Pets At Home

Caspar isn't little anymore, but he still acts like a silly kitten. One of his favorite games is getting under one of the fleecy dog beds and then moving it around like a furry ghost:

And speaking of kitten playfulness, I heard a crash and rushed to the kitchen to find this. None of them even felt guilty:

Bugsy decided that the big green floor pillow wasn't quite soft enough, so he draped himself across Clover's body:

Seamus, Fergus and Jack waited at the gate to get back inside the house. The birds were singing and the perfume of the roses filled the air. It is idyllic here much of the time:

 A similar scene as the above photo, but seen from the opposite side of the fence:


 A kitchen corner collection: Bugsy, Clover, Seamus Fergus and Daphne:

Seamus and Fergus, just back from the groomer:

The two recently coifed boys showed off their new haircuts as Jack and Daphne watched from the ramp:

No, this wasn't a feline confrontation, just Daisy passing peacefully past Sammy:

Friends: Daphne, Clover, Fergus and Bugsy:

Sammy, Daisy and Jack:

Another ramp scene, this one showing one of the reasons they like it there - the shade which the roses provide:

July In The North Country

The Red Polls spend their days and nights in the pasture, and sometimes I don't even see them. But they come back to the barn regularly to drink from the stock tank and lounge on the hay they wasted last winter:

Blue and Remy have had their yearly vaccinations and their hooves trimmed again:

 They are looking good, and staying inside their corral (so far):

 The small chicken door I originally made was simply a square, cut from the barn wall. It finally got so rotten that half of its guts just fell out, leaving it mostly hollow. I brought it into the barn so I could try to repair it:

I'm certainly no carpenter and was distressed at the poor job I was making of the repair, but when it was finally done, it at least worked for its intended purpose:

 And it closed more or less tightly. I may want to add some kind of weatherstripping in the winter, but all in all, it serves the need:

 The strip of sunflower seedlings is growing faster each day, to the point where I can sometimes see a difference from one day to the next. As the sunflowers get taller and leafier, the dogs are losing their view of me when I'm working around the front of the barn:

 The little rock garden began to glow with bright yellow Asiatic Lilies:

And the two Blue Sea Holly plants are so huge that they threaten to take over the entire space. They seem on the verge of becoming "The Beast That Ate Cleveland:"

 But they are fascinating, an odd plant with an odd flower:

 The red and orange Asiatic Lilies, the first to bloom, finally petered out with this final burst of color:

 The six multicolored Yarrow plants are beginning to take off, and one of them is sending up a flower spike. The buds look white, which I hope is not the color they're going to be when in flower. Just to the right of them are the Chives, one of the only seeds which grew successfully. Behind the Chives are unknown plants which might be weeds or might be Globe Thistle. Only time will tell: