I think the ribbons on her ears are a nice touch.
Sadie’s embarrassed by them.
I like them and think she looks adorable.
Jay, the good sport who walks her in the park, thinks they’re ridiculous.
He was ready with a story should anyone ask:
“They’re antennas; she’s actually a robot.”
I like that, too.
Finster’s Caddy.
You can keep the painted daisies and faux rhinestones…
A couple weeks back I visited Howard Finster’s Paradise Gardens. I’d never heard of Finster before visiting the High Museum in GA and had been sort of plotting to see the place ever since.
: )
He’s probably most well known for the type of work featured in this post… the fact that I included such a photo in a post relating to a client’s mental illness tells you what I think about Finster’s mental stability, but anyway…
Rather than being turned off by the religious nature of his art, I think I like it because of that… it’s so improbable to find bible verses painted on bicycles, on Cadillacs, on windowpanes and random pieces of cardboard.
Sadly, most of his “good” art has been carted away to museums and what’s left behind at Paradise Gardens is mostly just the weird stuff, but I enjoyed that, too.
; )
I could (and may just!) do a whole post on the randomness of the place.
Mostly I thought I’d share these couple pix of the mosaic work I found throughout the garden…
Finster was a collector of found objects and a recycler extraordinaire.
Nothing there is very well-kept anymore, but that makes the beautiful bits that much more interesting, I think.
from last week’s visit to St. Simon’s Island, GA
Looking tortured in the Chattahoochee River…
: )
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| How to lose a new dog in less than 4 days |
Maybe she was bored. Or wanted to get to know the new neighborhood.
Maybe, disoriented, she was trying to find her way back to the shelter and a life she knew.
Most probably she was just terrified.
Whatever the reason, last Thursday she bolted out the front door, took a left at the end of the driveway and disappeared for good into a steamy August morning.
We searched on foot, on bikes, in the car. Despondent, I called out to her in unfamiliar places, my voice still unknown to her, using a name she hadn’t yet learned.
It was hopeless.
We put up signs. We waited. I walked the neighborhood for the tenth time. Shelter volunteers that had grown to love her in her time with them came out to help us look for her. Nothing.
Until the phone rang that evening and someone had rescued her, yet again. It was incomprehensible to me that she’d been found; I thought I would never see her again.
How she spent that day, we’ll never know… how she navigated two very, very busy roads without being hit to end up 3 miles away… how a Good Samaritan convinced her to stop in her running long enough to be caught…
I am so thankful for this happy ending and for this dog I barely know and already can’t help but love…
We sat in the parking lot of the shelter and very nearly went home without her, for a second time. Then we twisted each other’s arm and, just like that, it was done.
A new dog!
Some very basic and important part of me is made happier by having a dog. I’d been trying to deny that the past couple years since splitting with the ex-DH, but all the practicalities in the world couldn’t change that part of myself.
So… meet Sadie!
She’s 10 years old and a mix of perfectly polite and adorably unsure of herself. She’s cowering under the desk as I write this during a thunderstorm. Her first inclination when feeling anxious is to climb on top of something. She wanders around, following behind us like a houseguest that’s run out of tourist attractions to visit. She’s scared of cars and utterly oblivious to the cat who’s in a state of permanent hiss.
Nobody slept the first night. Last night we slept shifts on the floor beside her. For tonight I’m stil hopeful. Little by little her head and tail are coming up and she’s making tentative eye contact.
Who knows what her life before was.
Her eyes are sad, sad, sad.
We mean to change that.
Of the twenty-five (!) or so plants that I’m experimenting with out on the deck these are, by far, the happiest. It was so beautiful out there early in the season… I should have thought to photograph the flowers sooner.
Who says you can’t have strawberry shortcake for dinner?
: )
It’s summer, after all and strawberries are in season. I’ve been using this recipe and the only challenge has been getting the real whipped cream just right. Any tips?
“One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.”–W.E. Johns
Finally (!) I’m starting to feel overrun with tomatoes. Luckily, it’s the cherry tomatoes that are first to bear and those disappear easily enough. Better than half of what’s ripe at each visit is devoured before I even leave the community garden with the day’s harvest. I munch away while I water and while I weed. Makes all the sweat seem so much more worthwhile somehow.
: )
I planted a bunch of heirloom tomatoes… Rutgers was the first of the “big” tomatoes to ripen, but I haven’t tasted one yet. Each one I’ve brought home has mysteriously disappeared before I got a bite! The first of the lovely pink Brandywines is almost ready… those are a favorite and will be hidden away in my purse, if necessary!
The heat of the sun here is something else… like gardening in a furnace! I’m surprised anything survives, really. I’m approaching this first summer as little more than an experiment to see what’ll grow and how well. Cucumbers did well, but the vines have turned to dust in the last week. Just as well… I was getting a bit overwhelmed with them. The summer squash looked beautiful and I got half a dozen that I still need to cook, but the plants were overrun with bugs. I’m still waiting on the peppers. I also planted tomatillos for the first time… anyone know anything about them? Lots of flowers, but no fruit set. Curious.
I spend some time at each visit just wandering around the garden, enjoying being around growing things. I think that’s what I like most about being there. I love to see what other people are growing and how well their vegetables are doing. There’s a couple of beehives maintained by students… those are fun to look in on. Plenty of bluebirds and towhees, too, keeping the bugs at bay.
It’s supposed to be 106 this Saturday… you’ll find me somewhere shady, for sure.
