Let’s Go Paint!

See my paint-splattered Rich and his faithful dog, Wally.  You can be sure Wally is thinking, “Oh, no, not this again.”



He knows what he has to do – just slip away with the paint rag.  It guarantees a little scritchy-scritchy before getting back to the boring stuff.



Don’t worry, Wally.  It will be done soon.  Hope you all had a good weekend!

Who Swallowed the Swallowtail’s Tail?

Poor Swallowtail’s wings look a little ragged.  The tails are gone and there’s a whole chunk missing from the left lower wing.  A narrow escape from a bird’s beak, perhaps?



This one appears to have had better fortune to date.  So pretty!




Just one more. . .



Swallowtails only live in their beautiful adult form a couple of weeks at best.   That’s not a lot of time to accomplish the very important task of carrying pollen from one flower to the next, not to mention posing for the camera and still finding time to reproduce.  Remind me not to complain when I feel pressed for time.

Have a lovely day, and take time to enjoy the moment!

Sunny Days Make Happy Pups and Pretty Flowers

Don’t they look cozy?  I always thought Wally and LuLu looked nice with yellow.  The flowers behind them are Million Bells, a new favorite.  They bloom profusely and never need trimming or deadheading.  I’ll be planting more next year.



I tried my best to get some good landscape shots of the garden, but for one reason or another they didn’t turn out well.  I always love this view of the deck, though, where I’m surrounded by color and I can change it up every year depending upon what I plant in the pots.  I plant more every year and spread them around the garden.  We have quite a deer problem and I’ve grown weary of sacrificing herbaceous perennials to their appetites.  At least the annuals grow right back, but it’s still aggravating when the deer stroll right up to the deck and nip the blooms off the geraniums (which they especially love). 



Here you can see a little more of the new yellow on the house.  Rich is on the home stretch this week.  It doesn’t seem like it should take so long, but with two coats of primer and two coats of color it’s like painting the house four times.  And all with a brush and roller.  We can’t use a sprayer here because of the wind.  Honestly, if Rich doesn’t do another single chore this summer I’ll be okay with that.



Have yourself a beautiful day!  We’ll visit again soon, I hope.

Just Taking a Break

Hello, and happy Saturday to you!  I don’t seem to have much in the way of good photos this week, but I thought Wally and the coffee mugs looked cute together.  Just taking a break at the picnic table.




The butterflies always come around when the butterfly bush is in bloom.  I guess that’s why they call it a butterfly bush.



I’ll try to get some better photos this weekend.  Rich is still painting the house and Wally and LuLu are beginning to wonder if he’ll ever finish.  They don’t seem to think it’s enough to only go swimming twice a week, tsk tsk.    Enjoy your weekend!

Happy 4th of July!

Or just a regular old happy day to all my international friends.  Take care!

Share and Share Alike

This is LuLu’s stick.  It’s a big one and she was very proud of her find.  She had to carry it to each of us to show off her treasure, as she always does.  She brings a stick in and parades around with it before taking it back outside, because she knows “no sticks in the house”.  Of course, we always make a big fuss over how wonderful her stick is, and tell her “thank you for showing me your pretty stick”.  She brought this one inside to show me, and she was so cute lugging the big old thing around.



When she left it unattended for a moment Wally decided it was a pretty wonderful stick, too, and tried to claim it as his own.  As the #2 dog she sweetly asked if she could have it back, but Wally had to show that he was the guy in charge.  See his paw grip on the stick and his gentle hold on LuLu’s snout.  Trust me, it was as gentle as a kiss.

 
Benevolent pack leader that he is, he relinquished an end to LuLu, and a good time was had by all.



Thanks so much for dropping in.  We love your visits.  Enjoy your day!