Chanukah was early this year!

Chanukah began during the first week of December this year...Thanksgiving was barely over and suddenly it was upon us! Our congregation's party was held on Sunday, December 5. Sometimes our services are poorly attended...but this year, more than 70 people came to the party, including several new families with young children. It was thrilling having such a big group of people together. Each family brought its own menorah and we lit them all together, so the room was ablaze with light and full of the sound of music and laughter.

I missed getting a picture of Louie sitting on the living room floor, looking up in apparent wonder at the menorah's flickering candles, but here he's sitting on the couch and you can sort of see the candlelight flickering in his eyes.

And here's an unfortunately dark photo of this year's Chanukah card, which i barely got made on time, and many of which i didn't mail on time (but at least i mailed a few them this year...last year i made a whole batch and never got a chance to address and mail them!)

Fall is Coming!

Louie says it's time to gather in your pumpkins...

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

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!

View Profile

A lot of blogger blogs have a place that says "View My Complete Profile," so Louie thought it only right that you should be able to admire his complete profile. He's even displaying a bit of frootbat effect, difficult for a tuxedo with black ear fur to achieve...and then i had to turn the flash off on my camera to keep it from washing out the light shining through his ear.

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!

Before Leaving for Retreat

I need to backtrack to include some Spring flower pictures from weekend before last. Saturday April 18 our Farmer's Market opened (yay!) so i got some spinach, green onions, cilantro, perennials to plant, biscotti, etc. as well as hugs from the vendors who i haven't seen since November when the market closed for the winter. It was great catching up with them. Then i dashed off to volunteer at the Audubon Society.

The next day, Sunday, i did a massive amount of outdoors work since it really and truly felt like Spring. I mowed for the first time (the grass really needed it!), trimmed some trees, weeded the perennial bed in the front a bit, and assembled my new garden bench! The old one managed to last for 14 years while exposed to all sorts of weather, but the wood started rotting (it's cedar, not as durable as teak but not nearly as endangered or as expensive, either) and the bench began falling apart, especially after getting flipped over by the wind several times. Here's the pristine new one, which includes a lovely little brass plaque that says "Paula's Garden." (Thanks, Daddy!) The styling is a little different. Unfortunately one of the screws that holds the back in place split the wood so this one may not last 14 years....but i plan to enjoy it for as long as i can!

The dogwood by the house is blooming nicely.

The old apple tree next to my shed is in full abundant bloom. It blooms early, sometimes getting zapped by frost, and produces deliciously tart apples in late June and early July. It's way too big to be a good orchard tree and has had a lot of problems with tent caterpillar infestations over the years. There's a lot of dead wood, and many sapsucker holes that indicate there are bugs in the trunk, but the tree carries on. All sorts of birds love the apples, as do the woodchucks and squirrels. Little birds like the bugs they find amongst the blossoms...and when i was working out there, the whole tree was humming, it was that full of wild bees who were happy to find an abundant source of nectar.

The bleeding heart is now in full bloom, with the freshest bright pink color.

This little cat statue guards my dear Babka cat's regal tomb, and the violets just appeared by themselves.

I started getting ready for retreat, assembling all the materials for the projects i wanted to work on. Louie and Gingy both kept me company at the same time for a while...this picture of Louie is a view from the other direction of him looking out the sewing room window, while Gingy was perched over the sewing machine.

The evening cooled down and my assistant wandered off to do his impression of a ball!

What i'm looking forward to

I am leaving momentarily for quilt retreat...an extended weekend of quilting, laughing, and eating with friends old and new from my quilt guild. We go to a church camp about two hours' drive from here in the hills near the Shenandoah valley and the Blue Ridge mountains. I have some unfinished projects i hope to make progress on! There's a new exhibit of floral applique at the Virginia Quilt Museum that we're hoping to visit. And there will be the requisite stops at a couple of quilt shops on the way down, to be tempted by new fabric and patterns and notions for more projects!

And when i come home, i look forward to seeing this sleepy little boy kitty perched on a pillow on top of a bookcase in the sewing room, looking out at the driveway, knowing that i'm coming home:

The Boogie Mat Matter

I had stopped at Petco on Friday night to see if i could get another Boogie Mat for a certain sweet cat whose bruvfur won't share with him and they actually had two in stock. My quilt group will be making items to sell at a craft fair in November and i thought some sort of "cat mats" might be a good item to sell, so i bought one Boogie Mat for my guys, which i figure they can enjoy and i can reverse engineer!

Sylvie smelled the catnip and kept looking up at the table and meowing to let me know it was there and she wanted it. Finally on Sunday evening i put the mat on the nest box in front of the fridge and Sylvie instantly appeared and took it over. She rolled on it, she chomped on it, she licked it...she was loving it!

And then her dear sweet "brother" Louie appeared. Louie leaned in close to Sylvie, he squeezed between her and the fridge, he started vigorously washing her ears, all the way wedging himself onto the mat! Finally she gave him an annoyed chomp on the ears and left...leaving the mat to Louie!

They've been pretty good sports about taking turns...but mostly it seems that Sylvie claims it and then Louie "steals" it. Interestingly, neither Gingy nor Fuzzy has tried it yet, but then again, neither of them have been that interested in this nest box before either...

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!