Maria’s ear is getting better, her hearing is better, and she is better. She has three or four more weekly visits to the ear doctor before it’s all better. She is still uncomfortable at times, but she is much better than yesterday. She was in the wind, rain, and sun most of the day, and it was pretty rough there for a while.

This gardening for hours is her idea of resting (I feel like my grandmother). We did some food shopping – the refrigerator was empty – and scrapped our movie plans so she could rest more (hah.) Zip was a riot today, playing with grass, taunting Fate, playing tag with Zinnia, chasing chipmunks, chasing his tail, chasing a chipmunk (he failed), sitting in my lap

I took photos at the pantry to record Sarah’s impressive improvements. She’s a whirlwind; she never stops. She had a great week; more later. Here’s a photo journal of my day. Tomorrow, I plan to write a long-pondered essay about love. Flower Art photos are coming after dusk, as usual.

The donkeys do plenty of grazing, but they always torment for alfalfa cubes.  And they never fail to get one.

There are two dogs and a cat. Zinnia and Zip are buddies; they nap together outside. Fate didn’t move away, as she usually did, but she sometimes just stared incredulously at Zip, who paid no attention to her, something he probably learned from the sheep. The only thing I’ve seen so far that Zip is afraid of is the loud tractor-trailer trucks going down the road. He stays far away from them.

This is Zip’s favorite scratching post; he is a ham and loves to show off.

Every Fall, Maria takes her Dahlia tubes into the basement to survive the winter. Every Spring, she takes them out and plants them in the Dahlia garden. She offered me this one to keep in the garden bed in the summer.

It was a cloudy morning, but this Spring has just exploded in the gardens and the trees.

This after it got windy and clouded up. There is no rain yet; we can hear the grumbling, though.