The dilemma of two balls, glass and mushrooms.

Just another beautiful day in Jillville.

Ha ha ha...not really...we have had LOTS of rain lately.  

Take note of this when looking at the lack of light in some of my photos.

If anyone out there is looking for a very sweet little kitty...Please let me know.

This little jewel was left behind by some "people" that rented a house and left in haste.

Not only did they skip out on their rent, but they left this little angel and another cat

behind to starve.  We befriended this little lady, but the other one disappeared before we could catch her.  I just don't understand some folks.  

We would keep her, but Zippy would not be happy about it and I could not put another animal in harms way...so if anyone is interested, please let me know.

Speaking of cats....these two are really getting along well....

Most of the time. 

Ha ha ha.

I finally got to dig my garlic.

I was so worried about it because of the rain.

Luckily it looked very good and now.....If I could only get it to dry out!

Even the spiders are drenched.

Sun please!

Still needs a home....

This little Garter Snake has been living in my gardens for a couple of years.

I know it is there and always look for it before weeding.

The other day, I forgot.

I was happily weeding away when I looked down and saw this curled up right next to my foot.

I screamed.

Then I screamed again for days after....even at pieces of mulch that looked suspicious. 

Finally a day with some sun...

Yay!!!

This little fellow is not bothered by the rain. 

He was having a party with a few friends.  

Hey...where did his friends go?

Probably down the hatch...

Ha ha ha.

A beautiful and bright daylily.  

My fountain with a humming bird fly by.

Smudge feeling quite patriotic.  

Bishop's Children Dahlia.

Zippy relaxing in the yard with HIS ball.

He better stay away from MY ball!!!

Grrrr....

I have banned him from ever playing with it again.

I will sit and guard it day and night.

I feel a bit sleepy...

Stay away, Zippy...

I will wait until the dark of night and then I will take that ball.

(Zippy's nose is dirty because he sneezed and banged his nose against a mud puddle)

Another beautiful Dahlia.

The front yard and garden on a rare day of sunshine.

Our very patient farrier, Charlie, came by the other day to trim the minis.

This is always an adventure.  

Ollie the mini mule is such a little wild man.

We have to be very careful around him so that no one gets hurt.

We were all (well, I was) so nervous about Ollie being bad that we let our 

guard down a bit when it came to Otis.   That was a mistake.

Otis was very very bad.  He kicked Charlie in the hand.

Out comes the scotch hobble....problem solved.   Feet trimmed.

May, of course, was a sweet little angel.  

Ollie was not easy to catch, but once caught...he settled down and was trimmed without incident.

Ollie running back out to his pasture.

He is such a beautiful little mule.

Here, you can see that Otis still is having a little problem with his attitude.

After letting Ollie loose, I realized that I had forgotten to trim his mane.

He has a bit of a punk rock look with a beard.

I don't think beards are popular with punk rockers...

but Ollie pulls it off.  

I am an angel!!

Ha ha ha...I don't believe it!!

The glass that you are about to see is made by my friend, Jak Brewer.

I hope that you enjoy looking at it. 

I can tell you that the glass is much more beautiful in person than what I can show

you through my camera.  He sells some of his pieces at the Twisted Laurel Gallery in Spruce Pine.

The pieces pictured are for sale and are from his private collection.

If anyone is interested in one of them, please send me a comment or email.  

You may also contact Twisted Laurel Gallery.

The two pieces above are from his Hobbit series.

I have recently gotten to know Jak and he is so full of wonderful information about glass and 

I really enjoy learning from his experiences .

Overall just a really nice person to know and full of stories about the history of 

the American studio glass movement.   

Not to mention the fact that his artwork is just incredible and I am totally 

drawn in by it.

I tend to like sparkly, colorful things.  Ha ha ha.

What girl doesn't?

This is a gorgeous piece!  

It has been sold.

Bright, sparkly....bright, sparkly...

The light and color are both incredible in these pieces.

I could stare at them for hours and see something different each time.

This one has a "flame" inside.

This is called "Dancer"

Very graceful.

This is the Hobbit vase from the top photo.

Jak used copper and silver to make the moon and mountains.

This one is so amazing in the light.

My photo does not do it justice.  

This was probably one of my favorites.

The colors and the reflections....

bright, and sparkly...

That is the art show of the month!  

I just love Jak's work and wanted to share. 

I hope that you have enjoyed seeing it.

One of my volunteer sunflowers.  

Eco and Oracle sharing a moment...

Didn't mean to interrupt...sorry.

Still guarding the ball...

I find this photo to show that....Even though your world or someone else's world may seem perfect and beautiful.....there is always some bug the next flower over chewing up your pedals.

I have really been fighting the Japanese beetles this year.  I do think that the skunks (thank you Pheramona) put a small dent in the beetle population, but there are still plenty of them around.  

Just look at that poor coneflower.  

Don't bother me.....I am just removing these lily pads from the pond....my pond. 

This is the flower of the Fava bean.

I am growing them for the first time. 

I don't have to guard the ball anymore...I fixed Zippy.

I gave him two balls to play with...

Bull Terriers just can't handle two balls.

This is a true fact.

Should I play with this one....

Or this one...

No.....

This one!

Oh no....which one????

which one???

What am I going to do???

Hmm...no

This one....

Darn that Smudge!

Dogs are really bad decision makers...

I also don't know why on earth they would even want to play with a ball..

Look, Scatter....

We just like to have fun.

We don't want to sit around and stare into space all day like cats do. 

We like going places and ....

so what if we (Bull Terriers)  like to roll the ball down the stairs all day..

At least we have fun doing it. 

Bishop's Children Dahlia.

Who's there?

What do you want?

Yeah....what do you want? 

Why are you horses still in the barn?

You should be out in the pasture.

Who me?

Yes you...Danza!

Come on Eco...we have to go!

But I don't want to go!

You boys better listen!

Ladies first!

One of the front gardens.

Another.

A fawn and mother. 

Bishop's Children Dahlia....again....

Smudge doing yoga.

I find it really relaxes me....

and makes me hungry.

I found this picture of Bumble on an old SD card.....I sure do miss that sweet girl.

A beautiful humming bird. 

My silly cousin.

For the folks that still dump trash in the beautiful mountain streams around here.

I hope that they are reading my blog.  Ha ha ha..

I found the sign interesting and I just can't believe how lazy someone is to dump trash on a country road.  

Sigh.....blue sky!!!

We have had some very strange mushrooms lately.

Smudge showing off the sunflowers.

Another front garden shot.

Loosestrife. 

Hello little bumble bee.....

Another hummingbird.

And another with bee...

Wishing everyone a most wonderful day!

I hope you enjoyed all 500 pictures.

Thus ends another installment of 

"Life in Jillville"

Have a great week.