I Love Dogs

I was raised with 3 of them.  They were a huge part of my life.  Now, when dogs are around, I have a hard time socializing with humans.  Here are some pictures of a friend’s dog who does a terrific job of making me anti-social.  

Jaimie’s Camera

My stepdad, Jaimie, has this incredible Canon camera that I used about 40% of the time I was at his house on the Central Coast.  It really cut down on my socializing time, but man, was it satisfying.  Here are some of my favorites from the trip.  

 

  

I’ve Got a Thing for Birds …

… and I owe it all to Pookie. (If you know me, you know Pookie).

 Here are some recent pictures I took of sea birds in Morro Bay near San Luis Obispo.

I’ve always been drawn to pelicans … as you’ll see here … 

My Garden

I wanted to show you my garden in the spring. It’s pretty beautiful (and very fleeting). Once summer arrives, most of my plants and flowers will cease to bloom and return to their comfortable shades of green. It’s like they’re slippin’ into their cozy pants at the end of a short but exhausting season.

They’re working hard to look beautiful for me. I really appreciate that and want to flaunt them. Unfortunately, I can’t invite all of my readers over (all 2 of you) to admire bloom-time, so I’ve decided to share some pictures with you right here. That’s right. Right here on Sweet Strain. Enjoy.

PS: That’s a spider tucked inside the petals of the rose below, the bird is a hummingbird, the small pink buds are geranium and the lanky stalk of small blue buds is a delphinium … in case you were wondering. And don’t be afraid of the stone face coming out of the ground in the last picture.  That’s worth another post and a lot more pictures.  

Okay, Mini gets a mention too.  Mini is my neighbor’s dog.  He used to bark viciously every time I stepped into my backyard.  Today he let me pet him.  This picture was taken right before we made peace.  His tail wagging was my cue to approach.  I tried scratching him under his chin, his eyes closed and now we’re best friends.  How many dogs do YOU know with the name “Mini?”  I actually met a dog named “Tick” the other day. I digress …   

 

Nature & Animals Win

I’m torn between making this blog a blog about family, relationships, love and those sorts of ruminations and making it a blog about gardening, snails and other cute animals. I’m not interested in having this blog be my diary, but I’m interested in doing some carefully crafted writing. However, as I’ve started writing, I’ve been getting more and more interested in what has come to the surface.

The list of categories at the bottom of my blog show topics that are very important to me, give or take a few items. That’s neat to see, because I didn’t really choose them. My writing sort of chose them for me. I assumed I’d be talking about family, love & friends … in that order … but, so far, that hasn’t really been the case. I’m not saying that family, love and friendship won’t pop in every now and then or that those topics won’t ever dominate … they likely will. But, for now, other random stuff that I love is coming to the surface … and that’s been a nice surprise.

For the Snails

What a lovely day for gardening.  Slightly cool and the air seemed clean.

My job today was to clear out the tall invasive weeds in our little front yard.  Every time I clear it (like twice a year) I’m surprised at all the life I find.  There are these whacky little slithery brown lizards with 4 stubby arms to help it along.*  There are many snails and a few slugs here and there.  There are all different shades of spiders and other nondescript pinpoint-sized bugs.  I get happy knowing they all live there because I am, in a way, providing that space for them.  It’s a chunk of our property that’s alive and I’m letting it stay that way…for most of the year…until I weed.

Today I did a preliminary pull that was nice and gentle. I’d pulled and then left the pile on the ground for a few minutes, hoping all the creatures would scamper away to a safe place.  I would then place the pile in the compost bin and feel bad for any trapped creatures.  I actually didn’t do an intense clean-up today just so the snails and brown lizards would have time to scurry. I haven’t yet raked and eradicated all greenery.  That will happen tomorrow. That means they only have tonight to relocate!

While weeding and encountering many-a-snail, I became very curious about them.  When they exit their shells do they stay out of them forever?  Do they hide their shell in a place that they can later remember by doing their little slime-trail thing?  Do they steal other snail’s shells?  Do they ever regret leaving their shell?  What makes them leave?  How do they feel about me?  Is the baby snail screwed if separated from mama snail?  How do snails benefit the environment?  Who is their biggest predator?  I’d like to get the answer to all of these questions.  I’ll make it my little project for the next few weeks:  Project Snail.

*i later found out the stubby lizard was a salamander.  

San Francisco gull, Feb. 2000