Spring Flower Distraction

I'm feeling rather stressed.  Our old dog Charlie, poor Charlie, woke up with a swollen face.  A very swollen face.  A tooth abscess maybe?  A clogged salivary gland?  Charlie is a tough dog who never whines, never complains, but who seems to be falling apart.  He's mostly 3-legged now due to a torn ACL (yes, dogs have ACL's, which we now know only too well since he had surgery on the ACL of his other back leg two years ago).  Surgery again, on a ten year-old dog, seemed wrong, so now he's 3-legged.  Well, he still has the messed-up leg, it wasn't amputated or anything, it's just kind of a hanger-on appendage.  Despite his infirmities, Charlie still wags his tail and heads for the door when he sees Lyle in running shoes.  He'd do his darndest to keep up.  I try to give him extra love when Lyle leaves without him.  He mopes.

And he has several growths.  Without going into too much detail on a rainy Wednesday morning, they are all benign (so far), just a little unsightly.  But this new face thing is more than a little unsightly.  The vet doesn't open for another hour, so I think I'll post some more pictures of our Spring flowers.  They're not unsightly.

I love the color of these tulips on the north side of our house.  They brighten up the shade.

And also on the north side, I added this lovely pot.  It's a perfect water dish for the lazy dog owner.  

Once a week and we're set.

  Poor Charlie with the swollen face and three legs and delinquent owners.

Moving back to the flowers....

I haven't missed the grass we took out last summer.

Not one bit.

I think my favorite plant in the berm is this one.  No flowers, but I love it.

It's Lamb's Ears, named for its unbelievably soft leaves.  I've planted Lamb's Ears before, 

but this Helen Von Stein variety is like Lamb's Ears on steroids.

Don't you want to touch it?

And another newbie on the block is this funky akebia vine.  For all its weirdness, I'm pretty sure I love it.

And it smells amazing.

Although right now I think the whole neighborhood can smell the lilacs. 

 In my opinion, they could take the fragrance down a few notches and I'd be fine.

Work continues on the wisteria walkway and I'm almost convinced it will be a good thing. 

 Still deciding.

The vet's office should be open now.  

I just asked Charlie, "Want to go in the car?"  

His metronome tail kicked up the tempo to whatever italian phrase means super speedy.

Our poor 3-legged, swollen-faced, growth-ridden dog.

We love him.