Leftovers, Metal and Basketball

 

I'm not talking about food. 

Just flowers and plants.

Leftovers from a summer of flourishing but waning beauty. 

There are fewer and fewer to photograph these days. 

Some of my flowers and the iddy biddy plants in the ground are still hanging on to put on whatever show they can, and we're almost to December.

They look pretty frazzled and scruffy, but their efforts to hang in there are appreciated.  

Granted, they don't make the best eye candy but, at least there's something. 

All that said, we've definitely reached the time of the year when the metal flowers will have to take over for the winter season. 

What's really nice about them is that they don't have to be watered, maybe just painted up from time to time. 

As darkness continues and even the leftovers give up the ship, I'm also planning to order some more solar-powered colored lights to place strategically around the yard. 

Once they're planted, I'll have to stay up late to see their beauty OR maybe their show will last until I get up at oh-dark thirty. 

I'm doubting the latter because solar means they need to see the sun, and since it's hanging around less and less over the next month or two, the light show will probably last just a while in the evenings. 

Whatever the case, every time I see neat colors from the lights I already have, it brightens my mood. 

I threw this photo of Bridie in with today's meager assortment because the Elizabethan collar is her current story. 

She came home from the pet lodge with some bare pink skin showing up on each elbow aka kennel sores. 

At first, the areas remained pink but later we discovered that Bridie had chosen to lick one too often, causing it to become more raw and red and occasionally bloody. 

We were going to take her to the vet, but my vet friend Michelle said she'd just be giving her an Elizabethan collar to prevent Bridie from licking. 

I was a bit reluctant about trying that because we went through Elizabethan collar fiascos when Bridie was a pup.  She stayed all night in a crate, and the standard collar just wasn't working for her to find any comfort, so we bought a blow-up collar. 

Twasn't long before her sharp puppy teeth snipped a hole in that one.  No point in trying to inflate it, so we bought another.  Bridie took care of that one quickly. 

So, I didn't have much confidence in Michelle's suggestion BUT we still have two standard Elizabethan collars AND Bridie is an adult now, not a kid.

She has demonstrated her adulthood this time and doesn't seem to mind wearing the collar. She also doesn't mind when we take it off for when she's outside running around. 

The raw area is looking much better because she has left it alone, except for a couple of times when we've removed the collar for outdoor fun and are not looking for her licking while putting on our own outside clothes. 

With luck and with Bridie's current Lovestead fashion statement, the kennel sore will dry up and disappear. 

At this household, this week, we're thinking basketball. 

Three ZAGS games:  today, tomorrow and Wednesday, along with an SHS men's Bulldogs jamboree and their season opener later in the week.

The Las Vegas tournament should be an indicator of just how strong the ZAGS team is this year.   

We'll have a pretty good idea after this evening's game between the Bulldogs and the Crimson Tide from Alabama. 

 

Tonight's game starts at 6:30 p.m. PST.  It will be televised on the TNT Channel.  

GO, ZAGS! 

Happy Monday. 

💙💛💜💚