Daily Photo: Giuseppe’s Take on the Books
We got to see Basil earlier today looking adorable while leaning on this same stack of books. Now Giuseppe, which I actually took first. He looks very serious. I like them both!
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From Instagram today
Basil, Bean and Sunshine conspired to overtake my drafting table in the studio today. Mimi and I decided to leave them to it.
I decided to work outside today and took Mimi with me. The portrait I’m working on now is at a point where I can use pastel pencils and they were easy enough to pack up the ones I needed and take them and the portrait on a small drawing board out to the little courtyard out front where the light is good. The weather is so beautiful for any time of year but especially for August and even though it’s wonderful up here in the treehouse, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
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What other photos did I feature around this date?
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Emeraude’s Adventures, 2013
Lady Emeraude has been busy exploring her new realm.
Thanks to the many readers who’ve asked how Emeraude is doing after the loss of Lakota. Emma tends to be a little habit-bound, finding one good spot and sleeping there for days. Though I’ve left the bathroom door open all the time, even when her food is in there, she has been hopping back into the tub or curling up on the toilet lid for naps. I decided she needed a bit of a nudge, so instead of spending time in there with her, I carried her into my studio to spend time with me. After that, I found her just about everywhere upstairs.
One evening as I was working downstairs I heard a cat come down the stairs and sit next to me on my desk, though I was preoccupied and didn’t notice who and asked them to wait. Then I heard hissing, and the kids never have reason to hiss, looked to see Emeraude sitting next to me!
So here’s how our girl is doing.
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Having a quiet nap on my work table in the afternoon.
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She loves windowsills, and this cool and shady sill in my bedroom is a favorite.
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Of course, she has the windowsill in the bathroom to enjoy when she wants a little sunbath.
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She likes heights and found nearly the tallest spot in my bedroom for this nap.
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Waiting for me to come back to work in the afternoon.
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Watching the birds and squirrels and people from above.
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Settling down for a nap in my box of packing materials in the tub.
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Perhaps a little annoyed with all the photos.
She’s explored other places as well. I never really know where I’ll find her when I go upstairs, but she always says hello to me from wherever she is. She hisses mightily at any of the others, and the Four disappear, but Mimi holds her ground, they have a little hissing contest, then go on with life. She’s quite affectionate, giving me the sweetest nose kisses I’ve ever had from a cat, with lots of purrs.
I’d say she’s not doing too badly for a 19-year-old cat who finds herself in a strange place and who recently lost her Best Fur Friend with the huge purrsonality.
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A Butterfly Flutters Through, 2013
As I walked toward my garden this morning with the intent of photographing the eggplants growing there, a butterfly suddenly flew out of the mulberry and flew swiftly right in front of me so that I had to stop and even take a step back. The red-spotted purple butterfly fluttered a bit in front of me then continued over to Mimi, snoozing on the picnic table, and danced around her, then fluttered off to rest in the sun on some autumn asters near to each of us, then flew away.
Mimi looked at me, I looked at Mimi. We see butterflies all the time when we’re outside, but they don’t usually greet us. We knew this was a visitor as I’ve noted before. A butterfly stands for metamorphosis, change and growth, even rebirth because of its own manner of development from one type of creature to another. In this way it symbolizes transformation, even symbolizing the resurrection for some Christians, and has long been a symbol for the soul in many cultures—the Greek word for both “soul” and “butterfly” is “psyche”. And, finally, because butterflies seemed to dance as they flutter and fly they are said to dance the dance of joy.
We thought of Kelly, whose passing we are remembering today, and even Lakota more recently, but it seemed more likely to be all our garden cats, Cookie, Namir, Moses, Stanley, Sally and Kublai as well as Kelly, come to bid us hello on this lovely morning, and to tell us to enjoy our beautiful morning while we had it. It was nice to be all together again.
And I don’t know my butterflies all that well, just the most common, and I’d never seen one of these before in my backyard. But I had just read something somewhere that mentioned red-spotted purples, and as soon as I saw this butterfly its name came to mind and I think I even said it softly to myself. All of this resulted in plenty of photos today…
Art and Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals
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Feline Photos from Portraits of Animals!
We all love my studio window, a big, old, battered metal-framed casement about 4′ x 4′ on the second floor looking out at the spruce, maple and river birch in the front of our house. I call it the “tree house” as we watch the weather and light change and spend time with all the tree-dwellers in the neighborhood above the street. Giuseppe was watching Mr. Cardinal singing his spring song on this particular afternoon and I watched the light and images reflect on his eye and admiring his profile.
Copyright
All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
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Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!
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Thank you for the lovely memories of Lady Emeraude today…
More coming up, Bluemoonalone. Autumn was her season.