Sunday Afternoons in Autumn

Football inside, golden leaves outside, and coziness all around.

Dewey’s friend Otto came to visit…

And she was only a little bit jealous.

But in the end, everyone had a nice time.

Peanut Butter Doggie Treats

Dewey is a peanut butter fiend.  It’s the one type of people-food we let her have (besides the crumbs I drop when cooking, which are snapped up pretty quickly), and she gets so excited about it that she visibly drools.  Since this is fairly disgusting, even for a set of parents who find most everything she does adorable, we decided to make Dewey her own peanut butter treats–they’re much simpler to deal with, and don’t involve the risk of stray drool winding up in our own peanut butter supply.

Josh made these out of peanut butter, oats, and wheat flour–which means that technically, we could eat them too…but I’m not sure that the texture would be particularly appetizing to our palates.  Anyway, after the mixture came together, he rolled it out to about 3/4 an inch thick, cut out little bone shapes with cookie cutters we got especially for this purpose, and then baked them till they were firm.  Unlike most of the things we make, I can’t tell you for certain that they were delicious–but Dewey definitely seems to think so.

Guelph Goodness, no. 2: Off-Leash Parks

Before we moved away from Nashville, we took Dewey to the vet, who warned us that sometimes, more intelligent dogs could be susceptible to anxiety as a result of (her words) “having more going on upstairs.”  She left us with some pamphlets on easing separation anxiety for dogs undergoing big changes, and I left more than a little worried about the trauma I was apparently about to inflict on my dog.  Nevertheless, Dewey had a wonderful summer with her dog-in-law, Mocha, a fact that I couldn’t immediately categorize as good or bad.  I was happy for her to have a good time, of course, but afraid that her attachment to Mocha would only exacerbate her confused feelings when we finally did bring her north.

While she did seem a little out of sorts for the first few weeks here (following us from room to room, barking at the smallest noises in the middle of the night), Dewey has really seemed to warm up to Guelph, especially its great collection of off-leash parks.  She’s never been particularly good on a leash–partially because we haven’t trained her well, and I think partially because she resents it–but she is a great listener, and likes to keep her ‘pack’ close by.  Off-leash parks are perfect for this, because she has the freedom to run wherever she wants, exploring fields, wooded areas and (when she’s feeling especially adventurous) rivers.

The parks are great for us too, of course, especially after spending the day inside looking at a computer screen.  I continue to be amazed at how beautiful they are, and how wonderful it is to be in the quiet of the woods, so close to the city.  Many times, we walk for an hour without seeing a single person–despite the fact that it takes less than 5 minutes by car to get here.

I’m hoping to take as much of the outdoors in as possible in the next month, since it will be too cold to properly enjoy them all too soon.  For now, though, we are grateful for the sun, the flowers, and a happily Canadian dog.

The Garden (Futility?) Project, Part 2

We have sprouts!  The weather for the past week has been a bit warmer, so the broccoli, collards and spinach have all sprouted.  We’re still waiting to hear from the carrots…but since they have the longest growing season of all, I’m not sure that they’ll make it anyway.

We’ve also secured our little garden patch with some light fencing, to keep it safe from Dewey–who, by the way, has taken to finding treasures in the back hedge, including an old volleyball and what appears to be a portion of the skull of a medium-sized animal.  I’d give you more information on that one, but to be honest, I tried not to examine it very closely.  When she’s not hunting for dead things  or stray balls in the yard, Dewey can usually be found here:

On the stairs between the loft and the hallway, she can see into my office and Josh’s at the same time.  Keeping tabs on both of the humans is important, you know.  Especially if one of them should drop something edible.

At any rate, it appears that threats to the garden no longer include Dewey, which is a step in the right direction.   I’ll keep you updated on the progress it makes, especially if this results in anything edible before the first frost.

Geaux Tigers!!!!

Summer seems to be over up here in Ontario, but the slight chill in the air reminds me that it is, in fact, the best time of year: football season.  This year, sadly, marks another year that I will not have the fortune to be in attendance at the Mecca of all LSU Fans, Tiger Stadium.  Instead, I will console myself with the fond memories of this summer’s College World Series championship and, perhaps, with Ro-tel dip made solely for my enjoyment on game days–the first of which is this coming Saturday (!!!!).   In the meantime, I’m looking for a way to actually see the games, since a) we don’t have ESPN, because it doesn’t exist here and b) it’s not clear that SEC football is something that would be broadcast in Canada at all, even on the equivalent station here, TSN.  I’m hoping for some sort of streaming option online, but if all else fails, I’ll be hitting the ‘refresh’ button on the Tiger Athletics website.

Oh, and in case you happen to be one of my non-football friends, and you’re now thinking “Geez, Erin must be hard up for blogging material, who the hell cares about college football?”…well, then we’re no longer friends.  Ha!  Just kidding.  Maybe. To give you an idea of the incredible significance of LSU football in my life, I offer you the following tidbits, all of which are completely true.

From the years of 1995-1999, I missed no home LSU games, including the time when I was 16, when I was sick enough to lose my voice before halftime.  This obsession reached a boiling point during my Junior year of high school, when I did an entire Social Studies Fair project on the history of LSU football, which included a model of a 60s-era homecoming float that I constructed out of a shoebox and a bazillion tiny pieces of wadded-up crepe paper, a piece of carpet I stole from the hall of fame, and a bag of grass that I ripped from the 50-yard-line during the field-storming that happened after the upset of then-No.-1 University of Florida in October of ’98.  I got an A, by the way.  Oh, and in the process of preparing for this project, I managed to run into Kevin Faulk on campus, who I apparently unnerved enough to–true story–do a complete 180 and walk away from me as quickly as possible.

On the right is a picture from last season, with Dewey and me in our game day finery.  She’s psyched, obviously.

Till next time…Go Tigers! LSU Marching Band

The Garden (Futility) Project

Yesterday, looking out the window at these lovely flowers our friends gave us as a welcome gift,  I decided that temperatures in the 60s notwithstanding, I would try my hand at a fall garden.  While the end of August (at the moment anyway) feels like it may just be laughably late to grow anything up here near the Arctic, I had the seeds, soil and–most importantly–the desire to get out of the house.  So, shovel in hand, I headed outside with Dewey to construct what may in fact be the most thrown-together excuse for a garden I’ve ever attempted.  This, by the way, is including the time I tried to grow carrots in a pot.

There was a patch of dirt in our yard that marked the spot of the previous occupant’s gazebo, so I figured that this was a fantastic–which is to say, less labor-intensive–location for turning over some dirt for a garden.  I realize that a better prepared person might have invested in a little extra dirt, compost or gloves,  but clearly preparation was not the name of the game here.  I did manage enough forethought to pick the seeds with either quick growing spans or general heartiness, so hopefully miracles will happen.  At the moment, however, here is a view of the fruits of my labor:

There are four rows, which from left to right are broccoli, carrots, collard greens and spinach.  The carrots technically have a growing season of 125 days, which should put them into January…meaning that they probably won’t make it.  But they’re supposedly tough cookies, and hey, we are looking for the miraculous here.  The greens all have much shorter growing seasons, so I have high hopes for a salad or something by mid-October.  Just cross your fingers with me that the first killing frost holds off till then.

And speaking of plant-killers, this little lady is the other concern.  Right now, there’s nothing guarding our little patch of dirt from her paws, which like nothing so well as a patch of freshly-turned soil.  At the moment we’re just trying to keep an eye on her when she’s outside, but we hope to have some sort of fencing or other dog-deterrent around the garden-area soon.  Anyway, I again have high hopes, since she hasn’t yet tried to dig anything up, even though she was present while I was digging in the dirt, which she typically  seems to view as a provocation.  Also, she’s just so darn cute.  Who wouldn’t trust that face??

So, this may all come to naught, but I just had to give it a shot.  Here’s hoping for a few more warm days!