Something's wrong with this concept

The concept of vacation, that is. The only time you really need a vacation is when your life is super-stressful and/or crazy-busy. But trying to squeeze in a vacation when your life is super-stressful and/or crazy-busy is Just.Plain.CRAZY! You heap tons more on your to-do list in preparation for going (and take some of it with you if you can't get it all done; ahem), then run yourself haggard playing catch-up when you return.  Let's hope our few days away is worth it!

Since I'll probably have a vast smörgåsbord of photos to share from our trip, I'll serve up the little buffet of photos I've collected this week to get them off the table. I hope you enjoy them.

The Energizer bunny of flowers and its newest spray

With cooler weather I've put up the hummer feeder again

If you click to biggify, you might spot a hot-air balloon!

Poison oak seen on a trail ride

A surprise flower showed up in the pasture!

Beauty berry by the house

Fall: truly the loveliest season

That's it for now from . . .

And then it was fall

"You don't say."

Sunset shot taken at home; the rest were out and about.

Ah, Fall: the pause that refreshes after summer, motivates before winter, and rivals spring for color. I think it also has the best daytime skies, sunrises and sunsets. Can you tell it's my favorite season?

As you can see, Bittersweet is sporting a fresh Rocky Sheep Suit, as his bum was sticking out of the other one. Coat changes always mean a fleece photo opp:

Anyway, now D'artagnon (Blake)

has just three musketeers: Bing, Benny,

and Bittersweet, who was being just plain sweet on photo day:

Rick did a necropsy on Browning. He died of asphyxiation; his trachea and lungs were full of hay. What a horrible way to go. Why that happened is the mystery to which we have no clues. Rick is still convinced that Browning was ailing due to parasites; he could find no other abnormalities or pathologies. It wasn't a good week, for that and other reasons. Thankfully, one of the downers is resolving.

Dozer was randomly yelping in pain, and we were having trouble figuring out where the problem was. I guessed neck, and Rick finally x-rayed him to find the problem. He has a broken and displaced stylohyoid bone (between the base of the ear and the base of the tongue)! We're keeping on aspirin, and he's doing much better now.

Friday when I picked up Brian from school, he had this bounty (and more; I gave his violin teacher a butternut and a zucchini before take a photo) loaded in a big box for me. Now that's Fresh on Friday! Part of his school's garden is being turned into a parking lot, and all this produce was going to go to waste. He knew I'd put it to use. ;-)

That's it for now from . . .

Gut-punched

This morning I took photos of color.

This evening I took photos of color.

And then I went down to do evening chores . . . and found Browning dead.
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We're in shock. Browning was still under the weather but not worse; we had wormed him after everything pointed to parasites, and Rick said it would take awhile for him to bounce back. Maybe we'll learn more tomorrow after a necropsy.

Browning was the lamb that Brian begged to keep as his sheep eight years ago. He has always been an outstanding Shetland ambassador, a calm and friendly fellow who would let anyone pet him. One magical day years ago, he and Jackson romped as friends, a joyous glimpse of when the lion and the lamb will lay down together in peace, in a place where death will be no more.

Vexation, verses and views

The weekend's rain and this morning's sunrise brought to mind Isaiah 55:12 (NKJV) –
          “For you shall go out with joy,
         And be led out with peace;
         The mountains and the hills
         Shall break forth into singing before you,
         And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

Yep, that sunrise made me break out in song, and brought joy to my heart. God knew I needed that; last night I went to bed with a headache so bad it was making me nauseous, brought on by dealing with the testy, testing teenager. This morning Brian woke us up by walking into our dark bedroom and flipping on the overhead light; thankfully, my headache was gone . . . and before too terribly long, Brian was, too. He's got a soccer game in Roseburg this afternoon; I decided I'm not driving six hours round trip to watch him play. Call me a bad mom if you want; I'm going to the game in Beaverton Wednesday afternoon. Pffft.

Back to the lovely morning.

Everything is fresher after rain; colors are brighter, and you can almost hear the plants sigh with relief. The grass will green up almost overnight. The weeds will respond equally fast. They are already sprouting a bumper crop where I've been watering the three rows of beets I recently planted:

Some of those seedlings ARE beets. ;-) I noticed a few bush beans that need to be picked when I went out Friday to get tomatoes and parsley for tabbouli; I'll pick the beans and one of those Japanese eggplants, check the zucchini plants, and weed some this afternoon. Then I'll fix supper for Rick and myself. Maybe, while we make the final arrangements for our trip to British Columbia, I'll knit some more on this.

One last little respite before four solid days of crazy. ;-)

That's it for a relatively quiet Monday at . . .