Pooh the Mare....

Is Haley a horse lover or what? Check out that smile.Sherry is on the hunt for a replacement horse. This mare, Pooh, is one that Haley just loves, but sadly she just doesn't have enough solid training for a novice rider. Pooh is a real sweetheart and cute as a bug. Maybe with some more riding and training she will make a nice horse, but right now she's not what the girls need for their riding levels. They will need to keep up their lessons and get some miles under their belts. Don't worry, Haley did not ride her bareback, she just sat for a picture. Sherry rode her for the evaluation. Keep looking girls, the right horse will come along when the time is right.

Sierra

My daughter, Sherry, was leasing Sierra, an older Thoroughbred horse, for Kierstin and Haley to take lessons on until Sierra recently died of a heart attack. She was twenty plus years old and seemed to be in good health so the loss was a shock to the owners and all that knew her. The girls learned a lot from Sierra. Now Sherry is looking to lease another horse for the girls. One that is quite and willing. A Quarterhorse gelding that has been shown would be nice since they've had lots of training and are usually quite, gentle horses. If you know of one that would fit their needs let me know and I'll pass on the information.

Addition

We decided to add an exterior entry to the bonus room above the garage. The builder just finished it today. We were using a small stairway entry from inside the garage to access my "crafting room". I decided to switch my craft room with the twins bedroom and since I couldn't get the furniture up the smaller stairs, we had to add this entry in order to make the room swap. Now I need to paint the room to match the twins furniture/decor and slowly make the swap. I figured I'd use the craft room more if it was in the main house so I could better keep an eye on the house and the dogs.

Poor little LaLa

Poor little LaLa. Our friends took one look at her and said, "that's just wrong!" This past Saturday I had to rush her to the vet due to an abscessed anal gland. The vet had to lance it, so needless to say LaLa was not a happy camper. She came back into the room and jumped into my arms as if to say "get me away from those mean people...take me home". I wrapped her tail in pink vet wrap to keep it clean and put a diaper on her because of the abscess drainage. Yuk! Yesterday was the first day she even wanted to play catch with her ball (her most favorite toy). Today was even better, she even chased Icee around the back yard. She's on antibiotic meds and ointment, and is being a real trooper about it all. This is something I've never had to deal with before and hope never to have to again. There is a lot to be said for having your dog's anal gland expressed occasionally. Google it and you too can learn how to do it yourself and save on vet bills. Oh, the joys of owing a dog.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Andre'

We went to Sanford's Alive After Five and celebrated St. Patrick's Day with some friends. Teresa brought her standard Poodle, Andre', who was a hoot in his green hat and bandanna. Todd and Brenda were there with Mona and Leo, (check out their pictures here: http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=0RM6000I000065&po=65) and of course, Icee, LaLa and Chili had a great time as well socializing with their doggy friends. The Alive After Five events are always fun and dog friendly. Are we getting weird in our old age or what! Here's an Irish blessing for you all.....

May you live a long life
Full of gladness and health,
With a pocket full of gold
As the least of you wealth.
May the dreams you hold dearest,
Be those which come true, and
The kindness you spread,
Keep returning to you.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!

Spring is in the air...

This is a bloom from one of my new Hibiscus plants. It's called Dragon's Breath. The blooms are 6-7 inches across and what a beauty. We purchased six new plants at a recent Hibiscus Club garden sale. I'll post those blooms as they arrive.

Beautiful peach colored Amaryllis on the patio.

Dahlias in a hanging pot.
Pansies and purple Delphinia on the deck.

Yep, it's that time of year. The weather is great and lots of plants are blooming. John should know by now to keep me away from the local garden centers. These are some of my recent purchases. I wish I could take credit for growing them from seeds, but I have to admit that I can't resist having some beautiful color in the garden, even if it is store-bought. Lowe's just loves to see me coming. I do have some seedlings coming along, but it will be a while before they are blooming. Many of my Amaryllis in the ground are sending up bloom spikes and I can't wait to see what colors we get. I also have several orchids blooming. This one is one of my favorites. It's a deep goldenrod color with a deep burgundy lip. It's bloomed three times for me in the past year. I'm always happily surprised to see these beautiful blooms.

Camel kissing

Gus the Shriner's kissing camel.

Have you ever kissed a camel? Well, our nephew, Austin did. Gus the Shriner's kissing camel was an attraction at Lake Mary's Festival in the Park. Actually they had you put a carrot in your mouth and Gus would gently take it, giving you a kiss in the process. The City of Lake Mary put on a nice festival with lots of entertainment, games, good food, crafts and fun for everyone. Of course we took the pups who made many friends. Lots of folks stopped us requesting to take pictures of the "pretty Papillons" in the stroller. It was nice to enjoy an outing that the pups could be included in, since we really hate to have to leave them at home and they so enjoy getting out. The stroller is a nice place to keep them safe. John's friends call them his "babe magnets". We do meet many other nice dog owners when we have them along.

Cakes

This is Jo Dee's butterfly birthday cake. She called at the last minute to let us know that she was coming here from Alabama for the weekend. Since her birthday was on Sunday, March 8th, we quickly planned a birthday cook out with the family. I had just purchased the butterfly pan so I used it for her cake. This was my first time using this pan, but it came out OK I think. It was a chocolate cake with butter cream icing. John made the antennas. It actually tasted very good. The weather was wonderful for our cookout. We grilled burgers and had lots of good food so everyone got their fill. I even used my new candy melting pot to make chocolate covered fresh strawberries. No calories that day. Right!!!

This soccer ball cake was made with a new mold. The cake is chocolate Devil's Food with white and black butter cream icing using the star tip. I did this one for Haley to take to a soccer tournament. Heard it was a hit and tasted good too.

This Pi cake was made for Haley's math class. She said that it must be round, purple, and have the Pi symbol on it. So this is what I came up with. It is a chocolate cake with butter cream icing and trim. The pi symbol and numbers were made with marsh mellow fondant. Not sure why the purple icing had small cracks in it. Maybe it was too thin when I applied it. I did do two layers of icing. Maybe that's why. Hopefully the class won't notice on Friday when they eat it. I hope they enjoy it. Added note: Haley said the kids loved the cake and the teacher was impressed as well. Of course, she said our cake was the best in the class. :)

Nap Time

John is on a two week medical leave from work. The dogs are sure happy to have him around. They were all sleeping so soundly until I got the camera. John slept through the whole thing of course. I've made him a Rum Cake and used a Pound Cake mix which I've never used before so I hope it turns out OK. It's soaking now. He can't wait to eat some. Me too!!

Kierstin's diet

My granddaughter, Kierstin, is such a goof ball. Here she had put on a pair of her dad's pants and said, "hey look at all the weight I've lost". She and Haley ended up trying to both get into the jeans together. Needless to say there were a lot of laughs going on that night.

Dog sitting Mimi and Mandy

Mandy the Japanese ChinMimi the Papillon

This weekend we are dog sitting for Mitch and Carole's two dogs, Mimi and Mandy. Mimi is a beautiful tri-color Papillon and one of Laura's line. She reminds me of Mona who belongs to our friends, Brenda and Todd. Mandy is a very pretty sable colored Japanese Chin who has a silly personality. She will throw her head back and talk to anyone who will listen. She's just too funny! She loves nothing more than running around the yard trying to get the other girls to chase her. If that doesn't work she will body slam the nearest Pap in an effort to get a chase going. LaLa doesn't think it's very funny when she has her ball in her mouth. It's just too cute to see them get the zooms and do laps around the yard as fast as they can go. All those beautiful coats flying in the breeze is a sight to see.

Mom's Valentine

Mom loved the flower's we gave her for Valentine's Day. She also enjoyed going out to dinner. It was good to see Mom eat so well. She even enjoyed a dessert. We were joined by my brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Cindy. It was nice to get together with everyone and catch up on what's happening in our lives. We enjoy getting together with Mike and Cindy and are lucky that we live in the same town. Glad to hear that Cindy's finally found a good job. She will be a closer for a title company in Lake Mary and will be working with some of the girls from her old job at Kampf Title, which closed down last year. Hope she's happy and successful in the new job. OK Mike, you can relax now!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!!! Hope you have a great day and get lots of hugs and kisses. We plan to take Mom out to dinner tonight. I just had to show off the beautiful arrangement of flowers in a pretty purple vase along with a very nice card given to me by John. He also delivered a nice flower arrangement to my mother while I was at Jo-Ann's store for a brownie demo this morning. While I was there I HAD to take advantage of their 50% off sale. With my coupon for an additional 25% off I got some great bargains. I picked up an electric melting pot for a great price. I sure could have used it yesterday. Also got some additional silicone baking forms and cookie cutters. 50% off....I couldn't say no!!! Think of all the money I saved.

Brownies

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I had purchased some heart shaped silicone pans and had some heart shaped brownie cutters that I wanted to try out, so I figured what a better time than Valentine's Day for making brownies. At least that way I can give them away and don't have to eat them myself. I covered them with a dark chocolate/raspberry ganache which I thought tasted very good. Warm brownies...mmm, mmm, GOOD!! By the time they were ready to decorate I was so sick of chocolate (yes, that can happen to a woman) that I just wanted to get it over with so I really didn't get fancy with the icing. My daughter, Sherry, dropped off her dog, Reno, for me to dog-sit while they are in Gainesville for a soccer tournament this weekend, so I gave her some brownies to take along. I plan to send a bunch to work with John. Well, we may eat one or two between now and Monday.

Flutterby

Boy is it hard to get a good photo of a feeding butterfly. This little pretty little thing was bouncing from bloom to bloom on our Azalea bush. I was using my 300x zoom so as not to get too close and still wasn't able to get a good sitting still shot. I'm not sure what kind she is, maybe a Zebra Swallowtail. I've also seen some small bright yellow butterflies fluttering through the yard. Hope I can get some shots of them too, but boy are they fast.

Where'd the lake go?

See, didn't I tell you that sometimes the fog was so thick that you can't see the tree line across the lake. Compare to my January 23 post titled "Misty Morning". These pictures were taken at around 7:30 this morning. Actually, according to John, earlier you couldn't see the docks. I missed that cause I was sleeping in. Snuggled all warm and cozy with Icee, LaLa and Chili. They still didn't want to get out of bed when I rose to the smell of coffee brewing. Lazy dogs!!

Daffodils and Azaleas

I put out around 100 Daffodil bulbs a month or so ago and they've finally started to bloom. I didn't realize the blooms were so small, about an inch across. I love the color and just had to snap some pictures. This is the first time I've tried them. I scattered them all over the place because I didn't know where they would like to grow. Next year I plan to concentrate them in one or two areas. Also our old Azaleas are just bursting out in bloom for the first time in around three years. I think that when we built the new house three years ago it must have affected them somehow because we were worried that they might never bloom again, but here they go. The bloom buster fertilizer must have really helped too. I also have three Amaryllis sending up bloom spikes. Can't wait to see what colors I get. Ain't Florida just great for growing stuff all year.

Sundog

I saw my first Sundog today. At first I thought it was the sun obscured by a cloud, but the sun was further left (not in these pics). The sundog was pinkish on the southerly side and bright on the other side. My pictures don't do it justice. We didn't know what it was until our neighbor, Dr. Smith, who had stopped by for a visit while out in his little sail boat with his dog, Molly, told us what it was called. We learned something new today. Check it out on the web. It's an interesting phenomenon.

February in Florida

Time for a dip?

I'm dog sitting my daughter's Min Pin, Reno, this weekend and he just loves swimming in the lake. I looked outside to find him jumping at the gate wanting to get to the lake so I said "OK dog, but it's cold". Apparently it's not too cold for him. I let him play in the water for about twenty minutes before I had to make him get out. I was afraid he'd get too cold. The air temp is around 58 degrees right now. Not sure what the water temp is, but it's cold to me.

Icee is perfectly happy to stay in the yard hunting for bugs. It's just too funny to watch her leaping into the boarder grass trying to catch who knows what. Yep, that's my hunter dog. She doesn't know she's supposed to be a fufu lap dog.

Blooming Cattleya

Sixteen blooms and more on the way. This Cattleya orchid just doesn't stop blooming. I e-mailed a local grower who shows his orchids and he said this plant would do very well in a show. Too bad I don't know where to begin showing an orchid. I'm just enjoying it's beauty. These blooms are at least two weeks old and look as good as the day they opened. My Daffodils are starting to send up bloom spikes. I've planted 100 of them. Hope the frost we're having right now doesn't hurt them. Look for some pictures....coming soon.