It was the perfect summers day in Ireland today. The weather couldn't have been any better. I thought I'd share a few photos.
Here's Daisie playing in the stream. The sun caught this one section under our crabapple trees and she took the opportunity to go snorkling. This is where she puts her whole head under water and looks for rocks to bring me so I can throw them back in the water so she can go snorkling again. The funny thing is that she doesn't quite get them back to me. She ends up taking them to the edge of the stream and expects me to climb down and get them. Not bloody likely! I was wet enough just throwing the ball into the water for Poppy who DID have sense enough to bring it back so I could throw it again. The problem with Poppy is that she can go for hours where Daisie usually gets bored with a game and then she's away with the fairies. The exception is when she's in the water, where she kept snorkling for rocks and still kept taking them to the edge of the water but not up to me. Goofy dog!
Once both dogs were sufficiently wet, I brought them out of the water one at a time for a bath. Poppy first, since she was already at my side with a ball hanging out of one side of her mouth and her tongue from the other side!
Then it was Daisie's turn and once she saw the soap bottle in my hand she headed back into the stream and refused to come out. I don't understand it, and I probably don't need to, but she LOVES water. Doesn't matter where she is, if she spots a big puddle, pond or the sea, she's in it. But the hose with water coming out? No way! Well, eventually she came out and begrudgingly let me wash her.
Then I ran them to get as much of the water off them as possible before the sun went in and they had to come in the house. Anyone who's been to our house or knows us knows that we use a tennis racket to whack a ball up the backyard, which is about a half acre. They see me pick up the racket and ball and they're instantly up the back and waiting for me to hit the ball to them. It's a great way to exercise collies, let me tell you. After about 15 minutes, Daisie is usually ready to play another game, but Poppy is all about running, and if it means hitting the ball for another 15 minutes to wear her out, who am I to deny her? So here they are, above, laying on the back steps in the sun, catching their breath and the last of the afternoon sun. Ah! It's a dog's life!!
Here are a couple more shots of what's growing around our property. Left is a very old white hawthorn tree that has buds coming in all over. Unlike the crabapple tree which is next to it, the buds are coming in green rather than pink. The flowers will be striking white when they've bloomed, so stay tuned for that picture. They're absolutely stunning.
Lastly, we have a Carnival Tulip. I've tried growing tulips in the ground around where the daffodils are in front of the little stone structure in our front yard, but they never do well for some reason. So I put a bunch of bulbs in various containers to see if they'd come up. The Carnival Tulips are really stunning, looking like starlight mints from Xmas time.
Well, let's not talk about Xmas time when we've had such wonderful weather today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? The weather "experts" have been calling for rain this weekend and today we had sun. It's anyones guess what tomorrow will bring until we open the curtains in the morning and look out.
