California Groovin'

This is Bart. He is one of our four Nubian wethered goats. He's quite the gentleman. When I stop to see them, usually every evening, he's the first one to come over and "talk". He was being exceptionally sweet yesterday. We always say "Hello." by touching noses and then he starts sniffing me. It's his way of making sure that I am who he thinks I am. It's like he says...
"Ah! It's farmlady. She's wearing that wonderful shirt that has the shinny buttons and the Jessica McClintock perfume. I know her. She is...(sniff, sniff...) my favorite person besides The Prospector, who feeds me. I like Farmlady very much." Then, I start rubbing his neck and tell him what a wonderful goat he is and, for once, I caught the "look" with my camera. When I start rubbing and talking, he closes his eyes and gets all groovy. It's so cute. He's such a lady's man.

The garden looks so nice right now and I haven't had to do anything. Spring is just a wonderful time of year. We don't have to water or prune. We don't have to fertilize or plant anything..., yet. It's a time for enjoyment. We watch the bushes and trees bud out and the bulbs that we planted in the fall push up through the damp earth and blossom into lovely flowers, some of which, I had forgotten I had planted. Bulbs are like "surprises" in the Spring. I have white tulips that I didn't remember planting..., but here they are, opening up in the wine barrels and looking all lacey and lovely.
The French Pussywillow is ready to be picked and the alyssum is all over the place. Some of the alyssum has grown down onto the walkway. Cutter has decided to use these soft fragrant flowers to rest in after he wears himself out running around the yard with Carl. He look so cute sitting in this shady spot watching Carl. He waits for a sign that it's time to play again. Carl thinks it's funny that Cutter is sitting in the flowers, but he forgets that he use to get a drink in the birdbath and then lay right down in the middle of my flower bed when he was a youngster. He prefers to sun himself on the porch now that he's a big, grown up dog. They are both enjoying the beautiful weather.
As I sit here in the warm California sunshine and think of all the beauty around me, I remember Robert Louis Stevenson's small poem that says....
"The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

I think that sums up how we feel, here, today....