Old Dogs

There is something special about old dogs. Gene Weingarten sums it up so eloquently in his book, Old Dogs Are the Best Dogs:

Old dogs can be cloudy-eyed and grouchy, gray of muzzle, graceless of gait, odd of habit, hard of hearing, pimply, wheezy, lazy, and lumpy. But to anyone who has ever known an old dog, these things are of little consequence. Old dogs are vulnerable. They show exorbitant gratitude and limitless trust. They are without artifice. They are funny in new and unexpected ways. But above all, they seem at peace. This last quality is almost indefinable; if you want to play it safe, you can call it serenity. I call it wisdom.

Today I thought I'd share a few photos of Millie & Maggie together. They came together as a package, and they were inseparable.

INSIDE

 VISITS WITH FRIENDS

Fisherman Willie.

Meeting GSF Bess. 

Meeting San Diego friend Aida. 

I am forever grateful to Gareth & Lena at Mystic Pet. 

I don't remember what we were laughing at, but I managed to snap a photo at the right time!

The girls LOVED Gareth, which made me & Lena think that their original owner must have been a man. Lena told me that one time Gareth leaned over to her and whispered, "I think Millie is my favourite of the two." As if they could hear him in the next room & understand what he was saying!

One time after a vet visit, I popped over to the store before heading home. In the parking lot, Millie & Maggie were looking out the window & they started barking & howling. I look waaaaaaay across the parking lot, & there's a guy with a bald head. They thought it was Gareth! It wasn't, unfortunately!

THRU the SEASONS:

 WINTER

These gals had v. long & thick fur. So they were quite comfortable on a sunny winter day.  I kept the door open and the wood stove blasting so they could come in or go out when they wanted. Millie stayed out much more than Maggie did, tho.

Venturing down the driveway. I once watched a turkey cross over the drive. A couple hours later, Millie tracked its scent. She hadn't seen the turkey, but she could smell it!

They LOVED the snow!

Maggie plopped down.

Whatcha lookin' at, girls?

Neighbor Dave plowing out from the Historic Blizzard.

"This here's good eatin' snow," says Maggie.

SPRING

Red bud trees in bloom.

Oprah's favourite colour--new grass green.  ;-)

SUMMER

In the driveway.

Lazy-dazy porch days.

Going down the ramp. They always stopped to survey their domain from this place.

My favourite!  Laundry day!

AUTUMN

By the labyrinth.

Frosty day.

GORGEOUS.

My sweet girls.  :-)

M&M Monday

My GSF Bess from massage school & Husband Val came for a vizzie over the weekend. Here the girls are greeting them:

*sniff*  Hullo   *sniff*  *sniff*

Millie's spidey-senses were tingling. "Another massage therapist in the house!"

Aaaaaaand . . .

Millie finds her opportunity on the way back in from the porch.

"Why did you stop?"

Bess demonstrates proper body mechanics.

Hullo.

In the meantime, Tabby Bobcat found a new fan:

Zzzzzz . . . .

Hullo.

Yesterday, Mum came over for a vizzie to deliver homemade GF bread. Millie was coming back up the ramp but heard her car, so she settled in to watch Mum:

Mum also redid all the cushions on my wicker furniture, so she was bringing the rest of them over. Millie sits right in the way, of course. "Hullo."

Mum gives Maggie a gingerly pat hello:

I see from this post that Maggie is woefully underrepresented!  Will remedy that next week. ;-)

Subtraction Phase

John Morgan gave me the name for this. There are times in our lives when we ADD: to our home, to our family, to our work. It could be a new pet or child or car or new landscaping. And then there are times when we subtract: children leave home, pet dies, job changes, home changes. It's a time of evaluating priorities. My friend Bess, (going through addition with new massage office), says she heard something to ask yourself when adding OR subtracting something in your life:

Do you love it?
Do you need it?
Does it make you money?

So this is my mantra as I'm slagging through the gazillion boxes I packed on my big move.: Love-need-money, love-need-money.... Do you ever ask youself: What was I saving THIS for??? Exactly.

This is my living room. The painting is an original by Rolf Owen, an artist friend of my parents. I've always LOVED this painting and I'm thrilled to have it now. I love retro Lane furniture (coffee table, end tables, & chair/ottoman). If you were sitting in the movie theatre when I was watching Down with Love, you would have heard me say, "Hey! Those are my Lane end tables!" as you see the swinging bachelor pad for the first time. I also saw them in a Doris Day movie, recently. The lamp on the left is a v. cool retro lamp, and the one on the right is an original from another friend of the family, Salahudine Hussein. I'll have to show a close-up of that sometime, it's v. clever. Anyway, all of which I love and need. For now.

Heart Rocks

My friends Bess & Val are here for the weekend. Bess is my dear GSF from massage therapy school & her hubby is also my web-guy. He commented v. dryly as he was surveying my collection of heart rocks in my bay window, "Hearts seem to be as important to you as labyrinths." This is a shot of the cross part of my labyrinth. The center rock is one I salvaged from my first labyrinth in WV, and I have some great chunks of quartz. The center ring of the labyrinth is all heart rocks, too. Will show a pic of that sometime... altho, Mum says you have to use your imagination with some of them. haha
Bess & I are off to a bookfair...great barns FULL of books!! Ah, heaven! Yay, us!