Weekly bird in the hand

This week's good things:

• Bella, Bella, Bella.  Yes, we are looking after our friend's little dog again for a few weeks while they are away.  She is a sweetie - and is behaving sooooo well..... I wonder if it'll last! Last time we had her for a month and she was on her best behavior for the first 5 days, then the true Bella came out!!!  So far, she's been here 5 nights...so we'll see what tomorrow brings :-D
• Having a relaxing afternoon with new friends.
• Hot weather - in the 90's all week - which is just what the grapes need to ripen and sweeten.
• Selling our apartment! We sold our apartment in England this week - and it was on the market less than 2 weeks!  All pretty easy when we weren't even there! Fingers crossed it proceeds just as easily now.
• Having a day crafting. I went to Art is ..... You in Petaluma on Friday for a day class.  In line with my "try something new" goal of the year, it wasn't jewelry but something different for me!  A day to indulge in experimenting, trying and exploring. I haven't finished my project yet - a box of sorts - but when I have, I'll show you some photos.  Tomorrow I have another day doing new things at the same retreat.
• Back singing at the cathedral after our summer break. On Sunday we sang with the men and boys choir.  It was great - 40 voices singing beautiful music together.
• My sister and her husband.  It was their wedding anniversary on Sunday.  Many congrats to them xxxxxxx

Hope your week has been full of good things too.

Weekly Bird in the Hand

Here is this week's "bird in the hand" - the things I am grateful for:

Photo by greg westfall.

•  Bella. Bella - a little white fluffy dog - arrived here at Birdland on Thursday. She is our friends' dog but they are away so she is staying with us for 4 weeks!  She is a happy little dog and had her first big adventure today in chasing away the turkeys from the vineyard!!! There were about 20 of them and she was fearless!!! She came in soaking wet, muddy and looking a disaster - but as happy as could be :=D  Now she is a brown not so fluffy dog!!
• My new series of creations (like the ladybirds shown this week)  where I combine metal clay with aluminum, using threaded connections.  I just love making tiny little silver screws.  You'll see some more this week.
• That my friend had good test results back from his medical tests.
• My new Mifi from AT&T. It now means I can be online in my studio and also acts as a back up for when our Comcast internet connection fails (which seems to happen nearly every day!).
• A good voice lesson yesterday.  Thanks Karen.
• Watching all the quails run and call out to each other in the rain.
• The vase of colorful daffodils and narcissi on our kitchen table that looked so cheery all week long.

Learning a new language in Mexico

These past couple of days, I've been working hard to learn a new language while living in Mexico.  And, you may be surprised to hear that it's not Spanish - but Bella-ese.

Yes, our friends left us in their house on Sunday to go back to the US - but they didn't take their little dog Bella with them. Instead, she is in our care.

Now we know Bella quite well.  When our friends come to our home in the US, they normally bring Bella with them and while we go out for dinner, she stays home with Harold our parrot.  Harold talks to her all night - but Bella stays quite quiet.

Anyhow, since we've been her carers for the last few days, I've been trying to figure out Bella's language - ie Bella-ese.  I have to say her vocabularly is limited.  It is also situational in that one word may mean something in one context, but something else totally different in another context.  So it gets tricky!

Here's what we have understood so far....

• "Ruff, ruff" in a gentle way, when on the floor by the bed means "Lift me up. I sleep on a bed too but my legs are too small to jump up there".  She is having to learn however that in our world, dogs don't sleep on beds!  This is proving to be a tricky lesson for her and we get more and more "ruff, ruff's" every night - and even in the middle of the night!
• "Woof, ruff"  spoken with a big dog attitude means "get away - don't come in.  I'm busy".  These words are only spoken when we are in the house and the same room as Bella and someone comes in the front door.  If we aren't around or it is us coming in  - she doesn't even stir.
• "Buff, bruff" means "I want to come up and sit with you so that you can do nothing but stroke my head and give me all the love you have!"
• "Riff, ruff" means "I want my basket.  As I'm not allowed on the bed, you've left it in the bedroom and now I want to sleep in it downstairs".

So yes, we are all finding our boundaries during this time of learning.  In the meantime, Harold is far away at home winding our friend Cassie around his little finger. Cassie is kindly taking care of him while we are away and no doubt he is busy talking away to her too!  I guess we'll all be bilingual when we get home!

And as this post is all about dogs, I have to conclude with my favorite dog Christmas video. I shared it with you last year - but it's still worth watching!