Category: gardening

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May 25 – What’s for Dinner?

I thought today would be an all-day fun day since it is Saturday and because The Lady wasn’t at school during the week, she could have gotten her chores done on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday, or Friday.  Well, I was a very wrong little monster about that.  Today was an all-day chore day!  Mr. Guy and I worked in the greenhouse and the yard while The Lady collected canine fur from all over the house.  Part of what Mr. Guy and I did was collect “other stuff” that the canines left out in the yard.  What I don’t understand is while we were all picking up stuff that the canines left everywhere, they were all snoring on the couch.  Something isn’t right here.

I thought doing chores was all about getting rid of dirt, but Mr. Guy and I filled all of the clean plant pots with dirt and moved plants into these new pots.  When we were done with that, Mr. Guy said we needed to go work on the flower beds.  We had just put all of the plants and flowers in clean new pots and now we had to make their beds too?  The flowers are beginning to sound like the canines…they too just sit around and look pretty while this little monster does all the work.

And if all that work wasn’t enough, Mr. Guy and I also had to make dinner.  Well, the truth is that Mr. Guy said he wanted to make dinner and he asked me to help.  He said that it would be something nice that we could do for The Lady since she makes dinner for us most other nights.  I don’t know much about cooking, but I said, “OK.  I’ll help.”  I asked Mr. Guy what we were having for dinner.  He said stakes and cold straw.  That sounded…interesting.

We put tall skinny stakes in some of the pots for our plants.  I thought they were there so the plants didn’t fall over.  I guess they are food too and keep the plants from falling over because they are so hungry.  I didn’t know that plants, humans, and little monsters all ate the same thing.  We pulled the stakes out of the bags and fed them to the plants just as they came.  They must be plant fast food.  I assumed we would eat them raw too.  Good choice to have stakes for dinner, I guess…no real work for us!

I told Mr. Guy that I would go get the straw from the compost bin and take it to the refrigerator.  He looked a little confused and asked my why I was going to do that.  I told him, “Because you said we were having cold straw for dinner and it is ninety degrees outside and our straw is hot.  He then explained that we were not having cold straw.  We are having cole slaw, a salad made from cabbage.  That makes a lot more sense and sounds a lot tastier, especially with the raw stakes.  Mr. Guy and I made the cole slaw together and put it in the fridge so that it became cold cole slaw with NO straw.

Then it was time to get ready to eat dinner.  Mr. Guy said that we were going to cook outside on the grill.  What were we cooking?  The cole slaw was cold and the stakes were raw.  Mr. Guy said that we were going to cook the stakes.  I think that is why The Lady makes Mr. Guy cook outside.  Cooking the wood stakes sounded more like he was  going to make a bonfire, which would make lots of smoke, rather than dinner.  Smoke in the house is not good.  It makes the smoke detector go off and that is an awful sound.

Mr. Guy let me turn the grill on.  It has a big lid.  I guess that keeps all the smoke from the bonfire in.  Ouside we have smoke deflectors instead of smoke detectors!

I asked Mr. Guy if he wanted me to go to the greenhouse to get the stakes.  He said that they were in the fridge with the cole slaw.  How did the stakes get in the fridge with the cole slaw?  I went to get them.  I didn’t see any stakes.  Mr. Guy went and got them himself.  He couldn’t find them either because he came out with two pieces of meat instead of the stakes.

I asked, “Why do you have meat?  I thought you were cooking the stakes.”

He said, “This is them.”

“Those don’t look like stakes.,” I said.

“Why not?” Mr. Guy asked.

I said, “Because stakes are long skinny pieces of wood and those are short fat pieces of meat.”

“S-T-E-A-K-S not S-T-A-K-E-S,” Mr. Guy said.

“Hmm.  And how was I supposed to know that?” I asked.

“Good question,” he said.  And we cooked our s-t-e-a-k-s.

Mr. Guy and I make pretty good steaks and cole slaw…

…probably much better than our stakes and cold straw would have been.

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Bond’s Eye

Last Saturday we were supposed to go to the Farmer’s Market in our city, but we couldn’t go because it was raining.  I thought we might go yesterday; however, we couldn’t go then either because Mr. Guy and The Lady had something else to do.  They were going to a Bond’s Eye class.  They said that I could go with them if I wanted to.   I wasn’t sure that I wanted to, but I decided that I wanted to spend some time with them, so I said I’d go.

I had no idea why Mr. Guy and The Lady wanted to go to a class on learning how to see like a special agent, to learn to use their eyes as a spy like James Bond.  I didn’t even know they liked James Bond.  This little blue and orange furry monster knew almost nothing about Bond, or secret agents, or spies, or how to see like a spy.  I figured this would be a chance for me to learn something new.  They might teach me how to break codes and hunt down criminals and even how to drive a fancy car.  OK, maybe not drive the fancy car…but ride in it as the co-pilot.

Mr. Guy got me dressed to go.  He put on my brown “Dirt Shirt” that Ms. Michele gave me when I was in Delaware.  That sort of made sense.  A blue and orange furry spy might stick out in a crowd.  I was hoping I’d get a cool trench coat and hat, but my brown shirt was good for a beginner secret agent.  

We drove about twenty minutes to the place where the class was being taught.  It was down a gravel drive in a building hidden behind lots of trees and shrubs.  The building had sort of a secret look to it, but there were no fancy cars anywhere, well fancy spy cars.  There were fancy Dallas cars.  I guess that’s how they keep the secret agent training center really a secret.  It just looked like an old house.  Now I was getting excited.

We walked into the Bond’s Eye place.  It was a little weird.  The people didn’t have on secret agent hats and coats and sunglasses; they looked like hippies in their overalls, t-shirts, jeans, and gypsy shirts.  Don’t tell them I said this, but Mr. Guy and The Lady fit right in with this crowd.  I looked around for books about being a spy and magnifying glasses and anything else that reminded me of James Bond.  There was nothing.  This whole secret agent school had nothing but plants everywhere.  Most of them were little, but there were some bigger ones too.  I thought to myself that maybe we were going to develop our Bond’s eye skills by first looking for bugs on plants or something like that.  Surely if I could spy a tiny bug on a tiny plant I could track down a big bad guy or girl.


Mr. Guy and The Lady wandered around looking at all of the plants.  They didn’t say anything about looking for bugs.  They were talking about things like organic dirt and water culture and fertilizer and apexes and old wood and aesthetic balance.  I know I don’t know much about being a secret agent, but even with the little information I did have, I was now pretty sure we were talking about different things.

I finally asked when the real Bond’s eye class was going to start.  Where was all of the secret agent stuff?  Why were we in a place surrounded by happy hippies and plants rather than secret agents in trench coats?

I quickly learned that I was completely confused about the whole experience.  It was not a Bond’s Eye class; it was a bonsai class.  Bonsai is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers.  The trees and the practice of caring for them is a process of meditation and contemplation for their owner.  Bonsai trees don’t provide shade or food or medicine; they are just to look it.  They make you happy.  Once I understood that, it all made sense that Mr. Guy and The Lady would want to come here.  They like plants.  In fact they already had a couple bonsai trees.  )I didn’t know until yesterday that that is what they are called.)  

So as it turned out, I learned how to take care of these little trees rather than how to be a secret agent. I didn’t get to ride in a fancy car, but I did get to pick out a bonsai tree.  Mr. Guy and I decided to get a ponytail palm.  Mr. Guy said that The Captain had one in Delaware and that he had hoped we could bring it back to Texas, but that didn’t happen.  So, we got our own.  And as it turned out, my dirt shirt was the perfect thing to wear!

I never know what to expect with Mr. Guy and The Lady!  There’s always an adventure.

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A Month of Me: Day 6 – What Not To Wear

Mr. Guy asked me to go outside with him this morning so that he could show me his zoo-kini.  I wasn’t sure that I wanted to see that, especially first thing this morning!  First of all, Mr. Guy doesn’t really like to go to zoos because it makes him sad to see all of the animals in captivity.  And secondly, Mr. Guy doesn’t seem like a bikini kind of guy, at least I hope he isn’t a bikini kind of guy.  So why would he want to show me a special outfit, that I don’t think that he would like. to wear to a place that I know he doesn’t like?  Maybe his brain is more re-tired than I thought!

When I asked him about his zoo-kini, he said that he most definitely was not putting on a bikini and that we most definitely were not going to the zoo!  Oh, thank goodness!

Okay then…so what was Mr. Guy talking about?

He has a zoo, well maybe its a garden not a zoo, full of zucchini in the backyard.  He has big zucchini that we picked, little zucchini that are still growing that we can pick in a few days, and lots of yellow flowers that will turn into more zucchini soon.  It is a good thing that everyone at my house likes zucchini because it may be all that we eat all summer long!  The Lady told me that there are many  different ways to cook the zucchini.  We can sauté it or grill it.  We can make pancakes with it.  We can even make bread with it.  Sometimes The Lady lets me help her cook.  Maybe she will let me make something with all of our zucchini.

I am so happy that Mr. Guy has the eating kind of zucchini and not wearing zoo-kini!!!

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A Month of Me – Day 13

Thank goodness it’s Friday!  And it’s The Lady’s last day of school for this school year.  And it’s the end of another school week for Mr. Guy.  Mr. Guy and I spent some time in the garden this afternoon looking at the baby magnolias that have been born.  I forgot to take pictures of them.  I will try to remember to do that tomorrow.  We talked about our day.  We shared a Diet Coke.  I like the message on Mr. Guy’s soda bottle.  And, Mr. Guy told me that tomorrow we are going on an adventure so I need to get to sleep early so that I am all rested up!  I hope I have lots of interesting things to tell you about when I get home tomorrow!

For now, good night!

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A Month of Me – Day 7

Today was much better than yesterday!  Mr. Guy and The Lady did not have to go anywhere until this evening.  We spent all morning sitting on the patio drinking coffee and watching the birds and the squirrels.  Some of those squirrels have as much fur as I do!  None of us needed fur today because it was eighty-five degrees at our house.  I was hot!  I told Mr. Guy that maybe he should take me to the fur cutting shop so that I won’t get so hot when summer really gets here.  He said that he didn’t that that was a good idea because my fur protects me from the sun.  If I got my fur cut off I would have to put sun cream all over me like The Lady does or I will become a red monster instead of a blue and orange monster.  I wouldn’t like that.  I would like to have a hat to protect me from the sun like Mr. Guy has, but my horns make it hard for me to find a hat that fits.  I guess I will just keep my fur.  

Since we were spending the day outside, I put on my “Dirt Shirt” that Ms. Michele gave me when we visited her in Delaware.  It is one of my favorite shirts!  Every time I wear it, I remember our visits.

This afternoon we checked on all of the plants and flowers in our yard.  I didn’t know that we had so many.  It felt like we were at the park.  Lots of our flowers are blue and orange! 

 It makes me happy to look around and see my favorite colors everywhere!  Blue and orange make The Lady happy too.

We also planted a new bluish purple flower.  One of The Lady’s students gave it to her.


Mr. Guy said that it needed to go in our butter flies garden.  I was confused.  I didn’t know that butter could fly!  The Lady had lots of butter out last night while she was making all that bread.  It didn’t fly.  It stayed right on the counter where she put it until it was time to go in the big whirly machine.  Maybe that’s when it flies.  The whirly machine makes it go round and round.  The Lady explained that we were not talking about flying butter, but insects that are called butterflies.  She said that they have pretty colors on their wings and that some of them are even blue and orange.  I hope that these butterfly things like our flowers and will come stay in our garden.  I would like to see one of them.

Mr. Guy picked me up to show me a pretty white flower.  I can’t remember its name…something about magazines and oil, I think.


It is on a big bush.  Mr. Guy also showed me all the baby flowers that have not been born yet.  He said that in a few days they will be born and the bush will have lots more of these pretty white flowers all over it.

After we were done investigating the garden, Mr. Guy and I had to rest!  Playing in the dirt is hard work!


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Digging

Today was a busy day for all of us. Since we came back from North Carolina, we have not done too many things.  The most exciting thing was going to see Avenue Q where I got to meet Nicky! 

Even though we haven’t gone places, The Lady and Mr. Guy seem to have been working on something though I was not too sure what it was. They have been talking to a lot of different people. Today I finally found out what is going on. Before I was adopted, they put a lot of time into remodeling the inside of our house. I did not realize how much they had done and how many changes they made. Apparently it was a completely different place.

Now they are ready to do work on the outside. When we had some serious plumbing work done earlier in the summer, the yard was all torn up. There is almost no grass left in the front yard. That is what got The Lady and Mr. Guy moving on remodeling the outside too. 

They talked to a man called a Landscape Architect. That is another thing I did not understand. But The Lady and Mr. Guy are teachers and they do not mind explaining things to this blue and orange furry monster. A Landscape Architect makes a plan for the whole yard. He figures out where all the plants and trees will go, what kind of grass to plant, and even builds sidewalks all to make the yard really pretty. The Landscape Architect that they called used to be a teacher. He and Mr. Guy worked at the same school a long time ago, but it took them awhile to recognize each other. 

Tomorrow someone is coming to clean up the yard. There are some trees that Mr. Guy says need to go away. Also we are getting a sprinkler system. I did not know what that is, but Mr. Guy told me it is a way to get water to the lawn without him having to run around with hoses and these little twirly things that spit water. That sounds like a good idea to me.

Even though there are people coming to work on the tress, there were things we needed to do before they come. We have some flowers called irises. They needed to be taken out of the ground because The Lady and Mr. Guy hope to save them to be replanted somewhere in the new yard. I saw them this year and they are very pretty. I am glad they are going to try to save them.

I got to help!.  Since I knew that I was going to be outside digging in the dirt, I put on my Dirt Shirt that Ms. Michele gave to me on one of our visits to Delaware.  That way I would not look dirty even if I was!

The first thing that we had to decide was which of the irises that we were going to dig up and save.  

There were lots of them and Mr. Guy said that there would not be room for all of them in the new yard.  We had to dig up only the irises that we wanted to keep,

Then they had to be trimmed, but I was not allowed to use the scissors so The Lady did most of that part. Finally they had to go in a box.



The box will go into a cool place until it is time to put them back into the ground. The last thing we had to do was throw away the parts that were cut off. 


While we were working the delivery man came! He had a Dirt Shirt on too!  At least it was brown like mine.  I don’t know why he needs a dirt shirt when he drives around in a truck all day. I was really excited because I like it when packages come to our house. Sometimes I even get surprises!   He gave us three boxes!  

One was for Mr. Guy. He got new shoes. One was for The Big Sister. She got shoes too. Boy these folks get lots of shoes!  I wonder why I never get new shoes. The last box was for The Lady. I thought she must have gotten new shoes too.  But nope; she didn’t.

The Lady let me open the box. 

Hmm…it was filled with funny plastic pillows.  


I tried to look grateful for the present, but these pillows seemed like they would be hot and sticky and make my fur all soggy.  

We usually have soft cloth pillows.  The Lady told me to keep looking in the box, that these were not pillows and they were not the surprise.  When I looked again, I saw our basket from Ms. Susan, the basket lady in North Carolina! I had forgotten that she was making us a basket! So this was a surprise for me. 


Ms. Susan was one of my 100 people project. I think today’s package surprised Mr. Guy and The Lady, too. They did not expect it to come so soon after we got home. 

So, we got all of our yard work done today and tomorrow I can stay inside where it is nice and cool and watch the professional tree guys cut down some of our trees and remove some bushes.  Maybe I will find a snack that I can put in our new basket!