The Mobile Home Woman

Every Mother’s Day Weekend, the Toledo Botanical Garden has it’s Plant Sale.

And every year I love to go.

It’s not that big of a deal, really, I mean, as shows go, it’s not huge. But I just love the tradition and I really like that the plants are all good and strong plants from the various members yards and such, so they are well suited for our area. And it’s fun to wander through and look at the beautiful plants and pottery as well, from the local potter’s guild.

The girls always like to give me a little Mom’s day gift of some spending money and I just love that. Gives me a reason to splurge a little more than I might. Right now our flower garden space is getting a little packed, so I’m more picky and careful to find really nice specimens!

It started out all dark and rainy and I was afraid that we might be rained out. We had a special guest with us, Miss Earline, and we met her there to go through the offerings together. Jessy and Maggie came along, as is tradition, and we brought little Evee with us.

We didn’t know that doggies were not allowed and about half way through our visit, Jessy got banned to the car. But I think she didn’t mind too much because she was still super excited about her little baby and this gave them a little alone time.

This is my haul from the show… just a few beautiful specimens!

I had to get a lilly, so I got a lovely purple one called Purple Mountain Lily… I suspect it will bloom much like a D’Oro lily, but, well, not yellow and purple. Thus I hope! And I got a really neat hosta… it’s quite tall and smaller leaved. Really neat. I’m not sure of the name, but I’ll find out. And I got a nice little Huechera, as well as a hardly little lavender plant as well. I’m so happy, my lavender from last year is actually growing again!!!! I’ve never been able to get lavender to regrow! I always kill it. And it’s so sad because I love it so!

I’m very excited about this hosta. Perhaps more than anyone should be… haha… but still, hostas are really neat plants. There are so many varieties and most of the ones I have so far are big leaf specimens, one or two are striped. So this fancy one really will stand out. It’s a bit too cold to go outside and get the tag… but I’ll try and remember to post it’s name when I get around to planting it this week.

This huechera is suppose to have little soft purple flowers, which I thought was a bit odd, since most I’ve seen have been white.  We’ll have to wait and see.  I love the play of darker colored plants in among all the vivid greens.  It’s neat to see the different palate.

We had to wander through the pottery offerings and normally things are a bit out of my comfort zone, but this year they had a table of just odds and ends… mostly things that the potters were playing with and testing new glazes and such.  This little dish really caught my eye and then I saw that it was only $2!  How neat!  So it had to come home with me as a little stuff collector on my desk.  I really love these natural and free form glazed pottery pieces.  I would dearly love to get back into the whole art of pottery and I hope that this summer I might be able to.  The gardens are only a few miles from my home and they offer classes and open studio time if you join, so I just might do that!

We had a lovely little visit and walk and then we headed home to grill some hot dogs on the grill before it got toooo rainy again.  I had a bluegrass event to attend that evening and sure enough, it really poured and thundered just about a half hour after I got there!  Thank goodness… it was so strong that here at the Moby, it blew the screen door out and into one of the little cherry trees so hard that it broke the bottom of the door!  We can fix it and the tree seems to have survived, but it was a heck of a thunderstorm!

Of course, this weekend was filled with our new little puppy, Evee.  Jessy has been wanting her own little pup for a long time, a dog that she could use with agility competition, since that is something she loved doing with Dingo, but unfortunately, he has too many issues to really compete ever moderately seriously.  (He was a pound puppy that was abused and he is not good around other dogs… he’s just very scared and then acts on his fear-agression and is just not a real team player.  He’s quite happy being a single dog with Jessy’s father.)

Speaking of Dingo… he came over to spend the night because his Dad was going out of town.  And he was fairly well behaved.  He wasn’t quite sure about Evee, but he was pretty sure that she was quite beneath him on the whole temporary pack pecking order thing.

He was even caught setting next to her when she slept.  But not for very long.

He was pretty good at trying his best to intimidate her and solidify his place in the middle of the pack.  Of course, Queen Gypsy is the supreme ruler of our little pack of 3. Well, 2 and a half.  Dingo rarely stays longer than a bit.  Dingo was puffing himself up and pretty much being self-important and Evee was pretty much ignoring him.  It was pretty funny.   She very much respects Gypsy and stays clear of her, but Dingo, she started to chase his tail and grabbed his leg at one point and that was just about enough for him to endure.   He snapped at her and really scared the little dickens.  He was sent to his crate, further making him disfunction I’m certain, but he does need to understand that it’s one thing to do a little lip service or a warning growl, but snapping is bad, especially a little pup.  But, then, that is one of his problems.

Evee recovered pretty quickly and stayed clear of him the rest of the evening.  I thought it was pretty funny though, that in the morning, when every beast was eating (spread out a good deal of course)  he left his bowl to slaunter near to Evee’s and check out her food…  and she didn’t even look up from her little bowl of puppy chow and gave him the fiercest little puppy growl I’ve ever heard!  It was good to see her stand up to his bully ways.   He backed right off and stayed clear of her as well for the rest of his visit.  He was very very happy to leave the two evil little bitches and go back to his bachelor pad!

On Sunday, we had a nice relaxing day, made a nice brunch and just hung out…  later in the afternoon our friends came over and we all played our new tile game and just had a healthy snack adventure.  We decided to try and eat good, and had some veggies and dip as well as a few chips and such, and of course, had to get a little Mom Day special brownie treats in the mix!    All fun stuff!

We’ve all had a run for our money with the little Aussie princess…   she’s only 6 weeks old and really needs pretty much constant attention and watching over.  Of course, she’s not potty trained yet, so we are working diligently to make sure that she has a good solid routine in place and that we are trained at the very least!  She’s not perfect, but luckily, she’s not bad.  We’re setting her up with gooood behaviors and patterns and we hope that in a couple weeks she’ll really get set in her ways.  It’s great to be here most of the time, working from home and all, makes it a lot easier.

Right now, as I write, she’s zonked out in my comfy chair in my room.  She has had a lot of excitement the last couple days, meeting all her new doggie friends and our friends, and just learning the lay of the land.  Gypsy is comfortable with her, but not super ready to be best pals yet.  It’s funny, she’s really happy to see Bella, her little Italian greyhound friend, but the puppy, well, she’s a bit more reserved about her.   I think it’s her age.  Bella is small, but mature.  Evee is small and goofy, bumbly and not really advanced in dog social life yet.  In the house, Gypsy would rather not be around her as much.   She will remove herself from the room if she seems Evee getting toooooo goofy and playful.  And if she’s laying down and Evee comes bumbling and bounding over too close, she will give her a low little rumbly growl.   But then she does that to the ferrets and the kitty if they get too close when she’s napping.   She takes her napping very seriously.

Now outside?  Different story.   She doesn’t mind at all that Evee bumbles after her and will try and get her tail and all those cute things.  In fact, Gypsy was on the other side of the yard and the goofy pup stumbled funny and yipped that puppy panic sound and boom…. right away Gypsy was around the bush and right over to see what had happened.  I think perhaps outside is different and she’s happy to be out and in a better state of mind to accept the playful antics of her little pal.  I suspect as well that as Evee gets a little older and a little more mindful of her place in the pack and such, Gypsy and she will become better friends.  It’s only been a few days, so I don’t expect super bonding and over bounding friendship from the two.  Not yet.

But it’s good to see that Gypsy is protective of her, and has not snapped or been harsh on her.   She’s more like an elder aunt that never had kids… she likes the idea, but she’s not quite sure how to deal with them day to day.  She just has to be eased into the whole situation a bit.

Of course, Gypsy is getting lots of love and attention and treats.  She’s not being replaced in any manner!  She is an old lady and time is catching up with her, but she’s hardly ready for a hole in the yard and goodbyes!  We really hope that her having a companion in her twilight years will help give her something to do and will help to teach the pup some of her calmness and wonderful good old dog ways.  I think it’s already working, because they trot out the door together and piddle together and of course, each expect a treat at the same time.  It’s cute to watch them figure things out.

Well, that was my wild weekend!  I’ve got a wilder week ahead… three gigs!  Shesh!  Tomorrow is the first one… an outdoor concert at the Otterbien Senior Community.  And then Coonhunters on the Friday and the Toledo Humane Society on Sunday!  Crazy bluegrass week!!!

Just a litte update.. Dixie Kitty is doing fine! I had a friend ask about her and I know I’ve had a email or two about her. She’s finally growing back her hair and no longer needs a collar or anything like that. She’s very susceptible to fleas and we’re very diligent on that front. In fact I just ordered some of these newer pills called CapStar… they apparently are wonderful at ridding your critter of any of the little nasties and then you can break the cycle in your home with conventional methods of vacuuming and using some sort of preventative care. Can’t wait to see how it works, I really checked it out and it seems to be a great addition to our arsenal. I hope this year is not nearly as bad as last. Last year was dreadful, it was the first time I ever had such a problem here in Michigan and Ohio. Now I remember issues a long time ago in San Diego, as nothing really kills the little dudes off, but here, in Ohio, I’ve never had problems before! I don’t want to have any more problems again!

Dixie and Luna are sunbathing here… staying away from the little Aussie terror that seems to think they need to be herded!!! She’s definitely got the herding genes… she LOVES to chase and push back the ferrets and it’s amazing how well she can do it in her little pudgy puppy foots!

Hope you all had a lovely Mother’s Day and a nice weekend!!!

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