Sophie Goes to the Beach

Most Hawaii beaches are for tourists, not dogs, so it took a while for me to find the dog-friendly beaches. On Memorial Day, Sophie and I checked out one close to home. It's an adrenaline-pumping hike across lava rubble to get there (keeping the tourists away) and Sophie managed it like a mountain goat.

 

She made a few new friends and behaved herself just fine. Eventually, I'll let her off leash (as many of the dogs were) but not just yet. She's a big girl, but she's still a baby.

 

 

Aloha y'all!

Adorable Sophie

Sophie gets more adorable each day.

Her long, soft ears sometimes forget where they belong, so I've been trying to teach her this:
"When you feel the wind whistling through your brain, shake your head."



Aloha y'all!

Backyard Remodeling

Sophie and I have been working hard to plant Podocarpus along the new fence to replace the toxic Oleander that we ripped out, and we've almost finished. These will encircle the backyard to give us privacy - about 30 plants in all. We've been getting daily rain, and these new plants are loving it.



And just yesterday, the trucks from Soils-R-Us delivered the materials for the next phase of the backyard remodel. It's hard to get perspective from this aerial view, but the larger of these piles is the entire width of my driveway. That's drain rock on the left and a special Hawaiian soil mix on the right. They call it CTH - Cinder, Topsoil, and macadamia nut Husks.



Aloha y'all!

Happy Mother's Day

Sophie gave me this for Mother's Day:



It's a Dyson cordless vacuum. Works great picking puppy crumbs off the bamboo floors. I can't blame Sophie for all the hair it picks up - most of it seems to be mine.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

More Gardening

I planted these seeds one week ago. As you can see, the cukes are ready to go into the ground. At least I have a little more time before the tomatoes demand to get out of those cups!




I pinched the tops from several coleus and stuck them in water. Two days later, they had roots. I stuck them in dirt. A week later, I had this basket of coleus. Coleus are notorious for being easy to grow, but not this fast!




And here's my plumeria tree all in bloom.




Aloha y'all!