Cammie, the wandering cat came back today and I hurried to distract the cheepers with sunflower seeds so that I could put out cat food for her. When she saw me moving about, she did her usual disappearing act, but then she came back, found her food, licked herself clean then left again.
It's a warm and muggy day. So fitting for August. Breakfast was pokey...
...and then rushed as we glance at the time. How did it get to be so late?!
Both of us have things to do today. None of this lingering for hours nonsense. Ed's off to his techie group meeting, I'm off as well, to visit the cats at my daughter's house (she and her husband are gone for the day and I promised I'd peek in to make sure they haven't destroyed the house, each other, the world).
Well now, the hiding duo - the two cats recently added to the household - are a bit less shy today! After weeks of patient care (and some hissing and pouting on the part of the older cat already here), the shyer one, Virgil, comes out from under the chair...
...only to go under another chair -- one with much better viewing possibilities...
...and then, prompted by a tidbit of a treat, comes out altogether and meows his sweet meow, begging for another.
I think about Cammie and her wilder habitat and, too, about Isis who was himself once wild and now has turned into the cat with the sweetest personality on the planet. The erasure of fear brings out some stellar animal traits! I wonder why we, humans, so often are hell bent on promoting fear. And then are surprised when people hiss and spit on the perceived menace out there.
I spend a while on the porch reading this afternoon. It feels lazy, I know. It is lazy. I'm avoiding looking at my step counter. I take a few flower photos -- not too many. The riot of color is getting that August look of passing abundance.
Yes, still a mega-dose of color...
...but I can tell that it is slowly beginning to recede. In the weeks ahead, individual blooms will become much more important.
There is thunder outside. Maybe it will rain. My plants need rain.
Inside, Ed is making pickles from the multitude of cucumbers growing in our veggie plot.
Why the odd lettering on the pickle containers? They date back to years when Ed would take food stuffs on his sail boat and brave the ocean waters for weeks on end. Ed never throws away things that may become useful someday.
Evening. I make myself a drink I haven't had since last summer: an aperol spritz.
A toast to summer? Yes, okay, that. But also to my older girl who turns 33 today. Happy birthday dear one! And of course -- happy, happy year ahead! Smooth sailing, yes, I wish that for you: calm waters and a joyous ride!
It's a warm and muggy day. So fitting for August. Breakfast was pokey...
...and then rushed as we glance at the time. How did it get to be so late?!
Both of us have things to do today. None of this lingering for hours nonsense. Ed's off to his techie group meeting, I'm off as well, to visit the cats at my daughter's house (she and her husband are gone for the day and I promised I'd peek in to make sure they haven't destroyed the house, each other, the world).
Well now, the hiding duo - the two cats recently added to the household - are a bit less shy today! After weeks of patient care (and some hissing and pouting on the part of the older cat already here), the shyer one, Virgil, comes out from under the chair...
...only to go under another chair -- one with much better viewing possibilities...
...and then, prompted by a tidbit of a treat, comes out altogether and meows his sweet meow, begging for another.
I think about Cammie and her wilder habitat and, too, about Isis who was himself once wild and now has turned into the cat with the sweetest personality on the planet. The erasure of fear brings out some stellar animal traits! I wonder why we, humans, so often are hell bent on promoting fear. And then are surprised when people hiss and spit on the perceived menace out there.
I spend a while on the porch reading this afternoon. It feels lazy, I know. It is lazy. I'm avoiding looking at my step counter. I take a few flower photos -- not too many. The riot of color is getting that August look of passing abundance.
Yes, still a mega-dose of color...
...but I can tell that it is slowly beginning to recede. In the weeks ahead, individual blooms will become much more important.
There is thunder outside. Maybe it will rain. My plants need rain.
Inside, Ed is making pickles from the multitude of cucumbers growing in our veggie plot.
Why the odd lettering on the pickle containers? They date back to years when Ed would take food stuffs on his sail boat and brave the ocean waters for weeks on end. Ed never throws away things that may become useful someday.
Evening. I make myself a drink I haven't had since last summer: an aperol spritz.
A toast to summer? Yes, okay, that. But also to my older girl who turns 33 today. Happy birthday dear one! And of course -- happy, happy year ahead! Smooth sailing, yes, I wish that for you: calm waters and a joyous ride!
the loveliest of summer drinks! cheers to you and your daughter on this day of her birth.
ReplyDeleteGargnano memories...
DeleteHappy Belated Birthday to your elder girl, burgeoning mother... nice colours at your place, I assume your breakfast porch is screened in? Lovely to sit out there, I wish we had a screened porch.
ReplyDeleteYou could not spend a summer eating out in Wisconsin without screens. Ours have a huge screen mesh on the sides and, of course, 17 glass panes on top.
DeleteYou and your daughter can celebrate motherhood together today. Joyful thoughts!
ReplyDeleteEd is an interesting person...the solo sailing...do you enjoy sailing too? I have never had that experience. Although my Dad was a Navy man for several years, we grew up landlocked and never cultivated that desire to be out on the water.
Virgil is a pretty boy! We had a grand kitty once that my son and his now-wife rescued from the shelter where they volunteered. Hazel, the three-legged queenie. I had never realized how interesting a cat could be. She was a "people cat", very affectionate, very demanding! If Sweet didn't work, she grew very vocally imperious! We all swore that, when she didn't get her way, she limped off, really faking a bigger-than-usual limp.
Ed loves sailing: he soloed from Maine all the way to Cuba before he and I got together. He'd love to do another run somewhere, possibly in the Gulf. Unfortunately it is one of our biggest differences. I get sea sick in waves. I hate storms. I can't manage a sailboat. And honestly, I find it to be visually boring. And kind of frightening -- you, alone, no sight of land, menacing deep waters... (shudder!) Just as I am saddened that Ed doesn't particularly like traveling to Europe with me, so, too, he would absolutely love to coax me to sail with him. And much as I believe in the give and take that we have, I just cannot do it. Absolutely cannot.
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