Friday: Branching Out!

That invisible umbilical cord has stretched a little farther, and you can see exactly how long it is.  Angel is the black speck at the foot of the tree halfway up the telephone pole in the center of the picture.  Brandy is in the lower left corner.  Sara, by the way, is a black speck at the right hand edge of the photo.  Brandy had just crossed the dry creekbed and obviously felt too far from Angel, so she turned and headed back to the fence closest to Angel.  That cord is still pulling, but it's stretching!

The morning light is still beautiful through this tree that I photographed a week ago, although the daffodil puffs are largely blown away.  The tender green leaves are so beautiful in the sunlight--well, usually!  I missed out on the finale of "Project Runway" last night after watching it all season because the leaves on the chestnut tree branched out just enough to block the satellite that feeds us that channel!  Grrr!  The Dish tech wants us to "top off" the tree, and although I was furious about it last night when I missed my show, I hate to mess up a gorgeous tree! 

Hero looks so noble and alert here.  But while David, the Dish tech, and I stood outside the back door discussing what to do with the dish, we saw a deer come racing down the hill of the back pasture, soar over the fence, and run straight toward the house.  Hero and Zephyr stood beside us and didn't notice a thing.  (In Hero's defense, he was busy trying to make friends with David and had his back turned.)  Finally, when the deer (which seemed to be in some kind of distress) was about 30 feet away from us, Zephyr noticed it and barked.  Both dogs went after the deer, and the poor thing wheeled around, flashed its white tail, and took off with the dogs in hot pursuit.  A few minutes later they came back empty-pawed--and unscathed!  Both us humans knew how lucky they were that they couldn't catch the deer!  It's a lot different than field mice!  (I keep praying for it, like one of the sparrows God cares for, that He'll fix whatever was wrong with it.)

When Herb got home, he decided to branch out into a new field, tree trimmer.  It looked very scary and precarious--and it was!  He extended the ladder to its fullest--and then climbed off onto branches while sawing off other branches.  I was wondering, if he fell, would it help if I threw myself under him?

He made a heroic effort to clear away the branches blocking the dish from the satellite--only to find that there are more trees on beyond this one, so we still don't have reception.  :(  The guest balcony should get a bit more of a breeze and have a bit more of a view now, though!

Tonight we babysat Charis, and Didi created a new game with Charis:  "I'm gonna get you!"  According to Jim and Monique, it's a first for her.  She was running around in her cute little bare feet, and Herb reached out for her and said, "I"m gonna get you!"  She squealed, sat down on the floor laughing, and fended Herb off.

Then she started running past him, and when he did the "get you," she would dodge him and run away, squealing and laughing with glee.

She is REALLY quick!  It did slow her down when I got my camera out because every time the flash went off, she had to come check the camera and look at her picture!  (It astonished Jim and Monique to hear that she does that; I guess I'm used to it because she's been doing it for awhile!)  Eventually she figured out that Mimi made a great refuge from Didi and the "get you game," but she couldn't help going back for more . . . and more . . . and more.  When we finally put her to bed, it didn't even take 5 minutes for her to be out like a light!