My raised garden beds are coming along pretty nice, in spite of the total lack of sunshine we’ve had since I planted. The radishes are completely obnoxious, but the chives and the cucumbers aren’t doing so well.
I am getting strawberries, finally, though.
Yesterday I moved the rather lackluster tomato plants into a little greenhouse I made all by myself and they seem to have doubled in size overnight. Yesterday they were puny and today they’re almost as tall as the greenhouse itself. Which is not very tall, but it’s quite a magical growth spurt!
An old metal frame for a … I dunno? Some plastic, and some duct tape and voila – mini greenhouse!
Are you seriously blogging about vegetables? Gimme a break.
Well excuse me, TWooie, eater of baby birds! I’m just trying to blog about something pleasantly neutral and inoffensive…
Ah screw it. I’m so not cut out for blogging about plants.
TWoo has suffered no ill effects from consuming the lice covered fledgling, except for a diminished portion of dinner that evening and an all consuming obsession with staring at the sky. Because, you know, breakfast now falls from it like manna from heaven.
And that’s a good thing, because the obsession has eclipsed a burgeoning phobia of Things In The Sky. Ever since the kite-surfing episode of last week, TWoo started to worry about things that hovered, like balloons and airplanes. He was spending an awful lot of time looking UP and poised to run away.
Now he’s spending quite a lot of time looking up with his mouth open. It reminds me of a story someone told me once about how their dog was racing across a park, barking, staring up at a chipmunk. The chipmunk was leaping from tree to tree – and missed a branch. It fell right into the barking mouth of the dog, who was delighted with this magical turn of events and from that moment on has spent the rest of its life waiting for more chipmunks to fall into its mouth.
If you could make a chipmunk fall into my mouth, I would love you forever and never again bite you in the pants.
Tweed’s spending a lot of time with his mouth open these days too, but not because he’s living an Insert Food Here lifestyle, but just because he’s hot and tired. It’s like my dog got old overnight … one minute he was just Tweed who happened to be 10, and in the last couple of weeks he suddenly became a 10 year old senior dog. How did that happen? He moves slower, will choose a trot over a gallop, and he has Old Dog Bark – you know, that sort of hoarse, repetitive WOOF WOOF WOOF that old dogs get? It’s weird, it happened so fast :(
Get off my lawn.
There’s nothing wrong with him at all – he is still bright and cheerful, obnoxious, stubborn and weird, it’s like time finally caught up with him is all. I sure don’t like to think about my dog getting old. It’s a good thing I have a ton of photos of him looking young!
Speaking of photos, Jen of Mambumutts and I are organizing a one-day studio photo session in July. We’ll be renting this awesome studio in the backyard of a really nice photographer in Surrey. We’ll be booking 3 clients per hour or so, and have planned for a 5 hour shoot. It will be a big day, and will likely fill up REALLY quick, so if you are interested in getting studio shots of your dog, message me for more information on time, location and prices. We don’t do this very often, but it’s a lot of fun!
dp says
About this time last year some parasailors made an emergency landing in our pasture when a storm whipped up out of nowhere. Titan was INCENSED by this attack from the skies, and kept a close eye on all flying things after that fateful day.
Molly says
Those poor tomatoes, how dare you torture them so. Can’t you hear them cry out for freedom and direct sunlight? Your sick.
Bwahahahaha!
susan says
That’s ok, Diamond is terrified of floor lamps and balloons. We have been taking a beginning agility course and she is finally getting over her fear of the tunnel :)
Wendy says
Have Tweed checked for rickettsial infections and /or put him Doxycycline. Same thing happened to my 11.5 aussie girl and treating her for tick borne infection made a big difference!
MB says
Tweed’s symptoms rang a little bell in my head. I’m a vet nurse and you can imagine how one’s brain goes into overdrive when your own dogs or the dogs you read about each day aren’t the way they used to be. SO I’m probably being a hyperchondriact (spelling isn’t my strong suit) BUT …
The fact you’ve mentioned his bark has changed, he’s slowed down, he feels the heat more and he sleeps alot AND it’s all happened rather rapidly. Pushes me to write to you and enquire of laryngeal paralysis. The last thing I want is to freak you out and I’m probably completely wrong. I just wanted to make sure Tweeds okay :-)
Abigail says
Actually TWooie, a tomato is a fruit. It’s the ovary and seeds of a flowering plant, which makes it fruit rather than vegetable. Cucumbers and Squash (squashes?) are also fruits.
Quinn says
Hah, on the same vein of Tweed and his old-man-ness…
We took my pup Snickers to the vet today. He’ll be turning eight in July, and I looked over at him and suddenly noticed a couple bunches of gray fur around the ends of his mouth. I know eight isn’t /too/ old, and he’s slowly making way into the best shape he’s been in for years…but still. It was endearing, in a kinda scary way, to see visible signs of the pup-pup aging.
riosmom says
My dogs eat my strawberries as fast as they appear. I see some and think I will pick them later and when I go to pick them, they are gone. I am pretty sure I am not hallucinating – there really were berries there a couple of hours before.
“Old dogs”, whatever their age, are the sweetest thing on earth. Though it is hard to think of Tweed as ‘old’ given that he just made the podium at the regionals .
RachelB says
Pretty strawberries!
Adrienne says
Tweeders!
Ruth says
Oh, the plump (or not so plump anymore) TWooie, always hopeful…
Kristi aka insane dog owner says
Can you send some of the strawberries down here? (Not the radishes though – ICK.)
Kali, who will be 12 in a mere 3 days, suddenly slowed way down. It was pretty rapid and I thought “Well, she *is* getting older so only to be expected.” But it happened so fast…no gradual slide into the extreme-old-age that is my 14 year old hybrid.
Long story short: got her thyroid tested and it was massively low. She’s on very inexpensive meds and thinks she is (at most) 8 again. You might want to check Tweed’s.
Sally says
Twooie has no doubt been reading case law again, preparing to take his law school entrance exams. In the nineteenth century, the US Supreme Court ruled that tomatoes are vegetables. At least for tariff purposes.
I suppose Twooie will grow up to be a lawyer instead of a botanist.
The Food Lady says
Hey! TWooie is simply not *specific* about foodstuffs. He doesn’t care if they are fruits or veggies, or have lice or not, he just wants to eat that which fits in his big gaping maw :)
BTW, the lettuce AND the radishes were delicious!! We had them in our salad last night.
As for Tweedle-Dee, I think he’s fine – he’s just 10 years old finally. He still plays lots of ball and has lots of energy but he’s learning to conserve it. And of course, he is STILL wearing his winter garments, but is finally starting to shed out his coat. I think he’ll feel a lot better when that extra fluff is gone. And I think it means summer may finally be here!
kristy says
I just read your comment about winter coats and shedding. It made me stop and think about the fact that for the last couple of months, I have been vaguely wondering when our 3 dogs were going to start shedding. Usually they start in April. It was only at the beginning of this month that I started seeing significant balls of hair floating around the house….indicating the arrival of shed time!
Next year I think I will watch what the dogs’ coats do in making plans for late spring/early summer!