Thursday, March 28, 2024
black catscatsdaily photogiuseppeHamletjelly beanmewsettemr. sunshine

Daily Photo: An Afternoon in the Baskets

Preparing for the afternoon, 2:44 p.m.
Preparing for the afternoon, 2:44 p.m.

A long, quiet afternoon was ahead, and preparation for the Afternoon Nap had begun by the big north window. Kitties had chosen their baskets, baths were being finished, some tucked in alone and some in pairs, and a few were already asleep in their baskets, their rounded shapes slowly rising and falling above the basket.

A minute later all heads were tucked and a communal peace settled over them.

Five black cats in baskets
Situation, 2:45 p.m.

Nearly three hours later, the nap was successful. All had slept, practically without moving, filling their baskets with peaceful quiet and now they began to awaken.

Five black cats in baskets
Situation, 5:29 p.m.

Just one nap of many in those baskets by the window.

~~~

From the Back Yard and Beyond

Little Snow Critters

~~~

From Portraits of Animals

“Light Into Darkness” Exhibit Submissions

 

From around this date in past years

Heated Stepmonster Beds, 2022

two cats on steps Cozy Stepwarmers[/caption]

At one time there was a furnace vent in the floor there, but when I had the landing installed and the steps ended up on top of it we installed a duct with a vent in the face of the bottom step. The duct makes the enclosed space inside those two steps very warm in winter, too warm for my initial purpose: storing off-season shoes. But it’s just purrfect for kitties to stretch out and nap on a cold winter day. It’s a real trick if I want to go up or down the steps, though. Thank goodness for hip replacements.

~~~

From Instagram

So, what shall we get into today? They are so helpful in my studio. Today they will be #printmonitorcats.

Midnight Louie decided jump on my lap, give me a big hug and burrow under my hair. He’s been skeptical about this, but we’re having a nice cozy afternoon in the studio while it’s snowing, and I’m spending a lot of time waiting for my printer to produce the art prints that I need. He’s a very, very sweet kitty.

Yes?


Are you done yet? I need a nap.

From the Garden and Beyond

The Snow Butterfly

The rare and wonderful Snow Butterfly, only seen at dusk when snow is falling.

I love my color-changing solar butterflies, dragonflies and hummingbirds. I usually take them in for winter, but I appreciate their color, even though it’s brief with less sunlight. This butterfly is covered with about two inches of fresh snow, and more was falling, when I looked outside at dusk. Click here to see it on Today.

 

After the Ice Storm

Nature’s Decorations

 

From around this date in past years

A Little Cleaning, 2021

black cat with cobwebs on face
Mewsette said she helped.

Mewsette is very pleased with helping me clean some of the cat hair from under the furniture. She came to show me what she’d accomplished and I was very impressed. I thought she was just trying to get an errant mousie, and here she was helping me clean the house! She was so pleased she wanted to go right back to it. Really, I’ll take all the help I can get!

black cat with cobwebs on face
Mewsette is pleased.

~~~

From Instagram

Two cats from two completely different backgrounds, but I can see they agree on one thing: they do not like my choice of French onion soup for lunch.

Little Mariposa lovin on her big Ninja.

The last one from December!
and a gallery featuring kitties in the bathroom

Nice warm spot in front of a furnace vent for a very cold day.

Jelly Bean’s having an #easysunday of it, relaxing in front of the furnace vent behind the bathroom door.

The brothers get together for a drink.

Bella’s Big Goal today: have a quick nap in each of the warmest spots in the house, then choose one for the main long afternoon nap.

 

From the back yard and beyond.

Winter lays bare many interesting things in the backyard. I enjoyed capturing nine studies of dried things in the garden, especially the grapevine and Virginia creeper tendrils, while following Mimi around the garden.

Apart

The middle doe was looking lovely in the snow this morning.

Doe in the Snow

The snowbird arrived with the snow. Or perhaps led it here. In the past few mild winters I haven’t seen many juncos in my yard. This one scouts the feeding area in light snowfall, perhaps considering the red berries near.

Snowbird

Some color in winter sunlight, my old red teapot with dried stems of wild asters.

The Red Teapot

You can see all of these and more on my photo blog Today.

From around this date in past years

Upstairs Nap, 2020

three black cats at window
Sleepily watching the street.

Mimi, Mewsette and Sunshine joined me upstairs in the studio while I worked, and they did too, at first, sort of, watching birds and activities in the neighborhood. Then they all settled down to relax and watch some more. Each of them is partly on the windowsill at this point, partly on my drafting table.

Then they really started to move into napping mode. The heck with those birds, they could see them any time. All the kids had gone to school and the adults to work, and no one was out there. They could let go and at least doze, but they could easily wake up and be on the alert.

three black cats at window
Starting into a nap.

But there was no need. Absolutely nothing happened, so they could just stay asleep, and even go deeper. So they settled themselves on their beds and blankets and drifted off to dreamland for the rest of the morning.

three black cats at window
All there.

I love to watch them. Sometimes I take so many photos I get little to nothing done. There is always something wonderful about watching my cats at the studio window.

. . . . . . .

Photos from around this date in previous years

Sister and Brother, 2019

Sister and Brother
Sister and Brother

Sister Mewsette and brother Mr. Sunshine enjoying a warm sunny bathroom inside while the polar vortex howls outside. They were fostered in this room and between all the other fosters who’ve followed them they’ve walked back in and made it theirs again. I took so many photos of these two with my phone that I used several with different filters. Above is my favorite, below are the others I chose.

 

And then there was Giuseppe…

Extreme cuteness in a warm sunny bathroom this morning. Giuseppe wants me to turn on the faucet so he can have a drink. I did and he looked at it and left. Manipulative.

Photos from years past.

.

Kitty Keep-warm Lamp, 2018
Bella by her keep-warm lamp.
Bella by her keep-warm lamp.

Mimi sometimes does this, but lately Bella’s been getting there first. Those old-fashioned 25-watt light bulbs put out the heat, but not so much that the glass shade is too hot for a kitty to cuddle up to. On these cold nights kitties need all the warm spots they can get.

Are you going to go away?
Are you going to go away?

Bella prefers to bask in privacy. I wish I’d had my better camera—these were taken with my phone. Typically, because I photograph so many birds from the window the camera is usually there. I’ll make sure it is from now on, and of course I’ll never capture Bella there again.

Privacy please.
Privacy please.

This is the same lamp by which I photographed cats which became Halloween cards.

~~~

From Instagram and Facebook

I have been unusually busy with errands, water in the basement, snow and ice…but I have shared a few photos on Facebook.

January 9

Are you going to share that cereal or not?
Are you going to share that cereal or not?

January 11

Yes, until it started raining it was completely intoxicating outside, 68 degrees. Even the rain was nice.
Yes, until it started raining it was completely intoxicating outside, 68 degrees. Even the rain was nice.

January 12

Good morning! All eight just hanging out in the kitchen on a rainy morning.
Good morning! All eight just hanging out in the kitchen on a rainy morning.

January 13

Does this look like there is a big kitty looking at me through the ice on my car window, or do I just see cats everywhere I look?
Does this look like there is a big kitty looking at me through the ice on my car window, or do I just see cats everywhere I look?

~~~

What other photos did I post on or about this date?

.

We Iz Cute!, 2017

We iz cute!
We iz cute!

We iz cute! You don’t need kittens in here for cutez!

The boys are happy to have their bathroom back. They seem to forget that once they were the litter of kittens in that bathroom with a house full of adult cats who didn’t appreciate having their bathroom taken away.

~~~

From Instagram and Facebook

Friday the 13th

Oh, no, it’s Friday the 13th and there are #8blackcats in my kitchen! It’s okay, Giuseppe tells me they just want breakfast.

Eight black cats on Friday the 13th!
Eight black cats on Friday the 13th!

~~~

A heart-shaped nap

Later in my studio…
My studio supervisors are having a heart-shaped nap.

A heart-shaped nap.
A heart-shaped nap.

~~~

Mimi and the rain

Saturday…
I may have accomplished many things today, but the rain is still falling and Mimi cannot take her walk so I can just get over myself.

Mimi and the rain.
Mimi and the rain.

~~~

What other photos did I post on or about this date?

.

All Cats Are Not Black!, 2016

I found a kitty who looks like me! gray kittens
I found a kitty who looks like me!

Teddy Bear is shocked to find a kitty who looks like him! For months he’s been the only cat in a house full who is not black! At least the cats that he saw. He didn’t know we had a kindred spirit hiding in the foster room!

He and Simon and sometimes Bella have been visiting with our houseguests lately. Hamlet is a little frightened to come out of the room with all my chaos of stuff, and then everywhere he turns he sees another cat! It’s been very, very good for him to see these two and begin to play with them—he’s even more relaxed with me. Tweetie is thrilled!

Teddy and Tweetie watching the two black cats.
Teddy and Tweetie watching the two black cats.

 

. . . . . . .

What other photos have I shared on or around this date?

.

Littered With Cats, 2011
six cats in one photo
Littered With Cats

From January 2011, a sunny morning in the kitchen. Yes, this similar to another recent photo reprise, but this one includes Cookie looking out the door, Mimi having a sun bath, and the Fantastic Four just, well, littering the floor. Something about that January morning sun

What happens when the winter sun shines in the back door in early morning for the second day in a row? Everybody takes advantage of it.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a lasting sunny morning, some bright ones with cold haze, mostly cloudy or overcast covers it before an hour has passed. Yesterday and today were bright blue and sunny; yesterday everyone in the household (including me) stepped into this strange, unfamiliar substance, warm sunlight in the house. Today, all the cats had it down right away and after a brief romp around the house and a sip from the bathroom faucet, all of them came back to the kitchen, collecting in the warmth by the door.

From the front is Mr. Sunshine, crouching, and Giuseppe, sitting up; these two have a way of looking slightly guilty no matter the situation. Then Mewsette is cleaning her foot and Jelly Bean is purringly balled up next to the door. In the far distance, Mimi is on the left, swinging around for a lick on the hip, and Cookie is longingly gazing out into the yard; she and I had been out earlier, but she can never get enough of her outdoors, except when I haven’t managed to make it warm for her. Only Kelly isn’t in this photo; she’s a little intimidated by the Big Four and while she was mingling a bit she left for her other sunny windowsill.

I do have a number of photos of my cats at the back door, but this is the maximum quantity I captured at one time, and very special to me because it includes Cookie, who was by then in deep mentoring with Mimi, her little grasshopper.

The other recent photo is “Enough Sun for Everyone” and the post is “A Very Special Daily Painting: ‘Forty Five Lives’ by Kimberly Kelly Santini”

. . . . . . .

Other daily photos shared on this date

.

Bella Got A Basket, 2015
black cat in basket
Bella in her basket.

I have to thank the friend who carried a few things to us in this basket and left it here just before Christmas. I had it stashed in a safe place until I could add it to my basket collection and made the happy mistake of setting it on the cabinet by the big north window where Bella spends a lot of time watching birds and hanging out. She immediately possessed it as her basket and began experiencing the world from the vantage of the basket, and she has been killing me with cute ever since.

black cat in basket
Don’t bother me.

The basket even has magic. She is still a little shy. If she is in the basket when someone arrives, they simply can’t see her, even if she’s looking directly at them. Or so I would presume by her complete surprise when they remark about what a pretty kitty she is and walk over to pet her.

black cat in basket
You don’t see me.

She has also interacted with the other cats and her basket and I’ll add those photos to the collection as well, but for now I’m sharing the best of the photos I’ve taken in the past two weeks. I would say I’ve been a little preoccupied with Bella in the basket, possibly as preoccupied as Bella herself is with the basket!

black cat in basket
It’s the purr-fect size!

She tries a little remodeling on the bow, but that wasn’t as interesting to her as I thought it would be.

black cat in basket
What’s this bow all about?
black cat in basket
I’m going to take care of this bow.

She discovered it has convenient little paw holes along the bottom, for when she might need them. Not sure what she might need them for, but then I’m not a little black cat.

black cat in basket
It has paw holes in it.

But she’s really not too sure about all this photography stuff. Why do I walk all around and talk to her and shake noisy things? Do I think she’s going to fall for that? She’s in her basket and I just don’t exist! “Get a life, human!” Sometimes I wish it was that easy. I certainly don’t want to tell her to stop being so inspiring.

black cat in basket
Get a life, human!

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2 thoughts on “Daily Photo: An Afternoon in the Baskets

  • It really is hard to beat loving baskets full of kitties!

    Reply
    • It is also hard to get anything done! Those aren’t the only photos I took. Not like I don’t have a few thousand already, but you know how it is!

      Reply

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