Early Summer Morning Reflections (?!)

Good morning and what a beautiful summer morning it is! But here in Acton it's also extremely noisy. I'm not sure what is going on but their is a huge piece of equipment heading down our neighbors driveway, which abuts the entire length of ours. It's noisy, squeaky, and rattly and all of our dogs are going NUTS! Jack and Pippin are in the house this morning and Jack, who is USUALLY very soft spoken, is demonstrating his deep deep baritone barking capabilities. And Pippin - who is always full of vim and vigor - is equally excited. Several attempts to hollar at the dogs outside has failed, and I'm about ready to resort to kenneling J & P! NICE way to wake up and it's not even 7 am. BUT! I suppose - I must concede especially as last night Treasure, Rosie, Molly, Scooby, and Wish all performed an early morning primeval canine howl. It lasts all of 1 - 2 minutes but I'm sure we were being cursed loudly by the few neighbors we have. They are good for a daily howl but usually it is during the daytime, and most often my appearance on the back deck will bring things to a close. Fortunately - we do have wonderful neighbors who have either horses or dog(s). At any given time it could be Brittanys, Dobermans, Rotties, or a Lab letting SOMEONE know there is something not quite right (at least in their minds) in the neighborhood! Then there are times another neighbors horse or pony may get loose and run amuck - it's pretty lively then too - and hysterically funny (to me anyway). Anyway, I think our neighbors are putting in a pond.

Speaking of early mornings.... few things compare to when John and I lived in Eliot and raised a few pigs with our friends. Yes I said pigs! One lovely early morning summer, much like this one today I was alerted to the sound of a magnified voice through a speakerphone, coming from outside in the road. I stumbled to the kitchen window to find about 5 pigs in the middle of the road (a heavily traveled road) surrounded on either side by the local police. Evidently Wilbur and his friends decided to escape for a midnight rendezvous. Oh my gosh - if I wasn't so mad I would have laughed myself silly! Of course John had left for work before daylight and our kids were still sleeping in bed. Our Brittany Hunter, was peering over the back of the couch looking out the window observing it all. I scrambled down to the barn and quickly filled a bucket with grain and walked out into the middle of the road acting fairly calm, cool, and collected (which I was not!). Shaking the grain to attract the pig's attention I called "Here Piggie piggie piggie! Come Piggie piggie piggie!" GRUNT... SNORT... look out !!! It's a piggie stampede!!! I was younger and faster and ran through the driveway, down over the hill, and into the barnyard.... That was then, and this is now. It makes for a good story for a summer morning, don't you think?! And it's still good for a laugh when we get together with our old neighbors. We're not kidding when we say we've always had animals of one kind or another. When our milking goats were due to kid, I'd walk up to the elementary school with a note for the teachers to excuse John and Maryann so they could come home and watch the babies arrive. And then there was the time a lamb was born that we thought would die, we brought her up into the house and called the vet for a 2 a.m. visit. Our whole family nursed that little bugger back to health, and she was rightly named "Miracle".

By the way, I really wanted to use an appropriate sketch for this blog post, but I am sensitive to copyrite protection. So just check out the print that I discovered which REALLY goes along with my pig story - it is called A Sunny Swinging Pig Chasing Day, from the collection of Ed Rowles. As newsletter editor and also having the blogs and website, I like to google certain topics. I was delighted to find that link. But I also don't want to to get sued for copying original artwork!

Looking forward to the Brittany club Fun Day this weekend and seeing many of YOU here!

Love and God bless you from All Things Brittany.