Hanging out in Durham

This past weekend, Mat and I went down to Durham, NC to go visit J-P. It is so nice that J-P decided to go to a MBA program that is conveniently based out of Duke University. We enjoyed catching up with J-P and investigating the campus. It was beautiful. I found it to feel very medieval with all the towers and turrets on the buildings! We went into this cathedral, even though there were signs up saying not to go in and then we were promptly kicked out. So we didn't get any really good photos of the beautiful stain glass windows.

We also walked around and checked out the Duke Gardens. It was a beautiful day to be outside.

They had designed a beautiful pond with lily pads.

It was great to see J-P and explore a little bit of one of the cities in our state that we hadn't ever really spent any time in!

exciting times at Laurel Creek

Yesterday we rode our bikes along the Laurel Creek to the French Broad river near Hot Springs, NC. It was a beautiful day. The trail is in the shade, so it is a nice place to be on a hot summer day AND there are loads of swimming holes. This is the second time this summer we've gone there. Biking down the trail made it to be a very quick trip! We checked out the remains of an old town, Runion, and then on our way back we stopped at a couple spots to take a swim. At our last spot we swam in, we jumped in and played around and noticed that some people were looking at something on the opposite side of the river.

One family, mentioned as they were walking by, that there was a big copperhead snake over there. They just wanted to let us know so that Maddy wouldn't go mess with it. So, of course, we had to check out this snake. We swam across the river and looked at it sleeping down below the trail. It was pretty big. Then we decided to head on our way. So we went to gather our stuff to leave - and as I picked up my baseball hat I saw another copperhead just curled up about 2-4 inches from where my hat had been. My heart was racing and I backed up and said to Mat "umm, come check this out."

Maddy's new friend?

While out in the garden Friday morning, I noticed that Maddy was spending a lot of time underneath the power line looking up to it at a mockingbird and barking. And the mockingbird would be talking back looking down at Maddy. She'd fly to the tree, then back up to the power line, then down to the ground and the whole time making noises at Maddy. I thought how weird, are they trying to play with each other?

Saturday morning, Mat was looking out the door from the back porch and asked me to come check something out. By the time I got there, nothing was going on the bird was up on the power line and Maddy was below. Mat said the mockingbird dive bombed Maddy and pecked at her butt! I didn't believe Mat because why would a bird do that? Don't they know that Maddy is part labrador retriever...the retriever part meaning they were bred to retrieve birds?

This morning, Maddy and I are walking back to the garden to water it and out of nowhere the bird came down and pecked Maddy! And the mockingbird did it again about a half hour later! I guess this bird feels really comfortable with all of us and doesn't feel threatened. We looked up mockingbirds in The Sibley Guide to Birds and it says they are "conspicuous and aggressive." We'd have to agree on that one!

Madera

I love our dog. She's amazing, beautiful, has tons of energy and is ready to go on an adventure in a moment's notice. She enjoys hanging out in our yard and watching the world go by.

But, there is something that we haven't been able to get her to stop doing...barking. She loves to respond back to other dogs in the neighborhood when they are barking. She likes to bark at the cows across the field, especially the small ones that look like her. She lets us know when someone is walking, biking, or running by. But she just stares at the garbage truck and doesn't make a sound. We have a neighbor who goes on walks multiple times a day. If Maddy is out there she will bark at her every time. Our neighbor is really nice and talks to Maddy the whole time she is walking by, saying how sweet Maddy is and how beautiful. Cyclists going by either ignore her or when they realize that she's not going after them, they comment on how cute she is. The mailman loves her and leaves bones in the mailbox for her and always calls her "sweetheart".

Yesterday, the man running by didn't feel that same feeling for Maddy. It must have been his first time running by our house. He came running up on the road close to our house and Maddy sounded the alarm. She'd been resting on the porch behind the rocking chairs, but as soon as she saw him, she scrambled up to be at attention at the edge of her fence. All the while barking. I had come to the front door to see what she was barking at again. The guy ran as fast as he could to the other side of the road and picked up the pace to get beyond our house. I felt terrible. So much so, that I yelled after him, "it's okay, she's in an electric fence." I don't think he cared, he was still working off the adrenaline from having a dog start barking at him out of the blue.

Times like that, I seriously consider getting one of those collars that when your dog misbehaves, you press a button on your handheld device it lets out a beep and if it still isn't paying attention you can shock the dog. It's along the same lines as the electric fence, but you actually cause it to happen to your dog when they misbehave. It seems so cruel...and I don't know if I could do that to Maddy. We've tried telling her "Quiet" and spraying her w/ a water bottle, making her come inside, trying to distract her...but once she's focused on something she doesn't pay any attention to us. If she keeps scaring random people like the runner, we might have to do it though, because yesterday I felt like Maddy was incredibly unfeeling towards the runner. He looked so terrified! And I felt like I was being party to cruelty of a stranger.

Happiness...

Our garden is happy again...it's rained the past three days. Yay! It surely enjoys getting a couple hour rainfall every afternoon much more than us having to go out and water it w/ our watering pail!

A couple of bell peppers...next year I think I will plant where they get a little more sun.

I can't wait for the tomatoes to be ripe!

It's still a little while until the basil is going to provide us with herbs!

Our eggplant is battling the flea beetle much better than last year. This plant is huge for this time of the year. Last year, we thought they had died, but didn't pull them out and they came back in late August.

Our garden is full of rocks, as you can tell from this picture and other pictures I've posted. But it also has an amazing amount of pottery shards and glass. I sometimes wonder if our garden is what once was the previous owners' landfill.

We are slowly turning the front area into a native flower garden. I LOVE the echinacea and black-eyed susans. They seem so perky and happy!

Happy 4th of July weekend...

Early on in the week I was trying to figure out what people were doing for the 4th. Not much. As far as I could find out there wasn't a parade just fireworks later on in the night after the A'ville Tourists baseball game. So I decided we should barbecue, so we had Mat's parents, Ron and Naomi and Sara and Mark and some friends over. We played some croquet and ate lots of good food. Maddy loved all the new people she got to meet and say hello to. By saying hello, I mean, overwhelming them with her eagerness to lick their face.

We played frisbee with Maddy before everyone showed up thinking it might wear her out a bit. I don't really think it did. She did get worn out playing w/ the dogs who came over though. We were able to see some fireworks from our front yard and then we went downtown and saw the Asheville fireworks. It was a nice evening.

On Saturday night, we went to Shindig on the Green. We LOVE going there. This time we didn't get rained on!

We enjoyed listening to great people play...

and people coming up to pet Maddy! Maddy was very well behaved. We find it is good practice for us and her to meet strangers and small kids to pet her.

We also enjoyed the end of the evening, when Bill asked if he could race the cop on the segway. Almost like COPS, the tv show, except for the fact the two had huge smiles on their faces!

Fore more pics of the evening, check out flickr.