Misha

 Our Misha dog passed yesterday morning, after having a very hard time these past months with stairs and other issues.  She had a seizure early in the morning.  Mark looked it up, and she was thirteen years old, and all of our other dogs except Nova are her grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

These were her favorite things, digging, swamp dog, and carrying things around in her mouth she found in the yard.  She was always watchful of Esme, or for that matter, anybody she thought needed close herding and watching.  The first memory I have of meeting Misha was when I visited Mark's farm for the first time, before we were married, and suddenly realized there was a dark dog sitting just inside the treeline following and watching me.  I was frightened at first, but then we were introduced, and she was a constant presence making sure I didn't get lost or into trouble - as if that was her job, which, to her, it was.

Mark said this is perfect dognity.. sometimes you just have to lay down and roll all over and scratch.

June 21st

My father and stepmother stopped by yesterday for several hours to catch up and spend time with Esme.  We had a good time and they saw chickens, garden, puppies, kittens... a very much grown little girl :)

This morning I did my usual birthday thing - and it was very pretty in the sunrise up at the top of the road - the sunflowers were just beginning to bloom.. the bats and birds and bees and other insects were all around, and the world was full of life and waking up.  I took a few hours in the garden - then a nap... as sleeping was not so good last night.

Esme, Mark and I went out and took some photos a little while ago.  She is using the older camera we have in some of the pictures down below.

The following pictures are taken by Esme (or with that camera in a few obvious examples)

She was very proud of the bugs on this one. 

silly :)



And a picture from the visit that Mark caught when I was opening a present.  We really need to catch some more photos next time!

Puppies eyes open and (somewhat) walking

Most of the puppies have their eyes open now and they are between crawling and walking. We took a few more pictures of them scrambling around.





Pogo and Misha cuddle up and ask 'Aren't we cute too?'

A horse of a different color
I've been encouraged to keep making these little horses and other things in my shop. I hope to keep putting up at least one item a day for a week or so. We've sold a few paintings on Ebay as well which is very exciting :)