It was an early morning in the gardens, and too pretty of a moment to not stop and take some photos.

I have plants in various stages of everything, this is my favorite time. Even when a plant is done blooming, there is still so much beauty there, like my red Oriental Poppy. I might like this stage of the plants life the best, for me it is a bit more interesting. And I am a massive seed saver, so this is when it is truly exciting for me!

Finally, my bachelor buttons have become self seeding. They are everywhere this year! In every nook and cranny, between rocks and fences, and in various gardens, including my bush bean patch, I love it. I have had four distinct colors for the past few years, this periwinkle color is the only one that came back, and came back strong!

I have been cutting lavender bundles to dry for the past few days, but have some young plants that I am going to let go into bloom. For me, there are two colors that make me smile, the beautiful early morning salmon colored sky right before the sun comes up, and the grey/dusty green/purple of high elevation lavender. Today I experienced both!

My dogs and I were having fun between watering, weeding, and mowing. They would have preferred me all to themselves, but still we had a great morning, and now everyone is happily snoozing away!

Ocean rarely lets me take her photo anymore. She has put up with twelve years worth of the paparazzi snapping away, at home, agility trials, freestyle demonstrations, and schools. But today, and happy 12th Birthday to you My Ocean, she posed for quite some time, she was enjoying herself, just like old times. I love when she looks at me and is smiling and connects to what we are doing together. I love her!

And then we have ‘The Boyz’. I was practicing speedy send outs, and speedy call backs. Story was in pig heaven! He was having so much fun, and if you are new to Story’s story, he is nothing short of ‘steam train energy’. He is fully muscled, strong, powerful, and fast, super duper fast. He is so much fun to work, power and integrity, two awesome qualities.

And my $eeker, such a brilliant hard working and smart boy. I love his face, there is something so soft and sweet in there, but sometimes hard to capture because he is also so freaking intense.