They did this to me

Nobody around here knows how I gained 16 pounds. It's a big mystery to me as well.

Daddy and I were on the deck this weekend and we played a game of catch. With popcorn. Look how high I can jump when food is involved.

74 pounds of love

Danny went for his 6 month wellness checkup at South Wilton Vet. The first thing the technician asked is that Danny sit on the scale. His weight read a WHOPPING 74.1 lbs! Dr. Fahy was not pleased - Danny put on 16 lbs in 6 months!

People have said that Danny had gotten big and I thought it was due to his thicker coat, but it is not just his coat that is heavier. It looks like we will all be getting out to play more and cutting down on the treats.

We also found out at 3:00 am that Danny is afraid of thunder. Just as the alarm was going off, he finally settled down again. Needless to say a lot of caffeine was needed to get thru the day.

The Courageous

Cancer. That's a word you never want to hear. Lauren Terrazzano, a reporter for Long Island's Newsday heard those words three years ago. So what does she do? She does what comes natural. She writes about it. Checkout the life stories and how she's coping with the inevitable.

Maine Memories

To my Maine Mom Linda,
Hi! It's me, Danny. It has been 6 months since I moved to my new home and things are GREAT! Well, to be honest, I still struggle with "No couch" and have gotten in trouble several times for eating out of the candy dish. However, Mom and Dad love me a lot and spoil me.

I have put on weight and my coat is now long and thick. When I go out people always say how beautiful I am. My "nanny" Diane walks me every day and says that I am one of her favorite pups.

I have a big yard to play in with lots of interesting creatures and smells. As you said, I am a chewer - this means there is always rawhide and lots of toys around the house.

Many thanks and doggie kisses to you and all the Sunshine Golden Retriever Rescue volunteers who helped save me. I often think of you and will never forget your kindness. Do you ever think of me ?

Signs of spring

Mother Nature teased us in March with a string of 50 and 60 degree days. Then she blew winter back in and it hasn't been spring since. The Daffodils have had enough, they're coming up!

Comeeko

Discovered a site called Comeeko that lets you add captions to your photos.

Instinct

Maddy & Paddy are regular visitors to our pond. Somebody has been feeding them corn every now and then and it seems to keep them interested.

When Danny was out today, he spied the pair on the pond. Look at the intent in his eyes, the determination. This boy has some strong bird instincts. Danny ran down to the pond where Maddy & Paddy were. He stopped at the water's edge when Maddy perched up and flapped her wings for a few seconds making a rather loud and threating noise. Danny thought twice about going in, but kept staring until I called him away.

Plantings

As we were leaving this morning, the landscaper arrived with our trees- we now have redbud trees and red twig dogwoods. There are still ferns to be planted. I don't know if the trees will bloom this year, but I am hoping they will add some color to the yard.

Welcome to the new Wilton Diaries!

We've had a shakeup in our web development group at the home offices of Wilton Diaries. Seems our old format wasn't keeping up with the changing times and we had a ton of users (ie. me) clamoring for the new features of Blogger to be exploited.

The first big change is that the body of the post will now scale to your window size. If you have one of those new-fangled 20" wide screen monitors, you will be able to get more Wilton Diaries on your screen at a time.

The next big change is the list of labels on the right. You can click on a label to see all the posts related to that particular label. For example, if you are interested in all the "Danny" posts, click on "Danny".

The last change is the "Blog Archive" section can be collapsed and expanded by year. This way, you can forget all about 2006 posts if you want and just look at posts in 2007.

The world famous "Blogroll" remains, as does our email subscription. It surprises me more people don't take advantage of the email subscription considering our sporadic publishing schedule. Oh well, our Web Developers sometimes just like to put features in to justify their existence.

We apologize for some of the poorly placed pictures in old posts, but that's the way technology goes sometimes.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Waiting for rain

Our new yard has been seeded and strawed! We are now waiting for some rain, so the grass will begin to grow. The lawn is too large to water, without draining the well.

We decided to pile the additional 4 TONS of stone, rather than continuing the wall. There was not enough stone to build a wall across the entire back, and we thought that piling would seem more of a natural way to end it. Some trees need to be planted along the outer edge of the wall and then it will be finished.

When we bought this house we knew it could be beautiful and finally we are seeing what we hoped it would become.

Temptation

As you can see, the ducks on the pond are driving Danny crazy! I have no doubt that he is a retriever, because he runs back and forth along the edge of the pond when he sees the ducks. So far he has been good about stopping at the edge or just getting his feet wet, but the look in his eye says soon!





When Danny was chasing the ducks, the deer herd ran by on the far side of the pond. Poor Danny, he didn't know what he should be chasing! I am beginning to think we live in a wildlife refuge. The other night there was a raccoon on top of the bird feeder (I guess deer, raccoons and birds enjoy sunflower seed). Add in the hawks, woodchucks, birds, snakes, singing tree frogs, coyote, and skunk and we have quite the menagerie! And don't even get Jeff started about the bears!

The ducks fascinate me. The male ducks perform "duck fighting". I am not sure if the drakes are fighting over the female or if they are trying to claim dominance of the pond, but the males will attack each other. They flutter just above the pond, diving and chasing each other across the water. I have never seen anything like it. I know that the mallards will only be with us a short time. I will miss them, but will not miss their quacking at 6:00 am when they land on the pond. When 7 ducks land and QUACK,QUACK,QUACK for 15 minutes the entire neighborhood hears them.

Duck Pond

I came home last night to a pond full of Ducks! The first two ducks we named Paddy and Maddy McDuck. They're always together and his green head reminds me of St. Patrick's Day. They've been here on and off for about a week now. I like to think they are the same ducks from last year.

A couple days ago another pair showed up. I tried to come up with more Irish names for them, but settled on Fred and Ethel. Each pair stays to their end of the pond and minds their own business.

And then there's Dupree. I named him after the third wheel from You, Me, and Dupree? He's back and forth between the two couples like the odd-man-out. Paddy and Fred sometimes chase him around, but he doesn't leave.

They're been a regular crowd for the last few days. Maybe it helps that they find a little corn by the edge of the pond every now and then.

Danjaya

Danny's favorite show this year is American Idol. In fact, he is so enamored with one of the contestants that he's trying different hair styles. He's insisted we call him Danjaya from now on...

Connecticut is tops...

...on the list of how long you have to work until "Tax Freedom Day". Ugh.

2 tons to go

The wall is finished - the question is what to do with all the remaining 2 tons of stone ? It is hard to believe that all of this came from our yard.

The topsoil has been delivered, but grading cannot occur until the stone is relocated, either off site or to extend the wall.

Ducks, Dogs & Stone Walls

All of the snow had put a temporary halt to the landscaping. Construction of the wall restarted today and I worried that the ducks would be frightened of all the noise. When I left this morning the mallards were happily floating on the pond and surprisingly they were still there when I returned home from work.

I went out with Danny to take these pictures and when I turned around there he was, head in the pond drinking - if the pond were cleaner, I wouldn't mind but Danny did not seem to care. As I yelled at Danny to stop ("Do you want to get sick?") - he spotted the ducks and a gleam came into his eyes. I got him away from the edge of the pond, but he just sat at the edge of the driveway, staring at the ducks. I do believe that somewhere is Danny's heart, he truly is a bird dog (he is the only Golden I know who goes into a point when he spots birds) and I know it is just a matter or time before he decides to retrieve one of the ducks. Since Danny just got a bath on Saturday, I believe that this will occur sooner rather than later.

I almost feel sorry for Danny, he tries so hard to be good, but the mud, pond and ducks may just be too much of a temptation for him.

Old Friends Returning

The pair of ducks that spent some time at our pond last spring have returned!
It seems that the deer and ducks will have to learn to share this place.

Persephone

Now doubt about out, Persephone is moving in. We've been in the forties for the last couple days and the fifties are on their way. Our poor snow person from a couple days ago is getting beaten down but good.

Spring

Spring has sprung,
The grass has riz,
I wonder where,
The flowers is.

Hawks

The hawks are back! Last summer, we would often see them sitting on our deck or in the trees near the pond. Winter came and we would spot one occasionally, but yesterday and today a pair spent most of the day in the yard. (look closely at the picture, there is one above the other in the tree).
I am not sure if the hawks are here for an easy meal (all the songbirds at the feeders- they did get at least one yesterday) or if all the digging in the back yard has stirred up some field mice.

They are beautiful and I love seeing them soar and dive. When I am outside and hear their shrill cries, I search the trees and there they are - 2 side by side. If only the hawks would show some interest in the woodchuck, my problems would be solved!