Ajax at 14 and a 1/2 Months

This sweet puppy continues to charm, annoy and endear himself to everyone.  He is a source of joy and a source of frustration.  But, hey, he's still a puppy.     
Below he meets the local constable and faces his fear of the 7ft tall wooden carving of a mountie with a huge hat on!!

 

 Learning to wait when we get to the end of the trail!

Posing on one of his lookout bluffs.

 Practicing "on your place" command!

 Chilling out on a moss rock while waiting for me to catch up on our walk.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks to the Hunter clan down the road for a lovely thanksgiving dinner this past Saturday night.  I brought mashed potatoes (in the crock pot), and everyone pitched in to serve 18 in total.

 

 When I found out they don't keep the carcass for soup, I asked if I could take it home.  Yippee!! Sunday morning I made this pot of turkey soup!   hmmm good!

Mr Boy Has Done it Again!

Smoke is back wearing a cone again.  

 

  We don't know what caused the sore on is back.  The vet is sure it was not a claw or bite from a fight, so it could have been any number of things that caused irritation and then he licked at it until it was open and all the hair was off. 

 

  First we had to put cream on it.  The vet said it tasted dreadful so he wouldn't lick it off and we wouldn't need a cone.  Wrong.  He licked off every application we put on him 3 times a day.  It just got worse.  So back to the vet again.  They said the cream must have itched him or hurt him as he should not have licked it off.  So they gave him an antibiotic shot and sent him home with a cone.  Poor boy has been inside for 3 weeks now.  The first week after the shot and the cone, he was doing really well and hair was growing back and there was a nice scab.  I made an appointment for a followup and the night before the appointment I took the cone off so he could wash his face after eating (which I had been doing all along).  I looked away for a minute and he licked the scabs wide open.  Grrrr.   So another antibiotic shot and another week indoors.  It seems to be scabbing over again, so hopefully there is an end in site.  He is literally climbing the windows now to get out.

It's Fall

So September is gone, and hockey season is back in our front rooms.  Another fall, another page turned in the passing of time.  Its the first time I recall being glad that summer is over. It was long, hot and too dry.  Others might find this wonderful, but our garden and pond really suffered.  It's the first year we really worried about loosing our big koi in the pond do to evaporation of the water.  Luckily some rain came just in time, and some cooler temperatures as well.   This weekend I was able to check out what's left of the garden.    On the veggie front, we have brussellsprouts coming along in good shape,

 

  Runner Beans still producing

 

And I pulled my first onion this weekend!

  In the flower garden, we have the usual fall performers: 

  Yellow Rudbeckia

                               

                  Purple Monkshood                 

                      

Autumn-Joy Sedum

Barberry