Pumpkin's bone competition

Leda says that Pumpkin really likes marrow bones and sometimes teases her brothers with them.

Darby love marrow bones, too.

 It won't be hard to keep them supplied, now that I found a local butcher who keeps them stocked in his freezer. 

Housekeeping with Corgis

New Blog Name?

So, although I've included Bonnie in nearly all of the blog postings since she came to live with us, I knew her stay was only temporary so I never changed the blog name to include her.

But, before too long, this little girl* will be coming to live with us and her stay won't be temporary!

 I'm working on some new name ideas and welcome suggestions, too! 

In the meantime, I'm off to play with the Darbs and Bonnie on this lovely, unexpectedly cool August evening.


* Leda says Pumpkin loves bones and love to tease her brothers with them.  Sounds like she is going to be a feisty little girl!

Back soon!

This conference hosting business is whipping my butt!  No new photos or tails tales of The Darbs, but here's a cute old photo from this time last year:

Keeping balls in the air

Remember a bit ago I mentioned that I was trying to keep a lot of balls in the air at work and was worried that I might drop some?  Well, the reason for that juggling is here: The Kennedy Center's Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability Conference that the Zoo and another local non-profit are co-hosting this week here in San Diego.

Today we had a pre-conference meeting and it looks like we are in good shape and--so far, anyway--no balls have been dropped.

Bonnie and Darby were trying hard not to let these balls drop:

Is it just me?

Is it just me, or can you see the similarity between this:

and, this:

Those clouds made me think immediately of the Darbs' sweet, springy curves!

Container Gardening

So.  Along with half of the the US (if one is to believe newspaper articles, blogs, and the blurbs on seed catalogs) I decided I wanted to grow some of our food.  Specifically tomatoes.  Southern California grocery stores offer pale, mealy tomatoes grown in Chili, while those grown here in California (which might also be pale and mealy, but that is another story) are shipped to other parts of the US.

But, we have gophers.  So, I decided to grow my garden in containers.  BIG containers. Nearly waist-high containers.

We also have dogs and I thought the containers would keep the tasty greens and vegetables away from my vertically-challenged girls.  

But, I underestimated the will of a Corgi to reach food:

Who knew Corgis liked oregano!

For now, Darby is leaving the container garden alone and is still doing her after-breakfast grazing on the feverfew and purslane growing trying to grow on the down-slope that Glenn and I still haven't figured out how to landscape (after 13 years....) 

So, maybe the container garden isn't as Corgi-proof as I thought it would be, but I'm pretty sure the gourds on the trellis are safe:

Glowing

At my work next week, we are co-hosting an important conference on accessibility and inclusion in cultural and recreational venues.  At the end of the conference there will be an awards dinner.   The director of the conference, who is a really fun woman, suggested that we have glow sticks as ice-breaker, favor, fun things and we were happy to oblige.

Did you know Michaels Craft stores sell tubes of 15 glow sticks for $1 per tube (what costs $1 anymore???)

So I had 150 tubes of glow sticks sitting in the back of my car the other night and I just couldn't resist checking to make sure they worked.

Darby and Bonnie helped, too!

Another Zoey

Another big-eared Zoey is pictured here.

Big ears, but not quite as big as Leda's Zoey's!

I wish I could take photos like Kristine Gunter!

Stealing ideas from "It's me, Buddy!" again

On Buddy's Blog the other day, Buddy and his personal assistant commented on how intense Buddy's eyes are and how he is always watching and seeming to be thinking and understanding what he sees.

I think Darby is like that, too. 

Look at those eyes! 

Can you tell she's thinking, "As soon as The One Who Feeds Me puts down that darned hose, maybe she'll throw the ball for me!

Vocalizing

Speaking of puppy ears....

Of course you know that Darby has two brothers--Buddy who lives in northern-southern California (whereas we live in southern-southern California!) and Sammy who lives in Arkansas.

Buddy and Darby both do something that Buddy's human calls "puppy ears."  Go look at Buddy's blog (the link is in my blog list) for an example of Buddy doing half puppy ears.

Here's Darby doing full on puppy ears:

She lays her ears back like that when she greets someone, or when a human coos at her or looks ready to pet her! 

This photo doesn't capture how sweet and cute she looks (in fact, she might look a little scared, but I assure you she isn't!)

I just love it when Darby does puppy ears and I love it that Buddy's human gave it a name.

I wonder if Sammy does puppy ears? 

And, I wonder if Pumpkin will?

Who's been sitting in my chair?

OK.  So, it's Glenn's chair, not mine.  

But, look who's been sitting in it!

And, look who seems to be wishing she could be sitting in it!

Twinkle

I love Darby's eyes.

My sister says they are "soulful" eyes.

Here, the TV is twinkling in them.  

 Here, in just one eye.  

If she could see the photo and if she could talk she would say, "Geez, mom!  Why didn't you tell me I had something in the corners of my eyes?  And, would it kill you to put nail polish or something on that license tag behind my pretty name tag to prevent it from turning my pretty white ruff dark??"

Almost bedtime

Ears

So.  I'm obsessed with ears and freckled bellies.  Those belonging to puppies and dogs, of course!   I guess there are worse things to be obsessed with.

The Pumpkin-girl's ears are temporarily out of the tape--she and/or her remaining litter-mates having chewed or pulled it off.  

Leda sent me this photo.  Look at those freshly-standing up ears:

Here are some photos of Darby at about the same stage as pumpkin.  Note the one ear still wanting to bend over:

Then, just a few days later, here she is with both ears up and they've been up ever since.  

Except when she does "puppy ears."  But, that's another story.  And, one that Buddy's human knows and loves!  

On the edge of nothing

There was a strange fogginess this morning when the girls and I went outside after breakfast. 

The canyon behind our house was filled with fog, but the backyard itself was not.  

I don't think the photograph captures the feeling of nothingness beyond the back fence; it felt like we were on the edge of a big empty. 

P.S. Unfortunately,  the photo does capture the ravages inflicted on our lawn by cut backs on water, gophers (sorry, Leda--the bounce sheets/ammonia didn't work for us) a sprinkler head overgrown by ferns, and our refusal to use lawn fertilizer/weed killer because of the dogs!

An Award!

Darby's Daily is the lucky recipient of this award:

bestowed on us by Jimmy's and Wilson's human.

I'm afraid I can't meet the requirement of passing it on to 15 (15!) blogs that I read, but I will give it a good try.

In addition to the limited number in my blog roll, I also enjoy checking in on these fairly regularly:

1.  Bloom a blogger from an area of Montana where I would some day like to live.
2.  Soule Mama  a stay at home mama who blogs from Portland, Maine.
3.  Mackville Road a mama blogging from somewhere "in the Middle."
4.  Daily Paintings by Heidi Malott another person from somewhere "in the Middle."  I own one of her lovely paintings.
5.  Now Norma Knits from Vermont and the very first blog I read each day.  She makes me laugh.
6. FuoriBorgo who lives in a small hill town in Italy.
7. Simply Recipes  from Northern California whose recipes have NEVER failed me.
8. Poppy Talk just plain fun stuff.

But of course, my all time favorite blogs are those belonging to Darby's brothers Buddy and Sammy.  They are listed in my blog roll, but here they are again:

9. It's Me, Buddy! who lives with his human, Becky, and Jennifer the poodle in Southern California.
10. Play it Again Sam, Sammy who lives with his human, Leda, and 8,000 dogs (just kidding!) including the PUMPKIN Girl!

Thanks for featuring us, A Tail of Two Cardis, who happens to live in Virginia, not far from Erika and Christian.

Not with the ball, again!

Here it comes:

 

Caught it!

Can we do it again?

Nurse Pumpkin

Leda sent me this photo of Pumpkin with her ears taped.  Leda thinks she looks like a nurse. 

Leda is giving away her approximate age by remembering when nurses wore those pretty white caps, shoes and white stockings.  Anybody remember Cherry Ames?  Oh!  I wanted to be Cherry Ames!

My heart is beating faster just looking at what appears to be black outlining the tan of Pumpkin's inner right ear.  Maybe, just maybe her ears with look like these,  even if they aren't as big. (Zoe and Darby are related...I can't remember how, but I think they are half sisters.)

Here are a couple of photos of Darby with the dreaded tape:

My friend and I aren't as good at taping ears as Leda is!

But, they turned out OK: