As for the gardens, the same can now be said. With one notable exception. The smaller of our two magnolias which I'd noticed several weeks back looked fatigued and too dry, beginning to shed leaves, looks little better now that we've had days of unending rain followed by the sun. The magnolia continues its shedding and foliage that hasn't yet fallen, staying firmly attached to the tree has become brown, dry and crumpled.
This is a tree that often at the height of summer begins to put out another flush of blossoms. It had started to just that; soft, fuzzy flower buds can be seen here and there, and though it's still in distress from all appearances, there is enough healthy green foliage left to give us hope that it will recover. The larger of the two magnolias, many times larger than the one in the backyard, is thriving. No signs of distress there, nor on any of the other trees and there are many.
On yesterday's ravine walk we came across a four-and-a-half-month-old Old English Sheepdog puppy. Cuddly-sweet and a treat to see gambolling happily about. Its companion was a black standard poodle. Our two little poodles greeted their older, larger cousin with their usual shrill, excited barks, and the other poodle wasn't certain it was prepared to confront two yappy little dogs, even if they somewhat resembled him, so he retreated.
But then he returned with recruits, two other large dogs, the puppy -- which though still very young was multiple times larger than Jackie and Jillie, and as a puppy, happy to play with them. The third dog was one we see on occasion, a shaggy black long-haired shepherd with a very benign character, patient in the presence of nuisance puppies.
All of which made for an outstandingly pleasant walk for our two little black devils who are behaving so well now, even off leash they seem like someone else's little dogs, not ours.
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