Don and I have this lovely large backyard (lovely, in terms of size, I mean) but no time to do what we want with it.  We've had a couple of false starts with some nice plants, but watering regularly isn't something either of us has time for.  We only sporadically keep up with the front yard.  What Don dreams of for back there is creating raised beds for herbs and veggies, with maybe some space still left over for an English garden.  Let's just say we are currently reserving it for that.  And in the meantime we treasure it as a blank slate-- a birdland, punctuated by gophers holes.....oh yeah, and most recently, it seems to have produced a couple of bicolored (cap & mantle) Fairy cats; Tinkerbell, and her kitten, Pixy.

Don and I went to Lakeside to visit my Dad, Stewart, and Step Mom, Julie (and her Dad, Tom) this weekend.  Dad's birthday is Monday, so we wanted to celebrate.  We landed at their doorstep at 7:30 a.m. and all headed to Perry's for breakfast.  We then went back to their house where we sat on the front porch to chat and watch their new puppies play.  These are red Poodles.  The larger one with the trimmed facial fur is a girl who goes by the name of Sparkle--although I believe her real name is Sparkler. The smaller bundle of fur is "Dazzler", but he prefers, "Dazzle".