Daily Photo: Mimi’s Catnip is Blooming
Mimi’s catnip is blooming, and it’s hard to get her to do anything else outdoors but indulge.
She really wants to stalk and kill something and tries to position herself to watch any movement in the groundcover under the spruce, typically her favorite activity any day of the year. But she just can’t focus and ends up at her catnip plant again.
Now that it’s blooming, there is no hope for Mimi, at least until it’s done. I’m sure in winter she’ll visit the spot where it grew and remember.
Here’s a little video of Mimi in a multi-colored haze.
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From Instagram
My pawroofreader.
Weather Folklore of the Day: “If your cat is snoring, expect foul weather.” ~The Old Farmer’s Almanac
“Was that you snoring, bro?”
“Not me. Giuseppe’s sleeping, let’s say it was him.”
“Does that mean we’ll have more birds?”
“Eh?”
“Fowl weather?”
“Just go to sleep little brother. And don’t snore.”
Current situation. I’ve lost my chair. We’ve reached an agreement about the chair.
From the back yard and beyond.
Honeybees look relatively small compared to other bees, until you see a really tiny bee coming in for a landing on the same echinacea flower. I love walking around the neighborhood and photographing others’ flowers too.
I love pink and yellow together, especially the rich magenta-pink of echinacea along with the saturated orange-yellow of black-eyed susans, and the disk of the coneflower provides a bridge between the two with its pink-tinged orange.
Just happened to look up and see the sliver in the sky.
From around this date in past years
A Wicker Nap, 2019
Ah, wicker. The corner of the wicker chaise purrfectly holds Mimi. And then the sun came dappling through the trees, and a good nap was in order.
It’s kind of a weekend thing. I finally got my front porch cleared of just about everything that really belonged in the basement or in the recycling bin. Now Mimi and I can enjoy occasional visits to the front porch so that I can enjoy the outdoors while sitting. She’s not happy about having to stay right there, but she makes the most of it. I’m not happy about not being able to walk easily, but I make the most of that too.
And then Mimi did have another adventure out there. Mimi was so happy to have some porch time, even if we didn’t go out in the yard. As the excellent skilled hunter she was in her youth, even on a harness and leash at age 16, she effortlessly stalked and caught a tiny vole that was rustling and chittering in the myrtle. She brought it right to me and set it at my feet, perhaps thinking it might help me feel better with my painful hip. Such a good mom cat, my Mimi.
And more butterflies out there too. A monarch butterfly finally came to visit our yard. I don’t have any milkweed this year so I am glad to see they still like that old-fashioned phlox. I didn’t get the classic pose (that’s the last one in the gallery, shot through the screen because I knew the butterfly was going to move before I got outside), but got some interesting shots in flight.
From Instagram
I posted so many photos on Instagram on the days I wasn’t posting here, so now you can see what the cats were doing all that time. Mostly hanging out in the basement where we have all that space.
This chair was supposed to be for me when I needed to sit down, but if they’re going to do sweet things like this I guess they can have it.
Six cats enjoying morning sun. We are loving all the space in our reorganized basement. We start the day down there with laundry and creative work in my printing studio, kitties play and sunbathe. Hopefully it stays dry.
Photos from years past
Daily Photo: Over the Weekend, 2018
I cleaned and refilled the birdbath with fresh water, and Mimi found it irresistible. I put all the watering cans by the door to take inside for refills, turned around and there she was climbing up on to the rocker and leaning into the birdbath. For all the years we’ve been visiting this porch, she’s never done this!
Then she took a sip here, took a sip there, and even stepped into the water.
Then, because she is a cat, she elegantly balanced and walked all around the edge, after stopping to admire her reflection.
A Special Guest
Our rescue friend Terry has also visited us during our open houses and has also come to my Panhandle Trail Show, and she stopped over to talk over a design she had in mind. Of course, she did not really come to see me.
Giuseppe and Mewsette had her well under paw right away, and Jelly Bean was looking for a spot. Below, Mimi, Giuseppe and Mewsette settled on the table I’d set up for us to work on. So much for that.
Later, Mimi occupied Terry’s lap. That meant Giuseppe wasn’t getting any attention, so he draped himself over his mother. Family dynamics.
Welcome kitty with wildflowers
I took my car to service on Friday and picked it up on Saturday. The shop is in a little valley close by and is surrounded by wooded hills and some untended land. Wildflowers are all over the place after the rain we’ve had, and since I was trying to use my time over the weekend for a new art project I decided I could steal a little time to walk and see the wildflowers and take some home, one stem of each: ironweed, woodland sunflowers, wingstem, soapwort or bouncing bet, gaura, Queen Anne’s lace and wormwood. I try to keep flowers in this vase by the front door. In spring and early summer my yard is blooming pretty regularly, but slows down to just some phlox and bee balm. That’s when I start bringing home bouquets of wildflowers, always careful to choose only the most plentiful, and only one or two cuttings from most. Except Queen Anne’s lace. Sometimes that’s all I have, and I love it.
Mimi’s Favorite Scratching Post
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Photos from previous years
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Sunbather, 2017
Bella fussed around until she was at just the right angle for a purrfect sunbath this morning in the basement. Above I have it with the Instagram Nashville filter, below it’s just black and white.
Later, I only washed tank tops and shorts this morning so the girls had no nice shady areas from dresses and skirts. But Mimi and Mewsette found garden shade. I finally managed to clean the overgrowth off my brick patio by the basement door. From last year when the tree fell it took weeks to clear off and then was the place to put things to be out of the way. Little by little, I am getting my lovely yard back.
And we had a visitor this evening when I went to bring in the laundry. A black phase female tiger swallowtail was so excited to find the phlox I’m surprised I got a photo that was clear.
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Photos from previous years
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New Territory
Little Alvina is a real window kitty! As soon as they were out of the bathroom today she was at each of the three new windows well before her brothers. Little Vee is a real birdwatcher while her brothers prefer to chase each other and toys.
It was time to let the kids out of the bathroom to get accustomed to living in the rest of the house, little by little, and to meet the ninjas. Well past time—I’ve had so many projects upstairs with frames and glass and bubble wrap and all sorts of other things that I didn’t want the kids to get tangled up in, so I’ve kept them locked up aside from a few escapes. Theodore discovered the apron strings hanging from my chair in my studio and soon all three joined him.
The bathroom needed a good cleaning, though, and inspection by the adults in the household, so I blocked the stairs and opened the door. A few of the ninjas were upstairs already, and over the next couple of hours they came and went when I moved the package of matboard to let them up or down the stairs. All but Charm met the kittens. I think she’s had enough of kittens for a while.
Simon was up on my bedroom windowsill too. As far as I know, Theodore stayed on the floor—he’s a specialist in exploring nooks and crannies and making cat tracks work. Unfortunately, the windowsill in the bathroom is too narrow with the baby gate up for protection so no one can sit there, Alvina puts her paws up and looks out all through the day but neither of the boys has ever paid any attention.
Bella was on my bed when the little ones started their invasion, but she was okay. She is the master of getting her little body into silly positions as she hung off the bed like a cricket to tap noses with Simon.
Basil was totally amazed at everything they did, and wavered between hissing and swatting when the kittens got too full of themselves to having a really fun chase. Funny to think of Basil as the adult!
Simon was the most confident of all of them. Alvina and Theodore were a little timid and ran from me at first, but were fine with me as soon as I touched them, but Simon ran over to me for kisses and supervised the cleaning of the bathroom floor. Such wonderful kittens!
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A few photos from Friday
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Flat Browser Visits!
As a follow-up to the book review I wrote last weekend of “Rescued”, and Browser the Library Cat I was excited to have “Flat Browser come to visit, and encourage readers to buy a copy of the book during July to help support his rescue. But he didn’t arrive here until Friday afternoon, the last day of the month. Still, it was fun to run over to my library and capture photos of Browser all over the place! And, of course he met the kids.
A literary house panther, Browser B Katz, came to visit our library in Carnegie, all the way from Pine River MN today! He stopped to pose at the front door of Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, then went inside to visit the temporary library in the basement because the “real” library is being restored, but he did get to meet Katie at the temporary circulation desk. Then he went on to visit The Lincoln Gallery, and he was even on the stage at Carnegie Hall! And then he met Basil and Sunshine and Giuseppe and Mewsette at Bernadette’s house! What a fun day! You can read more about the book I starred in “Rescued”, and Browser the Library Cat. Don’t forget that all sales of the book through the end of July help support Paws and Claws Animal Shelter!
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It’s Mimi napping in the shadow on the cool bricks among the geraniums, near the vintage aluminum tub where I grow pole beans. Mimi was so happy to be outside she only rested in each position for less than a minute, and the sun was in and out behind the clouds. The temperature was in the 90s and we weren’t doing much but looking for a comfortable spot. Read more and purchase.
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!
mimi…..ewe haz de muncheez now…huh 🙂
therz nothin quite like fresh leef …N joy sum for us pleez N thanx 🙂 ♥♥
Mimi’s not sharing! Not even with her kids!