Spring Fever



Dixie and Tom at Lake Del Valle.

Our dog has come up lame, right as she is about to go into heat. She sprained her toe on the right paw playing frizbee fetch in the nearby creek last week. I feel pretty guilty for letting her do this. I guess even river rocks are not good to run and rough house on. She'll be doing no retrieves or swimming for the next 10 days. Glad that's all it was, and very pleased that Dr. Bains was able to diagnose the problem right away. He prescribed anti-inflamatory pain meds to be given 2 times a day with orders to keep her on slow walks only.



We've had frosty mornings and cool north winds, which makes me think it is too early to plant outdoors, but we are getting the ground and compost heap ready. Tom is going to help me plant and install a watering system that will make it easier to keep up with the garden this year. We are also installing the fixtures for hanging lanterns from the canopy of the Mulberry trees in the backyard. We want to add a bit of light so we can hang out outdoors longer into the balmy summer evenings that we know are ahead.

The wysteria is in full bloom. Tom taught me to prune them for blooming, and it turned out very well. We hope to keep up with it for blooms all summer. New crape myrtles, with deep burgundy colored flowers, were planted along side the long driveway and the dead pine and two others were removed. You can almost tell there's a house from the street now.

I was thrilled to see the first heirloom tomatoes heirloom tomato seedling poking up through the soil  when I poured my first cup of coffee this morning. Hope at least some of them survive to planting time.