days of dogs and roses...

An unbroken string of gorgeous days (though no rain means I spend a lot of time holding a hose), of garden plants, of Millie.

Ed asks -- when is she going to be like, you know, a normal dog that you leave at home and go about your day? I reply -- a little more each day. You can't rush a dog who just last week howled every time I stepped outside.

At the same time, I think I was overconfident about her transition to "normal dog that you leave at home..." Millie was charming this morning. We had a lovely hour (or more?) on the porch over breakfast.

She enjoyed a long snuggle on my lap...

Outside in her yard, I dug out a failed idea and transplanted it elsewhere. To a shadier spot. She was patient. Maybe a bit too lively! But overall a good girl!

I tried her in a tank top onsie for the hotter days. 

 

 

Cute, but not comfortable. Too easy to pull off. We resumed the regular onsies. 

She napped, I worked on some more plantings. All smooth. I took it a step further. I watered. The entire front garden. And I switched out some of the potted plants -- from rear to front and front to rear. Millie is not howling inside. She's reached a new level of maturity! I come back inside, satisfied. Until I find her on the reading chair. She has managed to open the zipper to the main arm rest cushion (never to be fully closed again) and is chomping away at the insides. Classic stuff you'd find in a video clip of a naughty dog. Millie!!! 

Dogs! I still haven't fixed the car seatbelt that Henry chewed up. Sadey was less of a chewer, nor was she an imp, she just shed like crazy. Millie? Prankster supreme. Next time she stays in the crate.

And from Ed again -- when will you be done planting? Actually by the end of the month. I'm waiting on a handful of roses. Everything else is in place for this season. But of course, there's ongoing maintenance. Of the pleasant kind. Today I cut off all spent blooms in the front yard. Deeply rewarding to be snipping again!  But mostly, my July days are a blur of Millie antics and of rose cultivation. I should have renamed my pup when I first got her. She should have been Rosie to match my big dive into that pool of flowers.

 

And tomorrow? Still on Millie patrol. Still planting, watering, weeding. Waiting for the last three roses to arrive.

with so much love...