Yesterday, this puppy, at 8 days old, was oblivious to the outside world, happy to snooze in the crook of my daughter's arm.



Today, what a difference! Her eyes have opened, and her entire world has changed! First to be born, first to be able to see all around her ... this baby is bound to be an achiever! :)

Spring Collection

I have been taking photos here and there as Spring was arriving, and have chosen a few to post now before we're headlong into summer. Today, it certainly feels more like July than May! No complaints!

These alium are tucked just inside the branches of my lilac standard outside my front door. I had almost forgotten all about them.


I have a couple of helleborus, and every year they're the first blooms, most of the time beginning to peak through the snow in March.


The columbine have gone wild in my back garden and are threatening to take over the poppies. The plants in the front are not nearly as mature as these.


My lilac tree in the back. Never realized how many plants with purple blooms I have! I do have other colours, but these are the early arrivals.


This is a renegade crabtree, courtesy of one of my neighbour's. I've left it to its own way, and the dogs still try those miserable little sour apples every year. Once :).



A purple iris ... what else??


I liked this shadow cast by my split leaf Japanese maple.

Our Debut

Olivia's pups were born very early Saturday morning, starting at about 1:30 and finishing about 5:00 a.m.. At two days old, they are incredibly active and healthy ... what every breeder hopes for!

From the left, there are three girls and a boy. We think they're all beautiful!



The boy is in the lower left, with the full colour.

Dandelion: Salad or Weed?

While I was waiting for Olivia to have her puppies yesterday (she didn't!), I did some weeding in the back garden, fenced in to keep the dogs out. It took me a few minutes to notice that as fast as I was pitching those weeds from the garden into the yard to bag later, the dogs who were out were having all kinds of fun with them.


Rustle's idea of fun was to steal as many weeds (dandelions preferred) right out of the other dogs' mouths. Although he's cute, sometimes Rustle's not very bright. Here he is lining up his next "victim".



He checks out Keva, but wisely passes her by.



Maida doesn't look like she's going to share, either.


Kelly, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be putting up much of a fight.



"Mmmmmmm ... now this is one yummy dandelion, far too big for Kelly all by herself."



"Like taking candy from a baby ... "




"I'm outta here!"

Mothers' Days

When I arrived home Sunday night, I picked up my daughter from work after I left the airport. After treating me to a much-appreciated take out dinner, Chelsea had a lovely surprise waiting for me at home ... this gorgeous bouquet of flowers. It is just this vibrant, and I love it!

This is the other mother(to-be) in the house. One of my girls, Olivia, is due any day now. I took a picture of my "full figured" 10 year old girl, Cady, and below her is Olivia, just to give an idea of how big she is. She is waddling now, and you can tell quite uncomfortable. This morning she got stuck underneath the Fisher Price play table I have in the back yard for the dogs. She got in, but couldn't get her fat belly out, so I had to go out and lift one end up. Poor dear :).

A Weekend Away

This past weekend, I visited my very good friends Kim and Pete in Ottawa. Here is a link to Kim's blog http://www.laureateshelties.blogspot.com/

I realized when I got home and uploaded from my camera, I really didn't have much "blog-worthy" to post, but that's fine, because that wasn't my intention! We ate and drank and shopped and had a big walkabout with the dogs. We shared a lot of wonderful conversation and I came home feeling very lucky to have such good friends. Kim has much better photos on her blog, but here are a few that I did bring home as a sampling.

I took this through the kitchen window with Pete's 500 mm lens. That branch was many feet away; I've never used such an awesome piece of photo equipment before!

These two pairs of geese taunted me all weekend. I patiently waited, a number of times, for them to break out in one of many territorial spats between them, as the resulting fireworks would have made some really intense pictures. Or so I thought. I never did get anything really interesting. It seemed that no sooner did I leave my "blind" on the balcony, that's when they would decide to squabble and engage in all kinds of mini-wars.

And this is my most favourite poodle in the whole world. I lost my heart to Miss Bunny-Foo when I met her for the first time as a 12 (I think) week old puppy in October at Kim's. I went gaga for her, and was tickled to hug and be hugged all over again, and double the fun, as Bunny now has a half-sister Barbie. It was marvelous to have all that poodley fun. And one of the best things is that because they don't shed, I didn't have to worry about bringing home strange white hairs for my own dogs to be jealous about!!

Rustle's Spring Roll