Training Video for Buffy to Watch

I'm going to have Buffy watch this video over and over and over until she's inspired to have her teeth brushed, too. Buffy would bite the fingers giving her a taste, grab the toothbrush and chew it to bits, go hide in the bathtub and shred the wrapping from the toothbrush kit. Buffy does understand 'sit' and does it very well.




Buffy

I'm a Born Again American

Right Brain, Left Brain

Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life. Realising your right brain/left brain tendancy will help you interact with and to understand others. Left Brain Dominance: (11) Right Brain Dominance: (8) Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz

Some days, neither side has much influence.

Buffy in the Bathtub

If I get in there, you WILL leave the hand-held thingie outside the tub, right?



You turn the water on right here, please.



Ummmm, so much better than water in a bowl.


Watch it, my feet are getting wet. Here I come! Oh, sorry about your knee, Mom. Is that camera broken?

Ike and Buffy, Gardening

Fox Squirrel

See other Wildlife and Pets at Camera Critters Blog. Join the fun and show your Critters!

Butterflies on Porterweed

There are many of them, but they seldom stand still for a picture.

Duck Tape, not for taping your Ducts?

Blooming Tuesday for Butterflies

Some of my Favorites:

Spicebush Swallowtails on Pentas


Spicebush Swallowtail on Porterweed in front of Esperanza (Tecoma stans)

Blooming Tuesday is hosted by Ms.Green Thumbs. Visit her to see links to other Tuesday Blooms blogs.



Gulf Frit on Porterweed


Clouded Sulphur on Tithonia


Buckeye on two colors of Lantana

More Tuesday Blooms On Secrets of A Seedscatter, my Garden Blog.

I took more than 100 butterfly pics this morning. Fewer than 20% were good enough to save. The sun was wrong, the butterflies did what they do best --flew, my hands shook, or I failed to wait for the auto-focus on the other 80%. Then I had to choose 5 for the post. There are more from yesterday and Sunday that you haven't seen.

Night Blooming Cereus, Epiphyllum

Wind blew the smallest pot of Night Blooming Cereus off the carport ledge and broke the ceramic pot. It lay on the concrete for a day until I finally stuffed it into a plastic nursery pot. The bud hung on and last night it opened.



The pets enjoyed the attention paid the flower because it meant humans came outside past bedtime.

You can see other, better pictures of epiphyllum blooms here: Night Blooming Cactus on my Seedscatterer Blog.

Angel Trumpets

Buffy and I rode to Nearest Town with Lane, who wanted to make sure his truck air conditioner was working properly. We drove through the cemetery. The lawn maintenance crew was at work, mowing. Apparently they have a new service. The old service would mow the driveways, skipping the sides next to the lots of people who don't pay for their service. The new service does the sensible thing, mowing the entire drive, then maintaining the lots that pay. The old service would stop, raise the riding mower blade, skip a non-payer, and then resume mowing 20 feet down, leaving an unmowed strip the width of the mower next to the offending lot. Their more intensive work is to weed-eat the grass of the lots and edge around the grave markers and slabs over the graves, or to kill weeds that come up in the lots that have gravel over cement. Our lot has the single grave of the Monkeyman. We do our own maintenance. We mowed our edges of the drives, but the lots that are not maintained made the drives look unkepmt with all that skipping the edges in spots.

We went to the gas station, and to the grocery for milk. As we left the store, we passed a house with a small front yard that had pretty flower beds in front with a huge peach colored Angel Trumpet in full bloom very near the street.

Lane and the Dog are trying to get me to look on the other side of the street at the cat they spotted, and I'm trying to get his attention about the Brugmansia. I had a camera in my pocket. Missed opportunity!

Breast Cancer Awareness

I was invited to attend a Breast Cancer Support Group in town last night. Joyce, who invited me and who was providing the tastiest refreshments ever, told me that the speaker was an Oncologist who used to be Medical Director for the Agency where I last worked.

I was the only woman in the room who was not a cancer survivor. I happened to be wearing a pink dress, not chosen for the occasion, just what I wore all day when I took part in training a Volunteer Group for Hospice. I felt I was switching gears, from talking about the Dying, to mingling with the triumphant Living.

Excellent speaker, Doctor. In the course of his lecture, he was drawing a picture to illustrate a certain type of cancer and as he drew a nipple, said, "The function of a breast is provide milk. It has other functions, but I don't know what they are." Nobody laughed, watching closely as he drew ducts and glands.

I came away knowing much more about cancer treatment than I did before. The sister of my friend Debra had a lumpectomy yesterday for breast cancer and will have a type of radiation that is fairly new, not often done. Debra had conventional surgery and no radiation. We learned more about why and when that is done.

This very upbeat group is having a luncheon and fashion show late next month, to bring awareness to Breast Cancer Awareness month in October. If you follow the link, you'll find Linda Long, facilitator of last night's meeting.

Buffy the Allergen Sniffer

Sweet Baby Buffy made another Vet visit this week. Last week it was a ripped-off toenail requiring antibiotics, pain pills and daily soaks. Buffy is now addicted to peroxide, which she licked off rather than letting it do whatever it is that peroxide does besides give off O2 atoms.

This week, Sweet Baby Buffy has the same hairless spots, scratching, paw-chewing and restlessness that she had a month ago. She weighs 57.1 pounds. Buffy is now 9 months old and in the teen-age-hood of canines. In the car, she was whining. When I tried to console her, she made a rude 'Huh' noise that was obviously, "You just don't understand!" and laid down to sulk.

Buffy is also on oral expensive flea pills now. They smell like something dead, and she wishes they were daily instead of monthly.

Hooked on Biscotti

Popular blogs write on Fridays about their current favs. When we were in the city today, I picked up a bucket of individually wrapped Biscotti, the Original, with almonds, walnuts and a hint of anise flavor. Since Christmas, we've been eating the Chocolate series: Chocolatti, Triple Chocolate and Turtle Pecan. The containers turned upside down make great temporary plant cloches.

You can see the TV commercial here:

Nonni's Biscotti Video

It's great with coffee, which means Dessert Following Breakfast for me.

See what everybody else is Hooked on Fridays at

Hooked on Houses

Funny How Time Just Slips Away

I'm back now.

This is How I Learned to Play the Piano

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Somewhere Over the Rainbow with Bobby McFerrin

Actually, it is the whole Wizard of Oz, in about 5 minutes.



Back in the 1980's when Bobby McFerrin was first popular, I worked evenings and Daddy Senior worked nights. One night when I got home, I found candy with a sticky note: 'Don't Worry, Be Happy, Low Calorie.'

Graduation, A Look Back

An Elementary School is closing in the town where I went to High School, one of the last of the schools we knew as children. The rest have already closed, or, as the person who sent me these photos said, "We've been swept into the dustbin of History." If you crossed the railroad and traveled south on the street in front of the school in the photo, our High School was in the next block.


The teachers had the children spell out 'Goodbye Goodyear' and one teacher's husband flew over in a plane and made these pics.


Our Graduation was nearly 50 years ago. I knew everything. Too bad I didn't know enough to keep my mouth shut, listen to voices of experience and follow advice. Life would have been a lot easier.

Thanks to Tim, and Doug, and Jimmy, and Mrs. Lanier's husband, for the Goodyear pics. My photo was in an old box here.

Never Forget

It took 36 years for us to fail to observe that a certain day in May is significant to this family, thinking of it some few days late.

Family Outing

The Old Dog loved to ride. Buffie is not so sure and resists getting on board. Since Buffie is reluctant, Ikey the Cat has decided he loves to ride because he gets attention. Then Buffie gets aboard because Ikey is there. These pics are the only two I got, pointing the camera back toward us, before Buffie jumped ship.

In Search of Desperadoes

There have been burglaries in our community of late. Sheriff's Deputies stepped up patrols and visited homeowners encouraging everyone to be aware of strangers in the neighborhood.

A household near us has a police scanner on, 24/7, even when they are not home. The lady who cleans their house was there doing her usual work recently. Suddenly she heard her own name called over the scanner. She looked outside and Sheriff's Deputies were surrounding the house. She ran outside with her hands in the air, calling out, "I clean for Miss Lorena!" They verified that she was who she said she was and explained that her vehicle was very similar to one they were looking for.

It's funny now, but she must have been terrified. Better to be surrounded by the Law than the unlawful; we know they're on the job.

Baby Buffie, Garden Helper

Buffie is growing up, but still loves her Teddy.

When she helps, it only takes twice as long.

Southern Favorite Plants for a Garden

Tom of Seventh Street Cottage asked this question on Garden Web. He named Camellias, Azaleas and Roses; Tea Olive, Althea and Okra as Quintessential Plants for a Southern Garden, asking for other favorites.

Please look on the righthand sidebar for the Poll. Check your favorites and let us see what the top plants may be in addition to the ones Tom named.

I only named flowers. Everybody knows tomatoes, squash and eggplant are essential, as are peppers, rutabagas and beans.

Golden Girls

Bea Arthur died today, at 86. I celebrated her life by watching youtube videos of Golden Girls. She was good as Maude, but Dorothy was my favorite character.

Buffie and Ikey Posing in the Garden

In Times Like These

Ichauway Plantation

Miss Lillian and I went to open house at the Jones Ecology Lab at Ichuaway yesterday. We took the wagon tour, on wagons that in bird season are pulled by mules and carry quail hunters. I'm not quite sure where the hunters come from, since Mr. Woodruff died years ago, but the hunting continues.



I took pictures of the kennels, the mule barn, the dog cemetery where Mr. Woodruff's favorite hunting dogs are buried, and the skeet range. You can see the Dog Cemetery and kennels album

Dog Cemetery & Kennels

Click thumbnails or right click to view in another window.

House & Store

The skeet range is in the album with the Main House and other houses on the Plantation which house some workers and students at the Ecology Lab. The store, which has prominent Coca Cola signs, is an actual store on the plantation. Many of the visitors made jokes about Pepsi; Mr. Woodruff was head of Coca Cola.

Pictures of the Buildings and Grounds at Jones Lab featuring native azaleas and other native plants are linked through my other blog Seedscatterer

Grandma's Lye Soap

Annie on Garden Web posted the recipe for Lye Soap and I remembered this 1952 song from a parody called 'It's in the Book.'

Power of the Delete Button

I went through my list of feeds. Some I wondered why I ever thought I would wish to follow.

Too 'Green' -- advocates 'green' as they spend big bucks on trivial trash and urge us to do the same.

Flaunts wealth. Need I say more?

Politically incorrect -- disagrees with me. LOL

One blogger who had too many photos to load, wondered why she was posting so many at once, 'So you'll have something to look at.'

There are whole blogs made up of somebody else's pictures, somebody else's words.

I deleted some with too many side bar photos and gadgets and 'awards'? Loading time was just too long.

I faithfully read certain blogs because I like them. Those bloggers have no need to impress; they just write about whatever comes to mind, or crosses their path.

Spring! Just About Here

Buffy's growing, everything's blooming whose time has come: azaleas, loropetalum, dogwood, wisteria; the first California poppies are just starting.

The Pet Park

Buffie and Ike play in the Pet Park, which is a piece of PVC irrigation pipe. Buffie is too big to crawl through now, but Ikey loves to hide from her.
Pet Park Slideshow

Thoughtful Buffie

I thought yesterday that Buffie had tried to drown Teddy, when I found him face down in her water bowl. Not so. Thoughtful Buffie, realizing that Teddy might be as thirsty as she, in 80 degree weather, helped him get a good drink of water. Unfortunately, she left him to get out on his own.

See them keeping hydrated and playing football here:

Buffie and Teddy

Sister!

Miss Celie's Blues. I love this song. I don't like it sung in a high falsetto voice as is usually the case, I love it belted out. This is the best rendition I've heard, with a really bizarre stage stage routine to accompany.

Ruby Buby

From Buffie and Ikey

She can look so innocent, lying on top of where she was just digging furiously next to where I just planted a new rose, or after being scolded for biting.

Pets Who Entertain

Rest of the Story: Broken Light Pole

The broken electric poles were the result of a one-car accident last week. A young man swerved to miss a deer, ran off the road on the opposite side, then came back and left the road again and clipped the electric pole on the right-of-way and ran through the pasture fence. The force when the pole broke and fell pulled on the line to the pumphouse and broke the service pole, at the ground.

The electric company said we needed a street address for the service pole. I called the Postal Service. You can't call the local Post Office, you call an 800 number. It's like trying to get information in Jamaica. They don't volunteer anything and further questions are met with the same answer, "I'm sorry, the Postal Service does not assign house numbers." I finally wrung from her that I should call my 'town hall.' Town Hall? We don't have a town hall, this is a rural area.

I called the tax assessor's office, for lack of a better source and asked if they knew who assigned house numbers. Of course they did, and they knew the telephone number for the Planning Commission as well.

Now the pumphouse at the other place has its own address. I bought numbers to put on the fence post at the gate. Don't send the pumphouse any mail. We're not giving it a mailbox.

We paid an electician to put up the pole and run the wire. Of course, everything was not to Daddy Senior's specifications. He took out the breaker boxes that the local building supply people put off on them because they didn't have the right ones, replaced them with the right ones and got a refund on the substituted parts.

The Scrap Man and Daddy Senior will repair the fence. Scrap Man is young and strong and delighted to work here, learning from Daddy Senior the finer points of doing things right.

Pure Joy

We've found the best toys are as big as she is: a gallon vinegar jug, plastic, with a shoestring tied on the handle. It is better than a milk jug because it rolls. I found a nylon harness in a drawer, never used because it was too small for Cur. The box says 'Large' but taken up as small as possible, it's almost a perfect fit. She thinks it makes her itch, and scratches at it with her hind foot.

Wrestling Match between Friends

Mystery Accident

Our lights went out last night around 10 pm and were back on in the night. When I started to Sunday School this morning, there were three power company trucks with a crew working on a transformer on the pole in front of the pumphouse on the far property. When Daddy Senior went to see what was going on, they were gone.

According to the Electric Cooperative person with whom he spoke on the phone, there was a wreck there last night. They placed a new pole and either put back the old transformer or replaced it. The fence is down, the metal post that marks where the water line crosses the road is bent and of course the old broken pole was hauled away.

The service pole beside the pumphouse is broken at the ground and leaning. We will contact the sheriff's office tomorrow to see who and what about the accident.

Generation Gap

more animals

It's now official: Buffie has moved into the Dog Hut, complete with thermostat-controlled infrared heat lamp and her beloved teddy bear. Ikey remains up top in the Cat Penthouse. All that getting up in the night to let Buffie out to go potty, middle of night feedings and need for play at 4am was moot last night. She discovered the Dog Hut more or less on her own and promptly claimed it yesterday when the weather warmed enough to play outside all afternoon. Tired, she slept well.

Today they're at it again. Ikey outweighs her, but she plows right in for rough play.

Buffy II

Buffy is a 'doggy dog' - her mother is a small-to-medium black dog with short hair, long skinny tail and floppy ears. Buffy's grandmother was Collie/Chow mix. We will just have to wait to see how Buffy turns out.