DAY 3

Did I mention that Scott returned from the bahamas three days ahead of schedule?  Yes - I had a call late Saturday night asking if I could please slide the lock.  I was wondering why the dogs had gone postal in my dream - I struggled to stay with it, but that infernal phone kept ringing and the dogs kept baying!   Lo and behold - I was not dreaming at all - someone was shaking the door.  Himself came home.   Early.


It seems that there is a celebration throughout the British caribbean and it is called Emancipation Day.  Officially, it began on Monday, but the natives started partying last Thursday!!  Scott was faced with a week of partying (and no work) or a flight home.  I think that he made a wise choice this time.  We are all very happy to have him back with us.  He is doing what he loves - it involves the lawn!  And, of course, his Best Friend.

The Best Friend, Jack Russell, is really showing his age now.  I worried that he might go on to meet his Maker before Scott returned.  If you have ever lived with a Jack Russell (or Parson's Terrier, excuse me, let me be canine-correct here) you know how tenacious this breed can be.  They are a fearless, independent, sometimes scurrilous lot!  And ours is no exception.  Believe me when I say that it took the better part of two years to warm up to this guy.  I had always lived with spaniels,retrievers and afghan hounds so no further explanation is needed!  The Terrier(terrorizer) is a breed apart.  Our Jack is a duty-bound, poised for action, multi-tasking-pain-in-the-butt kind of dog!!!  He just never truly relaxed, that is, until this year.  Earlier this spring I started to find him stretched out on the sofa - his body soft and pliant.  This is remarkable because he has always perched upright, near a window or a door, so as not to miss a single event.  I swear he slept with his eyes partly opened.  Also, his muscle tone defies description - in short, you could bounce a dime off of any given part of him, at any time - even in sleep.   
But lately, I find him in repose.  Softly snoring, body gone liquid.  I hold my breath and tiptoe out of the room, because, you know, IF he hears me, IF I wake him up - he'll go all JACK RUSSELL on me.
 I AM fond of this little dog.  No matter that he uses my thighs for a spring board when someone knocks at the door - and I wander around for days with these weird little bruises and scratches that proclaim our connection.  This is what you get when you sign on with a Terrier.  A few years back he had surgery to remove a tumor on his side and he came through it with flying colors, but when the anesthesia wore off and he realized that he was wearing one of those Elizabethian collars, oh dear God, all HELL broke loose.  In a nutshell, I found myself calling the vet and begging for drugs for BOTH of us!!!
Still, these mornings when the dogs go out together, I hold Harley back so that he cannot knock Jack over in the mad dash.  And I see how Jack circles half the perimeter of the yard and then lies down in the sunshine.  He's developed a tremor that makes his small body shudder all over, and yet, I can tell that the warm patch of sunshine  he's claimed is working its miracle on his old bones.  His spots have faded.  His spirit never does.

Here's some green -

Image taken earlier this spring - cabbages now mature and being gifted to the neighbors.  I love to look at a row of cabbages - such green perfection!  Forgive me for the cabbage repetition!

My agapanthus - "nana" - stubbornly refusing to bloom.  I swore off fertilizing this year in an attempt to "go green" with the garden.  I have never used pesticides or herbicides, but I was guilty of possessing and using some MiracleGro on the potted plants.  WHATEVER!