Audrey

Audrey is doing well.  My Cup Plant towers over the back yard, about 10 feet tall and covered in yellow daisy-like blooms.  She is officially known as Silphium perfoliatum, a member of the Aster family a native perennial wildflower, but I consider Audrey to be quite domesticated.  This is her third year of dominating my backyard, and she's outdone herself with flowers this year.  When the flowers go to seed, they will provide food for a variety of small birds.  Even now, she is attractive to Goldfinches and that makes for a lovely sight!  Audrey has pretty much destroyed the raised bed with her massive stems and roots, but I consider that a small price to pay for a chance to enjoy this lovely plant.

Pups are growing restless and need more outdoor time.  Yesterday noon I took them outdoors, and Ron brought them in several hours later.  They were out again in the evening.  Wish I had a safe place to leave them outdoors all day, but I can't risk them disturbing the neighbors - or being stolen.  Still have people who want to visit the pups, but part of this weekend will be spent taking the pups visiting - they need more travel and more opportunities to explore new places.  They are getting heavy, and I'm not looking forward to taking them in and out of the car, but it's something that needs to be done.  Because a couple of the pups have unilateral hearing we're doing lots of "noise things" too, as unis can be sound sensitive if not exposed to a variety of loud noises as pups.

Fern went for her first walk on leash last night and did quite well.  Unfortunately, the path I normally use for walking small pups included a couple of lawns that had been sprayed.  Lawn spray is supposedly "safe" after it dries, but I don't believe it.  We'll wait a few days to go that route.