A funny cat photo from the artist

I took this shot last night. I was taking the tag off the bag, so I could reuse the cute little zip lock baggie, and there was my Smokey kitty. He's a bit slow in some ways....

Oh Blessed Summer!

At long, long last, summer has finally come to the Pacific Northwest.  While the rest of the country has been baking and sweltering under a rather destructive heatwave, we have been ridiculously cool, cloudy and wet.  But now, now we have summer.  We will actually be in the 80s for several days in a row, and that hasn't happened since last year!  We normally would have even had some 90 degree days by now, but I don't need it that hot. 

A juvenile Anna's comes in to eat the
early Lucifer Crocosmia blooms.

This is the kind of weather that makes you remember exactly why it is you live here and put with all of the rain!  Because right now, the weather is perfect; the sky is blue, blue, blue; the grass and shrubs and plants are green as can be; flowers are blooming everywhere and little hummers are regular visitors in my gardens.



This flower garden is off the back patio. 
I can see it from the kitchen window too.
It has taken several years to get it to look this way.

This hardy geranium grows like a weed!
It even grows right up into the hibiscus.



Lady Euphoria, my fairy maiden.
She peeks out from behind plants
and now has Scottish Bluebells growing
beside her.

Wanna have fun with your dog?

I made spaghetti for dinner tonight, which could mean a lot of things in an American household.  I cook my pasta al dente, because it's healthier.  I also did a red sauce and a white sauce, sliced roasted chicken breast, and roasted crimini mushrooms and sliced sweet onions. YUM!

Now my fuzzy little white dog Stuie was quite interested in this whole affair, as you can imagine! So I pulled out an old trick I used to do with my big mastiff Shadow (the one in my avatar with me). I gave him the nearly empty jar of spaghetti sauce. Now Stuie, being white, got the white sauce. And he chased that blasted jar all over three rooms trying to get every bit of the sauce out of it, just wishing he had a longer tongue....

Delilah - our feisty little calico girl

The boys were just three and fourteen when we got Delilah and Samson.  Our family was in turmoil once again (another husband gone) and our beloved parakeet Ornin had just lost his battle with extreme old age.  The thought of two kittens romping around the house was just what this family of ours needed.

But it turned out to be a tough time to find kittens.  Go figure.  I guess we were on the wrong cycle or something.  I always thought cats were almost as prolific bunny rabbits!  But we finally found a local pet shop that had a large pen full of kittens, right near the front door.  And they were all blissfully sound asleep except for one very cute lone calico girl who was trying to climb out to me, and calling, "Take me! Take me!"  She was soooooo cute!  We were in love....

I could write a novel with all of our Delilah stories over the last 13 years.  She was a pissy little calico girl, bulimic at that, for many years.  A bit on the pudgy side too.  She swallowed a large amount of thread as a teenager and almost died, which surely did not help her longevity any.  But it did slowly improve her attitude toward the human race.  She came to like, love, and even need people, in her own way,  and we came to love all of her quirky little habits.  And she really was a gorgeous girl, and she looked great in Godiva!  She also loved snuggling into my youngest son's bed when he still had a mountain of stuffed animals, and washing us as if we were her children, and eating these very special Swedish ginger cookies (It took my mom a long time to wangle this authentic recipe out of a Swedish friend) in a most unladylike fashion.....

She was a wonderful girl!

Ugly Birds! Go Away!

This is my mantra these days, which gets hollered out the back patio doors quite a few times every day.  And it usually brings my little helper Stuie running at warp speed past me and out the door into the backyard, chasing ugly birds, of course.  (He also loves to chase squirrels, but that's another story for another time.)  And I wonder what the neighbors think?  I haven't really thought about that before, but they probably think I'm a bit screwy around the edges, if you know what I mean!

Now, these blasted birds are determined to devour the suet just as fast they can, bunches of them at a time.  And my poor little Downy woodpeckers, and big flickers, as well as a whole host of other birds, wouldn't get much suet but a little bit of leftovers.  NOT!  And we feed really expensive suet that is loaded with grubs, which is why the damn ugly birds like it so much.  Easy food, no work.  NOT!  

Now I'm armed with a large water gun, so I shoot them as I holler, "Ugly birds!  Go away!"  I feel a bit like Rambo.

Upon consideration of a shorter viewpoint

When I started this blog, I envisioned afternoons of bliss and wine, happily writing away, putting my thoughts on paper. Obviously, reality has been very different! Would that my thoughts could instantaneously be transformed into written words. I would have published volumes by now! So, as many of you know, I have a very big dog, a mastiff named Shadow, and a very small dog, who is fuzzy and white with Maltese ears and tail, and his name is Stuie, short for Stuart Little. Stuie chose us; not the other way around. And now I am in the process of trying to understand how he thinks, so I can train him. Training Shadow was much easier in some ways, because Shadow very obviously tries to understand what I want; he is very in tune with me. Stuie on the other hand, just looks rather clueless and cute. But that nasty high-pitched squeal that little dogs do, that has gotta go! Now, I have been reading a book I got for Christmas, "Animals in Translation" by Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson. It's an amazing read, and I highly recommend it. It has gotten me to try and think about things from Stuie's point of view, literally. So, I've actually gotten down onto the floor and looked at the world from his vantage point. And I can tell you, the world looks pretty scary from down there. You really have no idea what's going on. I might be yapping my fool head off too if that's what I was seeing! The boy needs a stool; that's all there is too it.

Palm Sunday at Henry Hagg Lake with the dogs

Palm Sunday here was just gorgeous; it was sunny and warm, and the sky was blue, blue, blue. So my hubby and I decided to take Shadow and Stuie to nearby dog-friendly Henry Hagg Lake. It had been ages since we took the boys out anywhere, so we packed them into the truck, stopped at Subway for sandwiches on our way out of civilization, and off we went. The walk from the truck through the woods and down to the 14 mile long path around the lake was so pretty with the wild flowers in bloom everywhere. Dainty bits of yellow, purple and white decorated the forest floor.

When we got to the path with the dogs, Stuie jumped into the lead and headed out at warp speed, simply following his nose. The little guy pays almost no attention to where he's going; he's a total ditz brain in that regard. I think he would have gone on forever, but Shadow and I have to be realistic about how much our arthritic joints can take. After the walk, we settled in at a picnic table in dappled shade at the edge of the woods, with a great view of the lake. The dogs had their bones, we had our subs, we spread out blankies on the ground... Every once in a while a group would start to settle in at a nearby picnic table, and then they would get a good look at Shadow, and next thing you know they'd be gone!

Henry Hagg Lake is stocked with fish, so a lot of folks go there to just to fish, either at the edge of the lake, or out on the lake. Half of the lake is a 'no wake zone' for the fishermen, and the other half of the lake is for jet skis, motor boats, water skiing, and other noisy water sports. It was really nice just sitting in the sun with the dogs, watching folks out on the lake. We even had a good view of the loading dock, and it's amazing how fast an experienced boater can load his boat onto the trailer.

This park can get crazy busy in the summer, but at this time of year, it was only moderately busy. We'll have to get back there again soon with the dogs!

Spring in Aloha, Oregon

These are a few garden shots from my yard right now. From left to right: the Hellebore are out back under a big old rhodie, the mini yellow daffodils with a couple of remaining purple crocus are near the upper end of the waterfall into our pond out back under the famous filbert tree, and the pot of bright spring bulbs by the lamp is on the walkway up to our front door. Spring is rather delayed here this year because we had such a long cold winter with lots of snow, and rather late into the season too. In other words, real winter! (And Dale and I loved every minute of it!) Sooo, the bloom cycle is all happening rather later than usual, but each day brings new wonder in my gardens. The daffodils open a bit more, the crocus fade a bit more, the columbine is coming up, as are my bleeding hearts, the forsythia is blooming, the huge old daphne by the front door smells spectacular and is just passing the best of its bloom. This past week I was at the Portland Japanese Gardens, (where I am now a Photographer Member) hoping that a particular bush was in full bloom, so that I could work on trying to create another one of my bizarre reflections shots. And I was rewarded with near perfect conditions and an almost empty garden. Several of the shots show promise, so I'm a happy camper! Especially since the weather should be rather gross and Oregon-like for the next week or so. Not great for photography. I'll have to settle for watching the flowers and birds in my own yard, which really isn't so bad.... The dogs are loving the sunny weather when we get it, and they search out the sunny spots in the house to lie down in. Shadow particularly loves to go park himself outside in the cul-de-sac near the end of our driveway. He gets dappled sunlight there from our huge maple, and it's a great place from which to guard his turf and watch all of the comings and goings in the area. I can put him on a 'down, stay' and know that he'll be there when next I check on him, or at a door whining to come in. The rufous hummers have started arriving, so our Anna's hummers will soon be heading for the coast. And all three of our hummer feeders are seeing a lot action these days. Food fight! They don't share very well. Several days ago I saw the most bizarre thing at our front yard hummer feeder. An Anna's was eating, with its back to me, so I couldn't sex the little bugger. Then a big male Anna's came driving in and they both tumbled to the ground in my garden, and just sat there, on the ground, not moving, just facing off, like Dr. Seuss' north going zax and south going zax. Why, I spy the sun! Right outside in my very own yard! I think I shall go stand in it while I still can!!!!!!!!

My Cat Eats Oatmeal

So there I was about 8 a.m. this morning, in my spot on the couch, with my heating pad and blankie, eye drops in, and of course, my coffee. And there was my husband, eating his daily oatmeal with dried blueberries and cranberries. The dogs were looking on eagerly, waiting for the last little bit, which they knew would come their way. And recently, our fuzzy, gray, part Persian cat, Smokey, has been showing signs of interest in that oatmeal. Now, you can't really take a cat's interest in oatmeal too seriously if you ask me. Can you? But what do I know? My husband offered him the 'sauce' in the bottom of his bowl and Smokey lapped it up with gusto! Then my husband offered him the spoon, which still had a few bits of oats on it, and he ate that too! Go figure............ Now, Smokey is not our only cat with bizarre food tastes. Delilah, my younger son's calico cat, won't eat anything except her regular old dry Purina Cat Chow. We've tried all kinds of other foods, those meant for animal consumption and those meant for human consumption. And until recently, the only other food she had eaten except for her regular stuff, was pumpkin bread. And she truly porked out on the pumpkin bread that Thanksgiving; this was no one-time occurrence! And then last week I offered her one of my homemade Snickerdoodle cookies. She sniffed the cookie, and then proceeded to take the largest, most unladylike bites off of my cookie that I have ever seen! As she was literally gulping it down as fast as possible, it occurred to me that perhaps her little cat tummy might have had enough. And I yanked it away from her while there was still some cookie left! And then there is our third beastie kitty, Delilah's brother Samson. Samson is really 'into' the meat in Taco Bell tacos. And he expects his fair share when the humans are done eating, and it's time for the dog to get their treats. (OK, he thinks he thinks he's a dog....) And if you forget to save him some, then you get his ultimate display of dissatisfaction. He sits on top of the refrigerator and glares at you with the most obvious F_ _ _ YOU look I've ever seen on a cat's face! And if you understand that one, clue me in too!

Stinking Squirrel!

Today was one of those gorgeous days when I know exactly why I live here in Oregon. It was sunny and warm, blue skies... the perfect day to do some more late winter garden clean-up. I dead-headed my Autumn Joy Sedum and Lacecap Hydrangea, gave some dwarf pines a gentle haircut, cleaned up the heuchera.... In a word, heaven! Then later on in the afternoon, as I was puttering around the house, I noticed our cat Samson moving like he was watching something and ready to pounce. I looked out back and spied a squirrel, who was in the process of grabbing a flower off my Hellebore, and beginning to eat the delicacy! I was totally flabergasted. I'm sure I had steam coming out my ears. Now, I've seen squirrels eat my tulip bulbs shortly after being planted, but the first flowers of the year? I think not! That was when I hollered, "Stuie! Want to go chase a squirrel?" And like a bat out of hell, there Stuie was, raring to go after that stinkin' squirrel. And the squirrel then proceeded to run like crazy, up the Filbert tree, with my Hellebore flower in his mouth! All I can say is, "STINKIN" SQUIRREL!"

Introduction

As I sat staring at my blog photo, wondering where to begin, it suddenly came to me. The big dog sitting beside me might be a good place! That is my buddy Shadow, Cedarhollow's Moon Shadow to be exact. He is an 8 1/2 year old brindle mastiff. He stands about 34 inches at the shoulder and weighs about 160 pounds, which actually makes him a rather skinny mastiff, honest. But oh, he is one wonderful boy: smart, well-trained (honest), beautiful disposition, loves people, makes a great early-warning system and doorbell, fetches you when the timer on the kitchen stove goes off or the teapot whistles, chases 'ugly birds' aka starlings, is the chief of our household 'cat police squad' and loves to chase 'bad kitties', sheds one hair at a time all of the time, slimes up everything pretty nicely so we have white towels all over the house to use as 'slobber rags'..... But he'll do darn near anything I ask of him, including standing still while I grab onto him to haul myself out of the bean patch, which I fell into butt first, or simply standing by my side looking mean and ugly at whomever is going door to door on our cul-de-sac. I love it when folks just stop, wave, and go on to the next house...

Our other dog is a 17 pound, fuzzy, white 'designer dog' named Stuie, which is short for Stuart Little. He adopted us almost three years ago, shortly after my father died. He was my 'solace dog'; the only thing that could make me smile at that point in time. He literally showed up on our doorstep and wouldn't leave, and believe me I tried! I like big dogs; I grew up with horses; I have cats bigger than he is! And now I love small dogs too!

Sometime I will tell you all about our trio of cats: Samson, Delilah, and Smokey.

Keep on keepin' on!