Skirmish on the Porch

Well, I was a bit of a zombie yesterday, but I managed to keep myself moving and to stay awake. Dave did a pretty good job keeping up with things while I was gone, watering the plants and doing the laundry, but I still found plenty of jobs to tackle on my own.

I vacuumed and took care of some fading plants in the garden. I cut down the cosmos (almost dead) and some of the dahlias, which are yellowing and covered with powdery mildew. Soon they'll all go back in the shed for another winter. (That's assuming they'll fit -- I divided several of them when I repotted them in the spring, so we have even more now!)

One plant that isn't fading -- at least, not yet -- is the Brugmansia, which has exploded in another flush of flowers. These look a little paler, perhaps because the plant is getting less sun. But they're still impressive.

In the afternoon I walked the dog on Sumatra Road, and found that a new building has gone up in the gap where an old house collapsed several years ago. The site has been shrouded in scaffolding and tarps for a long time, so this is the first I've seen of the replacement. It seems to fit in well architecturally, but you can tell it's new.

We had some unfortunate excitement last night when I was talking to our upstairs neighbor on the front porch as she was preparing to take her dog, Wally, for a walk. Our door was open, and Bailey shot out of the house and jumped on Wally. There was a skirmish, with growling and yelping, and while no dogs were hurt, I was horribly embarrassed. I know better than to leave the door open and I know how Bailey reacts to other canines, so it was my fault. We really do need to get her some behavioral help. As Dave said, "She's damaged!" I think she believed Wally was on her territory and didn't like it.

The neighbor took Wally to the vet to make sure he was OK, and he is, thank goodness. They've been great about it. We offered to pay the vet bill but they said it was a small amount -- they even came down to say hello to Bailey afterwards, to make sure she and I were OK. Ironically I was the only injury -- my right hand got hurt as I separated the dogs, and this morning it's quite sore.

Bailey is going to be even more damaged after today, when I take her to be spayed. For the next ten days or so we'll be treating her with kid gloves.