Sunny Saturday

Finally, winter is gone. We usually have a Nor'Easter or killing frost at least once every spring, but for the most part we are in shorts and t-shirts now for the next six months.

This past Saturday we decided to take Cosmo the new puppy for some socializing at the dog park next to the marina in our town. He has graduated to being loose in the invisible fence in our yard and has acclimated remarkably fast. He is out hunting small animals and romping for hours with the other dogs; his spirits are so good and he continues to be a super dog. Not having to walk him on a leash outside anymore? Priceless.

Homestead Mama takes him into the fenced-in dog park to play while I walk around the perimeter with the babies in the stroller. They like to watch Cosmo and H-Mama from afar, and pass him cookies through the fence when he comes close enough. Afterwards, we took him along the lake and let him have his first - possibly ever - swim in a lake. All his breeding descends from water dogs, and he was clearly excited to be splashing around. He'll have to have another dog show him the ropes with swimming - he didn't even attempt it.

Pequita really likes to throw stones in the water - they only go about six inches from her body, but she like the ripples nonetheless. Monito is still happy in the stroller watching a lot of the time, and it is easier to keep him out of the sun that way. We took him out for a walk as we headed back to the car. Pequita wanted to hold his hand and help him like Mommy does, but tends to run these days instead of walking and kept pulling him over. He loved it, and was cracking up as he picked himself up over and over. Watching them crack each other up is really funny and heartwarming.

We got popsicles on the way home to cool off, and the kids are really getting the hang of eating them. The all-fruit mango and melon are their clear favorites. We had a lovely day. Sunday we spent wandering around the local plant nursery picking out the pine trees we plan to buy to buy ourselves some privacy from the road at the corner we live on. We will buy three nice thick wide ones and plant them a little too close to each other so their branches will block the view of the road. We'll also buy another five or six holly bushes to keep working on our hedge. I am expecting the gorgeous open fields we are surrounded by to be fully developed within the next fifteen years or so, and want our yard to have lots of privacy when that happens. Planting now gives us time to get things nice and large and full by then. When we lived in Switzerland when I was kid, all the houses had 6' tall or bigger hedges all around the yard. They were a beautiful way to keep kids safe and in the yard and traffic noise out, and also helped neighbors enjoy each other a bit more. I have always wanted that again - it seems such a civilized way to live. Homestead Mama likes the idea, and so we plant a few more things each year. I'll get before and after pics of that up as well soon.