The Big White Dog

Did you ever see eyes that were any more loving than hers?  We still do not know her name, but we enjoy watching her.  And occasionally go across and pet her.  Lots of times our regular mailman goes out of his way to go back and talk to her and pet her.  Also, one of the subs that helps him goes our of her way to give her a pet.  IF she is outside.

And she is an inside dog, most times is well groomed, but how the lady keeps her that way is more than I know.  She will get out and dig in 'her areas'....not all over the yard.  She favors 3 places that I know of.  And if it is wet and rainy, she will be just brown with mud...so brown you would not know she was a white dog.  Then the next time I see her, she will be back sparkling white.

She is so much fun to watch.  There are big, huge cottonwood trees along the sidewalk right outside her fence.  There are squirrels in those trees.  At least one of them loves to tease her.  It runs down the tree to where she can see it.  She runs barking towards the tree.  The squirrel runs around the tree out of sight for just a few seconds, then goes back around to where it can be seen by White Dog, once again provoking her.

If a bird gets in her yard, she chases it out.  If anyone/anything moves in the neighborhood, she barks if she is outside.  Just totally loves watching the world go by.   They have a small child's pool for her like we had for Lorelei...they run water in it every now and then and she just loves it.  She will run and jump in, then out and run, then jump back in.  Just total joy.

February shots through the years...

I decided to see if I had taken any photos on February 1...surprise of surprises, I had a few.

There was a bit of snow on February 1, 2008....

Again in 2009....notice the snow in the background here.  And not just a skim...it was a big snow.

The above is not from Feb 1, but from the Feb 5, 2010.

Now this ice is from February 1, 2011....

And this is the photo that triggered the hunt for February 1 shots...taken in 2012.

This is the one and only photo from Feb 1, 2013...

The Big White Dog was my first shot of Feb in 2014, on Feb 5 to be exact.

This one is from February 2, 2015....

And here you have February 4, 2016...it appears to have much the same weather we have this day.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of February.

Memories....
I opened a big bag of cat food yesterday...the kind that has been chain-stitched closed. You know, you get hold of the right end and pull and it all comes out. I have been opening cat food and dog food like this almost since I left home 30+ years ago, and it never fails to remind me of mom. In fact I may have said that on here before. Back then I don't think I ever saw the string any color other than white or off white.

My mom had a ball of string, only she called it twine. And she never threw any of it away. She used it to baste her quilt linings (backing we call them now...) into the frames. I know she used it for other stuff, but I can't for the life of me remember anything else. Doing the backings was the primary use.

And yesterday I left my rotary cutter open for just a second and was reaching back to get it and of course, I cut myself. Just a tiny cut, but it wanted to bleed like a stuck pig. So I came upstairs to get a band-aid. And that brought back that we very, very seldom had a band-aid in the house...unless it was some that company left there. I think maybe in last year or two we might have...maybe my brother Neal will chime in here and say if he remembers.

But she usually kept old sheets, and back then they were almost all white. If one of us needed a bandage, out would come the old sheet and it would be ripped to fit the need. If we got hurt, it did not slow us down much. But I digress...
I got to digging around in some treasures from my mom today. She would decide she wanted to make some quilt or wall hanging and she would sit down and sometimes trace a figure, but just as often as not she would just start cutting. Above is some of her leaves she has sat and cut...I have a whole box of other pattern parts and not sure what they go to.
This is a picture of the rest of the stuff in the tin box...notice how shaky her writing is on the envelope that says Double Wedding Ring. Late in her life her writing really did get shaky...I have a letter or two and you can really see it in it. But back to the double wedding ring...I cannot remember how many of those she has made since I have been alive, and I know she made some before I was born. I remember seeing an old black and white photo of quilts and I think one of them was a double wedding ring. She had no fear of curves...or anything when it came to sewing.

When she had things she wanted to save, a lot of times they were folded and rolled up and tied just like the two things above. Actually, the one thing is a bonnet torn apart to be used as a pattern. My mom always wore a bonnet when working in the garden...well, maybe not always but a big part of the time. She was one of the last people I know of that would wear bonnets.
And I even have an apron or two of hers that I kept. She was never without an apron, but I think I have told about that before so won't repeat myself.

She had the attitude that she could make anything that anyone else could...and one of her favorite sayings was that if you hadn't ever made a mistake, you hadn't done anything. Which is pretty much true if you think about it..

Just a few more flowers....

When Lorelei got here this morn, she and I went to look at the flowers...and I was trying to decide if this dark one is the same variety as I showed earlier. I cannot tell for sure. I bought it at this community yard sale a year or two ago...I forget the name of it. At the time from the description I wondered was it the same as the dark ones I already had.
I forget where this one came from....I only have two or three of them. I have had them for several years.
I wish I had taken a picture of the whole bunch of those above when they first started to bloom...again, I started out with only a couple and I have a whole bunch of them now.
I had totally forgotten buying this yellow one...again it was at that community yard sale. I had just been thinking I wanted to get some yellow ones. I kept seeing the petals that stand up and thought that it was just another of the purple/white ones, even though the white petals had a sort of yellow glow. I thought it was just something to do with the lighting.
Imagine my surprise when Lorelei and I walked out there and it was this one! I just love it. Irises are some of my favorite flowers...I think it is the variety of colors available that make me love it so. And they do smell so good! To me, they smell a little bit like grape Kool-Aid. Is it just me, or does anyone else think that?

Anyway, I hope you enlarge them to see their full beauty.
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I don't know if you noticed that the picture I posted of Lorelei sleeping in the last post was actually taken Tuesday. There is a sort of story behind my reasoning. Yesterday was a hard day...she was just out of sorts. I was trying to hold her to the schedule that we figured she would be on with the feeding. I was not letting my natural instincts have their way. And I paid for it big time. She fussed a big part of the day, then when I gave her her bottle she would go to sleep before she really got full. Then wake up in a bit and the cycle would start all over again--me trying to make her wait, her crying and wearing herself out and then falling asleep before she had her fill. So it was a long day....in more ways than one as you will see if you continue reading.

On top of this with Lorelei, my cat Cougar had went outside Monday and I didn't see him again that day, and he was not home Tuesday morn as he normally is after spending a night out. He is usually on the back porch sitting in a chair waiting for me. He did not come home that Tuesday at all. We went for a walk after Lorelei went home and called for him. No Cougar. I stayed up till past midnight, occasionally going outside and looking and calling for him. No Cougar.

I didn't sleep much at all that night, looked for him when I first got up yesterday(Wednesday) and no Cougar. Every chance I got, which wasn't many, I went outside and called for him. By the time Lorelei left yesterday, I had given up on him ever coming home. I doubt you can imagine my joy when I looked up and seen him looking in the window looking for me at about dark last night! It really isn't much of an exaggeration when I say he owns my heart....

Then today I went with my instincts with Miss Lorelei and we had a great day! I am quickly learning the tv schedule...it is fun to sit and talk to her and watch her reaction to things....so far, she really loves the two characters that are orange and yellow on Barney and Friends, she likes Sesame Street....but not Sponge Bob Square-Pants (he doesn't do a thing for her), she kind of likes Clifford the Big Red Dog and she likes the Barnyard Animals.

Kay came over after school, and Lorelei likes her....and what is not to like? She is 7 years old and is one of the best kids. She has a very loving heart....she is such a good sister to her little brothers. And I know she will be so good to Lorelei. She had to hold Lorelei and she wanted to give Lorelei her last bottle but I was afraid to try that right now.

So now it is time for me to settle down and try to get some real rest!