Flowers and Puppies

You know what the world needs more of right now? Pictures of flowers and puppies, of course!

Flowers

One of the most amazing/jealousy-inducing things about Mainers (for real, that's what they're called) is their ability to grow the most beautiful flowers. You drive past a place and think, surely that must be a uber-fancy, speciality garden store, but BAM, it's Walmart. I tried to find a picture of the planters outside Walmart by searching Google images and found this:

Nancy Morgan Barnes, "Twister at the Rockland Walmart"

and this:

Hiram Berry, who just married Oliver Martinez in France.
Oh wait, that's Halle Berry. My bad!

and this:

This makes so little sense, I don't know where to begin. Aztec rug?
Urban slang use in the second whitest state in the U.S.?
Possible infringement on Tyler Perry's intellectual property?
But, what do I know about Maine marketing?
 Apparently, it is a thriving business.

If you're ever in a bad mood, just put a random search into Google Images and you'll be laughing, or at least scratching your head, within minutes. I know Google has the best algorithm for searches, but the images it picks up are delightfully bizarre. But I digress...

Flowers:

Flower arrangement at the Alpaca farm. What? Yes.

In retrospect I should have visited this gallery since the flowers are so pretty, the art might have been decent.
I'm sure that nothing would equal the majesty of, "Twister at the Rockland Walmart," but, then, what does?

Sadly, the area outside the K's office is slightly less colorful. Unless you consider sidewalk colorful.

Close up of planter at the law office.

This is a window box outside a pizza restaurant that also features karaoke.
What goes better with a large pepperoni pizza and bad singing than a lovely arrangement of petunias and coleus?

Same place. All the window boxes are different arrangements. I think this is some lantana and maybe vinca?

What I don't understand is this: Are people in Maine just naturally able to plan flower gardens and design amazing planters? It can't just be that the weather is more conducive to growing flowers. This must be some of that Yankee ingenuity I've heard about.

Other examples of Yankee ingenuity via Google Images:

Very clever. If it changed the roll for you, it would be genius.

If you're smart enough to figure this out, you are smart enough
to get a better job with higher pay and then
buy a car with factory-installed AC.

Merry Christmas!

Puppies

Sister and her adorable dog joined us during our second week in Maine. He is a three-year-old Cavachon, which is a real thing despite what spellcheck thinks. A Cavachon is a mix between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Bichon Frises. Sister got her puppy here, and if you go to the website you will die of the cuteness (not literally, I hope). The Boy is not a fan of dogs, or other non-human mammals, to be honest. Or, actually humans much of the time. Here he is when we stopped to visit with our favorite cows (yes, we have favorite cows) the Belted Galloways, which are the bovine version of an Oreo:

Here is one of the menacing creatures close up:

Eeek!

He's strangely fine with reptiles of all kinds and birds, all of which skeeve me out completely. 

When the children were tired of me taking their picture, I set upon Cappy (the dog) as my next victim:

I mean, he's the perfect subject because he can't complain and he's almost as cute as a kitten dressed as a mushroom:

Or he will be when I dress him like a jicama.

Aside: Google Images has no pictures of a dog dressed as a jicama. This is the best I could do:

Better get to work on my dog-jicama costume. Google Images needs me!