Hummingbird Card Giveaway

I've been away from this blog for way too long! I started a new job last August which has kept me busier than ever, the cats have had some health problems, i've spent more time watching eaglets on a webcam than you can imagine, i went to Vermont and to Maine this summer for two separate one-week vacations....etc.!

I almost made my first return post on July 8, when my dear Fuzzy died, but instead of starting that way, i'd like to start with a giveaway to (i hope) welcome back my friendly readers...i made a card celebrating seeing a female rubythroat hummingbird in my backyard last week, and i'd like to give it to a randomly selected commenter on the blog. So please leave a comment by midnight Friday, September 16, and you might be the winner of the card.

I don't have hummingbird feeders up, so i was delighted to see the hummingbird in my backyard. My old privet hadge in the back of the house has been getting pretty thin and patchy looking, but some spots are being filled in by volunteer Rose of Sharon seedlings, and the hummingbird i think was attracted by one of the Rose of Sharon's blossoms....its first this year!

Summer lingers on

It's continued to be hot and dry here (although the last few days the temperatures have finally become more season-appropriate). I finally ate enough delicious fresh tomatoes that i was willing to cook a few, as in this okra-corn-tomato dish.

My own garden is nonexistent this year...just have catnip and mint that came back from last year. Even my compost heap shows signs of neglect...i don't think i've adequately turned it and moistened it so it can get hot and decompose efficiently. I went out the other day and found an avocado tree sprouting in the middle of the heap!

A few weeks ago, my father and i went to the wonderful, family-owned and -operated Hartland Orchard, where I picked two pecks of Redskin peaches in about 15 minutes...and a pint of raspberries in an hour (it was the end of a long Saturday and they had been very thoroughly picked over). My father scored all sorts of points with friends in his retirement community to whom he took back peaches. I didn't give nearly as many away...saved quite a few to make a peach pie for my father the following week and also to make peach liqueur following Sylvie Rowand's recipe (i have to pour off the liquid this weekend and i am really looking forward to tasting the tipsy peaches that result!).

The week after we picked peaches, i drove my father down to Waynesboro to visit the Wildlife Center of Virginia which is mostly a hospital for treating native wildlife, but offers tours to the public a few times a year. My pictures didn't come out very well...most of the raptors were in wooden-sided cages outside and were quite dark inside. However, this lovely kestrel was close to the front so i was able to get a good picture of her.

Edie, the American Kestrel, was found as an orphan when her nest tree was damaged in a storm. She imprinted on humans after being rescued, so she can not be released to lead a normal life in the wild.

The Wildlife Center does everything they can to heal their patients to the point where they can be released back to the wild. Some animals however have injuries that they recover from but which make them unable to fend for themselves in the wild. One of these is the cute little Screech Owl named Pignoli, shown below with education specialist Kelly. He is blind in one eye and has limited vision in the other (it's possible that he was struck by a train while pursuing insects), so he wouldn't be able to hunt for food. He has a very sweet personality and has taken easily to a role as an Education Animal.

Education Specialist Kelly and Education Animal Pignoli

After our tour of the hospital and its grounds, we came back to my house to go out to dinner and then back to my house for peach pie for dessert and for my father to have a chance to spend some time with his grandcats. They all greeted him affectionately but we were disappointed that nobody hopped up on his lap (we probably weren't sitting long enough). He took home a funny souvenier of his visit....his navy blue shorts were covered with Fuzzy's fur from the couch!

Speaking of Fuzzy, here he is sprawled out on his back on the couch...summertime cat nap!

Late summer in small town Virginia

We've had an amazingly hot and dry summer this year. I think we had the hottest and driest June on record, quite a counterpoint to the snowy and cold winter! I believe we had something like 40 days in a row of above-90 degrees temperature. Thankfully, i have central air conditioning...i got it years ago because Lesley had feline asthma and her vet said she'd be much better off if the windows could be kept closed--and the only way it would be bearable to have the windows closed would be to have air conditioning. The cats have been feeling warm but pretty comfortable.

Fuzzy laying on the 3rd desk's book shelf, keeping me company while i telecommute

Sylvie checcking out Farmers Market bounty: peppers, Napa cabbage, corn, 2 different mixes of cherry tomatoes, new potatoes (in bag), radishes

Sylvie staking out my desk chair, which the cats have pretty thoroughly trashed. Why buy a new one if that'll get all shredded, too?

Louie snuggled into his "Hairy Blankie"

Gingy relazing on the kitchen doormat (yes, she's the one who has peed repeatedly on the back door)

Another fine part of summer here is my town's tradition of offering outdoor concerts every Saturday evening in a joint partnership with Bluemont Concerts. The musicians set up on the sidewalk across the street and everyone sets up blankets and lawn chairs on the lawn of the Warren Green building, a Civil War era building that now houses some County offices, next to the County courthouse complex. It's wonderful listening to all kinds of great musicians in such a family-friendly atmosphere. Different community groups provide the refreshments each week and get to keep the proceeds...it's like having a bake sale with a musical accompaniment!

Last week my quilt group provided the refreshments. We lucked out...it was a gorgeous clear warm evening, not dreadfully hot and humid as so many other Saturday nights had been, and the music was fantastic--the Martinsburg Jazz Orchestra, a group of about 8 guys (from an ensemble of 16) playing swing and big band music.

Here's what it looked like from the back of the crowd, as the lights just started coming on.

Martinsburg Jazz Orchestra entertains as night falls

One thing that doesn't show in the picture are the bats and swallows flittering around overhead catching the bugs who are attracted to the lights.

Here are two of my friends from the quilt group with our table of goodies. In addition to the usual homemade cookies and brownies, bottled water, iced tea, and lemonade, we also had trail mix, pretzels, homemade caramel corn, spiced nuts and spicy popcorn both custom made by one of the group, and a peck of peaches picked that very day by a member who hadn't had time to bake. By the end of the evening we only had a few peaches and a few bags of trail mix and cookies left...a very successful evening for us. And so much fun, too!

Quilters and goodies for sale at the Bluemont concert

Yet another snowstorm!

The weatherman has so underpredicted our last three or four snowstorms, when they said this one would bring one to two FEET of snow, it seemed like either they would be right...or there would be all this pre-storm hysteria and then nothing would come of it. Friday morning the snow started, as predicted, but the temperature hovered around freezing, so the snow kept melting and took a long time to start accumulating. But once it started accumulating, it really stuck!

By late Friday evening, it was snowing hard and the boughs of the cedar tree in front were weighed down by the snow.

Looks a lot like our snowstorm from December, doesn't it?! It kept snowing hard all night and for most of Saturday as well. This is Saturday morning.

And this is what the cedar tree looks like in daylight, with a lot more snow on it.

Fuzzy was interested to see what i was doing and what the snow looked like, so he stood up and peeked out the storm door. You can see the reflection of the snow on the front steps...the steps are completely covered and filled in with snow!

Here's my measure of how deep the snow is...it's up to the level of the seat on my garden bench, which is 18 inches! (a couple of inches more of snow fell after this picture was taken.) You can't see it well but there are birds on the feeder...today there was a whole flock of mourning doves on the "ground" below the feeder, plus at least three male and two female cardinals, several blue jays, a red-bellied woodpecker, several white-throated sparrows, but none of the little birds (maybe they were all sheltering 'til the snow stops falling).

To take the previous picture, I had to use the storm door to push the snow out of the way so i could get the door open--the snow had drifted right up against it. Gingy thought she might like to go out on it, after all it was right there at foot level, but then decided against it.

Finally in late afternoon it stopped snowing and the clouds lifted enough for there to be a faint rosy sunset. The snow plows have been through several times and the street pavement is actually visible...along with the very tall piles of snow that the plows have pushed up, including right across the foot of my driveway.

One of my favorite sounds from my childhood in New Jersey was the sound of the snowplow! The big diesel trucks would come down our street and you could hear the plow blade scraping on the road and the jingle of the tire chains...a song that usually meant no school the next day! During this storm, my town seems to be using its own pickup trucks with snowblades on them, rather than the big dumptrucks that the highway department uses. I guess the pickup trucks have more maneuverability in our older residential neighborhoods and maybe are cheaper than contracting for the bigger trucks, but i miss the big truck's sounds!

Telecommuting Friday

Lovely snuggles from Fuzzy

"What's the matter, are you having trouble typing?"

"Are you growing kittens on your desk?" I just "furminated" Fuzzy for a few minutes and this huge accumulation of fur was the result.

Nightcap

When i get into bed at night, if Fuzzy's not already sleeping on my pillow he comes into the bedroom, hops up on the bed, walks up on the pillow behind my head and settles in, kneading my hair and purring in my ear. (Eventually he moves over to the other pillow to sleep, often with his backside parked on my shoulder.) It was a bit tricky pointing the camera at ourselves in the dark and getting a decent picture, but i got a few fairly good ones.

Louie always sleeps between my knees...here he is with his head pillowed on my right knee....awake because somebody's taking pictures!

Now a Few Words From the Cats

The poor little guys feel that i haven't posted enough pictures of them lately...bad enough that i went off to Rhode Island and Vermont, but then i posted all those quilting pictures...

First off, though, a bit of a rainbow seen on my return trip from Vermont. I had stopped at the New Baltimore, New York, rest stop on the NY Thruway. It had been raining off and on since i left Burlington, and had just finished pouring...and there was this beautiful rainbow in the east across the highway.

When i came home the boys showed me how cute they are...looks like they were practicing synchronized snoozing!

Fuzzy wanted to show me that he fit quite well in my suitcase.

Back to telecommuting Fridays, Louie tries to get my attention by hopping up on the box next to me and tapping at my leg.
Gingy taking a rest on the desk.

Fuzzy "supporting" me (or at least my notepad) while i work.

Me trying to conduct a teleconference while Fuzzy is on my lap, giving me kitty kisses.

Another snoozing Gingy shot.

This morning, Fuzzy hopped up on the bed, walked over to where Louie was snoozing, plopped down next to him, and started patting at his tail and feet.

The next thing you know, it's a wrestling match between two 16-pound kittens!


I'm off to New Jersey for the weekend, for the unveiling of my mother's gravestone...back Sunday night!

What the Letter Carrier Brought

I am so thrilled...i discovered Sandy Mastroni's blog and Etsy shop after another artist mentioned a giveaway Sandy was doing in honor of her 200th Etsy sale. I didn't win the drawing, but i fell in love with one of Sandy's hand painted pillows, and shortly after i selected it from her Etsy site and made payment, the letter carrier brought it to my door. Isn't that the sweetest kitty angel, hovering over a snoozing Fuzzy?

I really wanted one of her great painted pillows of tuxedo kitties, and i returned from my trip last night to find it waiting for me:If you biggify the picture you can see the kitty's sweet features as he watches over Louie.

Bunch o' Kitty Pics

These are from last Friday (telecommuting with cats as usual!) and Saturday. I was getting ready to go on a trip, so tried to give the kitties as much snuggling time as possible while still getting ready.

Here's Sylvie in the hammock nest in the study. It's exclusively hers now and she's loving it!

Then there's the requisite shot of Louie and Fuzzy snuggling together:

Because Gingy was sound asleep in her bed in the basement, Sylvie got some rare computer-lap time, which she took full advantage of. Here she's getting scritches:

Oh, and here's "the tail"...bearing an unfortunate resemblance to an opossum's tail since the fur is still growing back, but it's definitely all healed up now.

Saturday night i heard some weird scratching noises in the living room and went to investigate--Sylvie had leaped into a box and was making herself comfortable (and invisible).

All was quiet on the Gingy front on Saturday night because she discovered a new favorite nest. This probably started off life as a big dog kennel. My vet at the time loaned it to me when i first "caught" Louie for him to stay in over a weekend until i could bring him in for tests and neutering. I "caught" his brother a week later and this was his temporary quarters overnight. I asked the vet if she wanted the kennel back, and she said no hurry...and about 5 years later she just left town unannounced, so now i've got the kennel and it's in the basement as a sort of run-in shed for whichever kitty wants to use it. Both Fuzzy and Gingy like it because they can feel comfortable and secure while keeping on eye on me while i do stamping stuff.

Another Tough Day Telecommuting

Fuzzy: Mom, what's with the camera?
Please resume providing a pillow for my head with your hand!thank you!

Later that day, Louie and Fuzzy indulged in a little double-decker napping. The picture was cuter about one second earlier before Louie picked up his head to see what i was up to...but was too sleepy to open his eyes.

It was a more interrupted telecommuting day for me than usual...i had a dentist appointment at 8:30 to have a cavity in one of my molars filled and then at 11:30 our women's lunch and learn group met at a local restaurant. The idea is for them to meet on Friday so that i can join them but i can really only stay an hour before i have to go back to work. Last time that plan was foiled because it was the first meeting and we had so much to talk about... Luckily i didn't have any teleconferences scheduled so i just made up the time at the end of the day. This time...this time there were 9 of us, we all ordered fairly simple things off the menu...and an hour later the food hadn't come yet! If they had so much trouble getting our food out in an almost empty restaurant, i wonder how they handle a busy dinner hour?!

It's Feline Art!

I learned something wonderful from Goldie and Banshee today, two great cats who live in the woods in Canada. When Fuzzy puts his ears back and tears up a cardboard box, he's not being naughty or displaying displaced aggression...no...he's using it as a muse for his creative impulses! Here's the artist in the process of creating. That's a box full of wonderful goodies from my fellow quilter and kitty lover Betsy. I still need to send her a thank you note (aargh) which is why i left the box out...and now almost every evening Fuzzy works at sculpting it. Here's what his sculpture currently looks like:

Then there are the low cardboard trays that cases of cat food come on. Louie loves sitting on them, carefully flattening the rims down and then sculpting the edges. Just like Goldie, Shade, and Banshee's mom, i'm not thrilled about constantly having to sweep up the shreds of cardboard they remove, one little feline mouthful at a time. Here's Louie's latest creation in a favorite warm spot next to the refrigerator, being used by Sylvie. It's so nice to know that my cats are being artistic, not destructive...and apparently they have a lot of company out there!

Big News for '09!

My father will be retiring to Virginia this year! I brought him back with me after Christmas, we went to a retirement community that we'd both researched...and he went ahead and signed up for an apartment! It's in a brand new building that isn't even finished yet, so he had his choice of floorplans and finishes. I know that at least the new place will be clean and shiny, and the apartment is on a corner so that it has more windows than usual, which is nice. Also a great selling point for this place is that it's in a community, with dining room, convenience store, bank, spa, doctor's office, swimming pool, etc. all on the campus and a large enough group of active people that there are all sorts of clubs and outings, should one want to join.

I tried unsuccessfully to straighten up before my father got here. I mean, i spent two whole days lowering the level of stuff on my kitchen table but there still was too much for him to sit at the table, and the accumulation of tote bags full of projects and books made walking something of a hazard for him. At least there was a place for him to sit on the couch...and Fuzzy, who is a bit shy with men because of his bad former owner, warmed up quickly to my father...and warmed up his lap, too! You'd never know from these pictures that my father's never owned a cat *g*.