when what to my wondering eyes did appear...

 

This may explain why there seems to be a baby deer bounding out of its hidey place no matter where I wander in the yard. Doereen didn't just have twins this year, she has triplets! If you click on the photo you should get a close up of, left to right, Gizmo, Doereen, Post Script (at her back legs), and Pixel. Post Script is tiny but very fast. Apparently triplets are not unusual in Black Tail deer. In fact, they may even have quads in their later years. Oh joy.

Brilliant Woman Solves All of California's Problems

Brilliant Woman Solves All of California's Problems


I hope this worked. You MUST watch the video. OMG.

where the deer can't go

 

 

 

 

Scenes from Phoebe-dog's yard. The whole yard would probably look like this if not for the hungry deer. But then, my water bill would just be higher so perhaps the deer help keep me under control.

a few things that have made me laugh in the last 24 hrs

 

First off, this is a statue of Ben Ali, who was a famous racehorse from these parts way back when. I think he looks entirely too fat to be a race horse. But that isn't what made me really laugh. Oh no. It was while visiting with some neighbor ladies last evening, one of whom was just getting control of a major toothache, which is going to result in a root canal, and I, of course, had to brag that I was once considered The Queen Of Root Canals. And if that wasn't enough, I said "I've even had two retro root canals." D looked at me in shock and asked, loudly, "RECTAL ROOT CANALS?" The rest of us nearly spit Margaritas across the table. That was a cleansing laugh. Today there were two laugh-out-loud events but neither was a belly laugh. #1; I spied what appeared to be a homeless man pushing his grocery cart full of bottles & cans,with even more bottles and cans tied to the cart, up the street. He was having to work at this pretty hard because he only had one available hand/arm....because the other one was holding a cell phone up to his ear. So perhaps he isn't really homeless because don't you have to have a real address to have a cell phone? Or, two, it was like Whoopie Goldberg in "The Telephone" wherein she carried on many conversations with many folks throughout the entire movie...but the phone was non functional. (which you didn't know until the end of the movie)The other thing that made me laugh was the window full of manikins in some posh-ish store at the mall-I-rarely-frequent. They were all dressed in woman's high fashion..but lacking wigs..which made them look like a window full of well dressed transvestites. Their faces looked decidedly mannish to me. Not that there's anything wrong with a window full of trannies!

Fiesta Flowers!

 

 

 

It was $8.99 at Target but I just couldn't resist!! Its hanging in Phoebe's yard so it will be safe from the inquisitive deer taste buds. If it is as tough as its cousins in the purslane family it ought to just love it here. 103° at the moment. time to go jump back into the stock tank!
Roostie and The Girls are checking out the Zen Garden today. I just tossed them some grapes which they found delightful.
Trying not to worry about the son and daughter-in-law who are somewhere off Whidby Island (which I've probably just spelled wrong) in sea kayaks for cryin' out loud! What? ME worry? You betcha.

fawn

 

Meanwhile, back at the house...this is either Pixel or Gizmo resting comfortably INSIDE one of the fenced-off flower beds. The picture was taken through one of my not-exactly-sparkling kitchen windows. the little varmint was in there yesterday too but I was unable to get a picture. Doereen is napping on the front lawn so the other fawn is probably near by too.

Verna & Atha's Big Day Out

 

 

 

I opened the chicken pen door a little bit ago and watched the girls mosey out. I was so afraid that Roostie would immediately um, hug them, but he knew his job was to teach them how to scratch for food and he took to the task immediately...sent leaves just a'flyin', he did. But what's this? I just peeked out to see the girls hovering around their pen door and Roostie is up here by the house! Has he gotten so frustrated by their lack of enthusiasm that he has quit as their teacher? Oh my. The drama.

the dumb clucks

 

Actually, I'm beginning to feel a glimmer of hope. Last night Verna put herself to bed and Atha wasn't hard to catch. This morning they pecked, (actually pecked!) at some melon and tonight they both put themselves to bed. I think as soon as I get my errands run in the morning that I will open the gate and let them out into the BIG world....and hope that Roostie doesn't totally spoil their Big Adventure. Heck, maybe they'll like his attention. who knows.

sea life?

 

Look! Sea lions! No, Walrus! Oh, they are slugs. That reminds me, anybody got any tame ducks needing a new home?

The Old Hens

 

May I introduce you to Atha (red) and Verna (blond)? They came to live with us the night before last and hopefully their little chicken brains are processing the fact that this is The Safe Place to go into every evening. The plan is to let them roam "free range" to gorge on snails and other delicacies during the daylight hours. This may be a joke as they not only seem to be ancient girls but also refugees from a factory-type egg operation. They don't really know how to act like chickens! I've seen only a little scratching in the pile of leaf mold that they are currently living upon. Mostly they just stand around, staring at each other or sometimes watching Roostie as he struts around their pen bragging on what a Big Stud Rooster his little Bantam body is really. Why, these sweet old spinsters are most certainly virgins...do I dare let them out for rapeage and pillage? (I know. Spellcheck wasn't impressed either)
The girls were named after two ladies who lived in this neighborhood back in the 40's and 50's, Atha O'Brian and Verna Loveall. I was just a little chick myself but found them to both be very sweet "old ladies" (meaning that they were probably in their 30's at that time.) They will be allowed out into the Big World this coming Friday. We shall see what happens.

Tithonia

 
Deer resistant? It does not appear so! DOEreen dined heartily on it today. She has also eaten the hairy, scratchy leaves of a gourd vine as well as totally wiping out my fenced-in-but-not-well-enough potato vines.

might as well feed them my daisy dollars

 


But how cute is this? There are two. (babies, that is) This is Doereen and the larger of the twins. The twins are still being stashed in different places in the yard. They are about 8 days old.

explosions of color

Goodness, I wasn't sure this Painted Lady would ever stay still long enough on the Verbena bonariensis to be captured in pixels. (That is a Painted Lady, is it not?)











Chicory is something I have tried to grow for at least ten years without success so this was a Grande Surprise in the Not-so-Secret-Garden this weekend. Of course I can't remember if I bought it at a native plant sale, or scattered it from a native plants seed packet...or if it just blew in on its own, but its here now and I love it!








Neighbor Karen hosted the 4th of July Feast and Fireworks again this year. We all ate too much, drank a lot (but not THAT much) and enjoyed Brett's fireworks display. It was an amazingly cool 4th for Sacramento. Last weekend we had 108°. We didn't make it much past 90° this weekend.

When we donned our 3-D glasses, this is how the fireworks looked. All we were missing were the "special brownies"!
Obviously, the camera's "eye" saw the same thing when I made it "wear" the glasses. Cool psychedelics, Man.
I spent most of today eating the week's worth of leftovers that I brought home last night. WHY do I do this to myself?

in the Not-So-Secret-Garden

Sedum anglicum & California fuchsia
Rudbeckia and California fuchsia
"Pete", the remaining yearling twin of Doereen's last year's production.

Pete had jumped over the fence while I was looking with amazement at the newly sprouted asparagus. He was quite surprised to find me there..he'd leaped over the virginia Creeper covered picketty fence and landed just a few feet from me. We doe-se-doed around the hummock until I was "on the flat" and he was hiding behind the asparagus.

and dang it, now I have to go to my "real" job.

cucumbers

OOPS! Somebody forgot to check the cucumber vines yesterday. The excuse, of course, is that it was 108° and since I am a Pansy, sticking my hot arms into a bunch of stickly-prickly cucumber vines & leaves just didn't sound like much fun. Not that it sounded like fun this evening either but its only 100° out and zucchini sized cucumbers are just wrong. I believe those are tomatoes
# 5 and #6. Can hardly wait for the Early Girls to catch up to the Sweet One Millions. The little melon, whose name has slithered off my brain once again, has gone from tennis ball size to baseball size. I don't think they are to get much bigger than a softball...I could be wrong...Wait. Are tennis balls and baseballs the same size? They aren't are they?

My left pointy finger still hurts from its sudden altercation with the very sharp, very serrated steak knife last night. I bought one of those funny looking splints for it this morning just so it wouldn't keep getting slammed into something at work. Also bought a package of "assorted finger cots" which look like teensy condoms and which work well to keep bandaged fingers dry. That was stupid. Now I have no excuse to ignore the dirty dishes.

Sweltering

It is only 11:00a.m. but already 90°. My body will be immersed in this ol' stock tank shortly. Except for the occasional Sac. Co. Sheriff's 'copter flying overhead, it is a pretty private swimming hole. It is also ecconomical: does not require a pool guy (hey wait! Damn!) nor higher taxes for "improvements", nor a life guard (damn again!). when not in use it is covered with a blazing blue tarp to keep the riff-raff and leaves out. I don't have to share with wild children, grumpy old farts, nor boozed out teenagers. Nobody pees in my pool. Life is good.

bye-bye fishies

There were two cute little goldfish in this "raised pond with never-blooming-water-lily" for several weeks...but then something either crawled up or flew in and had fresh sushi. I wondered why the water had gotten so dirty..and then I wondered why I wasn't seeing little fishies come up for food...so today I did a close inspection... and now I know. Currently there is a lone mosquito fish gamely swimming around in there. I plan to get it some friends soon.

Where's Charlotte?

Friend Al found her web with newly hatched babies in my gate recently. Aren't they cute? They look like little crabs. Now let's not start rumors that "Weeder has crabs." okay?

actually, they look like a cross between crabs and lobsters. Cralobsters? Cralospters?

You lookin' at ME?

Any day (maybe any moment) now DOEreen is gonna have her babies hidden somewhere so Phoebe-dawg and I will have to pay close attention so that we don't suffer the wrath of mama. It is truly amazing how she will just materialize before our very eyes..her disappearing act is every bit as good. Last year she hid the boys a hundred or more feet apart for a few weeks, as is the proper deer protocol. This was my first close up and personal experience with does & fawns and I was happy to learn that I really wasn't seeing things as in "Wait a minute. Weren't you just hiding under the euonymus in the front yard..and now you are peeking at me from behind the Bunya-bunya in the back?"

Poor Phoebe loses her freedom in the big yard most of the summer but by fall, Doereen no longer threatens to smash her flat with those little sharp, pointy hooves. During the winter and spring they just look at each other, Phoebe happily wagging her tail and Doereen just contemplating while chewing her cud.

Its a pretty peaceable kingdom here.

Happy Summer Solstice!

The tomato plant (yes, that's just one) is NOT on steroids. However, its roots ARE buried in the gleanings from the compost pile. It seems to be very happy here in the dog's yard. It is safe from those cute little deer who peer longingly through the gate.

The cucumber vines have already given me 6 picklers..of course they are being eaten raw..not yet enough for a jar of cukes anyway. This morning I discovered a little melon. I have, naturally, forgotten the name of it but it looks like a mini watermelon. I have the name somewhere. They are supposed to be bigger than a softball but smaller than a soccer ball when ripe.

Inbetween the big Early Girl and the cukes is a Sweet One Million cherry tomato. The plant is tiny but absolutely loaded with 1" tomatoes. I can hardly wait to just stand out there and graze. Much as I am enjoying this cool weather (70's and 80's) the tomatoes revel in the occasional HOT day. We do need more HOT days. We've not had our usual quota of June HOT days this year. (I'm not really complaining.)

I may succumb to the Papyrus Temptation today. I've fondled and left a very nice specimen, at Target of all places, twice now.... but the third time might be my undoing. Heck, its only $19.99 and its 5' tall.. It could live in a little water garden.. somewhere...that's my delimma. WHERE? Here I am, trying so hard to plant drought resistant things and I get the bug for a wateraholic. Did I mention that I am lusting for a lotus also? oh dear, oh dear........

Right now I must attempt to make myself presentable to go join my nephew (his birthday today) and his father (father's day) for brunch. We are heading for Yuba City and The Dancing Tomato. It is reported to have very yummy food.
(Interesting that my nephew has now passed me in age by at least 5 years...
History claims that I was 14 when he arrived...history is twisted.)

Wouldn't you just know that I have to drive right past Target on my way home... hmmmmmmmm.......