Winding Down... and A Cat's Story

It's already Thursday. Where has the week gone? Time off goes so quickly, it's amazing.

As far as stitching goes,I've added a few more details to my sampler, including a few people and a soon-to-be completed alphabet. Update photos to follow!

You are forewarned. The rest of this post is about our cat, Inga.







Our son found Inga in some bushes near his friend's house about 11 years ago. He was staying overnight at this boy's house, and tiny Inga stood on her hind legs and peeked through the boy's close-to-the-ground bedroom window and watched the boys as they played. Naturally, our son came home the next day and asked if we could keep her. We decided we could, although at the time we had two other cats, and our dog Katie. Inga was tiny then and about eight weeks old, and we had to feed her special food for a few months as she had major digestive issues. She's always had the habit of sucking her toe when she sleeps or relaxes. I guess she's quite resourceful, isn't she?



 

She's extremely reclusive and basically spends all her time in the back rooms of our house. In fact, she has two rooms to herself as well as our bedroom. She rarely ventures out into the living room or family room, and she never goes outside. Our other cats are in and out all day long. I guess that's what happens when your life starts out in a shrub, and your mom is nowhere to be found.

Our other cats and Inga never bonded too much, but that's how it goes with cats. She's been known to bravely charge our 80 pound greyhound when he comes in our bedroom and she's lying on the bed. He always retreats in complete fear!

She also likes to visit people who use the front bathroom and don't completely latch the door. Odd, isn't she?






She's a beautiful cat, and we love having her.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy News & Sampler Update

First of all, on a very happy note, my niece Windy's baby came home from the hospital last evening! He is just about 10 weeks old now, and he weighs over 8 pounds. He was born 10 weeks early, and only weighed barely 3 pounds when he was born. My niece was admitted to the hospital at the end of November with premature labor, so his homecoming has been a long time coming. Later on this week we'll go visit them and I'll share a photo here. Here's her blog for some photos of him taken a few weeks ago: Windy's Blog


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I finally have some stitching progress to share!

Here's the sampler last time I showed an update here:


I finished the flower in the righthand corner, and have started adding a Berlinwork bird in the lower left corner.

Here it is now:

A few close-ups of the corners:





I'm going to add a few more of these Berlinwork designs in other parts of the sampler. I'm still not sure what to add to the border, but I'm toying with a few ideas. We will have to wait and see.

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Finally, here's some photos my husband took this morning of our dog Eddie and our polydactyl cat Bruce. I love Saturdays! Bruce and Eddie simply placed themselves in this way, so of course we had to grab the camera and capture it! I love how Bruce is resting on Eddie's large greyhound paws.







Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy New Year

Life has been very, very busy lately.

First of all, all the best for a wonderful 2009 to all of you.

I haven't been online at all lately as I had no computer access for weeks. It is odd how quickly one adapts to life without a computer, isn't it?

Here's what's been happening in our lives. On December 15 my niece Windy

Windy, on Thanksgiving at her house

gave birth to Ethan James. He was ten weeks early, and he's doing very well but he'll be in the hospital a bit longer. If you take a peek at her blog you can see his photos and read more about him.

That same evening that Ethan was born my mother became very ill, and she had to go into the hospital (60 miles away from where Ethan is) for four days. We stayed with her the following few weeks until yesterday when we returned home. Our family moved Christmas down to her house, and it was a very low key celebration this year. In an odd way it was rather a relief to have it be this way. I had very little time to shop for anyone. There were no stockings, no stocking stuffers, and it was all just fine. We didn't even have a Christmas tree down at her house, and I never had the chance to put one up here. That's the first time in 28 years that we haven't had a tree! It was fine though just the same. Christmas is about more than the trimmings, and quite frankly it was freeing to do it in such a simple way. I am happy to say that Mom is doing better, and getting stronger each day.

I got some stitching done while at my mom's, so I'll share that in the next post.

On a sad pet note, a few days before Christmas our cat Coco passed away. Our son was 'home alone', and found her in the morning. She'd been fine the night before, so we really don't know what happened. It appeared she died peacefully in her sleep. She was 12 years old and had been with us so long. We still have her mom here along with our other cats, but nonetheless it's sad to lose a kitty! We miss her a lot.


Coco 1996-2008

Thanks for stopping by here today.

I love fifty!

Degrees, that is! I am lucky to have the entire week off, but I'm still battling the cold I started with over a week ago so that's a bit annoying. Who cares? It's FINALLY cooling off here. That's what I am grateful for today.

Just now I went out to feed the birds in the backyard and it felt really, really crisp. You know, fall crisp? I think it's around 50 degrees right now. Hurrah! One day last week it got to ninety degrees, and by this time in the morning it was over 70 degrees.

It might be freezing where you are, so I apologize for complaining about the heat. We're just glad that it's finally cooling off around here. Chudi and Windy, is it cooler in your neck of the woods?

To celebrate this fine weather we're having, a photo of our daughter and one of our many cats:


Maybe this week I'll get a chance to stitch. Right now it's catch-up time around here.

Disaster, WIPs , Claws, Overgrown Bushes, and Trees

Thanks for your get well wishes and nice comments on my previous post. I still am not feeling great but I'm on the mend and that feels wonderful!

It was over ninety-three degrees yesterday, and a lot of our area suffered from hideous fires and heartbreaking loss. My heart goes out to those who lost their homes in the fire.



It's hard to imagine the fury, loss, temperature, and weather created by these huge fires we have been experiencing each year in the area.

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On a completely different note, an update on stitching, our dog, some overgrown bushes, and a huge tree:


Last time I posted a picture of my sampler, it looked like this:



I stitched a bit today and here are some photos of how it looks now:





And our cat Sassy enjoying the piece again:


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Last week our dog Eddie hurt his paw and had to go to the vet. It seemed his dewclaw was injured and he was in great pain. The vet had to remove it, as it was barely in place. Our dog is 80 lbs, but he's known at the vet for his dramatics.

Here he is, after going to the vet and having his paw wrapped:


As our daughter says, in the photo above you can see Eddie wincing from the camera's flash. He is so, so ultra dramatic!

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Awhile back I shared some photos here of a fence corner (I can't get the link to work after about six tries, but I talked about the fence corner on August 4 of this year!) that we were in the process of renovating, so to speak. Last weekend we continued on our quest for improvement, and we had the juniper shrubs removed.

Here's a 'before' of that corner. This is a major 'before' (I'm embarrassed of this look in our own yard!), even before the new fence:





Finally, here is the same area after we had the old junipers removed, along with the new fence:





Now we have to get going on some planting! What should we plant there? All suggestions are welcome, so please leave a comment on your ideas. The area gets full sun, and it's hot here in the summer.
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Thanks for stopping by today! Please give me some suggestions on some plants for the back corner. We want something tall that will give us privacy. :)

Easter Greetings

Happy Easter! I hope that if you do celebrate Easter you have a wonderful day spent with family and friends. Later on this afternoon we will be going down to my niece's home to celebrate the holiday. The cake we're taking is baked and ready to go!

I wish I had some stitching news, but I really don't. This week has only allowed me about 1/2 hour to spend stitching.

Back a week ago I did stitch a bit, and here's what happened:



You can even see the "House Sampler" label on my stitching box. My husband got a label maker last summer, and it's a lot of fun to make labels. The funny thing is, he'd wanted one for years and he finally got it last summer. He even recently ordered some 'accessories' for it online. I can't wait to see what sort of accessories one gets for a label maker!

I find that he and I are alike in that way. We always tend to wait a long time before buying things we want, even if they're relatively inexpensive. Do you ever do that? No one could even accuse us of needing instant gratification!

I wanted to share one more photo of our cat Coco resting with our son. She took a nap yesterday on him as he was resting on the sofa. I couldn't resist taking a photo:



I hope your day is as relaxing as theirs seemed to be!

The Long Haul Working

The week has been busy, but thankfully I did have a chance last Sunday to work more on my House Sampler. I'll take a picture soon and post it.

Here's a photo of our dear dog performing a trick with our daughter. I apologize if I've posted it here before, but seeing it here cheers me up and makes me smile.

Hope you enjoy it, too.

Double Duty

This week has been especially busy, but rewarding. I wish I'd have stitched, but I haven't had any time to sit and stitch.

We're taking care of my parents' dog this week. She's the black dog shown above with our greyhound. It's been fun having this hound here with us!


I hope that the upcoming weekend brings me some time to stitch.

Heading Back to Work, etc.

Thanks for your kind comments on my previous entry all about our trip to Kauai. I appreciate it a lot! This was our first trip ever to Hawaii, and we're both closing in on fifty. Our vacations have always been spent visiting family or driving locally for a few hours, so this was quite a big change for us. We saw many families while in Hawaii, but that's not something we were ever able to do while our children were living at home. My husband gets to travel a lot with his job, but I don't go along on those jaunts. Why am I telling you all this? I'm explaining my complete enthusiasm for our trip from which we just returned.

On to life in the real world! Above is a picture of Eddie doing a 'trick'with our daughter. She's the official trainer and handler of our 80 pound wonder. We took some photos of our canine companion per a request from a greyhound rescue organization. It's for their website since he won first prize back in June as "Trickiest Greyhound" at the retired racers' reunion picnic. Truly, greyhounds aren't known for their trickiness, so keep that in mind.

Happy Blog Anniversary to me! I have had this blog for just over a year now, and I do admit I haven't said much here. I try to keep it light and fluffy, as you may have noticed. In one year I have just under 40 posts, and I think that perhaps 1/3 of them are from this summer. (I'm too lazy to look back and figure it out, and who cares anyway?)I know that a lot of people must like reading blogs, and I know that I do. If you read this one once in awhile, thanks so much!

Backyard Birds

We've been spending a lot of time feeding birds this summer in our backyard. We now have two feeders for the finches, one for hummingbirds, and yesterday we added one for the scrub jay that has been enjoying our peanuts. So far our scrub jay hasn't yet dared to use the new platform feeder, but I hope in time it will! By the way, our twenty-one year old son told my husband and me that he's a bit tired of hearing about our birds. Here's the new feeder, waiting for "Scrubby" to come enjoy its treats:


At the risk of also boring you completely, I wanted to share a bird story and some pictures with you. Here's the first picture from yesterday's backyard time:


If you look carefully, you can see the little finch at the feeder.

Here's a close-up of the finch:

Yesterday as we took these photos we didn't notice the odd growth on his bill, but it's quite apparent in the photo. This poor little bird sat all alone on the feeder, oblivious to the cats and to any impending danger.

Here are the next photos, in order of how they happened. I think they speak for themselves.




The bird made it just fine, and flew away after happily eating all by itself. Finally, here's what we saw the orange cat's daughter doing:



She's the lazier cat of the two of them, and her mom is more of the huntress. Thankfully none of the cats got this sweet little bird.

Oddly enough, I saw the same bird this morning. I was watering outside for quite awhile and during the watering time most of the birds flew away. That is, they all flew away except for the baby finch, who again sat feeding on the feeder oblivious to me and my hose.

I don't know what his difficulty/ailment is, but I sure hope he can survive with his laid back ways. Today he again had crumbs all over his bill as he ate, as we've often seen happen with little children as they enjoy a treat. I got quite close to the little creature and when I was about two feet away from it, the bird flew off to our nearby bottle brush hedge. Phew!

I sure hope I see more of this little bird. This little feathered guy really touches my heart!

Summer Evenings

Summer evenings on the back patio are something we really enjoy around here.

My husband has been enjoying his camera lately, so here's some photos from a recent evening. The first one is of a bee on our bottle brush 'great wall' hedge. We've thought of removing this massive hedge, but I love the privacy it gives us!


Here's a yellow rose that's part of a rose tree in a pot. Below the rose is a begonia that's been growing in a pot for many years.




Finally, here are some photos of two of our cats as they wandered and lounged around the yard. The orange cat is now 12 years old, and she doesn't like to pose for pictures. When we took her into our home, she was pregnant. She gave birth to four kittens, and we kept one of the cats. That's the tortie one you see below her.

Eddie and L

Here's a photo of our dog Eddie and our daughter L. It was taken yesterday, and I wanted to share it here.

L. just had her hair/make-up trial done for her upcoming wedding. She removed her veil, tiara, and I snapped this photo of her with our dog.

It reminds me of a photo we have of her with our previous dog Katie that was taken when she was about five years old. Where does time go? You turn around, and eighteen years have gone by. Your oldest child is 23, and you're twice that old and then some. Sigh.

Hopefully the photo publishing will work this time. It's about the 10th time I've tried to upload the photo today. Hurrah for the 'new' blogger.

Eddie the Dog

I want to share a picture of our dog Eddie. I adore this pic! My husband took it several weeks ago as Eddie lounged in his kiddie pool. I love the way the shrubs are lit behind him, and I love the sweet look in his eyes. Okay, I know I'm a bit 'over the top' since I'm talking about a dog but please allow me that. Just a short while ago he was racing in a track in Mexico, and now he sits in a kiddie pool enjoying a Sunday afternoon. Retirement sure looks good for him, doesn't it?

I did find time to stitch on Sunday. I decided that Sunday would be my official day to stitch, and that no matter how much I have on my plate I will find some time to stitch. I'm nearing completion on that stocking, and I hope to finish it within two weeks.

I've already lost my voice, and it's early in the year. Any advice?