Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue – Page 30

Orange

Orange is a warm and happy color – more intense than Yellow and less aggressive than Red.

In color meanings, it is positively associated with gregarious, exuberant, youthful, adventurous, and creative.

A little Orange energizes. Too much orange can feel overly flamboyant, loud and crass.

Orange in nature is associated with heat, fire, sunsets and sunrises, and of course, autumn.

In crystals, Orange is a power and healing color. It stimulates appetite as well as enthusiasm and creativity.

To Native Americans, Orange represents learning or kinship. In Eastern philosophy, the Orange Chakra is in the abdomen and the creative center.

It was also the source of ridiculous jokes as in “Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?”

Orange in the garden is sometimes criticized as too bright and garish – not tasteful. But I think orange brings life to a garden. I use it at home to create tropical heat or add brilliance to an otherwise dark space.

We use spots of it in the Memorial Garden to add warmth while accentuating other colors.

From deep, near-red burnt Oranges,

to the more fragile Salmons and Apricots…

you’ll find every shade of “Orange” in the Homeward Bound Memorial Garden.

Orange you glad you stopped by?

First Hint of Fall

Every year I prepare for our annual ocean camping trip over Labor Day weekend. It’s how I know that Fall is near. The Memorial Garden seems to sense it too…earlier this year.

The Obedient Plant in Ina’s Cottage Garden is making an appearance.

Maria’s Sunflowers are showcasing shades of gold and red.

The grapes are sun-kissed ripe and wonderfully sweet,

and the Sedum has flowered.

The tiny drifts planted last spring have sprouted a new fountain…and its guest.

And the Amaranthus, started from seed, is spreading like deep red pearls throughout the Perennial bed.

Even Sequoia is dressed in fall colors. This sweet girl was surrendered by a family that loved her dearly, but happened to live in a grove of Eucalyptus trees that she is horribly allergic to. No amount of medication could help, so they entrusted her to us to help her recover and find her a home where she is pain (and itch) free.

I’m not sure that I am ready to say good-bye to summer – although I am very ready to leave the stifling hot valley for a week of ocean air, cold nights and campfires.

The garden – well it does what it will in its own time – ready of not.

Wordless Wednesday: Gone to the Dogs

Wordless Wednesday: Yum

Garden Ballet

Monarch Butterflies are doing dances all through the butterfly bed in the Homeward Bound Memorial Garden. We have created a haven for them with Butterfly Bush, Milkweed, Lantana, Verbena and a host of others.

As long as they stay still, I can pretty much capture them.

In flight – not so much.

I was able to capture the dance of this rare specimen, however. Quite the ballet – don’t you think?

Take a bow, Dee Dee! Such a cutie.

Wordless Wednesday: Flutter, Flitter, Flap

Healing hearts

“The human heart has a way of making itself large again even after it’s been broken into a million pieces.” ― Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

There is no right or wrong way to heal from loss.
Some people need time and retreat. Others find comfort among others.
Sometimes, the best thing for heartache is to open your heart to another.

Human loss and canine loss may not be the same thing, but canines have a way of healing a human heart. And when the canine is also in need of healing – the bond is more special still.

Fancy came to Homeward Bound from another rescue because the cancer inside her was malignant and they knew we could and would help at Homeward Bound. It was removed, but it will return. When? We don’t know. And to Chuck, it doesn’t matter.

Some flowers are perennial –

they come back season after season.

Others, have but one season –

and some – just one day.

Their beauty fills us equally – maybe even more so when we know our time with them is short.

A flower no more knows how long it has to bloom that we do. Ignorance is bliss. But humans who purposefully open their hearts to animals knowing their seasons are short have a special place on this earth and beyond.

“To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” ~ Thomas Campbell

Chuck says that Fancy will be treated like a queen. A queen doing an angel’s work here on earth.

Purple: Royalty in the Garden

The color purple is associated with royalty, nobility, luxury, and power.

Purple also represents meanings of wealth, extravagance, creativity, wisdom, dignity, grandeur, devotion, peace, pride, mystery, independence, and magic.

The color purple is a rare occurring color in nature and as a result is often seen as having sacred meaning.

Purple, unlike violet, is not one of the colors of the visible spectrum. It is called a non-spectral color. It exists in culture and art, but not, in the same way that violet does, in optics. It is a combination of two primary colors. Purple combines the calm stability of blue and the fierce energy of red.

Because the purple color is created by combining a strong warm with a strong cool color, the color retains both warm and cool properties.

On one hand, the color purple can boost imagination and creativity, on the other, too much purple can cause moodiness.

Purple is said to be associated with spirituality, the sacred, higher self, passion, third eye, fulfillment, and vitality.

It is said to uplift spirits, calm the mind and nerves, create feelings of spirituality, increase sensitivity, and encourage imagination and creativity.

The color purple and its lighter lavender shades introduce romance to nature; think lavender, orchid, lilac, and violet flowers. Lavender suggests uniqueness, while purple invokes mystery.

Purple is considered a cool color in landscape design. Its appearance has a calming effect in a garden.

Purple plants visually recede in a garden, helping to make a small space feel larger.

Purple was one of the first colors used in prehistoric art. The artists of Pech Merle cave other Neolithic sites in France used sticks of manganese and hematite powder to draw and paint animals and the outlines of their own hands on the walls of their caves.

Its complimentary color is yellow.

Forever is composed of nows

Gardening requires a leap of faith. You prepare the soil, plant the seed, tuber or bulb, protect and wait. There are no guarantees about weather, water or rabbits for that matter. Loss is inevitable; an accepted exchange for the joy and beauty we are blessed with.

“Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.”
~ Walt Whitman

The Sunflowers and Dahlias are late and smaller this year;

the Campanula did not even show; the Salvia and Rudbeckia, on the other hand, are prolific.

There’s no point in worrying about what might be – we just enjoy what is.

I met a woman in the garden on Saturday. She was visiting with Ned and contemplating adoption.

Clearly in love, she saw huggable in pudgy; enthusiasm in wilfulness.

But she worried a little about his age of eight. We hear this a lot. People think they need a young dog despite bonding with an older dog because they believe a youngster comes with a guarantee of time.

Just like the garden – there are no guarantees.

Loving an older dog requires a certain leap of faith, I guess. But there is no promise that we have longer with a young one. Life happens. Fourteen years; four years. We don’t know. What we know is that the connection is right when we look in a dog’s eyes and understand what is in their heart.

“Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has yet to come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering”
~ Ida Scott Taylor

We work to make each season of the garden beautiful and memorable – no matter what mother nature hands us.

The woman was told that we opened at noon on Sunday if she wanted to return. She was there by nine. By noon, she and Ned were gone together.

“Forever is composed of nows.” ~ Emily Dickinson

Wordless Wednesday: Bowed

Wild and Beautiful

I ordered Rudbeckia for a drift with grasses, variegated iris, purple aster, and ‘Purple Emperor’ sedum.
It was supposed to be a deep gold with full petals and a deep black center.

As I watch it unfold, it looks more like a wild child –

all gawky and skinny and twitchy.

And then it settles into this. Not the perfect flower I envisioned – but beautiful in its own right.

So it is with Jack – a dog that has been with us a very long time.

I featured him on a post a year ago. In a place full of golden retrievers, Jack was definitely not one. He’s a bit of a wild child himself around other dogs and while he has benefited greatly from training and the dedication of everyone here, he’s still pretty gawky and skinny and twitchy.

What Jack lacks in classic looks and dog-to-dog skills, he makes up for in people charm. And this weekend, he was finally recognized for his own special beauty.

I can’t bring you the pictures because the parents have not given permission to share, but I can tell you the story…so get out the tissues.

A young boy, adopted himself, picked Jack from all the other dogs on the website. He and his parents – former adopters – came out together to meet him. Flaws in all, the boy fell in love. He had been working and saving for his dog and had a hard-earned $10 in his pocket for the adoption fee. Now, Jack is a senior dog in need of a very special home. He’s been with us for almost three years waiting for that right opportunity. We would, of course, waive the fee for his chance at a fur-ever home. But this young man has been instilled with great values. He and his parents insisted. So the fee was reduced to $1.00. And do you know what he did? He paid the $1.00 for Jack – and donated the other $9.00 in support of the waiting dogs.

Jack is finally home. The family sent pictures of him playing with his very own boy in his very own backyard. I wish I could show them to you here, but parents’ privacy concerns for their children have to be respected. Suffice to say, there was not a dry eye in the rescue.

It was a very good weekend. (Thanks to my friend Rob for his wonderful photos of Jack.)

Welcome Relief

9:09 PM. 94-degrees.

Today is supposed to mark the end of a seven-day stretch of 100+ temperatures in the Sacramento Valley. By some miracle, we are supposed to get to a high of only 95 tomorrow. Someone, please grab my parka!

The flowers in the Homeward Bound Memorial Garden are more than ready for some relief.

Pups too. This is Bailey. She’s hot.

This lucky dog has found his relief; not just a shady spot, but a long-awaited home.

Tom came all the way from Taiwan and has been with us awhile. He’s another dog with sight impairments,

but he has no problem following his ball, does he?

He is going home with Kevin next week. A former adopter, a veteran, a man with an obvious passion for this well-deserving dog.

Kevin says he knew the minute he saw Tom that he was the one. He has visited with him constantly while waiting for a family commitment to conclude before Tom can go home.

They both obviously look forward to that day. We look forward to a breeze,

and a much-needed break from this sweltering heat!

Here’s hoping for our promised 95-degrees and a 12 mph breeze. Wind chill of 92 anyone? We’ll take it!