goodbye hot, dry summer and hello lovely autumn

Look how green the grass is already, after just two bouts of rain this autumn! The groundsmen must have done some great preparation during summer, so the soil could take up the rain when it eventually came.

But what are these strange long white poles leaning on the fence?

And what about these deep holes in the ground?

It must be time for the footy to start. Aussie Rules, of course. So they'll need four posts, two to mark goals and two to mark behinds.

Rain!

Only one day after posting a photo of Penny in a 'pretend' puddle, I was able to get a shot of her in a real one! Hooray for rain. The resilient plants are already sending out new growth. (I don't have the heart to whisper to them that it's too late for summer growth and that winter might be around the corner. Let them enjoy growing for a little longer.)

hot summers and dry grass

It has continued hot here, unseasonably warm for the beginning of autumn, so we're still tending to go out walking early in the day. Penny feels the heat, so she was glad to find a big puddle on the grass at one of our regular parks this morning.

It was interesting to see that she put her belly into the water but didn't roll over. I think she cools herself through her belly and her paws.

The water sits on the top of the grass when the groundsmen water, and I think it's because the topsoil was removed when a water harvesting system was built under the ground in this area. 

We often see lines of disturbed soil across the playing fields, and one groundsman told us it's so that the water might penetrate to lower levels. You can see that the grass grows in lines around these spots.

Some areas have to get special attention.

Thank goodness for all the hard work the turf specialists put in. Otherwise the whole area would look like this part that isn't maintained.

a whole month since I posted

Wow! I was amazed to see I haven't written anything about Penny's life for a whole month. I guess the hot summer weather has made us lazy. The last few weeks have consisted of lazing around most of the day, walking either super early (By my standards, anything before 10 am is super early, lol) or late in the cool of the evening.

Penny's lumps and itches are not bothering her at the moment, as far as I can tell. She's taking one and a half Cetirizine each day, with the aim of settling any allergies, and we put Apex lotion on her itchy areas a couple of times a day when needed.

So, not much to report... which is good, from my point of view.

evening walk

It's pretty hot today, so we saved our walk for the evening and kept it short. Now, to a human, the sight of this messy lane way is rather unpleasant, but to a dog...

lovely smells all over the place - hamburger wrappers,  soft drink containers, cooked chicken scents, and who knows what else. Only Penny knows.

And there was something worth rolling in. Which is a bit of a pity since Penny was clipped and groomed yesterday, a rare occurrence.

We're off to the vet tomorrow, to check up on the many lumps and bumps Penny has, to measure and list them, so we can know if they grow large or change in any way. It seemed like a good time to have her clipped, so we can find them all.

What to feed the dog

I used to feed Penny only raw food, but nowadays we tend to mix raw and cooked. However, since her time in hospital with a bad attack of what seemed to be gastritis, we are super careful that she not get anything that might set back her recovery.

So it was helpful to get an email from the RSPCA tonight with a suggested feeding guide.

We feed her sardines, and I notice the guide says not to feed fish too often, so I'll take notice of that.

Loving our new doggy pool

So far the new foldable pool ('buddy and belle' brand, made in China) is a great success. I had put it away, and it folded up really small, and fairly easily, though of course I couldn't' get it back into the original box. Who ever can?

It fitted comfortably into an ordinary cotton shopping bag, 42 cm square (about 17 inches).

Today it's hot and the house is full of workmen replacing a damaged ceiling, so there's no cooling possible. It seemed like a good time to try the pool once again.

Penny doesn't do much jumping these days, due to a past operation on her left knee and to a degree of arthritis, but she leapt in and out today, having fun. We'll hope she doesn't pay the price tomorrow.