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On leaky pond
Posted by doggonedmysteries
How does one find a leak in a pond? I know we are losing water somewhere but I have no idea where. It could be around the hose connected to the waterfall, the waterfall itself, or maybe in the liner. Yikes!
We need to find it before winter. This is going to be one of those (not) fun projects. What I wouldn’t give to have a strong-backed weak-minded helper. Nope, don’t have one of those—DH doesn’t count. His back is weak, his balance sucks, and he’s sharp as a tack.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the pond were spring fed but mine is hose fed and I have to pay the water bill. Yikes! Therefore, while we sit beside our lovely pond and enjoy its serene atmosphere I wonder how much water I’ll have to add by the end of each week.
We have a month or two left to locate and fix the leak. This means muscling big rocks and lifting a heavy pond liner always mindful of the fish, moving a cement and fiberglass waterfall to look beneath it, checking hoses…any volunteers? I didn’t think so.
Posted in My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Fish, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Home and Garden, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Water, Water garden, Waterfall, Writer, Writing
Relocating a snake, a color changing Koi, and a toad hideout
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Last night I removed a rather large garter snake from my garden and relocated him to a distant area of the cemetery. The snake might have been large enough to make a meal of my littlest Koi and I wasn’t taking any chances. The little Koi is growing rapidly and turning into quite a character. He (We’ll use he here because at this age who knows.) never misses a meal.
When I first got him he was tiny compared our other Koi. Since then his size has quadrupled. He’s not afraid of the much bigger Koi either. He’ll swim right over their heads to seize a prime piece of food. When I brought him home he was black and yellow and, much to my disappointment, he’s become more black and orange than yellow. However, his personality makes up for his change of color. He is a brazen little devil.
We hadn’t seen our toad since the night my neighbor’s son gave him to us and we set him free in the garden. Last night I found him quite by accident. I picked up the green recycling can to put it out and there he was not happy that I discovered his hiding place. I inverted a clay pot over him and propped one end up with a small clay saucer so he could get out if he wanted. DH said he was gone when he put the can back in the morning.
Posted in My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Fish, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Is our pond garden now Toad Hill?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We’ve added a toad to our outdoor menagerie. The neighbor’s son presented him to us yesterday. He feels bad that our frogs are gone and thought he had one for us. I had to explain the difference between frogs and toads to him. However, I am delighted to have a voracious bug eater around again.
It won’t take him long to grow larger. With the frogs gone we do have more bugs about. Mr. Toadamus should eat well if he sticks around.
Several years ago, I brought home two that DH caught. They didn’t stick around I no sooner let them go than they packed up and headed north whistling as they went on their way. I guess they considered the frogs too much competition at the time.
I’m still hoping that the neighbor’s son will come across some native frogs and bring them home to us. They’d stay much smaller than the bullfrogs and might not go walk about as the bullfrogs did when the large bugs got scarce and the birds refused to land here after they saw others become bullfrog meals.
The little native frogs will also chow down on mosquitoes, which the bullfrogs considered too small to bother eating.
Posted in My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Picture post
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Posted in My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Food, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Koi are like potato chips
Posted by doggonedmysteries
You can’t have just one. A couple of weeks ago I found I couldn’t resist purchasing one more Koi. I’ve told myself we don’t need more many times. However, one of the Koi we lost in the tragic poisoning of our pond a few years back was yellow and black. I never found one to replace him. That and the fact that one of ours has a physical problem pushed me over the edge when I saw the little guy.
I do mean LITTLE guy. Our Koi dwarf him. He is a game little thing though. He’ll brazen it out at night and swim rings around the big Koi. I’ve tried for days to get a picture of him in the pond. Tonight I managed to do so. He’s under the lily pads pictured in the top left of the first picture.
Posted in Misc, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Fish, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Monet skies
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I gave away more plants today. The perennials have flourished and are elbowing each other for space. M’s mother and father in law stopped by and took several plants. They barely put a dent in the crop.
I may have to resort to pulling some of them out like weeds to make some room. I hate to do that. Better to expand the garden edges and weather DH’s complaints. He shouldn’t complain since it would mean less for him to mow, but he is rather particular about the lawn.
After a hot and hard day’s work in the gardens, I sprawled out on the hammock to cool off and relax for a bit. The clouds drifted across the sky on the tip of an impressionist’s brush. The results were astonishingly gorgeous. I daydreamed under a Monet sky.
As the day moved into night, the back yard became nature’s light show. It began with a colorful sunset and ended with hundreds of fireflies doing their winged dance. The neighborhood was quiet. All I heard was the sound of the waterfall and fountains.
Posted in Misc, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Surprise! A new look.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I thought it was time for a change. I hope you like it. One thing I noticed was the print is larger, which I like. However, it is lighter, which I don’t like.
I may have to play a little.
The Blogrolls are now on the bottom of the page along with everything else that isn’t a post. Not sure if I like that, but we’ll see.
This is going to take some getting used to. I hope you all like the changes. If not, let me know. I do want your opinions.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Fish, Food, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Koi, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pennwriters, Pets, Pond, Ponds, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
Are we sanitizing ourselves into oblivion?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
When we were kids, we used to go outside and play…in the dirt. We’d come home so filthy you couldn’t tell us from the neighborhood boys, or the boy cousins, if we were visiting our grandfather’s farm.
Mom was lucky if we really washed our hands before dinner. We went swimming in lakes and stagnant ponds and went wading in drainage ditches and creeks.
There was no such thing as sanitizing wipes or antibacterial soaps. Do you remember the two-second rule for dropped food? Don’t forget to blow on it too.
We rolled in the grass, rode our bikes all day, played in the rain, and we seldom caught colds. Allergies? The closest I came to one as a child was a reaction to eating way too much fresh pineapple—I got a rash that went away the next day.
I have a novel idea…for the entire summer put away the kids’ computers, game boys, WIIs, X-boxes, cell phones, and other paraphernalia and take them outside to play. I mean really play and get filthy. They might get healthier.
In fact, moving around and doing something outside would do adults a lot of good too.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
Another day closer
Posted by doggonedmysteries
It’s three days to the conference and two days until I leave for Lancaster. I daren’t bring one thing downstairs until Thursday morning. If I do, Gavin will know for sure that Mom is going away for a few days. He already senses something is up and is a bit more clingy than usual.
Thursday morning before I leave, I’ll backwash the pond filters and make sure everything is running smoothly. That only leaves one thing for DH to do there and that’s toss in some Koi food once a day. Even if he forgets to do that, the fish will be fine since there’s plenty of natural food.
I showed G where the watering can is and she has the keys to the yard gate and house. B has my car keys so he can work on the fuse problem.
All I have to do is close my suitcase, grab the bag of hanging stuff, bring them downstairs, and load the car when my conference roommate gets here.
After that, all I need to do is have a good time and learn more about this crazy business of writing.
Posted in My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pennwriters, Pennwriters conference, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
We don’t need rain right now…
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We sure did get a load of rain the night before last. From what I heard, it totaled over 3 inches worth. I’m glad I thought to tie up some of my plants that would’ve flattened under a heavy downpour. I didn’t tie up the crane’s bill and it was pretty well flattened by the time the sun came out today. It’s a good thing that once it dries out it tends to rise again.
I have some candleholders that stick in the ground. I hadn’t put any candles in the cups and they were full of water when I went outside today. The ground in the back garden was downright saturated by the runoff we get from the apartment building behind us.
When I came down in the morning, the sky still threatened more rain. However, some time around four the sun came out and drove the clouds away.
Unfortunately, with all that heavy rain Goliath and two other frogs went walkabout and none of them have returned. We are now down to one bullfrog. Maybe that’s a good thing since those bullfrogs were starting go for any bird that happened to land close to them.
Posted in Misc, My blog, my garden, Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
The frogs let me down
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We had a lovely day here yesterday. We hit a new high temperature record for the date. DH didn’t do so well by afternoon when it hit 87 degrees, but we expect it to be so, and make adjustments. He dresses cooler, tries not to over do it, and stays inside where, with a brick home, it’s cooler until late at night.
DH takes a daily afternoon nap. It helps him function better. This unfortunately is where he was when I was outside and almost fell off my chair with excitement. I watched a great blue heron fly over, and although glad that he didn’t stop by for a snack of Koi, I was bursting at having no one around to share my exhilaration. Even G was away and she would’ve been as thrilled as I was.
Around 7 p.m., it had cooled down to a nice 76 and DH came outside to sit by the pond for a little while. We watched robins bathe in the waterfall, goldfinches serenaded us, and a gentle breeze kept us comfortable.
However, the frogs let me down. They made a liar out of me. No one sang.
Posted in Misc, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
A message from beyond?
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Once when my sister visited me she brought some Texas bluebonnet seeds. We planted them near the pond, our favorite place to sit and shoot the breeze, when she was here. The seeds didn’t grow and I forgot about them.
A few weeks after she died, I noticed a familiar plant growing. There, where we’d planted the seeds a few years before was a Texas bluebonnet. I watched it grow and when it bloomed, I smiled remembering a time that we’d played in a field of them. We acted like children and for a little while delayed our trip to the hospital in Ft. Sam.
Every year since then one has grown in the same spot. I’ve planted seeds from it in other places but they don’t come up. The only one that grows is where we planted the seeds together. I think of it as her way of letting me know she’s around.
Today the first sprout broke ground. I smiled.
Posted in In memory of..., My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
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