Friday, September 27, 2019

My Icelandic Sheepdog Kit and I have been taking classes and we are both doing very, very well. Although we are still in the process of recovering from recent negative events, we are looking forward, not backward.

A recent sunrise with red sky and ship. 

Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

Even when the Icelandic Sheepdog girls can't follow me, they follow me. Is it love or is the herding instinct that strong. Three generations here - Totty, Kria, Kit.

The fall garden is in full bloom, the tourists have mostly left, the beach seems to be reappearing as we expected.

Dahlias

Dahlias, Phlox

Dahlia, Langhammar's Autumn Orange Daylily

Jim Langhammar's Autumn Orange Daylily

Dahlias, Eupatorium coelestinum

Hardy Ageratum (Eupatorium coelestinum)

Among the many varieties of Colchicums there are at least six in my garden. They start flowering in mid-September and slowly the different kinds come into bloom the flowers lasting until mid to late November. Of course I am fond of the winter hardy mums which are hard to find; the more tender mums are available everywhere at this tine of the year but they usually fail to survive winters here. However, I love the Colchicums because the unexpected arrival of the flowers long after their spring and early summer leaves have disappeared always are a pleasant surprise. I sometimes describe them as winter hardy Amaryllis - even though they are not related to them. Everyone knows that Amaryllis leaves produce the energy necessary to produce their huge flowers weeks or even months after the leaves have disappeared.

The photos below show three earlier flowering kinds of Colchicums. 

Colchicum autumnale album

Colchicum autumnale album

Colchicum

Colchicum

Colchicum

Colchicum

Colchicum

Colchicum

Colchicum

Colchicum

Colchicum

Colchicum

Because of the cyclic rising and falling water levels of Lake Huron, my beach had disappeared for two years. The water level has been up to the vegetation. Now it's receding once again and the beach is slowly reappearing. Fossils, including many Petosky Stones, will begin to reappear after storms. I had to abandon my beach well which carried water from the well all the way up the bluff to my pole barn (aka Sans Souci) and instead connect the city water I get in my house to the pole barn. There's always someting unexpected happening, eh?

Thursday, September 12, 2019 - Et Cetera

Alaskastadirs Korpur CGC, RN, RA, RE, CD

Clicking on photos enlarges them.

An Explanation

Several years ago I sold a puppy to an acquaintance. (I later sold another puppy to that same person and was never paid for that second puppy. It was returned to me almost two years after as "unacceptable".) Never have I had contracts with my puppy buyers; they are virtually impossible to enforce and can cause nothing but problems. I never co-own for the same reason. If fifty percent of marriages now end in divorces why on earth would anyone think that co-owning a dog is going to actually work out well. Recently that breeder agreed to sell me a puppy that had six of my own dogs in its pedigree. Although she said that she had sent me a contract several times, it never showed up in my in box. I asked my internet provider to help me find those emails so I could read the purported contract; it took my provider and me three hours and we found nothing.

The contract finally arrived from the breeder only a few days before the sale was to be finalized. It said that I had to agree to use that breeder's vet for some services, that I had to get the hips checked by a vet of the breeder's choice, I had to get the eyes done at specific places, that I had to finish the dog's championship, and I had to use either the breeder or a handler of the breeder's choice to show in the breed/conformation ring.

That breeder would be listed as the first owner on the registration papers; I was apparently paying full price which was much more than I had charged that person for either of the two puppies I sold to that person. I would be allowed to choose a mate for the dog at the age of two. However, as the breeder was to be listed as the first owner. I wondered what would happen if that person did not approve of the stud I wanted to use. Would the puppies registration papers actually be signed? And to repeat myself, I had not sold the breeder a puppy with a contract and the breeder wanted me to sign a contract. I had been bullied  in the past; I believe that the breeder was bullying me again.

Some folks assumed that we were friends but no one ever asked. For the record, we aren't.

Louise Penny - The Three Pines Books

One of my favorite innocent pleasures is the series of books chronicling the lives of the inhabitants of the town I really wished I lived in - Three Pines. Annie, Armand, Clara, Gabri, Henri, Isabelle, Jean-Guy, Myrna, Olivier, Reine-Marie, Rosa, Ruth, and even Fred. Clara's paintings and Ruth's poetry. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

You would have a different body by then,

An old murky one, a stranger's body you could

Not even imagine, and you would be lost and

alone.
Deep and prolonged sigh on my part. 
Thanks Ruth, I'm FINE.

Sometime back at the beginning of summer I noticed a small baby snapping turtle in my pond. I cannot imagine how it managed to work its way under or through the cyclone fence. Although shy, it managed to help itself to the feed I've been giving to the white-goldfish I rescued from a pet food store in Port Huron. Of course the turtle, I've named him Tom after my cousin Tom, influenced by Silver Lake like all my maternal cousins, who loved turtles. Tom (the turtle) must go back to the wild before winter. The question is should he go into the HUGE Lake Huron in my front yard or into one of the several much smaller farmers' ponds I see as I travel through Michigan's Thumb. What is it with Peninsulas, I wonder Carlo? Genetics?

Tom rarely leaves the water. One mild sunny day recently he sunned himself on the lone sunning rock in my tiny pond. He has at least doubled in size this summer.  Adult snappers are not known for the gentle dispositions, their gregarious personalities. He must leave soon in order to acclimate himself successfully to a real life in the wild. I'm waiting until the summer tourists leave. Soon, Tommy, soon. I'll miss you. But have a nice life.

Tom the Turtle

Tom the Turtle

Tom the Turtle

Unplanned cousins located near each other in the garden. Wild Marsh Mallow and cultivated perennial Hibiscus.

Marsh Mallow

Perennial Garden Hibiscus (with Poppy Seed-Pod)

Perennial Garden Hibiscus 

Helenium autumnale (original 5 foot version)

Helenium autumnale (3 feet tall)

Hemerocallis with Katydid

Hemerocallis 

Volunteer Sedum (missed by rabbits somehow)

Volunteer Buddleia in Geranium pot

Another Volunteer Buddleia in the same pot

Usually there are bullfrogs, the result of adding their tadpoles, in my ponds. This year for the first time leopard frogs appeared. I've been a little concerned lest Tommy the Turtle decided to feast on them but so far, so good.

The Monarch butterflies are now dazzling me with their disingenuous fidgety flying, slowly sipping the sweet nectar of early autumn's wild flowers, and wending and weaving their way back to Mexico. (Honest, I was not trying to do that.)

I was set to purchase a lovely female puppy but, like the ships below, I narrowly avoided that catastrophe. The breeder wanted to set unreasonable demands on me without any discussion. In truth I really believe that the puppy was extremely good, better than she had thought, and she had changed her mind and wanted more control over her. Years ago she had purchased a male from me with no strings, no contract, no co-ownership. I foolishly expected the same lack of stipulations and control from her. Although I remain deeply saddened, I realize that my forced decision was the right one.