Zoe - one year later

It’s been exactly one year now since I had to have Zoe put to sleep.  One year that my sweet, lovable, big round calico cat has been gone.  Sometimes I still imagine her waddling across the room for her share of strokes, or treats or play time.  And though I don’t burst into tears anymore at the thought of her, I do still miss her soft, soft fur and her demands for attention. The good news is that I remember the good times more and more.  I still wish I could have spared her that last week of fear and pain, but that’s not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of her any more.  More often than not, I remember the fun things now.

So perhaps it's now time for that "good time" post on my girl, Zoe.

First of all, she was a scrawny, flea-infested scrap of calico when I got her, since her mother was an outside cat.  She very quickly adapted to the apartment and quickly latched onto Addy for companionship.  Addy of course, hated her, and slapped her down whenever she got too close.  But Zoe refused to give up, wouldn’t accept “no” for an answer, kept coming back, and eventually the two became best friends.

 

Zoe was always needy.  She needed to be around others, be they human or cat, and when I was around, she wanted attention.  When she was little she’d climb up to my shoulder and suck on the ends of my hair behind my ear.  She very quickly became too big to do that, but always wanted my lap when I was sitting.  Both girls did, and both became very territorial when it came to me.  Zoe was only smaller than Addy for a short time and pretty much as soon as she became bigger, she’d use her weight to push her way in.  Addy would try to rebuff her, but Zoe was adept at ignoring that .  Almost always, Addy would leave pissed off, and Zoe would claim the lap. 

Zoe loved boxes her entire life.  I spent a lot of time with empty packing boxes in my apartment or house, because I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away when she enjoyed them so much.  She loved hiding in places she could see out of, especially boxes, including coca-cola 12-pack boxes when she was little.  She would even use plastic trash bags as hiding places if I left them lying around.  Later when I moved into my first house, she was absolutely in heaven when I let the peach tree overgrow and the branches hung down to the ground.  She would spend the whole day laying out in the yard, hidden among the peach tree branches.

She never climbed the tree though.   Zoe didn’t like heights and would panic as soon as her feet left the ground when you picked her up.  She never leaped up on counters, tables or furniture, nor leaped across open spaces.  Even getting up on chairs and couches, she climbed using her claws instead of just hopping up.  I often wondered if she had some sort of inner ear imbalance that made her uncomfortable without her feet on the ground. 

One of Zoe’s favorite things was stalking birds.  She never caught one, being too slow and clumsy, but she never tired of trying.  She would stalk them back and forth across the yard all day long, perfectly content being outside and chasing her birds.  She also loved to chase grasshoppers, and many times brought a large grasshopper she had caught into the house to play with.   She inevitably would release it near me so that it would leap at me when she let it go.  And then she’d chase it down all around the house.  Grasshoppers were about the limit of what she could catch, except once she brought in a large praying mantis.  Addy caught and brought in small lizards and snakes, and once a hummingbird moth, which I then had to catch to take back outside.   

Zoe really liked the outdoors, especially if there were places for her to hide out there.  She was a big fraidy cat, running for the house at pretty much anything that startled her.  Often she really just wanted to be able to lie in the open doorway.  She was inside the house, but on the edge of outside in case anything moved out there that she needed to chase.   Lying in an open doorway was one of her favorite places her whole life.   

   

 Zoe liked to play in water, or at any rate to drop her toys in water.  She’d mostly use her water dish for this, but when she was younger she would drop her toys in the toilet.   I quickly learned to look BEFORE sitting down.  Like all cats, she especially liked to drink fresh water and would sit and stare at me until I put fresh water down if I let it get too old.  Then when she was drinking it, particularly from her favorite blue bowl, just the very tip of her tail would slowly wave back and forth.  She especially took to the cat fountains when I began using them.

Zoe liked to curl up in small spaces in which she just barely fit.  I think she felt safe in enclosed spaces.  She was also very set in her ways and changes to her routine might take her weeks to get used to.  When I moved into my first house and then 11 years later into my second house, she spent the first 2-3 weeks each time under the bed in the master bedroom, slowly venturing out in little short time periods to begin to learn her new environment.   She was very definitely a scaredy cat, and a one woman cat, freaking out if anyone but me was in the house.  She would completely disappear if the doorbell rang, until whoever it was was completely gone.  And if she was in my lap when the doorbell rang, She would leap to run for a hiding place, often leaving me with deep gouges.   If people were in her house, she was nowhere to be found.  I began having a pet sitter watch the girls in their old age, and it took her probably 2 years to get Zoe to come out from under the bed when she was at the house. 

Zoe liked toys that bounced.  She turned her nose up completely at soft toys, but delighted in things that bounced and rolled.  A particular favorite of hers was pencil pillows, the foamy things you put on a pen or pencil to cushion your grip.  She loved them because they would get hung on her claw and when she flipped her paw they would go flying for her to chase.  She really liked it if they landed on a bookshelf, giving her an excuse to clear the shelf of books trying to retrieve her toy.  I finally had to stop giving them to her to play with when I realized she would eat them after playing long enough.  Christmas balls were another favorite, so I had to have extra every year.

Zoe was not very bright and fairly clumsy.  No usual cat grace for this cat.   She rarely just laid down, more like flopped over on her side when she was ready to lay down, and she loved laying on her back with her feet in the air.   She never did grasp the idea the claws were not to be used always.   And she loved to pull things down and lay on them, towels if she could reach them, clothes in the clothes basket, things I left laying in chairs.  I used to leave small fleeces on chairs specifically for her to pull down and lay on.   

  

Mostly what I remember about Zoe is that she was sweet and good-natured almost always.  Her fur was really soft, and she loved getting stokes and brushings.  She would lie still for as long as you were willing to brush her and pet her and then always wanted more when you stopped.   I miss her a lot still, but I now remember the good times more often than the final times.  You're loved and missed, Zoe, my big girl.

So overdue!

Yes, I know.  It's been almost 3 months since I posted.  What can I say.  Sometimes life interferes.  I've been traveling a bunch for my professional association, and that's not going to get any better.  Still, I'll make an attempt not to go three months between posts.

So much has happened.  Let's see.  Where to start.  As you can see, my little old lady cat, Addy, is still hanging in there at 19 and a half years old.  She likes warm spots and occasional forays outside.  She also likes attention and gets increasingly demanding, especially when I've been traveling.  I'm glad to have her still and try to spend as much time as I can giving her that attention.

Things around the house are doing well.  No house issues!  Yay!  I feel like maybe I should knock on wood when I say that.  My growing things are doing better than I have any right to expect.   The Russian sage nearly drowned in May when we had that 30 days of rain, and I thought it was a goner.  It's made a nice comeback though and is currently blooming, although not as vigorously as the ones I saw on my vacation trip to Colorado.  I have no idea if that's because they don't do as well in the Texas heat, or because I tried to drown it a few months ago.

I tried AGAIN to kill the poor little pine tree.  I really thought it was gone this time.  After being out in all the rain we had, I simply forgot to water it once the rain stopped.  It went completely brown and lost every one of it's needles.  I had my pet sitter water it anyway while I was out of town on one of my trips, and I know she thought I was crazy for having her water a dead mini-tree.  But the silly thing has come back.  I told myself I'd bring it in the house if it showed signs of reviving yet again, so I did when I began to see tiny green buds. That tree will now live in the house in the summer and outside in the winter.  I would have saved the poor thing lots of trouble if I had stopped long enough to figure out that it happens to be a deciduous tree, called a dawn redwood.  It's supposed to drop all it's needles in the winter.  If I hadn't tried so hard to keep it green when I was first growing it, it probably would have done better.  It amazes me that it's still trying to survive and coming back again.

The peaches are thriving also.  The one that was struggling is happy as a clam this year since I had the big live oak in my back yard trimmed up and that peach now gets lots of sun.  The smallest one originally is now the largest and it absolutely overgrows every year now.  I wonder if it will blossom next year and have some peaches.  Those peach trees are four years old now, although they've only been planted in the ground about 2 years.

I haven't seen the hummingbirds around lately, but the level in the feeder keeps dropping so they must still be around.  It's so hot still (hitting 90s) that it's hard to remember that it's almost October.  Nothing is showing any signs of Fall yet.  No leaves turning colors or looking brown, no lawns going dormant.  It'll probably be another two months before it begins to look Fall-like here.  When I was in Colorado early in September the aspens were already showing signs of turning. 

My hoard of sparrows is definitely still around, eating me out of house and home.  Some of them stay over winter, but most of them move on to wherever they go to winter. Interestingly, I don't go through anywhere near the volume of birdseed in the winter that I do in the summer.

Since the last time I posted, I've had trips to Atlanta, GA, Philadelphia, PA and Washington DC.  Plus I took a vacation with my sister, hiking, camping and playing in Utah and Colorado.  I'll post on that trip separately.  It was a blast.

Anyway, that's pretty much caught up on the day to day stuff.  Things are going well, so hopefully that'll continue.  Next post will be about the vacation trip.

Paris

I've just returned from an eight-day trip to Paris.  I have to admit, I was really looking forward to it, and it lived up to my expectations.  I had a lot of fun.  There was only one part I didn't like, but I'll come back to that.

This was a business-related trip, not a vacation trip.  I attended a European laboratory medicine congress, and spent the majority of my time in either committee meetings or scientific sessions.  So the sight-seeing I did was limited, but I managed to enjoy what I did do.

My hotel was a nice little place called the Hotel Belfast, about a block from the Arc de Triomphe.  So it was fairly centrally located and the Metro subway access was half a block from the front door.  That Metro station was two stops from the convention center, so the first day in I bought a rail pass for central Paris and then used the Metro to get around the rest of the week.  Easy traveling and commuting.  The Hotel also had a complimentary breakfast, which was really handy.

The sight-seeing jaunts I took included going down to the Louvre and areas around it, and going to the Eiffel Tower and areas around it.  And lest you don't get a feel for just how big the Eiffel Tower is, I took a picture standing at it's base.  The day I went to the Eiffel Tower I walked along the Seine river until reaching the Louvre.  So I did do quite a bit of walking while there.  Which is lucky because I also did some serious eating.

I have to say, I had some incredibly good meals while I was in Paris.  And most of them were not planned, just walking down the streets and picking a sidewalk restaurant that looked interesting.  DELICIOUS food, at every one of them.  I ate salmon and scorpion fish and beef fillet.  At one place, we sat down and the waitress came and asked how we wanted our meat cooked.  It turns out the restaurant had one thing on the menu, sliced beef cooked to order and covered in a delicious sauce and served with thin french fries.  It was sooooooo good.  One of my best memories though was of a cheese cake desert at one of the little places.  OMG.  So thick and smooth and creamy.  Basically, it's amazing that I came back to the US the same weight as I left it.  

I flew Business / First class, which was nice (done on frequent flyer miles).  But traveling wasn't all smooth.  On the trip to Paris I booked AA to Newark and BA from Newark to Paris.  While I was in the air going to Newark, BA canceled their flight.  So when I got to Newark, I went to the BA terminal, which required a terminal change and the little train system was delayed, taking a bunch of time to switch terminals.  At BA I discovered the canceled flight.  Luckily they could get me onto a United flight to Paris. But that required another terminal change with the delayed train system.  All a hassle, but I got to Paris.  And the biggest miracle of the whole trip - my luggage made that United flight with me.  That was a miracle because the BA flight was scheduled to fly into Orly airport in Paris, so my luggage was checked from DFW to Orly.  The United flight flew into Charles de Gaulle airport.  I was truly amazed to see my luggage on that baggage carousel.


The only part of the trip I didn't like:  The day I left, all the Paris taxis went on strike, protesting Uber.  So not only were no taxis running in Paris, but they blocked roads as well, so the buses couldn't run.  So I left very early and took the rail system, Metro and RER to the airport.  That was a pain mostly because of my luggage.  My main bag was 45 pounds, plus I had a carry-on and a large tote.  So dragging that all through the rail system and train connections wasn't fun.   I have bruises on my arm and leg from manhandling it up and down stairs and onto and off trains.   In fairness, three times various nice French gentlemen helped me navigate stairs with the big bag.  

I also forgot that my rail pass was for central Paris and that doesn't include Charles de Gaulle airport.   But when I left the hotel at the first Metro stop I had trouble getting my luggage through the turnstile, so the agent there gave me a ticket to use if my pass wouldn't work, and that ticket actually got me out at the airport, where my pass wasn't good.  So it worked out that I had trouble at first but it saved my later.  And although it took about 2 hours to do it, I did make it to the airport, and many, many people had trouble getting there, including our flight crew.

The Congress Special Evening event on Wednesday night was drinks and hors d'oeurves at the Museum D'Orsay.  That was simply stupendous.  Actually seeing in person the paintings you always see in books or online was so awesome.  Van Gogh and Monet and Manet and Renoir.  Just to name a very few.  Plus the building itself is pretty amazing, having once been an old train station.  

Overall I would say that my trip was really good.  The food was great and the people I dealt with were incredibly nice, helping me even though I spoke no French.  I'm glad to have gone and hope I get a chance to go back some time.

Time to build that ark?

After having had several years of drought conditions in this area, I thought that I would never say this again.  But I just have to say . . . ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!  Good Lord!  Yesterday I watched as my yard turned into a lake (and I'm on a hill!) about 4 inches deep and the rain just kept coming down.  The rain gauge overflowed (it hold 8 inches worth).  My Russian sage has drowned and the azalea is about to follow suit.  Really.  Enough already.  And the forecast is for rain every day for the foreseeable future.

I suppose it's good thing I didn't have Memorial Day plans.  That's not just the constant rain.  That's mostly because I had the periodontal surgery last Thursday, and I'm really glad I didn't plan anything for this weekend.   Besides the fact that I look like a mutant chipmunk with it's cheek pouches full, I'm sore and bruised as well.  I don't remember the last surgery being this painful afterward, although it was roughly 20 years ago, when I probably healed better.  Plus I only had the gum surgery that time, no bone grafting.   Weirdly the left side where I didn't have bone grafting is more bruised, but the right, bone-grafting side is more painful and swollen.

The surgery itself I have no memory of, except I remember occasionally he would say, "turn your head this way" and I'd turn it.  But I have zero memory of anything else.  Conscious sedation is a wonderful thing.  I remember the wheelchair ride to my car, and then waking up in bed later in the afternoon.  I seriously see why someone has to drive you.  I know we stopped to get the prescriptions filled for pain meds and antibiotics because I have a vague memory the clerk saying it would take over an hour to fill them.  So my driver must have brought me home and gone back after them - and paid for them, so I'll have to reimburse her.   

Anyway, I'm healing so it's all good.  I got my May traveling done with no hitches so the next trip is the Paris trip the third week in June.  I went online this morning and cleared 250 emails from my work email from the 2 days I was gone, so I won't be too over overwhelmed tomorrow when I go back to work.  And I also tackled some of my journal editorial duties for the same reason.

I don't have any new pictures lately since who wants pictures of rain?  So the pictures in this post are older pics.  Addy enjoying laying outside while I'm out there.  All the blooming plants on my sink and counter, along with roses from the garden.  I'm also putting in this picture of the very tiny white moss flowers that bloomed under the little pine tree.  I don't know that they'll be visible in the post, but they're there.

I think I have more than 2 hummers this year. I've only seen 2 at a time at the feeder, but the food level is decreasing faster this year than it did last year.  The horde of sparrows is once again eating me out of house and birdseed.  And that Cooper's Hawk still hunts occasionally here, scattering the little birds when he comes.  I have both mourning doves and white-winged doves.  Some of the mourning doves stay year round, but the white-wings leave in the winter.

Anyway, that's about it for today.  Just thought I'd get a post in, even if it's just to complain about the rain and my surgery.  I am glad I live mostly on a hill though.  I could wish my yard drained better, but maybe that's something I can correct whenever I have to replace the old sprinkler system - which I had on for about a week in early March but have turned off since so far this year I have NO need for it.  

Later.

Traveling

I'm doing a lot of traveling these days, so this poor blog, which already doesn't get a lot of posts, is probably going to be even worse.  I'll try to get posts in when I can.  This picture is of a new plant I bought.  It's called a kalanchoe.  Isn't it pretty.  The next picture down is another one that I bought at the same time.  I just love blooming things.  We'll see if I can keep them alive.

So.  Traveling.  In April I went to Chicago, Washington DC, and Philadelphia.  Chicago was a for a symposium I attended, Washington DC was a board of directors meeting and Philadelphia was to give three talks at a review course.  Tomorrow I go back to Washington DC for a committee meeting and next week I go to Seattle for a different board of directors meeting.  I'm seriously racking up the frequent flier miles.  Which is good because I used the balance of my flier miles to book a business class ticket to and from Paris in June for an international meeting.  

So far the traveling has been pretty smooth, although I did have to fly back into Dallas from DC one Friday evening when there were severe storm warnings in Dallas.  We spent an extra hour on the plane being rerouted across half the state, but we managed to land in Dallas finally. Ride was a tad bumpy, but we got here.  I was really relieved because Saturday morning I had to fly back out for my next trip.

Addy's taking the absences pretty well, but I have my regular sitter back and she and Addy get along well.  Which is VERY good considering how much traveling I'm doing.  Addy still seems to be okay being by herself.  Of course when I'm here she's with me constantly - in my lap when I read or watch anime or TV.  She does love being the center of attention.

I found out that I need to have some more periodontal surgery.  I was kind of hoping not to have to go through that again, but since it's been about 20 years since I had to do it before, I guess I shouldn't complain.  They'll do some surgery on my gums and some bone grafting in my lower jaw. That'll be happening when I get back from Seattle, because I have a solid month at home before my Paris trip.  Time for my mouth to heal.

Things in my yard are growing well, except for maybe the Russian sage and the hollyhocks.  I planted 10 hollyhock seeds and I have two tiny plants coming up.  And they don't look too healthy.  The Russian sage also is struggling.  I'm wondering if it's getting too much water with all the rain we've been having.  I went out and sprayed it and my roses this week though since it does look like something is eating on them.  

The hawthorn and azalea bloomed for awhile and were so pretty.  My roses are blooming too, so of course I cut some for in the house.  They are so pretty and smell so good.  I need to get back outside and deadhead them now.  The ones in the front yard need it too.

My little hummers are back and this little guys sat still for a picture.  I also saw a rose-breasted grosbeak on my red feeder!   Gorgeous!  I saw him and thought, "what the hell kind of bird is that?!" because I've never seen one here before and he's really beautiful.  I tried to get a picture but my camera battery was dead.  So I was cussing and switching batteries, but he flew before I could get a picture.  I looked him up though.  We're not anywhere near his range, so he must have been migrating through and just stopped for some seeds.  I was glad to have seen him. 

I need to find time to do some serious house-cleaning here shortly because later in the month my Colorado sister and her husband may try to stop by on their way through.  Her husband has never seem my place and she's only seen it once, so I hope they have time to stop by.  Even if it means I need to do a little better cleaning than when it's just Addy and I here.   

That's all for now.

Rainy Spring Day

It was such a gorgeous day yesterday, it's too bad today is rainy, especially because I'm sure the rain ruined a bunch of Easter plans.  I took Friday off, partly because I had to go renew my driver's license in person this year.  You never know how long the line will be at the driver's license office near me.  So I just took the day off, which also let me get a bunch of other errands run, besides getting my license renewed.  I got all my running around and puttering outside done Friday and yesterday.  It was fairly cool out, but brightly sunny and pretty once the clouds moved pout about midday Friday.  

My little azalea is blooming as you can see.   All the hawthorn are loaded down with buds on the verge of blooming so they're about to become gorgeous.  The weather is still flirting with cooler temps (50's on Saturday morning and this morning), but Spring is definitely here.

My hummers are back!  They showed up last Sunday afternoon.  The little male has taken to perching on the tip of one of my aloe early in the morning.  Yesterday he was all puffed out from the cold, and this morning he was all puffed out from the rain and cold, but he just perches there.  These pictures of him are far from ideal since he won't sit there if I open the door.  So these are taken through the window.

On Friday I bought some more african violets to take to work and another venus flytrap.  I think I'll take a flytrap to work also and see if it will survive and eat the gnats and small flies that occasionally somehow manage to get into my office.  So I spent part of Friday afternoon re-potting plants from the plastic things they come in, and getting them ready to take to work.  

I've decided to keep the magenta african violet here at the house.  It's so pretty, and Addy's too old and not agile enough to get up on the counter, so both she and it should be safe.  I just like growing things.  I guess that green thumb that my sisters have always had didn't skip me after all.  Well, maybe not a green thumb in that I still manage to kill things I'm trying to grow.  But a green thumb in that I like to grow things.

The peach actually looks like a tree this year.  The other two aren't doing as well, but are also leafing out nicely.  This one is in the prime spot for a peach tree - lots of sun.  The other two are in shadier places and obviously don't like that as well.  My mint is coming back in with a vengeance.  I'll have to watch it so that it doesn't take over the garden around the patio.  The little pine is putting on lots of new new pine needles too, as you can see.  I'm continually amazed that that little tree keeps coming back.

Although I'm not a big fan of rain, I'm glad for it this year since we were so dry last year.  I got 1.4 inches last night, which will encourage everything to bloom and grow like crazy now.  From the forecast it looks like it's going to be a rainy week this week.  That'll make all the plants happy.  One of my tiered trees by the back patio is so overgrown you almost can't tell it has tiers.  I hope my lawn service guys trim it back soon.  

I saw the coopers' hawk go after one of the doves in my yard today.  He always seems to hunt here on cloudy cool days - or anyway those are the days I've seen him hunting here.  

I'm glad for this puttering around the house time because I have some busy times coming up.  Next weekend I'm off for Chicago for business.  Then home the next weekend, then I have back to back trips to Washington DC and Philadelphia.  Then the first week in May I'm back to Washington DC and the second week in May I'm off to Seattle.  Then I'm home for a month before I'm off again.  Oh!  And that month I'm home I'll be having gum surgery with some bone grafting.  How fun is that?  Just got bad genes when it comes to gums, I guess. Considering how good my health is overall though I really can't complain about my genes.  This will only be my second gum surgery in the last 20+ years.  

And I guess I'll quit there for today.  Leaving with an Addy picture of course.  She has to help me when I'm outside - or at least be out there with me, checking out stuff.

Spring!

Finally it's become Spring around here.  Late this year.  We had an ice/snow storm the last few days of February-first few days of March, and since then it's been pretty much non-stop raining up until last Sunday, but it's been fairly nice since then.  So I've spent the last couple of weekends puttering around the house and yard.  Things are beginning to grow and bloom finally.  This is my neighbor's bradfpord pear, blooming like crazy.

Last weekend I bought a couple red-tipped photinia and planted then out by the fence.  Last Fall I had my two big live oaks trimmed up, and I lost a bunch of privacy from my neighbors behind me.  You can see that in the first picture.  Nothing between me and my neighbors but a 6 foot fence.  I didn't realize how much privacy the low hanging limbs on those trees were creating until they were gone.  So these photinia should grow relatively tall, and maybe I'll get some of that privacy back.  

I also planted some hollyhocks last weekend so I hope they come up.  And I cleaned out shrubbery a bit and cut back some crepe myrtle. I was head to toe mud by the time I finished that planting and gardening last weekend, but the rain had finally stopped, and I was determined to get some yard work in.

I also bought a little african violet for my office and on a whim, a little venus flytrap.  The little venus flytrap is so small and cute, and really seems to like my kitchen windowsill.  It's directions said I don't have to feed it flies - which I don't know if that means it will catch them itself, or that it can survive on photosynthesis just fine.  Either way we'll see how it does.  The African violet I took to work since those little plants are pretty, but poisonous to cats.

This weekend I re-potted things that needed it.  I re-potted the peace lily into a bigger pot since it had so over-grown the pot it came in.  I also found a nice plant stand for it.  It likes that location in the sun room, but it had really gotten too big to sit on that coffee table.  I also re-potted the little venus flytrap into a pot from it's little square plastic container.

I put out my hummingbird feeders two weeks ago, but haven't seen hide nor hair of a hummingbird yet.  They're late coming through this year, but that could be because things are just barely starting to bloom here.  My flowering quince and the bradford pears were the only things that had bloomed until this week.  This week the redbuds are blooming, and my azalea and indian hawthorne are showing lots of buds.  So once things start blooming I'm hoping the hummers arrive.

I just love Spring when everything starts growing again, and it's green and flowers are blooming.  The peaches are leafing out nicely now and the russian sage and the roses are all putting on new growth.  The buds on the little pine are bursting into a tree-full of new pine needles. All the trees are seeming to leaf out basically overnight.  My live oaks have been dropping their old leaves like snowfall with the growth of the new ones.  My lawn service guys left three large sacks of leaves for the trash people to pick up this week.  

Yesterday I checked out and programmed my sprinkler system.  About time to turn it on for the year, so I needed to make sure it was working as it's supposed to.  I'm glad to see green grass coming up also, rather than brown dead grass.  Although I grow grass for Addy during the Winter, I won't need to grow Addy any more grass now this year.  She can find it outside.      

And that's pretty much the yardwork report for March.  I won't have as much time to do garden/yard stuff in April since I'll be traveling some.  I'll leave today with a picture of that last snowstorm, since I'm so happy that stuff is gone now for the year.