Happiness Is Short Lived With Peonies

We wait for them and then---they blow open and look exhausted.

I have a small vase in the entrance hallway.  And I have been cutting whatever is in flower in the yard and putting a small arrangement into the vase every day or two.  Next to the painted Chinese fan and the Foo Dogs. It's still the Year of the Dog.  And G and I are Fire Dogs. Today I selected three, not quite open, buds from three different Peony varieties.  Seemly, ant free.

Riley and G are back from their walk.  Riley is reclined on the rug next to the computer desk.  Cleaning his paws.  Possibly tired from a "good" walk.  Meaning no deer flies biting him.

I have Grow Boxes to fill and plant with Early Girl tomatoes.  And I have those seedlings of squashes and pickling cucumbers to settle into some soil.  The peppers are planted. Some will be red and some a sort of mango yellow when ripe.  They all will be green when they start out.  All the seeds I tried to start in the seed trays were dug up and eaten by the chipmunks living under the deck.  We could trap them--but then what???  Riley is not a deterrent.  A cat would be.

Friday.  Already.  Town will be swamped with vacationing tourists.  I should have driven into Town just after I woke up.  I have done one load of wash and dried another.  Folded and put away.  I am cutting the tags out of my clothes as I wear them--the tags annoy me a great deal.  I am such a Princess.  And on that note---