The rose bush (in Castleton) is so pretty!

Spent the weekend in Samsonville, got chewed up by bugs (bugs hate, or love, me) and today I'm left with a couple somewhat worrisome, angry-looking , and very itchy bites.

All my seeds are up and looking good. Will mulch as weather allows.

I may feel this every year...but the front of the house looks really good this year!

The weather has been so beautiful! I planted a bunch more things this weekend. I thought I was finished, but I bought a few things in every garden or farm stand I visited. I'm not much of a shopper, but Harry and Rosie have escaped the fence (twice!) so that means the procrastination has to end, and we need to face up to the project. We've tried hiring someone to no avail. The job is just to small...and difficult.

But we can't risk the Beagles, so we bought all the materials this weekend (and unloaded the truck, carried 153 pickets, 30 2X4s, and 7 posts (10' long) down the hill, and stacked them.

Anyway...this means I was in a few stores. I can't resist the plants! So I planted more flowers (zinnias and begonias) and tomorrow I will plant more spices, and move around some of the other plants. Pictures will come eventually.

Got my strawberries :-). Five quarts. That will do for now.

My 6W2 summer session class starts tomorrow. Only 8 students!

Tired tonight, in a good way. I am so much more often mentally tired, than I am physically tired, that it's a novelty.

Another novelty will be barbecuing at home tomorrow! Haven't eaten dinner at home since Wednesday: Thursday, Friday (and saw live music afterwards), Saturday, Sunday.

Two unrelated subjects...

1) We watched "Her" (on amazon). If it hadn't cost $4, I would have bailed when it was half over. I was really, really glad we did not waste the price of a pair of Spectrum tickets when it was in theatres! It was too long, the last 2/3 was tiresome, and while it was interesting at first and the premise was clever, it too quickly jumped into a serious relationship between the guy and the OS with little or no warm up or background. After 15 minutes the OS devolved into a whining nag. "Annoying" doesn't begin to capture it. By the middle of the movie I wanted to delete all traces of the program, and then get a sledgehammer and smash whatever devices were hosting it, just for good measure. Why didn't he just turn the d-mn thing off?

We also watched several 1930s movies, all much better than the above atrocity...this is true even of the ones that were not great. We saw "Baby Face" which was excellent, "Stella Dallas" which was sad but OK, and "Grand Hotel" which was pretty good.

2) I planted my garden! It's pretty late, but it hasn't been that warm until recently. I've had all the containers: flowers, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, kale, spices done for a few weeks, but this morning I sowed two types of pole beans, two types of cucumbers and one hill of zucchini. I used 800 pounds of cow manure on the patch this year, beneficial nematodes to combat potential cucumber beetles and squash bugs, and inoculant to help the beans with nitrogen. I never have luck with zucchini but I'm hoping this year will be the charm.

Strawberry time, and I want to go picking!!

Another week goes by without a post! I really didn't expect that to happen this summer, but I've had many other thing distracting me. Last week I had internet problems galore (fixed now but set me back with my classes), and this week I have been taking advantage of the dry weather (also very hot) to do yard and gardening work. We went to Samsonville over the weekend, and when we got home on Sunday, both dogs got out of the fence! Oh no. This is how you lose your Beagles! They "bit the apple" and discovered the wonders in the ravine between our house and the cemetery. We did manage to get both of them back within an hour, and last night we did yet another cobbed repair on the pitiful fence. So this weekend's job will be putting in a brand new one, something we've needed for years. Contractors balk at the job (because it is small) and so it looks like it is do-it-yourselfer time. Can't risk losing Prince Harry and Rosey Posey!

Forgot to post this a week or so ago.

Today I got a loud reminder that I have a pair of hunting dogs. It's not that I am unaware of this in general, but rarely do they get a real opportunity to "get" something more than a plush toy. Well, today they did. Both participated in the flushing out, but it was Harry's kill. I couldn't identify the animal, but I think it was probably a groundhog. Afterwards he alternated between picking it up, carrying it around and sometimes puting it down so he could walk around to sniff elsewhere. Rosie kept a safe distance, but approached when he was less attentive. He always saw her threatening his prize, though, and would dash back and growl. This is the only time I've ever seen her not be the alpha.

One thing I discovered is that he eventually responded to "leave it!" He then sat and looked expectantly at me, as if I would collect it. No way! Luckily Bob got home a short time later. It's awful, but Beagles will be Beagles. I haven't had many dogs who killed things. More cats who would, but not Teddy. These  two dogs are driven, though and as a pair they may be unstoppable. Poor critters. Stay out of the yard or else.

They were both so proud and happy last night. And I think they were expecting praise and perhaps that I would cook us all a rodent dinner!

 Harry's tail!

We've been having some glorious weather (though at times it is a little hot for sleeping).