The Last Rose of Summer

"Tis the last rose of summer,

Left blooming all alone,

All her lovely companions

Are faded and gone.

No flower of her kindred,

No rose bud is nigh,

To reflect back her blushes,

Or give sigh for sigh."

Sir John Stevenson

Sibling Assignment #37: You Can Call Me Al

" If you'll be my bodyguard

I can be your long lost pal

I can call you Betty

And Betty when you call me

You can call me Al ."

Paul Simon

I gave the sibling assignment this week. "Think about a pet that has been a part of your life. Think about a significant event that happened with that pet that made you realize you were glad the pet was in your life." Raymond Pert's is here and Silver Valley Girl's will be here.

In 1990 I adopted my dog Lucy. She was a springer/cocker/maybe poodle mix. She always got along famously with my first springer spaniel Nikki. Early on Nikki "taught Lucy the ropes". The two pictures blended together above show the two of them enjoying the beach on the Oregon coast, but later that day Lucy was the bodyguard for anyone that needed watching. Lucy was a part of my life during the years when the most changes occurred. A marriage dissolved, her other owner went away except during hunting time, we moved to another town, her best buddy Nikki grew older causing her vision and hearing to wane, we moved to my current house, my dad died, Nikki died, Emily came into the household, and JEJ came into our lives bringing another dog. The day Lucy came home with Nikki and me.
Once my brother started singing Paul Simon's song " You Can Call Me Al" as he watched Lucy's protective bodyguarding around me. Of course later I don't know who was Betty- Nikki or me. The significant event I remembered was when Nikki got lost while on our nightly run. When I first started teaching in Inchelium I lived in teacher housing by the school. Across the road was the football field. It was a perfect place to take the dogs for their run each night. Unfortunately part of it isn't fenced. Nikki was sniffing, exploring, and running in the dark when she disappeared. I saw Lucy, but no sign of Nikki. I knew she was having a hard time seeing and my shouts would not be heard because of her slow loss of hearing. I looked down the hill toward the lake hoping she had not caught a scent and headed there.

All of a sudden I saw Lucy guiding Nikki back around the fence. I had seen her do this before, but that night it was profound. Lucy became Nikki's eyes and ears. In the football field in the dark I was so glad I had Lucy in my life. Nikki was just loping beside her as if nothing was wrong. Lucy continued to be a bodyguard. Most of the time it was with Nikki, but she protected me also. Everyone knew that Lucy was never going to let anything happen to the rest of her family (author note: right after that incident with Nikki I got a doggy Christmas collar that had blinking red lights so we never lost her again!).
Dogs sense our emotions when things change in our lives. Lucy had an intuitive sense that she needed to help both Nikki and myself during that difficult time. Whenever I hear Paul Simon sing "You Can Call Me Al" on my MP3 player I forever think of Lucy. She was my bodyguard.



This was our last day in Kennewick before we embarked on new life in northeastern Washington. (1994)

Sunday Scribblings: Collector Personality

I have a few collections. All of them focus on things I love. Some started because of decorating a room. Others started but flourished as people gave me items as gifts. I love Mary Engelbreit and have received many of her products as gifts. I have now used them to create creative surroundings in my guest room/office. Another thing I collect are roosters and chickens. This began when we had chickens, then it worked well with my kitchen decor. You can see a nice collage of this collection on my brother's blog here. My watering can collection has been the most fun to create. It started when I saw some galvanized watering cans at a antique store. After that I was always on the lookout for unique watering cans. I have also received some as gifts. Most of them have come from yard sales, second hand stores, and Value Village. They add charm to my greenhouse and my new garden room in the winter. They are often used as vases to hold cut flowers. In the growing months they are placed in different locations around my yard. My favorite one is the cobalt blue one above with the green handle in the center of the collage. Raymond Pert created that for me as a gift one Christmas.

My collections tend to center around the things I love.That would also explain my collections of books, cookbooks, cross necklaces, and snowmen. You can read about other collector personalities here.

Out of Service, Out of Service

We have been out of Internet service for about eight hours. I guess it was a widespread outage in Washington and Oregon with CenturyTel. It just came back up again in time for me to post this perfect picture JEJ took of the dogs checking out the hillside from our deck today.


I am coordinating a trip to my favorite Idaho campground with a meeting at the University of Idaho this week-end. We will be out of Internet service at Heyburn State Park so I will check back in on Sunday with stories and photos. This is my new favorite color for ivy geraniums. I hope I can winter this beauty in the greenhouse.

Finnegan Returns Again!

Finnegan is our unpredictable cat. Sometimes he loves to be petted and other times he looks at us like he has never seen our faces in his life. He wasn't always this way. A couple of years ago Finnegan disappeared and we looked for him, then waited when one day he was home again. We always wondered if he had a second home he visited. He stayed around after returning, but has been more aloof than the other cats.

About three weeks ago Finnegan disappeared again. He had been acting a bit odd so I was concerned something was wrong. Again, we looked, we waited, but no Finnegan. Sometimes we wondered if he was sneaking in at night for food and then hid and hunted during the day. It continued to be an unsolved mystery.

Tonight we had a conversation about our black cat, wondering if something had happened. Maybe he went off to die, or perhaps he got lost and couldn't find his way home. After the conversation I went to the garage to get something and guess who strolled through the cat door!

Finnegan! First he dove into the dish of cat food on the ledge and ate like he had been lost without food for those three weeks.

Then he moved to the dry food and continued his feast.

I opened another can of food so he could have some food for dessert also. Physically he appeared healthy. He just seemed very hungry!
Finally he checked out the other dishes belonging to our cat clan. He found a few leftovers there also. After I got JEJ out to the garage to see Finnegan again and took some pictures of our wayward cat, then he disappeared out through the cat door. I hope this time he is back to stay.We missed him!

It Takes A Village

It is a common phrase that is takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village of adults to keep a school district going. I am in a small district, but years ago a mentor teacher gave me some good advice. " Look around you and realize all the people it takes to make that school a special place. It is not just the teachers and the principal." I walked in the shoes of the custodians during summers in college when I was on the summer crew to help clean the buildings. I have been vigilant about watching chewed gum under tables/desks and garbage on the floor since I first began teaching. The transportation director and bus drivers work close to my room presently so I understand the difficulty of their job with the weather conditions, children getting on the wrong bus, or an overactive child riding home after school. I have always tried to recognize the worth with all the staff in buildings where I have worked whether it is a first year teacher, a clerk, or a paraeducator. It does take a village.

Today I learned our custodian likes cookies and I know he loves coffee. It was a simple gesture to bake chocolate chip cookies tonight. JEJ got some warm cookies and milk, I can give a small gift of gratitude to a very hard working guy tomorrow and... okay.... I did manage to have a few cookies also. Like I always say when I bake for people," I have to sample them to make sure they are fit to give away!!"
It is a simple thank you to one person for keeping our village running smoothly.