I'm SO glad that Brownie is not a barker, because there is so much here to bark at!  Yesterday morning at the Apple Pool, there was a squirrel in the tree.  Brownie gave one bark, and then was content to watch it intently.  

Have another book to add to my list:

Major New York Times bestseller; Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012;Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011; A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title;One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year; One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011

Doesn't sound like light reading while soaking in the pool, though.

In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011, Thinking, Fast and Slow is destined to be a classic.

Back at the house, there was a doe having her breakfast in the yard.  Again, Brownie gave one bark (to let us know about the intruder?) which she basically ignored.

Then he sat quietly, just keeping a watchful eye on her.

Hilda had the 'energy' for more footwork yesterday (the past several times I've suggested it she's been too tired!) so the progress continues.  Maybe more today?  The improvement is dramatic after each session, but there is still more to go!

In the afternoon I headed up to the swimming pool, hoping to connect with Eileen and Mike.  Sure enough they were there, and I actually did get in.  But with the cloud cover it just wasn't warm enough for me, and when thunder rumbled just a few minutes later of course I got right out.  She soon followed, and we had a nice long chat.

Noah is a professional clown, and he was entertaining kids poolside -

and teaching the kids how to make a dog.  

Here's Wilder with his.

Walking back to the house there was a doe in the trees right off the road.  Brownie ran out the full length of his leash, barking at it (which of course she blithely ignored.)  There was a car leaving, and seeing us the driver was going quite slowly.  Good thing, because out of the corner of my eye I saw a second doe jump right in front of it "out of nowhere".  The driver, with good reflexes, was able to stop,  missing it by inches.

During her pedicure Hilda had mentioned that James writes poetry.  When I asked him later if he would show some to me, he was willing.  The ones he shared were dark and intense - but very well written.

We had weather most of last evening.  I waited until the last minute, but around 10 finally I had to take Brownie for his evening constitutional in the rain.  Luckily it was a light rain, but after seeing how he wouldn't go out in it at home I was surprised as how well he handled it.  While there was a fair amount of shaking, he didn't really seem to mind.  I, of course, was wearing Terry's raincoat.  And after all that, he didn't even "take care of business."