Weeds, Groundhogs, and Modeling Contracts.

A cheery cherry.

Skyler, the wonder dog.

Smudge loves Skyler. 

A gorgeous poppy in Skyler's yard.

Mr. Zippy...practicing for pumpkin modeling.

He has decided to up his demands for biscuits, cool shades and relaxing days off in his new modeling contract.  

We are still negotiating.  

A wonderful milkweed.

Love the scent of these.  

It looks like someone is not happy with his contract negotiations....Apparently he does not take bribes.

Back to the drawing board.  

Harvested the garlic the other day...It is so beautiful!!

Thanks to Gary Skoog and Lori for the gorgeous seed garlic.

A turkey mother and her babies. 

I made these wonderful strawberries for a neighborhood party...

I ate a couple of the strawberries before I stuffed them with the cream cheese mixture..and

they did not agree with my stomach...I had to stay home, but he berries made it to the party. 

Blueberries from the garden topping them off.  They were a big hit.  

The filling is cream cheese, honey, and vanilla.  

Wild Ollie.

Hollyhock.

My garden has been very pretty this year...I have been battling Japanese beetles and flea beetles all summer.  I was glad to see the spider eating a flea beetle.  

A beautiful snap dragon.  

The giant wild lettuce that started growing in the garden.  

It is really tall.

Red Orach and potatoes in the vegetable garden.

The sunflowers were really looking good this year...

Until...

The wind started blowing...

40mph wind and sunflowers do not mix well....

I lost about half of them....at least half of the ones that May didn't eat when she got out...

The super moon.  

One of my FB friends in Australia made a collage out of super moon shots that people from around the globe sent her.  It was really an interesting compilation. 

We all took our shot at 9:30 p.m.  

This was taken a bit later. 

A very colorful beetle in the pumpkin patch...you can see where it chewed up the leaf.

The giant wild lettuce....the leaves are huge.

Zippy reluctantly modeling next to the wild lettuce.  

I guess that we are finally reaching an agreement....

Another psychedelic beetle.

A beautiful Luna Moth.  

This sunflower is called Lemon Queen and is my absolute favorite.

It has multiple blooms and lasts a really long time...Unless your donkey eats it. 

Smudge is feeling so much better and it has taken her a while to get back on track.

She is off of her Potassium Bromide and now on a new drug (that we had been using, but on a pulse basis) called Keppra.  We also changed her diet to help with digestion issues.  

She is really feeling pretty good now and we hope that it continues.  She sure is a trooper. 

Always looking for fun and adventure.  

I am a huge lover of animals in all shapes and sizes...but when one of these gets into your vegetable garden...it is NOT pretty.  This little fellow had to be relocated.  It was my food or him..and we actually lost both.  

This used to be a sweet potato patch...you can also see where he ate the beets, spinach, celery, squash, and chewed the tops off of the carrots, radishes, and turnips...and cabbage....and...

This pretty much happened in one week.  Really only three days.

We tried castor oil, eucalyptus soap, blood meal, and every other deterrent known to man.

Nothing worked, so he had to go live somewhere else. 

I feel very bad about it...

The only thing that he didn't eat were the onions and the garlic.  

Eco in his stall looking out.

We have had a very rainy month.

Fog in the garden..

Still growing.....

Still foggy. 

Still raining.

Oracle.

Danza.

Eco.

Love the color of this snapdragon. 

Smudge hanging out in the fog.  

Just waiting for a sunbeam.

Another gorgeous hollyhock.

Growing, growing, growing...

Smudge modeling...

Fire Zippy!  I will work for free.

Hmmm.....maybe we will have to rethink this contract thing.

So...if the groundhog attack was not enough...we had a baby deer stuck in the yard.

The garden is at Jak's house.  

It is like a wildlife preserve over there.

This baby deer was stuck in the yard and could not get out.  The mother would jump in and out of the fenced yard to feed the baby.  It was in there for about a week or so and then one day, I noticed that there were two babies.  They saw me and ran into the brush and then both jumped over the fence to freedom.  If you can see it,  one of the babies is much larger than the other..I think that the bigger one showed the smaller one how to finally get out.  

Finally some sun!!!  

Yay!!!

A little male hummingbird.

A female.

She is telling me to fill the feeder....NOW.

Ollie.

May.

Another pretty gladiola. 

Zippy searching for a place to hide his bone.  

We had a beautiful sunset the other day. 

Star gazer lily.

Now this is the kind of weather I love.  

WAIT!!!  What is this????

Zippy has decided to model for cookies.  

I guess that Smudge convinced him to not be so picky. 

I am so happy.

My neighbor gave me some beautiful lilies this summer. 

They are just starting to open.  

Another Lemon Queen.

My gardens are just coming into full bloom and looking pretty good despite the 

Beetles and slugs. 

Oh.....and the donkey.  

Well...this concludes the latest installment of Jill's Life.

I hope to have some artwork to share soon.  

So...stay tuned. 

This was taken yesterday and I am getting ready to measure it and then chop it down...I don't want the seeds to go into the flower beds..The little black dots flying around on the right are hummingbirds.