can't see the foliage when the flowers are in full bloom.

Magazine

Partner and a neighbor cut down one of the trees in our yard today. It wasn't extremely tall, but it was quite ugly and extremely prolific and cast a lot of shade onto the garden. Known as an elder, it's basically a weed that was allowed to grow into a tree. Now it's scattered all over our back lawn. It seems a lot bigger on the ground than it was in the air.

I took photos of our garden today and uploaded them. They can be reached by clicking on the link on the top left of this page below my picture. The first twenty-five or so are new ones.

We've got frog eggs at last and today we heard a frog peeping in the pond. Some of them burp, but this one peeped. It's the first one verified this spring. Of course we've seen lots of them--as Partner says, they look like one trying to jump over another but got stuck halfway. Partner has very delicate sensibilities. When once at the zoo I saw a mandrill grab another and start bouncing back and forth; most of the people turned to the next exhibit quickly (I think my gramma covered my little cousin's eyes) but my mouth dropped open and I couldn't tear my eyes away. There was, however, something almost indecent about it: mandrills have little hands and little hips just like humans. I think my first memory of the zoo as a tiny child was seeing the big bull elephant peeing. Like someone had strapped a long grey hose to his underside, it just kept coming and coming. And he made a veritable pond at his feet. A person can learn a lot at the zoo.

Green

So we ought to get our new car in a few days. And Partner has been promised a promotion but we've heard that tune before, so I'll believe it when I see it. I cut the tip of my left index finger on some foil at work today. It's been bleeding a lot and I'm finding it difficult to type. Though I don't think there's blood on the keyboard.

We've had more good weather so I've been in the garden a lot. Partner cut down a small evergreen tree from our front yard and I think I want to move one of our hydrangeas there. We have two of them at the moment and one is very small and sickly. I think it needs moving to a more hospitable spot to grow a bit bigger. And the new ones I've been attempting to propagate from our big bush are not dead yet. I also want to propagate our clematises in the same way.

Easter has been ok for us. We haven't done anything huge and I did have to work, but I feel like I've had a good day. Partner cooked us a full Sunday roast dinner with meat, potatoes, and two veg and made some really tasty iced tea. We looked proudly at all our new flowers (tulips, forget-me-nots, and irises) and I had nice walks to and from bus stops in the sunshine.

The fuzz

I was thinking about the different plants we've got that self-seed. I've got poppies, foxgloves, feverfew, forget-me-nots, and nasturtiums. I generally find the foxgloves and feverfew all over the yard and either transplant them in groups or just pull them out altogether. The poppies I leave where they are and then pull out once the flowers are over. Nasturtiums seedlings get pulled out until about the middle of summer at which point I give up and let them run their course. I do like nasturtiums but they'll take over my beds and smother everything else if I don't keep on top of them. Around mid-July other the plants have had a chance to establish so they aren't bothered too much by a carpet of nasturtiums.

We've been pretty low on funds recently but hopefully that'll turn around soon. And we don't have a car nor have we had one since November, but Partner has been shopping around for a cheap old beater that'll last us a year. My new work schedule is such that I will be working moderately late nights and I'm not comfortable waiting for the bus home at 10.30pm. The bus only goes from work to our house once an hour, unless it doesn't come at all.

The weather was such today that I washed two whole loads of laundry and everything dried wonderfully outside. Washing machines in this country take more than an hour to go through a normal cycle so laundry can be an all-day affair. I much prefer to hang the laundry out to dry than put it in the dryer. They only things that go in the dryer are sheets and pillowcases. I'm trying to save the environment. And our electricity bill. Other things that I do to save e&e is unplug the entertainment center things (tv, dvd, etc) overnight and I try to turn off the computer at night too, though Partner likes to keep it running so he can download stuff. But I make him turn off the moniter at least.

I'm also trying to make sure all the dishes get done at night and the counters wiped down before we go to bed since we occasionally we see mice in the kitchen. If they find a free meal, they'll keep coming back. We have a few traps: one that kills and one that just catches. I don't like the kill one. I really don't like coming down in the morning and seeing a dead mouse on the floor. But then, coming down and seeing mouse poo on the counters doesn't exactly make my day either. When a mouse gets caught in the live trap, Partner will take it to work and set it free. I like mice. I like them in fields or forests or the pet shop. They're cute then. But house mice are not cute.

Ok they're cute; but I still don't like them.