Sorry BrownStone Cascade Mt Mazama - aka Bramble, but it was again in the 90's and a good friend came by for morning coffee and loaned me the book
Little Bee by Chris Cleave. The book has totally captured me. I laid reading in the shaded hammock all day. Now it is too late to do justice to Bramble's birthday tribute but never fear, tomorrow, I promise to publish it.
My hammock is by the pond. Throughout the day the dogs and I took frequent swims to cool off. I tried to catch a picture of the skewed expression and water flying off McKenzie as she shook off but obviously needed a different camera setting - another photographic challenge to learn.
The dogs have finished off all the raspberries and strawberries and are making huge inroads on the blueberry bushes. The apples, plumbs and pears aren't ripe yet but are still considered a treat worth working for.
This is the first year the dogs have actually picked the fruit. Deer do stand on hind legs and bat fruit down to the fawns and over the years they have grazed the branches out of reach of the dogs. Last night's batting and today's strong winds caused a couple fruit laden branches to hang just low enough for the dogs to give picking a go.
Even Cedar got in on the action. Old McKenzie just waits below until one of the others drops something for her to run away with.
Last summer this was the enclosed puppy play area. Trask and his litter mates feasted on fruit dropping from heaven into their puppy play yard.
A year later he has figured out how to harvest for himself.
The poo will be buzzing with fruit flies in the morning.
As I was just typing, the funniest, muffled wolf howl came from the dog couch. Trask had fallen asleep with a soft toy in his mouth and was howling in his sleep.My laughing and his howling got the others really excited. Their voices joined in. Trask awoke but never did drop his toy making for a really funny sounding, prolonged chorus. The windows are open. I am sure neighbors outside sipping cocktails in the warm evening air will have tales to tell at work tomorrow of Bigfoot or coyotes in their woods.
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