Filed under: animals | Tags: animals, arizona, cats, desert, dogs, happiness, horses, tucson
A typical day starts with two Border Collies staring at me expectantly and one Cody Bear pretending to be asleep. The bear does not like to hurry into his day. On this particular day, which happened to be Valentine’s Day and Arizona Statehood Day, he just decided to lay around having “bed head” all over his body and trying to look cuddly. Well done Cody Bear.
Cody Bear with all over “bed head”
The most stressful thing I had to do all day was make chocolate covered strawberries for the my friend’s birthday party that night. Yes….as easy as they are to make I still got stressed. I am always nervous preparing food for people! I don’t want to make anyone sick.
But they turned out well!
In attendance at the party was this lovely cowgirl, Helen. She’s a really good dog!
And another red head, about as sleepy as Cody Bear, Tyko.
A good day for sure. But….the next day was one of the best days I’ve had in so long!
I went for a horseback riding lesson at the base of the Rincons. I was there about 3 hours which included a trail ride that wound through Coyote Creek. I learned so much and smiled all day. It was cool and cloudy and beautiful and …. Yeah…I just smiled and smiled.
Filed under: dogs
Sometimes (and by sometimes I mean alllll the time) friends have babies and then they pretty much disappear. It looks like that isn’t going to be the case this time with my friend April. She has always been there for me and is such a good person with a huge heart. And now she has this baby. He’s almost a year old, and also….he doesn’t cry when he sees me like most babies do!
So yesterday I took the morning off from work to get my sad car worked on. April picked me up at the mechanic and we took the bairn to the Tucson Botanical Gardens where I forced him to smell things.
It was just a good day.
I have a membership to the gardens but I rarely go in the winter months. Not much is in bloom….unless you look closely! Some tiny cacti had blossoms. Even the little living rocks! I’ve never seen them bloom before.
living rocks
There were Painted Lady and Queen butterflies everywhere we looked.
Then I got dropped off at the garage with my camera bag and a $3 Swedish Ivy. The plant of my people.
Filed under: animals, border collies, food, photography | Tags: border collies, dogs, food, life, photography, tucson, vegan
I’m sorry I’ve been so out of touch. Things have been so busy. It’s amazing how adding a third dog can take away half your time. (ok…I may be exaggerating. ) This is my busy season, so I should have many things to blog about. The question is….Will I have time? I suppose the biggest news is this: Your dear friend Pickles was selected to be the cover dog for the Arizona Border Collie Rescue 2015 calendar! And I got to shoot her photo, as well as her May images, Nike the July dog, and October dogs Saxon and London! The calendar is beautiful. They did a brilliant job assembling cute dogs, talented photographers and the print quality is great. Here is my girl now, in one of the photos that didn’t make the calendar:
Pickles at San Xavier Mission
You can order your calendars here: http://azbordercollierescue.com/calendar_purchase_2015.asp In July Cody Bear turned 10! O….M…G….. Time is going by so fast. Pickles is 6 and Tralee is 1. Pickles and Cody Bear still love each other, but he also enjoys sitting back and watching the two Border Collies play. I love how he smiles at them. And every now and then he will join in the fun. But he is slowing down. And how is he doing with the new, high drive, loony puppy….?
Cody Bear and Tralee Bear
He loves her. And she adores him. He is very protective of his girls and he loves having that role of protector.
Cody Bear and his greying muzzle
In even bigger news! Some of you know I have enjoyed working on my photography portfolio for several years now. Well, I was invited by the i.d.e.a. Museum in Mesa, AZ to participate in their “Jeepers Creepers: BUGS in art” exhibition running from 10/3/14 to 1/25/15! I saw the exhibition last week. I drove to Scottsdale and dragged my parents to the gallery opening. We had a great night and my parents and I were SO impressed with the gallery and the diverse collection!
Purple Hairstreak Butterfly
The i.d.e.a. Museum is geared towards inspiring creativity and education for children and they’ve done a brilliant job keeping a collection of talented artists and making it interactive and fun for kids. Please check it out, it is sooo much fun. Final October news: Goodbear has gone vegan! Today is day thirty. I had a few off days where I couldn’t avoid dairy, but for the most part it was a good thirty days and I’m going to keep at it. I will allow an occasional egg from my friends’ home chickens. I know I won’t be perfect, but I’m going to give it a shot. I decided to do it for health reasons and I could instantly see improvements in that department.
Goodbear goes vegan
Filed under: dogs | Tags: border collies, cacti, cacuts, desert, dogs, flowers, photography, plants
My dad gave me this cactus maybe 5 or 6 years ago as a cutting. It’ hasn’t grown much or done anything. Then recently little pups have popped up and last night I saw a flower bud. I didn’t notice it earlier because it’s kind of out of the way in a non-watering area. Then this morning…..
late bloomer cactus!
So vibrant. So as long as I had the camera out I thought I’d show you the current state of the plants in my back yard:
Here is one of the night bloomers. Second go around this summer. Two blooms opened last night!
cereus
And I don’t know what this is. These were on sale at Home Depot so I took a chance…
cheery flower
And this guy….
bryophyllum daigremontianum
Also known as a “mother of thousands”, this bryophyllum daigremontianum is about 48 inches tall and will have some interesting flowers later in the year.
And the Basil…
Basil
And for lunch I made a fluffy omelet with this basil, sliced grape tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. So good!
spruce cone cactus
I have a few of these but this one is going crazy. He has been growing straight up all year, then last week he appeared to fall on his side. But now he has turned himself back to fast the other direction. Love him!
mexican fencepost cactus
portuclaca
I don’t know what this is. A friend gave me the cuttings a month ago and he’s really doing great.
cactus
And here! a locust exoskeleton on a carrion plant!
carrion plant
And it’s a good thing the yard is big, because in between all these plants we need room for this:
so, i have a new blog, but it is very border collie-centric!
you can find it here: http://bordercollieproject.com/
i’ll try to start adding more stuff about cody bear to this blog. i know it’s been a while….
we’ve been busy…..
😉
Filed under: animals, dogs, life, love, pets | Tags: animals, border collies, dogs, friends, love, mutts, pets
we’re in the new house!
spree loves the house. that surprised me. i thought the 16 year old cat would be peeved.
but no.
pickles is fin. she loves the place. and after almost a year of horrible illness, she’s romping around like a nut!
but cody bear? he doesn’t like it? he misses his yard. his stuff. the things he barked at.
he hates the dogs that bark on the other side of the new fence and the lack of stuff to watch out the window.
but we’re going to work him through it…..
so here’s to 12. home improvement. healthy dogs. more successful business and lots of loving friends!
Filed under: animals, dogs, life, pets | Tags: animals, dogs, life, pets, photography
and so cody bear and pickles have found themselves house sitting! they’re keeping their friend hannah company while her dad is out of town.
fun for pickles who has been playing with all hannah’s lovely toys, and relaxing for cody bear who is recoving from an asskicking surgery.
we end up going home for meals, as, between the two of them, there are a great amount of pill bottles involved.
hannah enjoys watching pickle play with her toys, but she’s a little older so she doesn’t join in with the romping.
tomorrow we go home. house cleaning and a photo shoot for me. relaxing and getting snuggled for them. you know….much of the same for them.
moving on to the serious news…we find out sometime after tuesday if cody bear’s tumor was cancer. i’m nervous, i won’t lie. but i will be surprised if it is bad, i mean….this is the healthiest the bear has ever been. it will be quite unfair if, after years of trying to get his health in order and achieving, we find he has cancer. that just won’t be fair. no other way to say it.
aside: the house we’re staying has a couch! we don’t have a couch. and i’m sitting on it. so posh!
my feet are on the coffee table and the baby loves are laying beneath my legs. i’ll wake them up soon…when i’ve had my fill of cable tv. oh livin’ the high life at hannah’s.
Filed under: animals, border collies, canine, dogs, life, pets | Tags: animals, border collie, dogs, life, mutts, pets, veterinary
oh my GOD a STICK!
should i be sad that there is nothing in this world that gets me as excited as my dogs get when they see a random 14 inch piece of tree branch?
i mean….i love a good meal with friends, an outrageous sale price is nice, a pint of guinness always hits the spot, but NOTHING gives me the wide opened eyed joyous “holy shit” look on my face that the dogs get with a stick or a piece of beef or a new squeaky.
check out pickles….
also, they’ve got the “no worry” thing down. mommy foots the vet bill, food bill, pharmacy bill…which is high. at the end of october vet bills will be more than….$1600/month.
so keep smiling pickles. keep grabbin’ those sticks cody bear. just please….stop eating dangerous shit and chasing things that will bite you. that’s all i ask. that and for cuddling and some laughs each day.
and thanks.
Filed under: animals, dogs, life, pets | Tags: animals, dogs, life, pets, random, vet bills
even with the tiniest drop in temperature cody bear is back to snuggling in the mornings. he gets so hot in the summer with all that fluff. but the cooler temperatures mean me waking up before dawn with a very patient, cinnamon dog staring at me. as soon as my eyes open he shifts his gaze to the exact part of the bed he wants to snuggle up in and waits for the go ahead!
so that was nice to go back to sleep to. i haven’t been sleeping well because i’ve been worried about cody bear’s tum0r (removal thursday) pickles’ on going weird health issues (x-rays and nutritional response testing wednesday), money and finding a renter so i can move into the new place.
when we finally did get up there was a high speed chase…
followed by a short constitutional through the neighborhood then i was off to work. where i sit now…still worrying.
high points for the coming week: meeting an artist who will paint a cool graphic in the foyer of the new house. (before and after pictures in the future!) photo shoots, vet appointments, team trivia tonight, ….and who knows what else.
Filed under: animals, birds, nature, wildlife | Tags: animals, birds, kingfisher, life, nature, wildlife
working all day trying to make some big bucks for cody bear’s upcoming surgery, i had a few moments to look around and saw something flop in the pond. a few seconds later a kingfisher, brilliant blue, landed on the “no swimming” sign and looked right at me.
ugh! i didn’t have my telephoto and he was so far away. he came back after lunch and was on the other side of the pond, but i did catch a couple shots.
i know the photos are not great, but trust me, he was fantastic!
kingfishers are one of my favorite birds and i never thought i would see one in town!
anyway….i had been venting to a friend (boohonky!) about the worries and then started gushing about this fancy bird and she pointed out to me that perhaps the kingfisher was a harbinger of good news….
cody bear's friends 