First Outdoor Reading Day of the Year!!!!!

Today was my dad's day to work in the green house at Reynolda Gardens in the big city, a weekly volunteer job he's taken up (he's been growing orchids since before I was born, and the Reynolda orchids are benefiting from his expertise, and he's enjoying having a day out), and it was our day to enjoy my mom's company. She and Ed watched "Emma," and then she and I sat out on the deck and read/listened to an audio book. And Harry took advantage of my mom's good nature and enjoyed the longest patting session he's had... since Katie started at school! He can hardly wait for her to come back and spend some more quality time with him, so we'll hope for warm, lovely weather again next Wednesday.

And Finny found his hedgehog! This is a hedgehog that Katie bought him a while back, which had to be confiscated because he insisted on tearing its stuffing out and we were afraid he'd swallow it and require another visit to the animal hospital. Anyway, somehow he got hold of it again.

He Loves his hedgehog.

Mmmm. Hedgehog. (This one brings to mind the "Love to eat them mousies" cartoon, doesn't it?)

Fortunately for the hedgehog, Finny has the attention span of ... well, an almost two year old golden retriever.

It has again been put away, but I'm not sure where, so I suppose it will show up again and provide more "ferocious hunter" delight for my sweet pup.

Here is our effort at a "selfie." Every dingbat kid on the internet can take pictures of themselves, but Finny and I can't figure out where to look. Oh well. Finny is cute anyway!

And he IS cute, isn't he? He's been So much better behaved lately. Sometimes I almost imagine that he's a good dog, but then he does something to remind me that he still has plenty of puppy left to go.

Here he is, helping me with Richard III. I'm sure Richard would have been a nicer person if he'd had a golden retriever puppy to snuggle. Well, and if Tudor propagandists hadn't found it expedient to blacken his name he'd have come down to us looking better too (We just discussed "Daughter of Time" in our library book group. And, as has been the case with previous meetings, we had One person come in addition to my parents and me. But this time the other person Loved the book -- actually, it's a long-time favorite of hers -- which was absolutely unprecedented. It was a very nice change of pace.)

Sweet, sweet puppy.