That's the Teddy advent calendar, marking her return from finishing school, along with the photos of Daisy that still live on the fridge. The kids here swap them out, each with their own favorites, but the kitchen is never Daisy-less.

A few weeks after Daisy didn't survive that rattlesnake bite, we planted daisies all over the place. They just came back into bloom.

We all still miss the little Labrador.

Someone who accepts reality.

Yes, it's a repeat. One of my favorite moments. The camera clicked and he turned his head.

Throwback Thursday: Shot at the little cottage on Cuthbert Road on Aug. 27, 2014.

As the little Labrador's first week of sleep-away camp draws to a close, a lot of us here are really missing her. (Not Walt, not yet, and now we're beginning to suspect maybe not ever.) So the more soft-hearted among us have taken to looking at her puppiest puppy pictures.

Awwww, what a little noodle.

Solstice Canyon, where we startled a Western yellow-bellied racer yesterday. A baby, I think, smooth and shiny, it crossed the path like water flowing. It's possible that your faithful blogger yelped screamed.

It's been very, very VERY quiet around here these last few days. The baby Labrador has gone to my friend Kirsten's home for a few weeks to polish her manners and her leash skills. She's the 5th one of my dogs that Kirsten, a genuinely gifted trainer, has worked with over the years. It sounds like a lot but we have two dogs at a time, plus we lost Daisy last year to a rattlesnake bite.

Little Teddy is on Day Three of her three-week stay. She's a true pandemic puppy. The extreme isolation we all faced meant she met only a handful of new people in that brief window during which puppies are pretty much fearless. It's made her wary of strangers and that's one of the things Kirsten is working on.

By the time the training period is over, my dogs don't want to come home. They live with Kirsten and her family, go on daily hikes or walks or swims with their fellow trainees, and basically live their best lives. They get taken to restaurants and stores and cafes and hotels to learn about the big, noisy, unpredictable world, and return relaxed and calm and so easy to live with.

The amount of detail you're getting about Teddy's training is in direct proportion to how much we miss her. (Well, not Walter yet. But he will.) The kids here play with her toys and hang out in her crate and insisted we can't move her daytime dog bed, except to vacuum. Later today we're going to make a Teddy advent calendar so we can cross off the days. She comes home on June 3.

Meanwhile, here's a glimpse of a swallowtail in the woods in Solstice Canyon a few weeks ago. You don't see many of them any more, and this one was very shy, wouldn't let me get close enough for a decent shot.

Throwback Thursday: Shot on on January 14, 2013

So, two things have been making this blog so spotty. First, LAO is finished as a site and being the only one posting here is pretty depressing. Yes, Word Press is a real possibility but omg, no matter what the ad copy says, it's not intuitive and it's not easy. So I dither.

And here's part two. I'm thinking of leaving Malibu. Hard to believe considering this month marks 25 (whut?) years of living here. But fires and traffic are worse every year and the pandemic real estate market has put even mobile homes here out of reach. So the posts come in fits and starts, even though I'm out hiking and walking every day, taking tons of photos, and can't imagine where else I could ever live.

Meanwhile, here's a photo of Solstice Canyon on the first of May. We're in the May gray/June gloom part of the year, but with climate change, that hasn't really held up lately. To all of the issues in this post -- we shall see.