Bondi! Bondi! Bondi!

           “I took Mick for a walk to check out the blackberries,” my beautiful friend Jody said of her German Shorthaired Pointer. “They were just coming on. I found very few. The deer and bear have hit them hard. It was a nice morning for a walk and I saw lots of fairy’s wash, as your mother would say.”

          It made me smile, that someone who’d never known my mother has a small memory of her.

          I was still thinking about that when I took Bondi out for a walk and took a photo of fairy’s wash to show you when someone just had to stick her nose in it! Fairy wash is the spider’s web spread over the grass as a fairy might spread her sheets.

          I stirred up a Crane Fly and he landed on a leaf not far from me, then held still for his close-up.          These guys are big scary mosquito-looking things but they won’t hurt you. They have no mouth parts. Their only function at this stage in their life is to breed and die — and they’re an important link in the food chain.

          Look how beautiful and intricate the little flowers of the Meadowsweet are!

          I found this little guy down by the pond only because a fly buzzed past me and landed on him. It looks like he’s got an injury. What do you think caused this? A lawnmower? A bird? Another, bigger, turtle?

          I put him down at the pond’s edge, which is the way he was heading.

          Bondi is the Queen of Rabbit Skittles. She can sniff those babies out!

          “What are Rabbit Skittles?” you ask.

          Rabbit Skittles are those round black little candies left behind from the south end of a north-bound rabbit. Sounds better than rabbit poo, don’cha think?

          Bondi raced ahead and spotted a little branch with dried leaves laying in the yard. She snatched ‘em up and ran. I laughed at her antics. In her defense, I do take almost everything away from her that she finds.

          Like this.

          Another day at the pond, Bondi is nosing around while I’m taking pictures. All of a sudden, she took off at a hundred miles an hour! I knew she had something, but what? I didn’t know.

          “Come here!” I tell her.

Does she listen?

NO!

I tried a different command. “BONDI STOP!”

Did she listen?

NO!

She gets far enough ahead of me that she plops her arse down and looks at me.

Instead of a mean voice, I tried a sing-songy one. “Whad’cha find?”

She took off again. I took off at a trot, tucked my camera under my arm, and heard the shutter release.

“What did you get a picture of?” you ask.

I’d been gaining on Bondi and the next time she flopped down, I caught her.

“What is that!” From her mouth I pulled an old stinky snail shell. I’ve got some big ole honkin snails in my pond, that’s for sure! 

I snapped a picture; Bondi grabbed the shell and ran. I’m not so sure it would hurt to chew on a snail shell but why take a chance. I took it away from her.  

“Did you throw it away?” you wanna know.

          No. I actually put it under some stuff in my cement leaf butterfly-waterer, which, by the way, I’ve never seen any butterflies drink from. A few bees, a cat or two, and occasionally, a thirsty little pup.

          But speaking of my cement leaf and little pup…

          I put things in my leaf so the butterflies have a place to land. One of those things is a small broken clay flower pot. Don’cha know I found that clay pot on the patio rug.

          Bondi, I thought, has to be. I put it back in the watering hole. Bondi saw me do it too. Guess who went looking for it? 

         She doesn’t see it, gets up on the leaf, and walks the whole way around. She slipped off and when she got back up, she spotted it. 

          Then it was grab and run.

          Up on the patio, she drops it and settles in to chew on it. I took it away from her and this time, I didn’t put it back. I’ll wait a few days, sneak it back in and see how long it takes her to find it.

          Mike worked on landscaping around the barn. We all went out to look at it, little Bondi trailing after Mike. He did a good job and he did it all by himself.

          “Wanna walk around the pond?” I don’t remember now who suggested it but we did walk around the pond.

          My first indication that Bondi picked something up, was again, when she took off running. I snapped a picture.

          “What’s she got?” I asked. “A hunk of grass or poop?”

          “I don’t know,” Mike answered.

          “BONDI!” I yelled. “STOP!”

          Did she stop?

NO!

          I took off after her.

          “You’re never gonna catch her,” Mike said.

          Bondi did her thing where she waits for me to catch up, then takes off again. After a couple of rounds of this, I caught her and took it away. I didn’t smell it but since I touched it, I’m gonna say it was a hunk of mud and grass. I pitched it towards the pond and didn’t let her chase after it.

          Another day, walking up behind the barn, Bondi on a leash, she grabs something and takes off. I reeled her in and pulled a slimy hunk of something and grass from her mouth. Is it just mud, I wondered, or is it poop? I did smell it this time and it smelled like sewer! Ewww! I pitched it and wiped my hands on the grass. Bondi wasn’t happy with me.

Soil doesn't need to be saturated with sewage to smell like it. Mucky, anaerobic soil reminds people of sewage. This condition can be naturally occurring or caused by a sewer leak.

          There is no sewer there on the hill so this is one of those naturally occurring kinds and I knew, even before I Googled it, that it does occur naturally.

          A little flower spider on the thistle. He’s hard to see but I saw him! 

          Wild grapes.

          This is Virginia Knotweed or Jumpseed. 

          The leaves are at the bottom and the small white four-petal flowers dot a spike that can be up to twelve inches long. Jumpseed gets its name from its ability to eject seeds up to thirteen feet when disturbed.

          Tiger and Bondi rest in the coolness of the shade while they wait for me to take pictures.    

          There’s lots of Goldenrod blooming! Seas of it! But the bees love it. 

          Have you ever smelled Goldenrod? It has a very pleasant scent, however, I would not recommend smelling it with the same hand you used to pull a slimy hunk of sewer mud from your dog’s mouth.

          And speaking of dog’s mouth…

          Bondi, Bondi, Bondi! We were visiting with the Kipps and Bondi stuck her whole head in Tux’s mouth!

Poor Tux! 

I saw her do the same thing during playtime with Tiger only Tiger’s mouth is smaller so she only got her snout in.

          I only let Smudge out these days if he’s on a leash and Mr. Mister is nowhere in sight. Smudge is happy to lay on the patio most days but no so happy when Bondi plays tug-o-war with his leash.

          One day I got busy and forgot to secure the end of Smudge’s leash. The door was open and I heard my glass shelf rattle as a cat jumped on it. The shelves are stair-stepped and the cats take advantage of that to get to the roof, or to lay on the upper shelves. My first thought was, Mr. Mister. He’ll often use the shelves to get up and down from the roof or just to lay on a shelf and that’s what it sounds like when he jumps down. Had he been on the roof? Did I look to see if he was on the shelf? I couldn’t remember so I went to look. There, on the top shelf, was Smudge.

          He could hang himself, came unbidden to my mind along with an old story. My aunt and uncle had a female dog in heat. They didn’t want pups so they put her on the second floor of the chicken coop. The windows had no glass or wire so they had her tied to a post. The poor thing was so desperate to be bred that she jumped out of the window — and hung herself.

          I got a ladder and got Smudge down. I won’t ever forget to tie the end of his leash off again.

          Someone in this house had a birthday. Me. It was me that had a birthday. Mike took this old woman out for a birthday breakfast.

My Miss Rosie gave me the coolest gift! It’s a 3-D cutout of a camera. It’s perfect and I love it! I thanked Miss Rosie for it in person and I’ll thank her again on here. Thank you, Miss Rosie.

She also gave me a little plaque that says I love my Chiweenie. It’s currently on my desk till I figure out where I want to hang it.

          I’m not the only one who got a gift that day. Smudge and Bondi had such a great time playing in the bag and with the tissue paper that I didn’t have the heart to take it away from them. Smudge climbed inside, Bondi pulled the red tissue paper out, and Smudge grabbed it and pulled it back in the bag. It wasn’t long until that tug-o-war ended with a ripped brown paper bag and shreds all over the floor. I didn’t care that I had a mess to clean up. The joy it gave me watching their play was more than worth it.

          In craft news this week, Addi finished her fairy house. Don’t go thinking I helped her make it, I didn’t. It was all her.

“Who knew you had that in you?” I asked Addi.

She shrugged. “I did.”

It was a simple truth and not a brag. She had it all planned out in her head before she even started. Except for the roof. I gave her the idea and she ran with it.          

          “What’s your favorite part?” I expected her to say the roof that she spent more than two hours constructing.

          “These flowers right here,” she paused, “and the vines.” 

          After Addi finished painting her fairy house, we set to work on our next project. It’ll be a piece of wire art and we’re making flowers to twine in.

          I know two ways to make these flowers. One is with nail polish. The flowers look great when they’re done, but it can be almost impossible sometimes to get the nail polish to make a bubble across the wire. I think we only made two with nail polish.

          The easiest way to make these flowers, once you have the wire form made, is to dip them in Mod Podge. Once they’re dry, you can paint them. These are the ones Addi made.

          In this picture, the two on the far right are the nail polish ones. Mine was the purply one, Addi did the blue one. The rest of the flowers were mine so I decided to experiment with them. First, the flower on the far left, I colored with permanent marker. The yellow and almost red one were dipped in alcohol ink. I was worried the alcohol would eat through the Mod Podge and when it didn’t on the yellow one, I dipped the red one. The holes appeared after they sat for a while. I guess we’ll use acrylic paints when Addi comes back.

          “How did Addi’s mom like her fairy house?” you ask.

          How did she like it‽ She loved it! Can’t you just see the look of love between these two?

          “How did you make the roof?” Liz asked. 

          Addi was all grins. “I cut little pieces of cardboard and glued ‘em on.”

          Isn’t it just fabulous!

          When Addi made her fairy bottle (I call it that because it has fairy lights in it) she used a clear bottle. Personally, I think the colored bottles are prettier when they’re done. And Addi thought so too.

          “Can I paint my bottle?” she asked.

          “I think you can. Put a little paint in and work it around until it’s all covered. Then turn it upside down and let it drain. I’ve never done it,” I told her, “I just read about it. So try it if you want.”

          Well, you know me. I also want to make a couple of more fairy bottles for special ladies but have clear wine bottles. I found a web page that detailed how to color the bottles with Mod Podge and food coloring. Then you bake it. This is what I ended up with. I didn’t drain the orange one long enough (which was supposed to be coral) and the paint pooled in the bottom. But I don’t think it’ll show when I’m done. You’ll have to stay tuned to see how this turns out.

          Another thing I experimented with this week was Mike’s Nibbler, a tool used to ‘nibble’ away at metal.

          My issue, with making ladybugs, is I have to make such tight turns sometimes that it deforms the metal. I pound it back out but I’d rather not have that issue if I don’t have to.

          Mike made me a holder for the drill, wired down the trigger, and when I’m ready to start ‘nibbling’, I just put the battery in.

          I’m not especially happy with how the ladybug came out. I don’t have enough control to get clean edges. I sat and trimmed it up and it wasn’t too bad when I was done.

          How can you do something so many times, then encounter a problem you don’t know what caused or how to fix?

          “Peg, what are you talking about now?” you ask.

          I know, right! I can switch gears faster than you can keep up! I painted this giant ladybug and ran into a problem with the paint. The black came out flat instead of shiny like the red one.

          “The dots look shiny to me,” you say.

          Not the dots, those are stickers. The head. It was the same can of paint I used before so what would make the difference? It was late in the afternoon when I painted it, and I painted it on the ground. Did the coolness cause it? The next day I took my purple ladybug down, taped off the purple shell, put a sheet of plastic down to keep it off the ground, and repainted it in the heat of the day. It was still dull. Maybe my paint was too cool? I left my can sit in the sun for a few hours. After the third coat, it was better but still not good. Any ideas?

          Back to the Nibbler I went and this time tried to cut a smaller ladybug. It was worse than the first one! He’s not a ladybug now but he is some kinda bug.

          “It’s just gonna take practice,” Mike says.

          I don’t know that I have it in me to keep ruining ladybugs. Maybe I’ll go back to the old way I was doing it. 

          I had two more of these Dog Stinkhorns come up. I knew they were there before I saw them because I could smell them.

          “What’s that stuff on it?” you wanna know.

          It’s a slime called gleba. It’s the sticky stuff that carries the spores. When insects land on it and get it on their legs, then fly off and land someplace else, they help this mushroom reproduce. It’s only on there for a couple of hours then it’s gone. I don’t know how I missed it on the first one. 

          Mike cut down our bug-killed pine and hauled it to the burn pile. That thing’ll go up like a torch! 

          I saw this orange iridescent fly. I don’t know what he is.

          Look at all the Tussock caterpillars on this milkweed! 

It was unbelievable! I’ve never seen so many in one place before.

I picked up one leaf and saw a bunch more of small ones! At least I think that’s what they are.

A couple of days later they look like this. What the larger caterpillar is doing there I can only guess. I sorta think he’s making a meal on them. I’ll keep watching and see what happens next week. 

On sort of the same note, I’m not finding any Monarch caterpillars. My baby one got out of the butterfly house through a crack (or got eaten) and my larger one is a chrysalis now.

          This guy is a baby of the Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle.

          These are the orange vines of the Dodder. 

          I thought I was going to have some lavender Teasel but as it’s matured, it’s turned white. 

          I’ve had more colors of Glads bloom. I’ve got a deeper pink and an orange.

          I don’t know if he’s a grasshopper or a katydid. 

          Swallowtail on Bergamot.

          Two Humbees!

          We went to the Fireman’s Carnival in Tunkhannock this week. One of the first things we notice on our drive is the cement barricades are gone and a port-a-john is in place. 

         Maybe they’re finally gonna fix the road that collapsed a couple of three years ago.

          We thought the carnival started at four. The fact that we didn’t have any trouble finding a parking spot was our first clue. The lack of vendors in their tents was our second.

          We walked up to one tent that had people in it. “What time do you start serving?” I asked.

          “It doesn’t start till five,” she told us.

          We were hungry. We had a very light lunch in prep for a heavier dinner. We decided to wait. We found a tent full of tables and sat down to wait — and do a little people watching.

          “That’s ridiculous,” Mike muttered.

          “What?”

          He nodded toward this gal. Mike’s not a big fan of ripped jeans.

          “Why would you do that to your jeans?” he wanted to know.

          I’m not about to debate fashion with Mike but pointed out, “Sometimes you can buy them that way.”

          Mike gets one little hole in his jeans and he won’t wear them anymore.

          This couple sat down nearby and we passed the time conversing with them. They’ve been married for 62 years. He was a little like my mom. He didn’t want to give in to his illness and start using an electric chair. Once you give in, you don’t ever go back. Momma was stubborn that way and wouldn’t give in to any aides until she absolutely had to.

          Soon, people around us got up and headed for the potato pancake tent.

          “They’re the best we’ve ever had,” the man said, and other people have told us that too.

          We were off. The line moved fast as they had lots of cookers and servers.

          Mike and I decided to share three of them. They were good, but a little greasy. I get a sick stomach if I eat too much oil. I hoped by dipping them in sour cream that it would cut the oil.    

          Mike found a sausage sandwich and I went looking for Triton Pizza.

          “What’s Triton Pizza?” you ask.

          Pizza made by the Triton Fire Company. Everyone raves about it and I’m not sure I’ve ever had any. I decided I was gonna try a slice. I get to the tent and stand in line only to hear it would be half an hour till they had any pizza ready. We didn’t wait. I got a fruit smoothie and we left.

          On the way home we see where a car went off the road, hit the ditch, and pushed these cement blocks the whole way across the little side road.

          A few days later, the blocks were back in place, protecting cars from going in the ditch. 

          I have road pictures to show you but first, one little road trip we took was on the golf cart.

          “There’s Bee Balm growing beside the road,” I remember from years past. “Since it’s blooming, can we go get some?”

          Mike is a good husband, loaded a shovel and a bucket, and off we went.

          We stopped at the house close to where the Bee Balm is and asked permission to dig up a few.

          “Sure, go ahead,” the guy told us. “It’s not my property but I know the owners and they won’t care.”

          Bee Balm and Bergamot are in the same family. The flowers look the same, they’re just a different color. We brought them home and planted them close to their cousins.

          Okay. Road pictures. We’re starting to see a little color! 

          Lots of dead trees dot our roadsides. Compliments of the Emerald Ash Borer Beetle. 

          We had to drive across two steel plates covering this ditch. Scares me — but not Mike. 

I’m using this landscape as the picture on my computer. I’d say as my desktop, but it’s not. It’s my lock screen. That won’t mean anything to a couple of people I know, so we’ll suffice to say, it’s the picture on my computer. 

They fixed this barn after a car hit it last year.

Stick these two pictures together and you’d have one house.

         Let’s call this one done!