#lhasa apsos

Today’s backyard garden harvest: 

The tiny flowers of our fragrant tea olive have the entire backyard scented up: 

The last of the sweet corn for this year is just starting to tassel: 

I think these might be Tigerella tomato. I didn’t think any of the seedlings had made it: 

We’ve pulled out all the squash plants in the backyard garden except for this lemon squash. It was attacked by squash vine borers then a downy woodpecker peck all the borers out. I thought it would die months ago but it is still producing fruit. We’ll definitely let one fruit go to seed on this trooper for seed collecting: 

I’m happy with the repair job that I did on this curbside find planter but I’m even happier that the curly leaf parsley that I planted in it is doing well: 

My queen: How much longer on the burgers?

Me: About 3 minutes

My queen: Are mine well done?

Me: Yes

My queen: I ask because my last steak was a little pink inside.

Me <grinning>: You’re a little pink inside & you don’t hear me complaining.

My queen <grinning>: You need to go on. 

Anyway, hamburgers for dinner: 

DAISY

Charley runs into his longtime friend and neighbor Daisy the Lhasa Apso on an evening walk. She lives on the next block and they see one another often. Upper West Side, Manhattan, NYC

It rained on our walk: 

Survivors of Wednesday night’s slug attack: 

Our dogs eat echinacea leaves. Not all the time. The frequency is about what you would expect the average human to take something for a headache: 

We’re not sure why they eat them but we know they don’t eat them to make themselves vomit (They like certain grasses for that):  

I may live to regret this but a week or so ago there wasn’t enough room in the compost bins to put these gone-to-seed collard greens in so just threw them here by the fence on the West side of our house. All those tiny plants with the lobed leaves are baby collard greens: 

This butterfly bush has the back patio scented up: 

A day or two more & those four should be ready to pick: 

Out of the two generations of Monarchs that we’ve had this year, this is only one to make it to adulthood so far: 

Pink Spotted Lady Beetle on the hunt: 

Turkey vulture headed southwest. That white thing in the top of that oak tree is a shopping bag. Just a reminder, that your discarded crap gets everywhere: 

“That’s no moon”... oh wait, it is: 

Couple more turkey vultures headed southwest: 

Silverback peaking to see if the dog next door is out so they can have a spit flinging match:

The Red Menace on the trail: 

"Hey, you, you’re finally awake”:   

So much for the blue skies. That’s the sun: 

Straining & storing broth. Those soup containers you get with Chinese takeaway are perfect. The small ones are roughly 2 cups & the big ones (like the one in the photo) are 4 cups. They freeze fairly well although sometimes they do get brittle & break when you’re thawing out the broth: 

Libation for straining & storing broth:

Seen while walking the dogs: 

Our neighbors down the street decorated their giant skeleton for Christmas. I’ll have to get a shot of him in the day time so his Santa hat shows up better: 

I’ve decided his name is Ysbaddaden: 

Not the same squirrel. This one was barking at me: 

Flat cap & scraggly hair: 

Silverback bracing for The Red Menace’s assault: 

The Red Menace executes his trademark flying butt bite: 

He takes off with Silverback hot on his heels. In my experience, Lhasas seem to be perpetually training for the day they are called to fight in a cosmic battle: 

Charlotte’s web: 

Charlotte & her egg sac: 

I put up Christmas lights today... nothing fancy: 

Admittedly, the lights on our crepe myrtle look slightly sinister: 

I don’t know what it is but every year it seems like I decide to put up Christmas lights late in the day on the coldest day possible so I finish squinting in the dark with cold numbed fingers. Today was no exception. We had a high of 53 degrees Fahrenheit that is slated to drop to an overnight of 32: 

The gray squirrels tore this piece of branch off our buckeye in retaliation for me allowing our bird feeders to go empty for half a day. I noticed this little fellow on it when I pick it up: 

Dogs in the night: 

We’ve had a couple of rats get into our attic using our gutter downspouts so I did a little DIY rat exclusion for them. I used 9 inch x 10 inch pieces of hardware fabric then cut them so there were 3 tabs that would allow me to fold them to fit over the mouths of the downspouts:  

I fastened them to the downspouts with two pieces of metal wire. Only time will tell how effective they are: 

This is one of the blossoms on the rose bush we transplanted from the front flower bed earlier this year. Yep, that’s what a stressed rose blossom looks like: 

Tuesday’s strawberries: