Making inroads with the new kitty

I love weekends. I'm sorry this one is drawing to a close.

It's been warm and nice. I've napped, read, watched tv on my computer, corresponded, wrote blogs, listened to music and sermons. What I have not done is cleaned nor cooked, two things that are necessary for me to get ready for the week. Oh well. I see a lot of sandwiches in my future.

Five more workdays and then spring vacation. Well, two days during the following week are two days the School Officials determined to recover from all the snow days we had in February. Monday and Tuesday. Oh well.

I've been watching the BBC's highly rated and well-reviewed cop series called 'Line of Duty.' LOL, the BBC's 'season' is five episodes long. I kind of like that. It's long enough to develop a complicated story but short enough to keep my attention.

I also really enjoyed the BBC's Collision series a while back. Another good one. Ditto as above.

My big accomplishment this weekend was that I finally successfully trimmed my kitty's claws. I've spent several weeks running up to it. He lived his first two or three months outside as a stray, so he is not so used to being handled. So over the last 8 weeks I pick up and hold the cat at odd times. I press the pads gently. I give him a treat when he allows touching. I comb his hair. I put him down before he gets restless. Repeat. I've trimmed one or two at a time, but finally I clipped all the front claws- and no blood drawn from him with trimming them too closely and none from me with his scratching. Yay!

In 5 hours I'll be in dreamland. When I wake up, another work-week begins. The kids made me laugh a lot last week. I hope for more of the same. Soon, a vacation will lull me to relaxation-land. I'm looking forward to that.

Honey the Great Dane & Lemon the Tortoiseshell Cat - Magic Moments Together

As has been said, this IS worth every minute of the ten minutes. Very sweet. We all need some sweetness in our lives. I love my precious three kitties! Here is the background to the video

"Honey & Lemon shared the same birthday - they came into our lives together, grew up together, played together, shared adventures together - and should have grown old together...but we lost Lemon to a mystery infection while she was staying in a cattery, in Jan 2009. She was only 5yrs old. For such a tiny cat, she has left a huge hole in our hearts - and an empty space by Honey's side. She was the night to Honey's day, the spice to Honey's sweetness, the devil minx to Honey's angel goodness - and she was a cat in a million."

Bert Vants To Be Alone

My ole cat Bert likes a good nap. And then He likes a good snooze. And after that, he likes a good sleep. With a new kitty in the house who likes to play, sometimes Bert likes a good hide.

"Ahhh, No one can see me. I'm gonna relax now!"

5 seconds later...
What's THIS??!! A lump! A suspiciously gray, Bert-looking lump!"

"If keep poking him, I'm sure I can get him to play!"

"Sigh..."

Dawn and breakfast

Spring in Georgia is simply amazing. And beautiful. And warm. And it lasts a while. There is all good.

I know that many people suffer from allergies from the many things that bloom around here, especially the Bartlett pear trees, so spring for them isn't so grand. I'm sorry about that, but I do love the flowers and the colors and especially the birds' return. The grass is already greening up nicely.

This shot is from the end of my driveway looking across the street.

This is looking at the side yard, forsythia blooming and at the end of the forsythia row is the as-yet-unbudded fig tree.

On the weekends I have time to make a fancier breakfast and I have time to eat it. On the weekdays it's fried egg on unbuttered English muffin, gobbled. On Saturdays it's Baguette French Toast and red potato home fries, eaten sitting down.

That's my Shenandoah Ware Depression era or earlier 8" cereal bowl. I have three, and I love them. I use them for everything, absolutely everything. Every meal is eaten out of one of these. I love the size and shape and the pattern (daffodils). Someday I might just go into Comer to the Shabby Chic boutique and see if she is carrying any Depression era Shenandoah ware.

Until then, I have some French Toast to eat and a Bountiful Basket to pick up. Have a good day everyone.

Weekends 11 years apart

Friday night 2003, party at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel

Friday night 2014, late afternoon/early evening nap after a long workweek, and...

 A cup of herb tea.

A sturdy teapot

The only party is in my teacup

Peace and quiet

Weekends 11 years apart

Glad the weekend's here

It was a long week. The weather has turned nice though, Georgia warm. The Bartlett pear trees are blooming, which doesn't help the hayfever or the breathing but they are wonderfully gorgeous to look at. So are the dogwoods and the forshythia and the daffodils.

I did a quick grocery shopping after school and I was pleased with the good deals I got. Green peppers were reduced, and sweet mini red peppers, as was French baguette, a rye loaf, and pita. Turkey was on sale, and canned Alaska salmon. I intend to make salmon-black bean patties with that. The turkey of course will be sandwiches on all that good bread. I also got pie shells to make a broccoli cheese quiche and penne to have primavera.

My sweet for the week will be angel food cake with pineapple. You take a box of angel food cake, mix it with a can of crushed pineapple with juice, put it in an unbuttered cake pan, and bake. That. is. literally. it. And it's low calorie.

I bought 18 items and saved $4.20 by choosing things on sale or reduced. Final tally was $32.

Tomorrow I pick up the Bountiful Basket of produce. I can't wait to see what this week's basket will bring. I finally made the jicama salad with strawberries I had gotten last time and it was good! Jicama tastes like apples.

I did my dishes and most of my cleaning (have to get to the vacuuming soon or the dust bunnies will become mutant and carry off the cats and then come for me). I will need some serious R&R this weekend after the long week. Nothing earth shattering, just a pile-up of high maintenance kids with spring fever, lol.

I finished a good book by Charles Martin called "The Mountain Between Us" so I feel a little bereft right now until I find another novel to get absorbed in. I'll have to do that soon because I want to spend Saturday afternoon napping and reading.

The pink sky this morning was amazing. It was a uniform stripe across the bottom horizon of carnation and coral and crimson. Such beauty.

The first google glasses, invented in 1890

Stereoscopy. Wikipedia defines stereoscopy as "Most stereoscopic methods present two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. These two-dimensional images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3D depth. This technique is distinguished from 3D displays that display an image in three full dimensions, allowing the observer to increase information about the 3-dimensional objects being displayed by head and eye movements."

Stereoscopy got very popular very fast. LOL, here is the first internet cafe, or, the first Google Glasses

Wiki creative commons

Kaiserpanorama consisted of a multi-station viewing apparatus and sets of stereo slides. Patented by A. Fuhrmann around 1890.

Early morning photos

It's so pretty out and the birds are so lively I went out to take some photos.

A lonely birdhouse waiting for an occupant

Looking down the driveway across the street. The sun comes up here

The back yard and hayfield adjacent. I really love this view. I take a lot of pictures of it. The photo doesn't show it well but the mist is filmy and the sun is just turning the skies pink

Blue skies with the occasional chemtrail

I like how the sun which is now over the horizon is streaming next door and lighting up the tin on the neighbor's barn, and his shed with ladder

Pink!

BBQ tofu and other adulterations

I had a good week at school. Times of productivity punctuated by a one day stomach bug that rendered me catatonic in pajamas. The weather is crazy, a 73 degree day followed by a freeze warning followed by chilly rain and threat of sleet followed by warm weather again. Turbulent spring, O how I love the coming tornado season. But I do love the daffodils and bluebells blooming already. The forsythia is coming. In Maine, Feb-March were definitely winter months so the fact that spring comes so early here, at least compared to New England, is a never-ending source of joy.

When I arrived home on Friday I had a burst of energy and I cooked. I made pineapple-sour cream muffins, chocolate covered strawberries, and BBQ tofu. I know that last one seems a total adulteration of everything that's holy in the South regarding meat, BBQ, and food in general, but hey, meatless is the new meat. Or something.

I like the pineapple-sour cream muffins because not only do they taste good, but the recipe isn't sweet. It only uses a bit of sugar and relies on the fruit for sweetness and moisture. I also like it because it requires few ingredients, and those are ones I am likely to have on hand. Finally, they're easy to make. Here is the recipe from Food.com

I bought a flat of strawberries at the last Bountiful Basket day. Eight packets of huge and luscious strawberries! I gave one away and I'm left with 7 to get through before they go bad, not very hard for me, a berry lover. The last packet and a half I dipped in chocolate. I had never melted chocolate but it wasn't hard and making them is very easy, and they look like they were a lot more effort than they were. Fancy too.

I had a package of tofu and rather than the Asian marinade I've been using I thought I'd try honey BBQ. Maybe the South is rubbing off on me. The Romaine made a nice cool crunch against the tang of the tofu I'd baked. I had roasted broccoli on the side, again, another veggie I'd gotten at Bountiful Basket day.

The bowl is Shenandoah ware, a wide and shallow bowl I use for everything, absolutely everything. I have three of them, though one is pretty cracked and I'll have to stop using it soon. I love them and would buy more if I cam across some. It is the Daffodil pattern.

I'm pleased to report that Murray the new kitty is growing up some. He isn't so much of a maniac at night, though the is more fond of wires and plugs than I'd like him to be. I've awakened several times this week to find a tiny lump sleeping peacefully next to me rather than lamps overturned or curtains askew, and he is learning not to use his claws to get my attention. He is growing up just fine.

Today is supposed to be 69 to 70 degrees and sunny. The birds are back and I enjoy them lots. I'll open the front door for more light to stream in and the windows for some fresh air. I'll go out and look for some more wildflowers later when the ground firms up a bit from the muddy mess the last two days of drenching rain had rendered it. I suspect a nap is in my future too. Because what is a weekend without a nap?

Bountiful Basket day and crazy kitties

It's a warmish spring day and I went to Danielsville to pick up my Bountiful Basket. There was a lot in it. Here are two photos of how pretty the food looks.

Good looking produce, huh?!

I plan to make a black bean-corn-sweet pepper salad. We received a jicama in our basket and I plan to make a Jicama Salad with that and the strawberries and the rest of the peppers I don't use in the black bean salad.

We also received broccoli, so I'll roast that. Asparagus will be steamed. Romaine goes on sandwiches. Heirloom cherry tomatoes will be mixed into Penne and likely some of the asparagus too. We received lots of citrus, including mandarin oranges so I'll peel those and make an orange and pineapple salad for my lunches.

I could go on but that's the gist of it. I'm sad I forgot to buy quiche shells at the store yesterday, I'd planned to make a quiche. I love broccoli-cheese quiche. That'll have to wait till next time.

I took a walk around the yard to see what was what. It's in good shape. The place seems to have weathered the hard winter pretty well. I cleaned out my flower pots and got them ready for new seeds. I filled the bird feeder and the birdies are happy. And I spotted some of these strange looking colorful objects in the yard also, hm, what could they be????

Soon there will be a ton more out there. I really do enjoy bringing in a flower or two for my kitchen windowsill.

A boy at school has been missing his parapro, who is visiting her grown & married daughter and her new grandbaby for a week. On Friday I let the kids play at centers for 10 minutes or so. They can go to books, marker board, blocks or art. This week I also added Legos. As I asked each of the 7 children in the group what they wanted to do they all slid off their chairs and went to their chosen center. But one boy said "I want to write a note and draw a picture" for the parapro that he was missing so much. He worked a long time on the picture and then asked me to help him write the note. It all took about 10 minutes and during this time the other children were playing and laughing and having a good time. He persevered. When he got done he asked to go to blocks.

I was both inspired and ashamed of myself. Next to the boy was a tantalizing and fun playtime with fun toys, but this 6 year old boy sat and did something to serve another, selflessly. If I had been sitting three feet away from a fun or a tantalizing thing would I have resisted long enough to have finished a task that would benefit another? Probably not. That's why I was ashamed f myself and inspired by him. Kids are amazing.

My new kitty runs around like a nutcase at night and often wakes me up. Especially when he runs over the CPAP machine and steps on the button that turns it off. I have to sit up and turn it back on. Also he likes to play with the tubing so I have to haul that up and tuck it under the covers so his claws can't puncture a hole in it. This means I can't turn over as much. Sigh. I know when he is older I'll long for the days when he was so cute in discovering everything and running around. But all it means today is that I'm tired and I'm going to take a nap! Till next time...