Fun In The Sun

Since the friend I usually carpool to church with had some personal business to attend to this weekend, I decided to opt for a lazy stay-at-home Sunday today.

Well, not totally lazy.  I started by hitting some cardio at the gym, doing half an hour on the recumbent bike.  That went well, though it always works up quite a sweat.  After that, it was back home, with the day already growing hot.  Still, I went out to run some water to the trees, and thus the door was opened for some outside-time for the kitties.

As we can see, Khan wisely sought out some nice shade:

Ahh, nice and cool here under the baby redbud.

Then, as I beat a hasty retreat back towards the coolness of my air-conditioned house, I spotted something that made me double-take:

This random weed at the edge of my porch is unmistakably a snapdragon.  In theory, I know where it came from--I had snapdragons in the planter box last year, so one must have self-seeded.  But how they managed to seed--and have one land right there and sprout--that just boggles me. 

I guess it's just one of life's random, happy little surprises. 

And We're Back!

Well, it has been a busy few days.  My parents came down from Arkansas so we could celebrate my Dad's birthday, and so they could attend the orchestra concert I took part in.  Both parts of the visit were a smashing success, and we had a great time all around. 

When not at concerts or celebrating birthdays, we played some cards (I did rather well, if I do say so myself) and did some antiquing downtown.  Dad found some records, and Mom found a few small items.  There was nothing in the way of what I was looking for, but we did stumble across something Mom and I thought was kind of neat:

This USDA pamphlet describes what was the cutting edge of hive design, suggests how to get bees to move to the "new digs"  and as a bonus recommended the best choice of toxic chemical for the removal of bee colonies in inconvenient locations (in the walls of one's house, for instance). 

Mom also brought me a rooted cutting from her really wonderful fig tree.  I'm really excited about my little guy.  He grew a bit wonky, but I picked up a plant stake, cut a strip of soft cloth,
and along with its cozy tree ring for mulch, it is all tucked in safe and sound. 

My baby fig!

Even though it is due to rain at some point in the latter half of the week, I went ahead and ran it some water from the hose since the poor fellow was only just transplanted over the weekend. 

While picking up the plant stake, I checked to see if Home Depot had any Snapdragons or Portulaca in--still no joy, much to my disgust.  I am going to have to do some serious scouting around town this coming weekend.  But, all is not completely lost: among the many sneaky, unwelcome weeds to "volunteer" to come up in my flower beds was one surprise guest who will be allowed to stay. 

Surprise!

Those heart-shaped leaves are the hallmark of a common Violet, and I have a pretty good guess as to this one's parentage.  It so happens that teh bigger redbud tree came with an extra stowaway, in the form of a violet from Mom and Dad's yard.  Now, Violets are shade-loving and extremely tough, so this one survived a couple of bad brushes with a negligent lawn-guy and has, in fact, managed to thrive.  It has also seeded one whole patch of the backyard with its offspring.  (Violets are also extremely prolific.  One very small pot with maybe two violet plants managed to cover my whole side-yard where I last lived.)  Clearly, yet another of the Stowaway's offspring has appeared, and managed to find itself in some prime real-estate.  This might be called a new approach to weed management:  if you can't beat them, choose them. 

Naturally, my Loyal Furry Assistants were on the scene during today's gardening efforts.  Leo made sure the new baby was safe, and Khan-khan arranged to look very decorative:

My parents also brought another redbud sapling when they made their trip, which was a gift for Super Sociable Guy and his family, who have really been very good friends and very sweet to me.  I delivered it to them yesterday, and they have already picked it a spot and got it securely planted.  I chatted with my friend about it today, and he is quite pleased, and I recommended that he pick up a tree ring to help it along.  It was fun to chat, as always, and I mentioned the new fig.  Sociable Guy smoothly suggested that, you know, if I ever needed any help picking figs down the road when my tree is established that he and his family would be happy to help out.  Just sayin'....

I'm looking forward to it.

Eye of the Tiger?

Having introduced one of my cats, it is only fair now to introduce the other.  Dear, sweet, faithful Sher-khan, named for the tiger of literary fame, has been with me for a long time now.  At nearly 20 years old, (yes, you read right, 20, two-zero) he is very much a senior kitty; He has slowed down a lot from the days of his youth, with some definite stiffness and arthritis in his gait, but he is still able to jump up on the bed for night-time cuddles and he still lets me hear all about it if something isn't right with his world, such as mommy getting home late or a lack of attention, which is naturally supposed to be constant.  And being a Siamese, he's got the pipes to do it with, too.

He is also a cat of many faces.  We have basket-kitty,

outside kitty,

and lap-kitty.

 He is a big-time lap cat, and one of his pet peeves in life is laptops, which take up space that is obviously supposed to belong to a kitty.  He does enjoy excursions out into the back yard, though anymore he only tends to go out a few minutes before coming back inside for a cozy nap (see basket-kitty).

He plays the kindly uncle to Leo, who is still young enough to make a pest of himself sometimes.  Still, they seem to have worked things out between them as to who possesses what space when (I am evidently a time-share) and Sher-khan is still able to find space where he can nap in peace.  If only all our lives could be like his....

A Legend In His Own Mind

As I have said in "about me," I happen to be the parent-person of two felines. The younger of the two is Mr. Leo. He's posing for us below.



Is he not a totally cute cat-cat? Yes, yes he is.



He enjoys his food--rather too much, in fact--but he will tell you that he is merely "extra floofy". He also holds the firm belief that everything--and I do mean everything--is a cat toy. One of his favorite objects to appropriate is my work ID on its lanyard. This can be dragged along by the "neck", which he thinks is fun, because the Mighty Lion is then dragging his Helpless Prey back to its Den.

His other all-time favorite activity is being let out to play in the backyard. That's where he was in the last two pictures, but when not rolling around on the porch he might be hanging out beside the little redbuds next to the porch swing:




No outside play for him today, alas, due to cold and cloudy weather.  But by tomorrow there is a good chance it will be clearer, and the Doorkeeper might just let him out again.  It's a tough life he has. 

May Flowers...Just a Tiny Bit Early

Today's post will be picture-heavy and a little light on the written word, because much of my time this evening has been devoted to a garden project.  I have a very nice planter box on my back porch, so I picked up a few annuals and went to town, so to speak.  There were a lot of other people at the store as well, so we all apparently had the same idea on this absolutely gorgeous day.

So, here the poor planter box sits "before," all alone and empty:

After topping up the soil, it was time to get planting.  Lucky for me, I had some expert help:

My elder kitty, Sher-khan investigates.

As does my younger one, Leo



As we can see, an avid gardener!



 With such excellent assistance, the whole job naturally went very quickly.  Now we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor:

After!

The flowers are all among my favorites: geraniums for the centerpiece, some spreading petunias near the edges, and a passel of bright marigolds to fill in the gaps.  The store did not yet have any snapdragons or portulaca in stock, both of which I also love, so I may have to make another trip in a week or two and pick up some of those to go around/between the irises in my flower beds.

I hope you, dear readers, also had a wonderful day to enjoy.