Dogs on Thursday Mystery

This post has it all... mystery, scandal, intrigue, but no dogs, so I guess this isn't technically a Dogs on Thursday post, but frankly I don't have anything dog related for today, so chickens it is!

Longtime readers will surely remember Ducky, my Ducky McDuck, my sweet innocent Duck-a-Doo who was shamelessly seduced in the twilight of her life (she was just 2 weeks shy of her 12th birthday!) by that rogue neighbor chicken Napoleon. I'm thinking there was Ecstasy involved. This is one of the last pictures I have of sweet Duck-duck-duck. Look how close that nasty little black chicken is sticking to her.

He filled her head with sweet talk and lies, and led her astray, never to be seen by her loving momma ever again. Oh, the heartache...

But the story doesn't end there. Last week, a bunch of chickens started showing up, wandering in to the yard through a patch of woods that separates us from the neighbors. They're shy chickens, though, so I've had a hard time getting pictures. This picture of them hanging around the driveway was taken from inside the back door.

I went out and followed them to get some better shots, and got this picture of one rooster (the black & white one) and 5 hens. You can just see the top of the head of hen #5 in the bottom right hand corner of the photo.Just for the fun of it, I started cooing to #5 and calling her Ducky Junior. The rest of the chicks ran off, but she came right up to me, and let me snap a bunch of pictures!

Could it be that this is Ducky Junior? Daughter of Ducky? I think it is!

To some people, perhaps all Rhode Island Red chickens look alike, but I just know there is a family resemblance here... Look at the coloring, the eyes, the nose, the comb!


Yes, indeed! Ducky sent her daughter back to me to tell me that she is happy in that great chicken coop in the sky. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

Happy Election Day!

The best part about Election Day is that we will be getting a break from the stupid political ads, junk mail, and roadside signs. The signs are everywhere, and they are freaking me out because of this one in particular:

No, it's NOT ME! It's spelled differently, and I do not want to be county clerk, thank you very much. I've had a lot of questions about this over the past several weeks. Even our accounting manager at work asked me if I am running for county clerk!

Take Those Signs Down!!!!

Happy Howl-o-ween!

There isn't much going on here in Britknitterville today, so we went down to Fortescue to take a walk on the beach. I love to look for sea glass, and there was a bunch to be found today. Lots of green, too, which is rare, and even one piece of white glass! Take a look at this Halloween haul!

It might not look like much, but when you compare it to what's in this bowl which holds three summers worth of sea glass hunting, it's like I found a treasure trove of sea glass today!
Here they are together, looking like a very crunchy, very painful appetizer of chips & dip. Yum...
And, because no blog post is complete without at least some mention of the babes, I have to show how helpful they were with the photos today.

First Cooper helped while I was taking pictures of the sock I was supposed to finish by today for the Socks from the Toe Up Knit-a-long on Ravlery. Yeah, it's not "finished" so much as "barely started", but Coopie McLoopy wanted to lend a hand...

Next, Emma and Tara wanted to check out the sea glass. Such helpers.
Here is a good shot of Emma and all of the blonde that is coming out on her face. It's not white. Nope. She is NOT getting a white muzzle.
She is only 8 years old, so it's blonde. Blonde, blonde, blonde. I refuse to even consider the fact that it might anything other than blonde highlights.

Dogs on Thursday

This morning as I was getting the dogs' breakfast ready, they just looked so cute, I had to grab my camera and get a picture for this week's Dogs on Thursday. They were adorable, really and truly, but Emma and Tara decided they didn't want to be on the blog this week and exited the kitchen as soon as I got my camera out. :sigh:

Cooper, though, decided to cooperate. Either that or he just didn't want to leave the area where his breakfast was being prepared.
I told him that since it was Dogs on Thursday today, be had to do something cute to earn his breakfast. (I'm mean, I know.) This was all he could come up with on an empty stomach.

It's his impersonation of a poor-despondent-starving-dog-who-has-not-had-any-food-since-dinner-the-night-before-and-his-mommy-is-making-him-pose-for-pictures-before-she-will-give-him-anything-to-help-him-make-it-through-the-day-today-until-dinnertime.

What Every Girl Needs...

... is a tractor! We've had this Ford 8N for a couple of years now, and it is so much fun!
Perfect for those little jobs around the yard...

...and even some not-so-little jobs!

Too funny not to share...

Dogs on Thursday

For this week's Dogs on Thursday, the residents of Britknitterville wanted to celebrate the fact that October is National Pizza Month. They found out about it on Chan's blog. I have got to limit their computer time...

First, we need some pizza.
That piece looks like it has been "nibbled" already. Who could have done that? Take a closer look at that photo and you will see this bad boy...
Yes, Mr. Coopie McCooper wanted to get the ball rolling and decided to help himself. Next I cut it into pieces. Notice the number of pieces. I'm not sure how many there are, but I can tell you it is a multiple of three.
Next is eenie-meenie-minie-moe so everyone gets the same number of pieces. They can count. Trust me...they can count.
Next a "before" shot. I call this: "Put the pizza on the floor or I swear to Dog I will eat you in your sleep tonight."

And we're off!
Emma naturally finishes first, then promptly checks everyone else's bowl.

Emma says: "Hey, mom...they got more than me!"
No they didn't Emma. Everyone got the same number. I told you they can count.
Tara takes pride in being the clean-up girl. She will lick and lick and lick everyone's bowls until they are so clean you don't even have to put them in the dishwasher...but I do, anyway.
Emma checks the countertop to see of there are any crumbs. There aren't.
Tara continues her thorough clean-up.
When things are clean enough to meet her high standards, Tara says:

"My work here is done."

Count your Blessings, Name them One by One...

The title of this post is taken from a song we used to sing in Sunday School, but for the life of me that's the only line I remember.

Anywhooo, my friend Chan is having a "Big Blessed Bash Contest" and this gives me a perfect opportunity to focus on the good instead of the bad, or the non-existent as the case may be. For many years I made myself miserable because I wasn't content with what I had. I wanted more. More, more, more. That's not to say I wouldn't be roll out the red carpet if more came along, even just a little more, but I have become pretty good at accepting "what is" and not always wanting more, more, more. Truer words have never been spoken (or written) than this line from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice:

"...where other powers
of entertainment are wanting,
the true philosopher will derive benefit
from such as are given."

Thank you, Miss Austen. I couldn't have said it better myself.

So, on to my blessings. There are so many, where do I start? I have an "embarrassment of riches" in my life. Not literal riches, (although money and jewels would be nice) but the kind of riches that truly count.

• Mom & Dad: I have wonderful parents who are in good health, they love me, and they love their grand dogs. Well, maybe "love" is too strong a word. Like? Nope. Tolerate? Just barely. Other than the one flaw of them not being head-over-heals in love with my poorly-behaved-wild-child dogs, they're the best parents ever.

• Family & Friends: I live with the best sister ever who loves the dogs (almost) as much as I do. She tolerates my wacko sense of humor, and calms me when I go off the deep end. I also have wonderful friends, bloggy and non-bloggy, to share the ups and downs with, and lend a helping hand when needed.

• A Job: With the economy still in the toilet, I am blessed to have a job, especially since I work at a non-profit arts organization. Not only am I lucky to be still working, but I so very grateful that the people here really "get it" that the dogs are my children, and there are times when I need to take off early or come in late, and that's OK, even though they are "just dogs".

What does each of the above have in common?

• My Dogs: My happy, healthy, funny, wonderful, quirky, exasperating, destructive, disobedient, never-sleep-through-the-night dogs. I love my four-legged children more than any mother could love any two-legged child. OK, maybe "as much as", but that's as far as I'll go. I am so very blessed to have three dogs, all in very good health. I know this cannot last, as Cooper is now 10 1/2 years old, but I am thankful for every day I have with each of the dogs.

OK, now I'm crying, so I'm going to stop for now and go give hugs and belly rubs to the best dogs in the world.

Dogs on Thursday

OK, Emma, Tara and Cooper. One week ago today mommy was in Vermont. Did you miss her?

Tara says: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Cooper says: You were gone?

Emma says: You wake me up again to take a picture and I'll take that camera and bury it in the backyard. Now go get me a cookie and then leave me alone.

Vermont, Part 4, in which two ships pass in the night

Last time we left off, I was in Hastings Store, thoroughly embarrassed and thanking my lucky stars that the only people in the store at the time were the store-guy, the postmistress, and me, turning beet red from my head to my toes. The store-guy was saying something about Marcelle's family owning a "nice piece of land with cottages for rent" while I made a hasty retreat back to my parents waiting in the car.

After a full day of sightseeing and shopping, we decide to head home the next morning. We packed up the car, cleaned up the cabin, and headed off to Hastings Store to drop off the trash and let the store-guy know we were leaving. Apparently in addition to storekeeping and matchmaking, he watches over properties & gets boats out of the water and such.

Anyway, mom and I were waiting in the car while dad went into the store, and he was in there for a looooong time. We couldn't imagine what was taking him so long since he was in such a hurry to get on the road. Turns out, the store-guy and postmistress were talking to dad about staying through the weekend. Guess who happened to stop in the store the night before? The famous Marcelle! Yes, indeed. Apparently there was some discussion, and Marcelle offered to take me out and show me the scenery. Yeah, right. Mr. Storekeeper and Ms. Postmistress probably badgered the poor guy and wouldn't let him out of the store until he agreed to show me some leaves.

Needless to say, we headed home that morning, and Marcelle was off the hook. While our two ships passed in the night, or more literally our two cars passed on Interstate 91 in Northern Vermont, mom was mumbling about what might have been with Marcelle, missed opportunities, maybe another time, blah, blah, blah.

Me, I'm just happy to be back home. Just look at this sweet face!
The End!