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Kitty Yoga

Embrace the sun…feel the energy…

stretching Hera 1

stretching Hera 2

Stretching Hera 3

Stretching Hera 4

Oooooo….I wish I could stretch like that!!

Camo Kitty

Hermes has taken a liking to the studio…no doubt because he knows this is the one place in the house that he’s not supposed to be.  I’m realizing that kitties are not very different than kids.  I have to be very careful about going in and out because he’s very good at slipping through my legs.  He’s now started yowling and trying to break the door down (scratching & throwing himself at the door) when he knows I’m in there and of course, I can’t get anything done when he’s making such a pest of himself so I give up and let him in.

Hermes blends right in with this roving!

Hermes blends right in with this roving!

Usually, he’s happy to curl up on the chair and sleep but when I’m going in and out and he knows I’ll kick him out when I’m leaving, he hides…and there are some very good places to hide in the studio! 

The other day, this is where I found him!  I walked past him twice before noticing his tail hanging out of the box and twitching…

It Must Be Spring…

Yellow DaffODill Blossoms

Yellow Daffies -- a sure sign of Spring!

We’ve had some lovely weather and the outdoors has become a much nicer place to be…thank goodness!  The sun feels so good and charges our batteries after that very long winter. 

Jim has cleaned up most of the branches that came out of the trees during the numerous storms.  Its still too mushy to use the tractor so the larger ones remain but it’s a start!  I got into the little garden in front of the shop/studio and cleared away all of the leaves and debris that had collected there.  The daylilies are peeking through now and the Lily of the Valley, too. This is a shady spot at this time of year so everything is long in coming there.  On the other side of the house, the daffs are up — a little bright color in the landscape is lovely!

Jim helped me dig out the bamboo that had taken up residence in the studio garden last year.  It’ll be back!  I’m ready for it, though.  I’ve been told it’s not really bamboo but it looks the part.  Apparently, during Victorian times this plant was used to hide homestead dumps and this homestead was no exception!  There was quite a large stand of the stuff beside the summer kitchen when we moved here.  Later, when we excavated for the studio and moved the summer kitchen, we found all sorts of shards of china/pottery, old bottles and even a chamberpot amongst that stand of “bamboo.”  Unfortunately, the excavating “relocated” some of the bamboo and now it shows up annually about this time of year in various places.  I’m working on it.  I’d welcome any ideas on how to get rid of it…aside from using RoundUp. 

The chorus of peepers is loud and strong — love it!  Our duck couple is back on the little pond and is joined from time to time by a pair of Canada geese.  They do a good job of avoiding each other.  The geese actually seem to spend more time marching around in the pasture.  I’m not sure we’re going to be too happy about them being here once the grass is up and going but maybe the appearance of the sheep in the pastures will change their minds about this place…you think?

The sheep are sniffing the breeze…they know the grass is coming along!

Two Dead Mice

Hera (our female kitten) caught a mouse in the house — ICK! but at least we know she’s a good hunter and will help keep the rodent population down around here. I hate to think that there are mice in the house but I seriously doubt that there’s any way to keep them out — especially at this time of year.

mousing is exhausting work for a little kittie

mousing is exhausting work for a little kittie

Last year we were catless and religiously set traps in the cellar (we’re convinced that they come through the holes in the stone foundation of this old house) and we were pretty successful with that program but a very odd thing happened. We started finding just little bits of mouse in the traps…something bigger and carnivorous was making a meal out of the mice we were trapping. Yikes! I stopped checking traps…not wanting to meet whatever it was that was eating the mice. It just gave me the creeps. OK, call me a weanie…but it’s just creepy! But getting back to TWO dead mice — Later in the day, Jim was fooling with my laptop when he noticed some slimey goo on his hand. He was sitting there looking at it with this totally grossed out look on his face like “yuck! where did that come from!?” I was cautioning him (strongly) not to go near my keyboard and moving quickly toward the kitchen for a towel. But where did the slime come from??? The mouse! Not the one Hera caught — the one on the mouse pad.  It has “padded” sides — supposed to keep your hand comfy I guess — but the padding is actually gel under the rubbery skin of the mouse and it had sprung a leak. Yuck! I wonder what that stuff is — silicone? Nasty! We washed up and ordered a new mouse…

Feline Fever

(LtoR) Hermes & Hera

(LtoR) Hermes & Hera

Our friend, Jocelyn, who also happens to be a feline supermom, told us that the shelter is having a 2for sale on kitties. Jim has really been wanting a cat (or 2) but I’ve been resisting because it’s going to mean another thing for me to do…clean the box on a daily basis…at least until the great outdoors becomes the litter box. Well, we went to the shelter fully expecting to bring home a couple of older cats but now we have 2 kittens — Hermes & Hera — and they’re just so cute! They’re making us laugh alot and that’s a very good thing. All of their kitten care, vaccinations and  spay/neutering is part of the adoption package — a pretty good deal.

Hera preparing to eat her brother's ear

Hera preparing to eat her brother's ear

 The dogs are taking this very well considering that it’s been years since they’ve had to share the rug with felines. These kittens were fostered to a family with dogs so they’re not all freaked out by the dogs. We really tried to adopt 2 adults but couldn’t find the right combo that would also work with our dogs.