Showing posts with label Labrador Retrievers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Labrador Retrievers. Show all posts

May 1, 2023

Press the pause button, albeit unwillingly


Happy May Day! The Celts called this day Beltane and it was, I believe, their most important day of the year. It might be a pagan holiday, but these days, we need to remember that regardless of the different places we come from and the different things we believe that we're on the journey together. 

So. That wasn't on topic for today. Today I'm commiserating about the weather. It's the first of May and it's cold and damp outside. I had to press the pause button on all my outside activities, which didn't please me or Deuce. He's one bored pup at the moment. No long walks or car rides. No playing in the cold creeks. No squirrels running about the backyard. No work in the garden beyond a visual check which resulted in dispatching one green worm today. eewwww.  

Is our rainy, cloudy weather the result of the eruption of Shiveluch, a Russian volcano, on April 11? I haven't heard The Weather Channel mention it. Is it just our normal May weather? May and June are my area's historically wettest months with rainfall. It may be wet, but the temperatures are holding up, staying in the fifty+ Fahrenheit range, so my tomatoes and begonias are fine. 

Around three o'clock this afternoon, a bit of sunshine broke through, and Deuce and I went out for a brief stroll around the yard. It's a mixed bag out there. The daffodils are over, the one really early daylily is trying to bloom, the purple lilac has a couple of blooms, and the old-fashioned brown/yellow iris from my great-grandmother's garden has popped up a few buds. Along the front deck runway, the peonies are showing some promise, too. 

This brief pause won't last long. The clouds, be they regular or volcanic, will soon blow away. The sunshine will return in full force and the outside work will resume. Whether we like it or not, that's the way of weather. We simply need to be patient. 

The Lady of The Hideaway


Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, peonies, gardening, weather, rural living, country lifestyle, Labrador Retrievers, a writer's life, iris, daffodils


January 12, 2020

Deuce enjoys the snow

I've had many dogs in my life and it seems the one with me at any given moment was the most special. I loved them all. At this point in time, Greenbrier Smokey Deuce shares my life. Deuce is the first, and will be the only, dog I ever intentionally go to a breeder to purchase. I wanted to have another Lab and this seemed to be the only way to get one. I lucked into the first one at the local SPCA when they had to rescue a litter. Jett was a great dog. Between Jett and Deuce, I've seen two sides to the Labrador nature. 

It snowed this past Tuesday and as soon as I arrived home from work, we went out. Deuce has a great nose. Everything is of interest to him. I've taken a lot of pictures and videos of him because I don't want to ever forget him. He will probably be the last dog I have. 

It's a little sad to think of the Manor without a dog, though. If I ever do get another, it will be after I extract a few promises from the cousins to care for them if I would happen to pass from this life before the dog does. 

It's Sunday now, and the snow has melted. We're in the middle of what the old-timers called the January Thaw. What comes next is real winter weather. Until then, I have a sweet stroll with my buddy Deuce to remind me simple pleasures are the most lasting. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor