Memorial Monday was a wet foggy day but of course there is always fun to be had somewhere, somehow. Holly and I started our day at Home Depot where I picked out some flowers. The hanging baskets are a start for my yard. What a difference to ones mood when you can look at the yard and see some color! I am starting with only three baskets until the weather and temperatures are more stable. The yellow dahlia was dropped off at Steve’s house, in memory of dear Deb.
With all the recent rain my backyard is a swampy, soggy mush field filled with dandelions. I went to Ace Hardware to buy a dandelion remover tool and the young man helping me asked what a dandelion was. His co-worker saved him with a quick and simple explanation – “He’s from California.”. I left with a new long handled tool and the Californian, now Duluthian, had a lesson about dandelions. Holly has gotten quite familiar with dandelions herself. She has teamed up with me in the dandelion reduction mission. As I poke and lift, she jumps in for the grab and pull. At first I was shushing her away and then I saw that she was actually quite skilled at biting the top and pulling the whole root out then shaking the dirt off. I stopped shushing and let her go at it. She often shakes the leaves and stems until they come apart, making extra clean up for me – but raking the remains of a weed is far easier than fighting to get its deep roots out of the ground. So we walk the yard, me poking and lifting and her grabbing and pulling. While I look for my next target, Holly does a quick victory lap before coming in for the next pull.
There is an assortment of dog toys in the backyard, mostly frisbees and balls. I posted the other day a picture of Holly with two frisbees in her mouth. She has upped the anty and now carries three toys in one grab (picture below). DeeAnn once said that Holly seems to beg us for new challenges. I had thought the two-toy carry was a fluke that I happen to witness. Now I’m not so sure. I watched her carrying two toys and run to a third, trying, trying, and trying to get three toys under her control. Then she did it! And her head went up and off she ran with a proud trot showing the world that she has just accomplished what she had set out to do. What I thought was a fluke was her creating her own challenge and making her own fun.
Holly’s gardening doesn’t stop with weed pulling. She also likes to dig roots from the garden bed and tree trunks. This I do shush and scold her from doing. In the course of one of her digs, a coin shaped chip was uncovered. It took me awhile but I was able to scrub it down to the point where I identified it as a Kennedy half dollar, 1974. A fun find but I’ll still be discouraging her digging.
A prior post I had mentioned my purchase of a ramp for Holly to use when getting in/out of the backseat of my car. End result is that after she looked at the ramp, she decided she would rather just jump out of the car. I told her I’m keeping the ramp. As we all know – if I keep the ramp, there will never be a need; if I return the ramp, it will be needed soon thereafter.
Whisker Showdown
Triple Play
