It's been a month since my last post!  no idea how that much time has passed.  too much focus on yucky stuff like taxes. 

have read all of the Lucy Stone series by Leslie Meier. 

http://www.amazon.com/Leslie-Meier/e/B000APW6ES/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

currently reading Agony of the Leaves by Laura Childs, another series I follow. 

Goldie is doing his Spring Shed -- why? I wonder -- he's an indoor cat; sitting at the screen door a few hours during a warm day is his closest to experiencing outdoors.

in the garden the white lilac is in bloom.

Reading can be both yummy and mysterious.

Even cozy mysteries  need a villain.  In the Cat Quilt, this block is the "villain" --  

Goldie and Tri feel he's a cozy villain and would even curl up with him -- If they were allowed to sleep on this quilt. 

Just finished reading The 27-Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murder.  This is the last of the 3 Eugenia Potter mysteries, The Cooking School Murders, The Baked Ben Supper Murders and The Nantucket Diet Murders.  Virginia Rich was working on this novel when she died; it was finished by Nancy Pickard.  I do wish there had been many many more in this series, especially since its heroine is a "mature" lady, and not in a nursing home. 

And the Chili sounds yummy -- my bosses are reminding me that it's their dinner time.

(Who needs an alarm clock when there's a cat or two in the house?)





A Quilt Showing Goldie at Work

What a perfect wall-hanging to show how Goldie spends his mornings.

It's so exhausting that he really needs his after-lunch nap.  And, of course, I must join him.   

Good Day for

sitting by the hearth - or cuddling on the sofa with two cats and a good book. 

Years ago I participated in a block swap.  The theme was Cats -- cat fabric or a cat pattern.  

This is from that swap -- a Log Cabin with cats.   The center patch of red  represents the hearth fire. 

Quilt historians found that the Log Cabin design became popular in 1863 when the Union army was raising money for the Civil War by raffling quilts. President Abraham Lincoln grew up in a log cabin. The pattern may have been a symbol of loyalty to him as head of the Union. 

Virus Alert

I've been told that the link in Feb 16, 2011 post has a virus attached to it.  I have no idea how it became attached and can not find out how to remove it, nor will the original post delete.  Therefore, if you do read old posts, please do not use that link to the fabric store in Jonesport, Maine.  If you do wish to locate the store, please use Google.  My appologies to all -- original plans were to upgrade my tower this summer and hopefully that can be fixed then.  I have run Norton AntiVirus which comes up with nothing.

Triple --Header Day

Two Chipmonks running across the patio, Groundhhog gorging on grass and a Deer grazing at the end of the woods.   Each took a turn having a meal in the back yard.

 

Today I didn't run to get the camera, this photo was taken a few years ago.  Today's deer was an adult.  If she had a baby with her, it stayed well hidden.

Tri and Goldie watched the chipmonks -- they aren't quite certain if the Chips are playmates or food "on the hoof" -- not that they are going to work for what comes in a tidy bowl at standard times, without fur or bones. 

At Lights Out, Goldie and Tri felt curling up close was the best place.  The flowering shrubs withstood the brief moment of hail yesterday as well as the heavy rain. 

Need to hang my Summer banner -- have to get it out ; one of the few I didn't get a photo of yet.   

The Mt. Laurel is beautiful this year.  The faint red blooms are a red version of the laurel.  While I purchased the red one, the "parent" Mt. Laurel was on my In-Laws CT home.  Its blooms brings memories of them and that home.  Guess that ability puts the bush into the same catagory as a pass-down heritage quilt -- one that was used so it has good memories of family wrapped in it. 

First Summer Storm

Summer's first heat ended in a serious thunderstorm -- dark as night, a downpour.  Goldie and Tri vanished into their "safe place", under the bed, while I closed windows.   Fortunately we didn't lose power.  And I didn't hide under a quilt.  But enough with these weather extremes -- from blizzard to heat wave to thunder & lightening. 

As I was laying on the couch last night, enjoying the AC and a good book on my Kindle, I caught a glimpse of Goldie who was also enjoying the AC by napping on the back of the couch. 





His tail was a fluff of spun cotton candy -- a childhood carnival treat, but vanilla not strawberry.  I wonder: Do carnivals operated by real-life gypsys still travel through New England in summer?  

I suspect that they don't -- the last time I was at the Durham Fair, the food booths were all run by local non-profit organizations & I think the games of chance were too.

  

Memorial Day memories

Going with my Grandmother to tidy the gravestones and plant geraniums in front of them -- and after she would pointed out those related to us in other plots.  

Marching as a Girl Scout in the local parade.

The flags placed by the Boy Scouts/VFW for military service. 

A visit from Grandfather's cousin.  He moved to Canada to enlist in WWI because he wanted to fly & US was too slow to enter the fight.  

The gold Stars in Grandmother's brother's window during WWII -- 2 of them for sons serving on the same sub. 

And, of course, the cookouts - standard fare made special by the day.

My special fare today is French toast soldiers with Vermont maple syrup and several bacon strips -- which Goldie didn't hesitate to remind me that I had to share. 



Bettycrocker.com

 A British term, "soldier" refers to toast cut into thin strips reminiscent of the formation of soldiers on parade. The toast is sliced like this so it can be dipped into the opening of a soft boiled egg which has had the top of its shell removed. 

un digestif

Un digestif, that after-dinner drink one's human servants may enjoy, becomes an after-dinner nap.   This is  not to be confused with the morning nap or the afternoon nap.

The heroine of the book I'm currently reading owns a cheese shop with a friend (accused of murder, falsely of course) owning the neighboring wine shop.  After a page or two I want crackers and cheese munchies.  

Maybe I'll enjoy un digestif on Sunday while waiting for Jesse Stone program.    

  

"The Wedding Shawl"

written by Sally Goldenbaum.  A very

Amazon.com

 enjoyable cozy series -- knitting not quilting but there is a cat, named Purl. 



Yesterday after serving breakfast to the feline VIPs, and as I was enjoying my morning muffin,  two bunnies hopped by.   Guess the grass is greener on the other side of the street. 


2008 source info lost














Thankfully they stayed away from the flower bed and so far Mr. Groundhog, who has been dining during the "cocktail hour",  has stayed out of it too.

Currently Reading



Amazon.com

This is the second one about Charlie, a librarian, and his cat Diesel which I have read.  Looking forward to a third one.  Diesel wears a harness & goes to the library with Charlie, actually a retired librarian who is now a volunteer.  Can't imagine either Goldie or Tri wearing a harness.












The Measby Murder is the other book I've also recently finished.  It's set in an assisted living facility that's in a traditional English village.  As a birthday gift, the heroine is given a kitten.

Currently reading Murder Under Cover.  The heroine of this one is a

 rare book appraiser & restorer.  She also has a cat but he hasn't played a major role yet in this book.  He does have a cat quilt in his cat bed.

.

Delights of a Spring Morning

Between breakfast and the morning nap, there's serious work to be done:  The House Wren (I think that's what they are) has a nest sheltered under the patio roof.  One can hear the babies chirping for their breakfast.  Goldie and Tri, who feel like Godparents to the brood I'm sure, monitor with great intensity the parents' trips to seed scattered on the patio edge . 

I'm enjoying the lilacs which have begun to bloom, including a white one on that side.  It was planted in memory of one of my Grandmothers who had a white lilac; the standard ones are from my other Grandmother's garden. 

  This photo of the opposite side was taken a few years ago .  I enjoy this view while having my breakfast coffee.  Sadly, the birdhouse feeder, made by DH, disappeared a number of years ago.   It was there when I went to work and just not there when I came home.

My sping tulips now hang on the wall.  

Spring = Shedding

But can anyone explain why an indoor-only cat grows a winter coat that needs shedding?  Goldy enjoys a consistent moderate temperature year-around.  And if the night-time setting is too cool, he could try snuggling under the quilt.   

Unfortunately he doesn't tolerate enough brushing time to deal with the shedding.  His mother should have taught him the "100 brush strokes a night" rule. 

Goldie's Doppelganger

He's an outdoor roamer, although in bad weather he will favor my neighbor with his indoor presence.  Some mornings he naps on my front step.  Yesterday morning he checked on the cat mint in my flower bed and, as Tri watched, he took the first-of-the-season roll in it.  Tri didn't make a sound, but even so you could just hear her shouting "Get off -- that's ours -- it has to grow a bit more before our human can cut some for us to enjoy."   

When I do bring some in for them, Goldie is very much the gentleman -- he lets Tri go first.  When done, they both enjoy a long drunken nap.   

Smell the Roses, Blow out the Candles

  Tri enjoys flowers too.  Perhaps her more sensitive kitty nose picks up a rose smell mine doesn't (these commercial roses are not bred for scent).  I do know she enjoys tasting the leaves & have to wave her off, reminding her that she has her kitty grass to nibble.  

As aways a bouquet  reminds me of our visit to the morning flower market outside Amsterdam where such flowers are auctioned off and immediately loaded onto planes for flying to the buyers.   

Blue patterned  fabric purchased in Dutch fabric shop.

Buddies

Grumble and Sputter

Unlike my two "bossses' I didn't spend this morning having a post-breakfast nap.

I spent it working on the 2009 IRS return -- should be simple for a senior citizen who doesn't support Wall Street, right? Hah!  And I can't even claim those two snoozers as dependents.  Usually there's a quilt folded across the couch top that they can snooze on, but they seem to be "roughing it" ok.  After a mid-afternoon cup of coffee I'm joining them with my Kindle.  Enjoying a cozy mystery set in Glory, North Carolina.