Did you notice? I have a new look! I was tired of the old blog site and have been thinking about what I wanted to do with a new one. So, if it’s your first time here since the “new me,” you haven’t come to the wrong place. Lynne’s Blog is now “a ‘new’ Jersey Girl’s Blog,” since that is what this blog is all about—my new life in New Jersey. Rick was very patient with me [bless his heart] about steering me through all the changes I wanted to make to a template that I found. I am certain that he worked harder than I did today on our new look. I think it works!

One thing I knew I wanted was a photo banner that I could change to reflect either my mood or the season change with photos I have taken. So, the header photo will change according to my mood, or the seasons. Or whatever takes my camera’s fancy. I take my camera everywhere lately because I might see something that I need to capture. [Even when doing the daily dog scooping.] The leaves keep falling, the acorns keep falling, and there is always a new pattern of leaves to entice me.

Please let me know if you find a link that is not working. This was a fairly major overhaul to my blog, so I’m certain there will be some kinks that need to be worked out.

Let me know what you think about the new look!

We had a hard frost last night. As I step outside to throw food for the birds, the morning is silent but for the crackling sound of leaves on their journey to the ground. Soon the trees will be bare. I lift my face to the sun and breathe in the crisp, damp air. Heaven. Fall is my favorite season. The firey glow of the changing trees warms and nourishes my soul. The fallen leaves that carpet the ground give off a wonderfully heady odor of earthiness. I feel a connection to nature that I normally don’t notice. A grounding.

The leaf
gives up its
tenacious hold
on the tree
and begins its
twirling, graceful ballet
to the ground below

lr2006©

I’m still trying to catch the blog up on what we’ve been doing for the past week. Rick’s parent’s came to visit and we went back to Ellis Island and Lady Liberty. Here are some photo impressions of Ellis Island.

Late September/early October is apple picking season here in New Jersey and New York. We have many U-Pick orchards close by in both northern NJ and around Warwick, NY. While Mom was here on her last visit, she wanted to pick a couple of bags of apples. So, one fine day we headed off to do just that. Due to perfect weather conditions, the apple crop this year was a banner one. Trees were bursting with fragrant red fruit.

We chose Masker Orchards in Warwick. Family owned and run, Masker does not sell their fruit to the mass market. They are strictly a U-Pick orchard. You check in at the entrance and they give you plastic sacks for your picked purchases. The map of the orchard is printed on the sack, where which type of apple tree is planted. We were after Empires [a combination of Red Delicious and Jonathan] and Cortlands. The roads are rutted and dirt, and uphill. We had some trouble navigating, but finally figured out how to read the map.

We found that the Cortlands were bare of apples. Darn, they’re good cooking apples. There were plenty of Empires, and in just a few short minutes we had a bag full. There were so many perfect apples on each and every branch that we only picked from two trees and you could not tell we had picked any. I have never seen so many gorgeous apples! Mom wanted another bag of a different variety. Since the Johnagolds were all gone as well, we had to settle for Red Delicious. Two huge, ready-to-burst bags later and we were good to go. I had no idea what Mom was going to do with all those apples!

I’m not that much of a fan of Red Delicious, but they were good. The Empires were awesome. I wish now that I had picked my own bag, but at the time I couldn’t envision what I was going to do with 40-some-odd apples. Next year I will definitely pick my own bag. It makes a huge difference in flavor to eat them picked right off the tree. CRUNCH! Becky had the delicious lingering smell of parfum des pommes for days afterward. Yum.

The Warwick Valley a few weeks later…

Our sweet Milli is gone. The house is quieter, the dogs somewhat subdued this morning without her adding to the barking ruckus that starts our daily routine. Other than teaching her children [Daisy and Bode] a few bad habits that she started at their birth, she was an easy dog to have around. Her sad, cow-eyes could speak volumes when she turned her gaze on you. Yesterday, that gaze said I can’t go on, please do something to help me. The spark and twinkle was just not there. Just before the doctor came in to administer the dose that would help her on her way, she gave us one last silly-Milli smile, but it only lasted a second.

Milli was diagnosed with Wobbler’s disease last year at about this time. We kept her on a dose of prednisone to help her walk. She did very well and managed to get around just fine, and happily. About a month ago we noticed a change in her. She wasn’t looking quite so good and was having more difficulty with the stairs. We chalked it up to the pred taking its toll on her body and muscles. Over the past week or so she had taken to laying outside by the pool for long periods of time, and when we called her to come in she ignored us. It took a lot of coaxing to get her inside. Then 3 days ago she refused her breakfast, something Milli never does. She ate her dinner meal with gusto. The next morning she refused breakfast again and would not even take a biscuit. Again, that evening she ate her meal. But, Saturday morning I had to hand feed her chicken because she would not eat anything else. By that afternoon her gums and inside her eyes were very pale, and I knew it was not going to be good news. She started with diarrhea, another bad sign. She quit drinking.

Sunday morning when Rick let the dogs out before we took his parents to the airport at 4:00 a.m., all the dogs came back inside except for Milli. She didn’t answer our calling her name. Rick took the flashlight and starting searching the fenced woods part of our yard. He finally found her just lying in the woods next to the fence, almost like she was trying to crawl off somewhere to die. We managed to get her in the house before we left. When we got home it was obvious she was going downhill fast. We took her to the ER vet. They gave her fluids and got her somewhat stable and did blood work and a few x-rays. They showed she was bleeding internally, most likely from a tumor on her spleen, and more than likely hemangiosarcoma. Surgery could be done to remove the spleen, but there was a 66% chance it was malignant, and in her condition it was risky at best. Prognosis if things went normally would only buy her another couple of months.  We knew our choice would be to let her go.

Join me in celebrating her life. I am going to try and capture the memories of her that stick in my mind the most, along with some photos.

She was the most beautiful puppy we’ve ever had. Just breathtaking. [See her as a puppy here.]
She growled at me the very first time she saw me peeking into her Sherpa bag at the airport!
She had cow’s eyes.
She was an easy whelper; a good mamma.
She was silly.
She loved to roll over on her back and kick her back feet in the air. Belly rubs!
She was lazy.

One of the cutest things she used to do was while we were at the cabin. Before she was diagnosed with Wobbler’s, she stopped going on the long walks at the cabin with us. She would start out with us, but somewhere along the way she’d take a short cut home. She would be waiting at the back door, wagging away, when we got back with the rest of the crew. Pretty soon she stopped going at all and just stayed at the cabin. She would roll over on her back when she saw us coming and kick her feet in the air, and wiggle her body back and forth—all while upside down. Very cute.

Here is Milli in her prime.

Her special name was Cookie. I don’t know why but Rick started calling her Cookie/Cookie Monster. It stuck. Some other names where:
Milly-enia
Silly Milly
Sniff, wiggle, fart and blow [of which she did all at the same time!]
Cow dog [mostly because of her eyes, but also because she was cow-like at times]

Daisy can’t figure out why she isn’t here. Daisy, Milli and Bode all had this “game” they played when let out of the house. Milli taught it to them when they were pups. This is the bad habit I was referring to above. We never liked it, but couldn’t really stop them from doing it. They would bark, bite and snap at each other [around the legs, neck, tail] until one of them got tired. In the past few years Milli was an unwilling participant. Today when I let them out Daisy just stood there staring at the door, waiting for her mother to come out and play the “game”. But she didn’t come. She looked up at me as if to say ‘well, where is she? isn’t she coming out?’ It brought the tears to my eyes once again.

Sweet dreams, dear Cookie. When you see Indy, Mira, Margaux, Monty and Heidi, tell them we still miss them and think about them often.