a Texas quilt and a happy little raccoon...

Friday my friend and I went to the Plano Quilt Show. She has been quilting for a while, but this was the first time she had a entry in the show. Her quilt was called, "Texas, our Texas" and it really looked beautiful hanging up on the wall.  Here's a picture of it.

I'm a very novice quilter, but the more I see, the more I love them. However, I like the kind you can cuddle up in ... lap quilts and bed quilts. Don't think I'll ever aspire to doing Quilt show quilts, but would like to make some for family and friends.  Like my pottery, I tend to prefer things "functional".

On another note, I went to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned this week. I really don't like going to the dentist... for any reason. Don't know why... guess it's a phobia... and apparently a common one. But my heart beats almost out of my chest the minute I walk into the office and all through the procedure.  We talked about it as I have to go back next week for a small cavity (and I haven't had a cavity in probably 20 years). She says it's very small and won't take but a minute to fix, but wants to fix it before it becomes a problem. I agreed to do it. She wants me to take a low dose Valium or Ativan before coming in... so I won't be so stressed. I've never taken anything like that, but agreed to give it a try.  Do any of you have this problem?

Cats (inside and outside) are doing fine. We have lots of baby raccoons visiting lately in the yard. One is fascinated by the cat toy (the circle ring that has a ball inside). Unfortunately he gets so caught up with playing with it that he doesn't see when his mother and siblings leave... then looks around like "oh no, where'd everybody go?"  We took this video with my iPhone.

If you watch it for a bit, you will see a little black kitten come out and wonder why the raccoon has taken over his toy...

(if you click on the video twice after it starts, it will get larger... a little blurry, but larger)

Have a great week!  

   

Julie... the mischievous one

Julie is our 11 years old black and white DSH. She came to us along with her other 4 siblings when a feral mama decided to leave her 5 kittens in our backyard in 2004.  We already had 3 inside cats, but needless to say, we took these 5 in also. We bottle-fed them and when they were about 6 weeks old, my daughter took one and my son took one. 

the original 5 feral kitens

Her 2 brothers whom we kept and who were also black and white turned out to be very large cats (about 18 lbs). Julie was smaller and thinner. But she has since 'rounded' out over the years.

A portrait 

She is the mischievous one... always ready to play and act silly. You can't leave things around her that can be 'pushed' off as she is more than ready to see it 'fly'.  She's also very vocal. And although she's usually not a lap cat, she does have her days.

checking out the comics on the kitchen counter

She's also the 'counter' cat. Took possession of that corner of the counter a few years ago and refuses to give it up... not even when we're putting groceries away.

sharing her spot with groceries

And she's very curious... always watching me sew or quilt. Wants to be 'in on the action' or near by - as the case may be.

thinking about quilting

And the next two pictures are old ones and were taken a few years ago when Ghost was still a kitten. Julie and Ghost 'rough-housed' a lot.

and now Ghost is all grown up, but they are still buddies...

Hope you enjoyed a brief look into Julie's life. Since 2004, we have 'fostered' many feral cats' offspring, but (except for Ghost) have always eventually taken them to the Adoption Room at our local no-kill shelter. There is a limit as to the number of cats inside a house. This number may vary according to an individual's ability to care and maintain - but our number was reached at 6 - later expanded to 7 when Ghost came into the picture, but that's another story (Ghost would not have been adoptable).

There is one other matter I would like to mention... this belief that feral cats aren't adoptable or don't make good pets. Feral cats are as individual as any other animal. Some take to domestication readily. Some don't. If an animal has been feral it's whole life, it may be more difficult... but kittens are very adaptable. All our cats have been good cats who take to having other cats introduced into the house-hold in their stride. But I have to say that the original 5 feral kittens that we took in in 2004 turned out to be the most lovable generous-natured of any cats we've ever shared our lives with.

hatch peppers, grandkids, and silly cats...

hatch chili peppers

It's Hatch Pepper time at Central Market! Picked up some roasted hatch peppers, some hatch pepper sauce, HP cheese, HP tortillas, and HP crab cakes this week. 

Had the crab cakes Thursday with some fresh steamed asparagus and brown butter. Then made scrambled eggs with roasted hatch peppers and HP cheese, rolled into puffy HP tortillas topped with mild HP sauce last night. Delicious! (Can you tell we really like Hatch Peppers?)

They are good in almost everything. We've tried samples in biscuits and cornbread, brownies and chocolate chip cookies, etc. I will admit that they have Hatch chili pepper ice-cream and we haven't tried that. But most things are done with either mild or hot varieties and they are marked. We do "mild".

Next is a picture of grand daughter getting her hair trimmed. Apparently she enjoys the experience.

She will be 3 in a few months... 

The kids today enjoy experiences that we (or I and my kids) never experienced... like going to professionals to get our hair cut or nails done, massages and spas, etc. Not saying that I've never done this, but certainly never did as a child. 

Of course they also have the advantage of being born in the technological age and having their hands on computers and cell phones almost from birth. They are the "digital natives". I find that if I can't do something on my computer or cell phone, I just have to ask a grandchild.

The inside cats are doing fine... Tux was acting strange for a while after Molly passed, but he seems to be over it.  He was grumpy and always looking upset. He's a sweet cat... a little needy, but he also has a lot of "attitude" (or "cat-ti-tude as the case may be)... and is easily put off. If he's laying on my lap and another cat comes by, I can't acknowledge them or he will get pissed and walk away. May be he's a bit narcissistic?

Then there's Julie...

Julie is Tux's sister and she's very playful. She will start flying around the house... climb up the backs of chairs, and generally act silly. I caught her here as she was in one of her silly moods.

Julie is our 'counter cat'.  A few years ago she decided to claim the kitchen counter as her own and nothing we did discouraged her. Using a spray bottle will get her off for the moment, but as soon as we leave, she's back. Extremely persistent. After a while we gave up and now we put a small quilt on the end of the counter and that's her spot... for the most part. 

Have a great Sunday!

memories and sweet tea...

I guess I will have to eventually change this *picture heading* which still includes Molly, but perhaps I'll wait a bit... not quite ready to let go, I guess. The other day I was giving out treats, and found myself going into the bedroom to look for Molly on the bed (then I remembered...). I know this is normal. Goodness knows, we have gone through it before.

Julie and Ghost lying on Molly's blanket

The weatherman is forecasting 105-108 F days this weekend... and into Monday. Hard to believe - well, maybe not, it IS August in Texas. DH made a batch of sweet tea today. He makes wonderful sweet tea. The kids as well as our friends always want him to make it the minute it gets hot. And I have to admit that his Iced Sweet Tea on a hot day is a great thirst quencher!

I found a recipe in Taste of the South for a Frozen Peach Ice-Box Pie. And since I had just bought fresh peaches last week and they were getting too ripe, I decided to make it today. It's in the freezer now. We shall do the taste-testing after 4 with our coffee (or tea). Will take a photo and let you know.

peach ice-box pie made with fresh peaches and cream cheese!

We did taste it and... it's a keeper! Will make this again...

The days are too hot to go outside, so basically if I'm not reading, cooking, or cleaning, I'm probably quilting. Here a few pics of the 2 quilts I'm working on now. The first one is the pastel quilt that I posted before, but now it has it's borders.. but no batting or quilting as yet.

The next is called "winter" and so far I've only pieced it, no borders yet... but the fabric on the side is what I plan to use as borders.

And just because... I'm adding a picture of the quilt my friend made me last year. I've posted it before too, but I love it so... so I'm posting it again. I call it my bunny quilt.

Can you see all the little bunnies in the actual quilting? You may have to enlarge the picture to see them well.

So... another snippet. (I wish I had some pretty outside pics - like flowers or vegetable gardens, but no luck - even my hanging baskets are showing signs of heat stroke).

kittens and tea...

We took the feral kittens to the Adoption Room at our 
No-Kill Shelter yesterday. They were 5 weeks old, but because there are 6 of them, they are very small. In fact, the mama is pretty small herself. Since we haven't been able to catch her, we would have preferred to wait another week to give them more time to nurse - but it's been our experience, that after they are 6 weeks old, catching the kittens gets difficult. We will continue to try to catch the mama as we feel that she is too small and thin to risk getting pregnant again. But we have to say that for a first litter (and having 6!) she was a very good mama - very loving and attentive.

We were also very tempted to keep the little gray one that looks like our Ghost. He is really cute. We started calling him Yoda. But in the end we decided it was best to give someone else a chance to adopt him. Our inside cats live close to 20 + years and at since we are both 70, decided that the 4 we have now could possibly outlive us, so best not to take on any others.

We also have other visitors to our yard. Here are some raccoons that come by occasionally for a snack. They seem to really like the cat food - as do the box turtles.

Interesting tidbit:  Although the cats don't go for sweets... the raccoons love pies, cakes, cookies, etc. I think they definitely have a sweet tooth.

BTW, if you look closely at the next picture, you can almost see the magic rabbit hole that goes down the back all the way to the creek. 

look carefully at the V shape in the bushes directly behind raccoons...

The yard drops off there and it slopes down about 4 feet to a lower patio and then extends maybe another 10 feet to the creek. There are stone steps far to the left and an overgrown ivy path on the far right... but the critters all prefer to use the rabbit hole.

And although the yard is fairly well shaded, they also seem to prefer to hang out on the back porch... possibly because of the ceiling fan and the availability of fresh water.

I probably should be posting this to my other blog page, "Cats, Coffee, and Chocolate" but I find it hard to separate my posts (and my readers here are interested in the critter updates too... I think?). Oh well, I'll just put a link on that site to this one and vice-versa. That should work, yes?

On another subject - the heat - it was 104 F here yesterday. Since everyone everywhere seems to be suffering, I guess 104 isn't that unusual. But it is hot!  I don't know what people who don't have A/C are doing.  Can't imagine, really. I know we didn't have A/C when we were growing up (and believe me, it was HOT and HUMID in New Orleans in the 40's and 50's!), but we survived with the old time ceiling fans as well as those small black iron oscillating fans. But then, we didn't know any different - so maybe our bodies acclimated better? (or now we're just old and spoiled?)

All I know is that DH and I don't venture out too much when it's this hot. However, we do still see people out there in the neighborhood running in the middle of the day in the sun and the heat... and we wonder what they are thinking. It can't be healthy?

And speaking of healthy, I bought some "peaches and cream" tea at Ham's Peach Orchard a few weeks back. It's what I'm drinking now as I sit here at the computer. It's Premium Ceylon Tea by the Metropolitan Tea Company - and it comes in this cute little wood box... and it's very good.

Also it's Friday! Have a wonderful safe week-end... and stay out of the heat! (if you can)

bits and pieces to share...

Here's a few more pics taken either in or around the house...

You have to look close to see Tux... and my reflection!

DH and I were coming back from an errand and I saw Rose in the window. Decided to take her pic. Once I was inside and looked at the shot I'd taken, there was Tux... and my reflection! Surprise extras!

Turtle on the run out back

DH always alerts me to turtles that he sees outside so I can check to see if it's a new one or one of our "regulars". This one  recently wasn't new. See the red "2" on his back (looks more like a backwards S - it's hard to mark a moving target...).

2 turtles eating out front

These 2  came to eat together in the front.  When we checked them, one was already marked, the other was new. We marked him/her #5 (5th new one this year!).

As I'm writing this, Julie in hiding behind the lamp on my messy desk... acting like I can't see her. 

(Julie) "If I just don't move, she won't see me..."

Julie is not a lap cat. Her brother, Tux, is... but it's an odd day that Julie will curl up in anyone's lap. However, on the evening that Molly left us, Julie did just this. To our surprise, she came to the sofa and curled up in my lap for the longest time...

Next pic is one I snapped a few minutes ago of the litter of kittens outside whose feral mama just moved all 6 of them to our back porch. You can only see the one little gray head in the mass of tiny black bodies.  Looks like a little Ghost...

And I started working on a new quilt... a  pastel colored one (blue and cream) that I did in strips. Getting ready to add the borders next.

It's not a large quilt... guess it could be considered lap size (about 40 X 40?) 

Well, that's about it. Nothing too news-worthy, but I thought the bits and pieces worth sharing. 

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Molly

Molly

We lost Molly this week... not unexpected, but still hard to deal with. She was 22 years old. We got her as a kitten in 1993. She and Thibbadeux (our orange tabby) were good friends and constant companions. He was the same age as Molly, but we lost him a few years back.

Molly and Thibs

Molly and Thibs

Molly was such a good cat... even tempered and friendly. She got along with all the others as they came along (whether as kittens or adults) and accepted them easily into the house-hold. 

She did occasionally hiss at the outside ferals whose faces appear in the kitchen window panes of the french doors each morning. We always thought she was making it known to them that "there was no more room in the inn".

We will miss her very much.