June is Busting a MOVE All Over

What's that black stuff that keeps following me?

I loves loves loves JUNE. The weather warms up and the yard looks so good. And best of all, the garden starts to grown and the fruits and veggies start to ripen. It is just magical. My Aunt T takes care of the yard (Mommy #2 has a BROWN thumb and stays away) and this year she planted a lot of yummy things.

These are tomato and pepper plants. I am not sure what either of those are because I am not fed any peppers. I have had tomatoes. One time when I was quite young, we were at a cousin's house and she had this great garden BURSTING with tomatoes. Well, you know who thought is was a PICK YOUR OWN TREAT buffet and ate A LOT of tomatoes before Mommy caught me. Then she made me stop. I had the most delicious belches for the rest of the day, though.

This is one of TWO apricot trees. I loves loves loves APRICOTS. In fact, under the trees are the ONLY place in the yard BLOCKED off from me. I tend to sit under them GORGING myself on dropped 'cots and NOT listening when called. Of course, I would always eat too many and end up BEGGING to go outside a lot or I would have the belches. Again, delicious BELCHES.

I think I have established the fact that I loves STRAWBERRIES. These are just some of our strawberry plants. The humans have to BUY their strawberries because Molly and I have claimed these as our own. We pick and eat them BEFORE there is enough for a human to enjoy. In the middle of the strawberries there is a small BLUEBERRY bush that is NOW producing. YUMMY.

No, we (1) do NOT grow wine and (2) are not wine lushes. . . they make great waterers for our miniature lemon and key lime trees. Can't wait until these produce. They have tons of blossoms but have yet to produce any viable fruit. Soon, I think.

This is me at my ANNOUNCER'S BOOTH - the Honeysuckle vine. It is the length of the side fence and when in bloom (late summer) it is the sweetest smelling place in the yard. Every morning around 6:30, I stand out here and "chat" with the world.

Ahhhhhh, the sweet smell of roses. We have about 12 rose bushes of different kinds all over the back and front yards. Take a deep breath, they smell soooooo GOOD.

This is why I spend so much time out in MY yard during the SUMMER months. It is a magical place to be. I hope you enjoyed your tour nearly as much as I enjoyed TOURING you.

I Am A BERRY BERRY Good Girl!

Sometime back I mentioned that the STRAWBERRY PLANTS in my backyard had lotsa berries. But they were green and quite small still so I could not eat them. I draw the line at eating sour green strawberries. So I have been patient. . . BERRY, berry patient (see what I did there? I made a PUN).

I go outside all the time to check on them - to do my bidness, to sit in the morning sunshine, to water the plants with Aunt T. . . and so on. Green, green, green.

Yesterday I decided to take a closer look

Nothing here. . .

Whaddya know! I see something RED . . .

What a lovely SIGHT . . . My mouth is watering. . .

Oh wait! There's TWO???????

Mommy decided to TORTURE me by holding that luscious red BERRY in front of me and making me wait! Come a little closer MOMMY. . . Yes, like that. . . HA!!! I got IT!

And it was GONE! Stem, leaves and all. It was so yummy I could hardly believe it. I simply cannot wait for the OTHER STRAWBERRIES to ripen.

What about the second one I saw? Well, Aunt T picked it later in the day and said it should have waited a couple of days. It was still sour. Oh well. There are many many more that I KNOW I will enjoy in the next few weeks.

Have a great weekend - keep cool if you are in the part of the country where the temps are going up Up UP!

And Here's another of my 100 Affirmations below

NOT According to Plan

I think we can all agree that I like. . . no I LOVE Strawberries. I really do. The ones in the backyard are on the cusp of ripeness and I simply cannot wait. I check them everyday in hope they have turned red. So far they are still quite small and very green,

So IMAGINE my delight when Aunt T came home with a FLAT of fresh strawberries. A flat, for you city dwellers, is 12 baskets. And my oh my! Did they smell heavenly. I jumped and jumped and begged and whines all over the place. Yes, I got some.

This morning I was still a little groggy when the smell of strawberries came wafting over my bed. It work me up TOOT SWEET and I went running toward the smell.

It was odd that I bypassed the kitchen. But I kept on dogging the scent until I was upstairs and in the bathroom. The BATHROOM????? What is up with that? There was Mommy, grinning maniacally and holding an open bottle of this

Lucy Pets Products with a Cause 

Then it all made sense. I was getting a bath. THAT woke me up in a hurry.

The good news is I smell like STRAWBERRIES. The bad news is I smell like strawberries and it is making me HUNGRY!

Seaside Escapades

On Saturday my Mommy #2 and Auntie B took me to the BEACH. They HAD TO. It was such a beautiful day and the weatherperson SAID it was a BEACH day. So in a way, we were ordered to head WEST.

We left kinda early in the morning to avoid the OVERTHEHILL traffic. It can be really bad on nice days like Saturday. And of course, it WAS the weekend! We hit just a smattering of traffic, nothing to even fuss about. And Mommy, who was driving, kept the windows open so we had a lot of FRESH air as we headed coastside.

This is what awaited us. Look at that view! No fog, mild waves, light breeze. It was absolutely what we all needed. We drove to Manresa Beach which is south of Santa Cruz but north of Watsonville. Those of you from places OTHER than NorCal have no idea what I am saying. Let's suffice it to say this is PRIME beach area. Mommy and Auntie B like Manresa because dogs are allowed on the beach. This is not true on all beaches in Cali. In fact, it is sadly the exception to the rule. I don't get it but I am admittedly BIASED being a pug and all.

Mommy brought her wagon because we had a lot of stuff. She brought chairs for all three of us (I didn't like mine as I will show you later), towels, hats, umbrella (Mommy and I are too fair to sit in the sun for long), and FOOD. She said she COULD have carried it but chose not too. Considering how hard she worked to move the wagon in the sand and UP the ramp, I wonder which was actually the better choice.

We found the perfect spot close to the water but out of high tide range. Mommy and Auntie B set up the chairs and the umbrella, Mommy slathered herself with sunscreen, and then we took off for a nice walk along the shore.

This is Mommy's chair. I like sitting on it WITH her

I don't know about you but I LOVES LOVES LOVES the ocean water. Especially NorCal water because it is cool and refreshing. A lot of HUMANS think it is too icy cold. But to me, Mommy and Auntie B it is PERFECT. We walked a long time and looked for seashells along the way. Oddly enough we found none that were good enough to collect. They were all broken. Sad, huh. Not that we have a lack of collected seashells. But when you go to the shore, that is what you do.

See Mom's foot? Auntie B tried to NOT get Mommy in the pic
but a certain VELCRO PUG kept heading back to Mommy
whenever she stopped

After our LONG walk we just lounged on our chairs enjoying the sweet smell of the ocean breeze (Mommy almost hyperventilated she was breathing it in so much. She said it was delicious). Mommy and I took a little sun and then we had to settle in the shade. Auntie B stayed in the sun the whole time. Mommy used to but she would burn. Even with heavy duty sunscreen she burns after about 30 mins. So she covers up or sits under an umbrella. ME? I can't handle too much sun once the temps top 70.

Isn't the view magnificent? We even saw a sea lion frolicking with the surfers. It was pretty funny. Every once in a while he/she would poke out his/her head and take a look around. I am sure all of those furless bodies laying in the sun looked pretty funny to him/her.

 I fussed from my chair for quite a while and then Mommy put me on her lap. People thought it was pretty funny for a "dog" to be on her human's lap but for me it made PERFECT sense. Not only was I where I wanted to be (touching Mommy) but I had a FIRST CLASS vantage point for watching the waves roll in.

My favorite lap

It was heading into mid-afternoon and we left the beach to go see about strawberries. Manresa is not far from Crystal Bay Farms which Auntie B said has the sweetest berries in the world. She swears they water with sugar water! Unfortunately since it was afternoon, the farm was kinda picked out. Mommy and Auntie B were tenacious, though, and they managed to pick a basket each. They opted for smaller berries as they are sweeter. Who needs those giant berries unless you are gonna dip them in chocolate?

Aren't these lovely?

 We made one more stop in Aptos where Mommy and Auntie B got ice cream. Mommy gave me a small taste of her macapuno ice cream (baby coconut) which was heavenly. We walked for a while along the bluff above Sea Cliff Beach and then headed home.

Magically we hit very little traffic going home as well. I snoozed in the back seat of the car because all of that walking wore me out. It was a heavenly day, though, and I hope I can recreate it again soon.

And now for a little AFFIRMATION

The Strawberry Thief

Luscious Strawberry

My Auntie T is the family gardener. You can find her outside puttering around the yard every weekend when the weather is reasonable. That means MOST of the time you can find her in the backyard planting this, pulling that, changing something.

One of her pride and joys are her strawberry plants. They are pretty good producers and are planted in barrels - which keep them away from snails and other strawberry loving critters. Well, that is, away from MOST critters. You see, recently the strawberries have been disappearing. Not a lot at once. Just a couple here and there.

Looking a little skimpy FRUITwise

Auntie T set up perimeter security and until this weekend had no luck at all catching the perpetrator.So she added a camera closer to the action. . . one that was hidden IN the plant. She was sure she would catch the thief. . . AND SHE DID!

The Perp

I was jumping for joy at this news. I mean, I love our strawberries and I don't want anything to happen to them before they are ready to share. But I noticed that suddenly Auntie T was following me when I went outside to do my bidness. And at night no one turned on the light outside so I could find my way around. It was all very suspicious behavior and ALL TOWARD ME!

The accused

Pugsonally, I could not tell who or what the thief is based on THAT photo!