Preparing for the new heatwave

For the past few week we have been really busy, Mags spoiled us with some really amazing plants and we were kept busy trying to get those sorted the proper way. There is no way we would just plant them, ofcourse we had to prepare the garden beds for two of them and then properly mulch and fertilize. I helped with mulching, I love to play with it hihi. There is no plant with 100% mulching anymore since I pick out the biggest sticks haha.

Red Luna hibicus Mags spoiled us with

Pink Luna hibiscus, huge flowers over 25cm!!! Pretty!

Truly majestic plant

They are called swamp hibiscuses since they love water, but their blossoms are truly bigger then my head haha. They are already going crazy with blooms, we cannot wait when they are grown and properly situated into our soil. And the cute little honey melons behind the pink one on the second picture are starting to become bigger and cuter too. But as you can see, the ground is dry as if its made of dust. The heat has become extreme again and the new wave which was announced should be 35 degrees celsium and more. So...to save our cute little garden we decided to do something extreme, we covered all the plants which are sensitive to scorch with gardening sheets. We made a tent haha. I love walking under it, it's so entertaining and fun and most of all the sun doesn't shine directly thru it so it's cooler and shady.

Exploring

Being in the way of watering hehe, proof: my sprinkled face

Pretty gladiolus next to the middle covered terrase

Walking under, where the blueberries grow

Overview from the path up

We figured, what's the worst that can happen, if it doesn't work, we remove it. If it does and it saves our plants from being burnt then amazing! There should be no rain for the next two weeks and only extreme temperatures around 37 even, so we got nothing to lose by experimenting.We also made another one to hide the bottom hill which is fully planted with Azaleas and Rhododendors, since two azaleas were killed by the scorching sun already, we are not risking it. It's sad to have to leave so many annoying acacias growing to provide shade for them, since acacia is a really intrusive annoying pest tree. But whatever gets them thru this horrible temperatures.

Haha we will see how it goes. These tents do look kinda funny from the road, but the well being of our pretty plants is more important then cosmetics at the moment. The sun is quite cruel to tiny plants, we can't even cut grass so it wouldn't fry the smaller more sensitive flowers and our ornamental plants. So the place is an overgrown jungle haha.

And we finally found out the color of the rose, which the adorable deer pruned. He often comes up to check on us before he goes to meet his family. He isn't scared of me at all, but then again why would he be, I never even barked at the dude hehe. But back to the rose, it was supposed to be lavander color, but most, well all the roses are diffirent color then they were supposed to be haha. Got to love Lidl, but no complaints since they were really cheap price, atleast the arey all growing and blooming unlike Maja's moms, most of her new roses died, all but one yellow climber and the one Maja gave her, which is weird since they bought them together. We got really lucky.

The rose is a very beautiful color, one could say one of the prettiest colors we have. It is a bit purple pink, so not too far from lavander haha, well...quite, but really beautiful anyways. Looks like icecream due to white lines melted in the petals. Really majestic, doesn't taste good tho, I tried it hehe. Don't see what's the appeal for deer, but hey, to each their own, I eat corn peels...so I cannot judge haha.

The mystery rose shows its color

On top of the preparations we have also dug out a huge chunk at the second - lower part of our project. Not as much as we'd like to, but the soil is like cement, it hasn't seen proper rain in a long time. But that didn't stop us, I was really helpful. We are throwing the soil down onto the next terrase we are making, so we can eventually create a few leveled areas instead of a steep downhill. We also plan to build a bridge over the brook, which is now all covered with soil and growth. But that won't be for a while now, since there is so much soil we could level a football field down there haha.

What I am best at is digging, but unfortunatelly Maja has a strict rule of me being close to the work area when she is using tools. Mostly since I manage to throw shovels onto myself just by running next to them, let alone being where the tools are being slammed. Not allowed, so I learnt a new command. "Shade". That command is given to me when the sun is too strong at the area we are working, so I have to move my tiny playful butt into the shade and wait there untill allowed to come and dig hehe. The nearest shaded area is a cute silly umbrella Maja sets up for me, so that I am close by where the action is haha, it's our working station where water is cold and the soil is cooler. I am very good at the new command, it's a little bit borring not being able to dig but the sun is so crazy lately that it's not healthy for me to be in it. But when Maja takes pauses she plays with me untill she continues to work. I am completely blonde, even the vets noticed that I am lighter then most cockers due to the sun haha.

What can I say, this city dog is a gardening dog!

I prefer the cool shade of a tree more then trying to find a cool spot in the house, which is in our cemented city virtually impossible. So I have a few highlights hehe. A few pictures of the work at lower project. And a cute video of me removing the soil from the deposit area, since it got so high up, it was reaching the upper level where we were throwing it off. So I dug out half of it. Try to imagine the amount in wheelbarrels, I removed 20 wheelbarrels of soil from there haha. Told you, I am truly an asset to the gardeners hehe. So much more work needs to be done on this terrase but we are taking a little break due to heat.We are a great team, I help out so much, only one missing is Mags.

End of "shade" command, yuuuppiii I get to explore

On this video I have already managed to remove half the soil from that hill which reached all the way up to where Maja is filming, so I was a bit tired but motivated!

But as much as the sun can be harmful to some, other plants are just thriving. The sunflowers are completely out of control, they are feeding the entire area of insects and birds. The tomatos and paprikas couldn't be happier either. So we need to remove the ripe sunflowers, to store the seeds for winter, this way fluffy little birds won't be hungry. We also took corn which we grew and stored it. I helped with peeling it!

Pascal the corn peeler!

But eventually I got too excited I just wanted to eat the peels too haha.

Crazy growth of Maja's mom's tobacco plants and our cute "little" sunflower roads on the lower part of the project, can't wait for a little bad weather so we can cut the grass again and the area will be pretty.

But for the end, two more videos of what do I do when I have to be in the shade: I chew on the roots I dug out haha, not the best idea and they taste awful, but one has to keep busy while humans work.

And what I do when I want to play with the apples from the orchard on the walk up.I make adorable begging sounds and sometimes, most of the time, they work hihi.

(And yes, this is how clean I am when we are done working, everyday. So imagine the fun after a long working day once we get home. Poor owners hahaha. But we have fun. I have a slight suspicion I am getting a haircut soon hehe.) Hot days ahead, hopefully more fun things will happen. It's horrible this heat, so we are trying to get thru the days as soon as possible with as much fun as we can have. My ears seem to be a lot better, I no longer shake my head and I am not in pain, which is great. Vet visit doesn't come for a week or so, so that makes me even happier hehe. We miss Magnus, but he is being a good boy and it's not long before he is home playing with me. Cannot wait. Maja get's sad when she notices me pulling towards someone who looks like him and then realising he is not Mags, since he just walks past me, ignoring me. I get this sad look in my eyes and walk slower looking at her, wondering. But she tends to keep me busy and I get to sleep on his pillow hihih, so I will survive hehe. But man oh man will I get whiney when I see him again, I will let him know how terrible missing him was, and then I am going to kiss him hihi. Lat time when he came home and I saw him for the first time I took more then half an hour or barking, kissing, whining at him before I calmed down. I just adore him and cannot wait to bring him sticks.

Ooooh I forgot to mention! The other day, Maja and I went to see a friend who brought us the gardening sheets from the store, since he drove by there. And on the parking lot of his house a car was passing us by. They stopped and a really nicely dressed woman came out, all crazy about how pretty I am, how I am the most beautiful cocker she ever saw. She let me kiss her and almost get her pretty dress dirty haha. She was completely in love with me. I was nicely combed and all shiney, true beauty hehe. She was just so excited to meet me and cuddle me, and then she sat back into her fancy car and drove away smiling with her husband. One could see that she was a lady, and well..the lady has taste hihih. I am beautiful, no debate hehe.
But yeah, that was yesterday. Haha I am so confident. Today, same happened with some older man when we walked out, he couldn't stop commenting how pretty my fur is, little does he know I got so many knots on my belly that I don't allow to be cut out since it's so hot haha. How shiney my coat is and how majestic I look, that was when the tips of my ears were dry and I haven't met water and mudd yet haha. But I was nicely combed and all sparkly from being groomed a bit. We really have to start showing more pictures of before we arrive at the garden, rare are the moments of me dry and clean haha. But my owners wouldn't change a thing about me. Not even with me being the dirtiest dog they ever met. They said they consider themselfs lucky. But then again, I am more.

Plums, Timi junior and other bugs around us

First things first, there is a new addition to the street where we walk almost everyday. The old Timi died due to liver and kidney failure, he was old and weak for a few years, but it's always sad when one of us has to go. However due to our selfish reasons (he is adorable as a button!!!), we are very happy his owners decided to get a new dog, one just must have a fluffy creature next to them. This boy is about 2 and a half months old, he is childish, ful of energy and cute! We kiss, then we bark, then we growl, then we kiss again and repeat the entire thing over and over, haha. He wants to play but he needs to stop being afraid first, he is scared of everything poor tiny thing, however when he needs to chew or destroy something, fear does not exsist. Here is a picture we took of him destroying the driveways grass haha.

Supercute!

Second thing is, all three of us dogs have a bad case of indigestion, reason being - fruit! We play with apples and other fruits that fall on the floor and then ofcourse being dogs we chew them up. So our butts are a little bit explosive haha, Tara has it worst, she really over did it, hehe. But owners are giving us rice and preventing us from chewing fruit which isn't ripe yet, and that should solve the problem. But me...oh I am so obsessed with plums! I love them, I could eat all the plums in the world and not care about my tummy! Maja got mad at me, since she is scared I might have problems if I swallow plum seeds, so I bring them to her and she opens the sugary ones and feeds them to me. I love plums! The old wild plum tree we have at our garden project is now releasing all the ripe ones, they are tiny so humans dont really like them, but..More for me hihihi. I don't often let go of sticks I carry around, but for these yummy things I do it gladly. Just can't over do them - apperently haha.

If it's on the ground, it's fair game! Yummy!!!

Maja has been doing a lot of research lately about insects which are endangered due to spraying fields and vineyards, which really need help and which are amazing for our gardens. She is completely in love with bumble bees, those hairy little hard workers, who are the only creatures that are able to polinate our blueberries and other fruit trees with long narrow flowers, due to their long tongues. Cute little bumble butts hihi. We found two today, on two diffirent flowers, and ofcourse we got really happy about it, we really want to provide a beautiful feeding ground for all our little helpers in nature.

Adorable bumble bee boy gathering so much he was yellow

He is feeding on the big red sunflower.

As much as some may get sad due to deer "pruning" their roses, which they do, they ate all our darker colored rose buds before they opened, they actually did us a huge favour, now the rose bushes are growing like crazy and forming so many new buds. We would never have the heart to cut of flower buds to promote growth of the plants, they are just too pretty. Cannot wait to finally find out which color these bushes are hehe, but since they were eaten, they are most likely pink, red or something among those lines haha. For some reasons, our deer don't like light colored roses haha. Picky!

Majestic recovery after their feeding, thank you deer hihi

Summer is amazing, everything is growing insanely fast, we can't even keep up most of the time. I was also learning how to help out by carrying the buckets filled with produce, but I got scared of it since it makes a loud sound if I smack it on the ground haha.

Owners little helper

I help with being pretty, humans do the heavy work hehe

There are so many things we are working on at the moment, keeping busy and filling our days so we don't miss Magnus as much as we would if we were at home being bored and sad. So instead we take care of his vegetables and keep the area pretty hihi. We built a stone wall around the apple tree and planted new hortensias, unsure if the stone glue will hold, so far so good haha. We had help from Maja's sisters step son, who plastered a lot of it on one side, might not be so pretty but it sure works! That side is solid haha. I wasn't allowed to help with the glue, apperently my ears are too long for work like that, especially when I put them into glue cups haha.

Hope it holds, so we can complete it

Mags' veggies are starting to grow and gain color, more and more each day. His tomato plants are something out of this world, we built a huge wall for them to have support, but the damn plants are overgrowing that one also, haha.

Our popcorn, yum yum!

Our only flat peach! Proud! Hehe

Mags' honeymelons and tomatos, hope the wires hold haha

Honey melons - Not allowed to play with, owner says, boo

We started continuing on the second part of the project, building some stairs and leveling out the soil, so it is actually walkable towards the brook, quite a mess down there at the moment, but the pretty begonias make the path lively with color, if only the weeds didn't grow 20 cm per week haha. Time to cut grass again soon.

Second part of the garden, work in progress

Everything has pretty much recovered from the heat wave, slowely starting to bloom and be colorful again. We water both parts everytime we go up, so the pretty plants have time to recover from the sun. 

Dahlias finally started blooming again

Our only white rose so far, pretty and happy

Daisies gone wild, so have the weeds boo

New grass slowely growing, can't wait to play on it

My ears are getting better and we have a check up on tuesday, hopefully all is well. Or getting to that. It is annoying to get medication twice per day, plus cleaning, plus adding drops to enchance the medication, but...if it will make the pain and discomfort go away, I don't mind. I have been really good with it lately. I have noone to hide behind since Mags left hehe. 

But before I forget, Maja got me a tiny coconut from the store, she thought it would be fun for me, since I love toys and it's hairy and heavy, so I play with it and smack it around, and can't destroy it haha. Fun toy! Smells good too hihi.

Haha, so what if I look silly, it's so much fun!

And I often want to steal some produce from places, but I have never ever destroyed anyones garden, or walked over plants in Maja's moms vegetable garden. I was thought to walk the paths or around, and I fully respect that even now. However I do wanna taste things they sort pretty in baskets and such hehe.

I didn't like the green beans at all!

 That is a small picture update of what I am up to lately, I am pretty sure I forgot a lot of things, but it is so late and I am so tired. Tomorrow we have a slack day and I get my bath, which I am not looking forward to. Now it's just medication and of we go to sleep.

Almost a month...

Tomorrow a month has past since Mags travelled away to Norway, we miss him indescribably. 

But we have been keeping busy and doing what we love the most, spending time in nature and trying to focus on the good things, like cuddling and playing hihi. Monday we have the vets office, which I am not looking forward too, but we have been good with ear cleaning so Maja expects nice results. We do hope the eardrums are intact and we can slow down with the steroid drops. 

The garden is recovering from the heatwave, some flowers still havent gathered the strenght to bloom again, but we take care of them with plenty of water and food in forms of fertilizer. They seem happy, apart from Begonias, which are completely crazy in full bloom, and for some reason those tender little plants are becoming immune to my tail slaps haha. 

I have had the best fun yesterday, Maja and I had to dig Mags' potatos out before they get pests or start overgrowing, and I got to dig...Oh how much fun that was, I was so happy, I even ran and gathered all the rotten ones which she threw away hehe. I don't think that in all the digging work I have ever done I ever had this much fun. I barked and jumped and just wanted to search for more. If I wasn't such a clutz, my owners would let me be a rescue dog. That would be fun! 

Our first ever homegrown potatos, awesome digging fun!

Berry bushes are abundant in fruit and in full ripe soon, also the blueberries, which we built "fort knox" around haha, there is no way that we would let the birds eat all the berries this year, last year we didn't even get to taste them! They are starting to gain on the blue color, making them fat, blue and yummy. So soon! Yay!

The net fort we built to keep the birds from stealing

Yummy blueberries

The tayberry was a shocker tho, it has produced so many yummy fruits this year, that everyone is pleasantly surprised. People keep stealing them for pies and icecream before we arrive up, hehe, but we can't really be angry since we are aware they are yummy and with this plant there is plenty more the next day. The tayberry is a hybrid between a raspberry and a blackberry, but so much better then both. Emma keeps laying under the climbing bush in the shade, and since the fruits sometimes fall on the floor, she has this pretty dark pink polkadots on her fur after haha.

Third half bucket we picked so far this year

Crazy plant, so many thorns, but yummy

Not to even mention Mags' paprikas, which are just adorable, those are not immune to my tailslap as we discovered haha, but I only managed to knock one off the plant, not more. Hehe.

Mavras F1, cool colored paprika, I want to play with it hihi

The bottom part of the project is doing great also, the tobacco plants look so pretty one would grow them as decorative plants, but the sunflowers next to them are also starting to open up their yellowness making the area very adorable. 

We have so much work left on this side, but it is too hot at the moment to even attempt it. But we will soon get to it, which is exciting to think of since there will be so many roots I get to help with again hihi.
For some reason when we fed the birds during winter this year, they managed to plant so many sunflowers all over the vineyards, making it fun and less monotone with the green. We like sunflowers, me especially, I eat everything I can if I am next to it, studies show some animals eat them to reduce the insects close to them, but I think I just find it fun haha. Good thing we planted over 50, and some extra are from the birds hehe.

Most important thing down at the project is the life around us, we meet so many animals, who don't really care if we are there or not. Poor Tara has a real problem with squirrels, they provoke her so bad, poor girl can stare at one tree for hours without realising she will never ever, ever, ever, be able to catch them haha.

Patience is a virtue...in some cases haha

We also built a little working station next to the newly painted birdhouse, we used an old oak barrel front for the table, using the pipe hole as a hanging opening for tools hihi. I was so tired by the end, just by trying to bring all the sticks I could find around, that I nearly fell asleep while posing for the picture haha.

Cold shade feels nice after hard work hihi

But the thing that stayed most in my memory from this week is...I finally met him! Yes him, the thing which makes loud sounds and eats our roses. Well he ate the kiwi leaves also, and some other stuff, but as much as we should be annoyed with him eating all the rose buds, without us knowing which colors they are when they bloom, he is truly majestic. No fear at all, he walked down to us and then realised there were three dogs and humans at our spot. So he casually turned and walked the other way to get to the place where his family is. He does this everyday, poor Tara and Emma actually try and chase him, haha which makes them so tired they could sleep all day, poor silly girls. However we did meet him, I managed to sniff his track, while he was a few meters away. He was looking at Maja and me while we walked up the second vineyard and took a few moments to check us out before he decided we weren't worth the hassle hehe. And then he started hopping away, he was too fast for me to follow, which I am not allowed to anyways. My owners think we need to co-exsist, and this prevents me from running onto a street after some wild animal and getting hurt. I like it, but it's nice to track also hihi.

Such camoflage colors, what a beautiful animal!

We also met these cute fat baby birds, whose parents made a nest in the grapevines, they were silent and only had their beaks open as if we were gonna feed them, two days after the pic was taken, they were big enough to fly away.

Adorable!

So all in all, not much happening, but fun outside and relaxed days. We are never bored, but we do miss one in the pack.

Oh ps: everyone knows how pretty I am when I am clean and nicely combed. My hair is silky and shiney. Well this is me before my owners clean me up, I look like this almost everyday, I am truly a handful haha. There is a reason why I am named to be the dirtiest dog when having fun outside haha. This time I found the heaviest log I could lift to carry around. Plus my ears, oh yes, I carry my ears on top of my sticks if I have a chance haha. It was very heavy and I was very tired, but...yipppppiiii how fun it is to be dirty and free.

I met some water and mudd on the way to the project hihi