Mimi and Mewsette Monday: Mimi and Forsythia, April 1, 2024
April 1, 2024, the many forsythia bushes along the side of the garden were profusely blooming. I had tried to capture photos of Mimi in forsythia each spring, but the timing often wasn’t good, and Mimi being so small there wasn’t often a place with forsythia behind her or anywhere near her. That spring the forsythias put on a big display and I had placed those garden chairs next to the ones blooming on that side of the garden. There was never a better setup for Mimi and forsythia to have those yellow blossoms as a backdrop, as if I’d planned it, and Mimi knew it.
But of course she found her way there on her own. I would sometimes suggest things to Mimi, but she had a talent for walking right into a great photo spot and a purrfect pose. We had gone outside a little after 3:00 and all these photos were taken between 3:13 and 3:26 p.m. so she was moving around pretty well, such a relief for me, and I’m sure it was a joy for Mimi to feel that good again. Of course, the first thing she did was graze in the grass.
Then she took a little walk through the grass to the edge of the garden, or the mess that my garden was at that time, and climbed up on a random piece of plywood I had used as a shelf somewhere and tossed there. But she liked it because it gave her a better lookout on what was going on in there.
These photos will show you what a mess the lower garden was after all the renovations and moving things in and out as I moved everything around the house in 2023. This is where I recently established the beds built from used wood and some of this stuff was still there this spring. I put the empty boxes out there in 2023 thinking I might clear some of the overgrowth in the lower part of the garden by breaking them down and spreading them over top of things, but Mimi and the boys had spent the previous autumn hopping in and out of them. Even outdoors, cats love boxes. The rest is just random stuff from the house.
Didn’t bother Mimi! She thought it was a great adventure because standing up on that piece of plywood she saw her destination. In minutes she made it over to the garden chairs, which I obviously put there just for her, hopped up, and stood there looking at all the potential of these three chairs.
This photo, the one I used at the very top, is the best photo I ever got of Mimi with forsythia, and I love it to pieces.
There’s a lot of symbolism here too, with the colors and the empty chair, the peeling paint, freedom, joy, resilience, remembrance.
She moved back to the chair right next to the bushes and I walked around with my zoom lens taking more photos of her with varying focus and focal depth.
This is my favorite of those, a contemplative Mimi, sheltered by the yellow blossoms in her own quiet space.
I knew it would probably be my last chance at this. These photos are a wonderful memory, not just of Mimi and forsythia, but our relationship outdoors and with my photography of her. She loved the attention and she really did always find the best spot and best pose, I just followed her around. I could tell when she wasn’t in the mood to model and I let her enjoy her time. She really was moving well and had her normal appetite and daily schedule again so I savored every moment, and I think she did too.
Spring 2024 with Mimi
In April 2024 Mimi was recovering from losing Mr. Sunshine, and all the others, and was just getting back on her paws. I knew I could lose her, and if I didn’t that she was in her last months. I focused on her, and taking the most beautiful photos of her and everything growing and blooming was a balm to my soul in those months. But I used few of them. So I will be sharing photos of what was blooming in my yard then, same as now, and I’ll be sharing some photos of just Mimi as I remember her, that year and remembering all the other springs we spent out there.
Below, lots of photos of Mewsette outside from 2023 and earlier to make up for a post all about Mimi! And then, of course the usual shenanigans indoors too!
From around this date in past years
Mimi and Mewsette Monday, Black Cats and Flowers
Mewsette runs to me as we enjoy a spring day outside in the back yard. Even in the house Mewsette reacted to everything with excitement, so when I called her name she would look at me and hurry or even run toward me.
So many things had started blooming out there but my garden was really just a big weed patch when these photos were taken on April 28, 2022. The girls were just wandering and I did my best to follow both of them at once and catch a photo whenever they were near some flowers, and I’ve got them all here.
All the other photos here were taken almost exactly two years ago. But first, one of the things that encourages me to continue sharing Mewsette and her siblings, a photo from just about one year ago, I had known from the end of March that something was up with Mewsette, but by the end of April I could see she had lost weight and didn’t have the same energy as even a month before, blood tests had not been positive and in a few days we’d go to our regular veterinarian and find she likely had lymphoma.
On this day, April 16, 2023 when I stepped out on the deck for some reason, I saw a cardinal land on the arm of the white wicker chair. I don’t even know why I managed to see him in the chaos of the back yard at that time, but I felt a little twinge and knew it was a sign to me. It’s said cardinals signal the presence of a loved one no longer in this mortal life, but in this case I felt it was a different message, of impending loss. I never forgot this cardinal, and each time we visited a veterinarian, had the ultrasound, I thought of this cardinal, so I wanted to share the experience.
Now, back to the sweet and pretty photos of Mewsette and Mimi having a great time in the garden. Mewsette stopped here with a nice little spray of forget-me-nots. She is probably staring at our next door neighbor because he’s out in his yard. He’s a nice person and loves cats. Mewsette loves people. But it’s all different when she is outdoors. I love her profile with that nice rounded nose.
“Is this nice?” she asks, stopping amid a collection of violets in the garden. Any photo with Mewsette in it is nice, and especially this one where she stopped just for me to take a photo. Eh, maybe.
No flowers here, just a tangled mess! Mewsette walks the plank, or one of the many planks, in the garden. I wonder what she’s imagining.
And we can’t forget Mimi! She’s the purrfessional in this activity, finding another clump of forget-me-nots for a random pose with profile.
And it’s funny, I remember taking this photo because she kept walking through this little patch of lamium and I wanted to catch her in it, but she wouldn’t stop walking. I finally convinced her to stop in the middle of them, and finally got a photo. Was it worth all that? The photo, no. Playing with Mimi, yes.
In time I gave up and we headed up to the deck to go inside. Mewsette stops to tell me, “That was fun!” She was always so agreeable.
From around this date in past years
Earth Day Garden Girls, 2023
Mimi celebrated Earth Day today by tucking herself into the greenery in the sun later in the afternoon as the morning was pretty chilly. Mimi celebrated Earth Day by finding a sunny spot and tucking herself into the greenery just enjoying the gifts our earth gives to us every day, with no effort from us but to go outside and just appreciate and enjoy it.
She’s a little garden panther! And we have a lot to do out there. Last year at this time I had some early spinach in that garden bed.
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Mimi and Mewsette Monday: Evening Garden Girls, 2022
I sensed Mewsette around the garden today. I’m pretty sure Mimi did too. I found a single small downy feather caught on a plant, and that’s enough for me.
Two years ago on Earth Day I was at the library in the afternoon to photograph the opening of Library Park. The day was still warm and sunny when I got home so the girls and I decided to visit the back yard since they hadn’t had much time outside before I left.
We get two doses of sun in the garden between the vernal and autumnal equinox, when the sun has risen high enough in the sky. In the morning the sun shines over the trees and into the back yard from the east, but in the late afternoon the sun comes around the house and shines in the garden from the west. When we went out in the evening, or now with Mimi, we head back toward the area by the picket fence for another nice dose of sunshine. Mewsette was enjoying the sun and I like the blurred somewhat abstract photo I captured of her.
But first, as soon as they got down to the bottom of the deck steps, they had to have their grazing time. The process is in three stages: munching, getting it stuck in your teeth, and, well, at least Mimi isn’t going to wait until she gets back in the house before the third stage. Mewsette apparently had no problems with it.
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From the Back Yard and Beyond
Oh, my, that ice is cold! Where did spring go—I thought it was Earth Day! The ice was a bit of a surprise on this frosty morning, but at least I wasn’t sitting in it.
From around this date in past years
Cat’s Eyes, 2022
The sun shone into my cup of marbles on the deck, and I picked out three cat’s eye marbles in different colors and decided to photograph them. I lined them up in several different places and got photos in different compositions and different lighting.
Then I tried a little magic with Mewsette, who was wandering around the marbles and very curious, and imagined how nice it would be to get a photo of Mewsette interacting with the cat’s eye marbles somehow. Mewsette obliged. She’s not quite at Mimi level of meowdeling, but she’s getting there. Mimi curled up on her rocker to observe.
Here are three of the other photos I took.
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From Instagram
Spent most of #caturday with the Cat Behavior Day #webinar from @communitycatspodcast. #sweetbasil is checking to see if I’ve missed anything that he needs for #catenrichment, #jellybeanbean is saying “I told you so,” and #siennafostertortie, photobombing over Basil’s back, is saying “See, I told you I wasn’t #feral!”
There are four cats in this photo. I had a really fun time trying to figure out how to get all of them in one shot!
It’s that time in spring when the late afternoon sun fills the kitchen with warm napping spots, for a while, at least. Mariposa and Mewsette are soaking it up, butt to butt, over on the bean counter, and Basil and Sienna are on the cabinet in front of the window, seen in shadow. I caught the tip of Sienna’s ear on the left edge of the photo.
I took a little detour to the woods on the way home and when I got here told myself I had work to get done, then proceeded to photograph my cats in the sun for at least an hour. Well, that’s work.
I had a pile of photos from yesterday and today and downloaded them from my DSLR, but something happened to the SD card and they disappeared! I was bereft–many more kitties in the sun, spring wildflowers, mossy streams and early sunsets, all gone! Well, that’s a first world problem, but I managed to find them in a lost.dir when I put the disk into another reader, but the JPG and RAW files were all renamed with random numbers and changed to .file. But when I downloaded them, I could see by the size which were JPG and which were RAW. I renamed them with the correct file extensions and now I can relax and enjoy my photos. Hope you do too!
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It’s raining. It’s my fault.
Just what I need! Three virtual kittens running toward me!
Some silly fun on a rainy day. I found this lenticular ruler in a box of old stuff from my desk. It’s fun to play with when I have to stop and think for a little bit.
I was in my basement studio, background noise is fans blowing on the floor.
From backyard and beyond
From around this date in past years
Can We Just Have Our Sunny Nap? 2021
Wow, this sun is really nice. And there’s a lot of it. I can hardly stay awake.
zzzzzzzz………
She’s down there with her camera, isn’t she?
(Opens one eye a tiny little bit.) She’s right on us.
Let’s just ignore her.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………..
I just can’t sleep with her pointing that thing at us and moving around and talking.
Will you ask her?
Will you just go away so we can nap?
Well, I got my pictures.
~~~
From Instagram
Tortoiseshell Cat Appreciation Day
This was last Saturday, April 17, founded by Ingrid King in honor of Ruby’s homecoming day. I’m obviously late sharing the big day here. I need a few more hours in each day for social networking, but at least I finally get around to it at some point.
So I spent Tortoiseshell Cat Appreciation Day with these two tortie girls! I had a pair of matted framed hand-tinted prints to send out so I had to make new sets of prints of each The Goddess Cookie and The Roundest Eyes Kelly for 2021.
I cut the linoleumblocks for these two blockprints 20 years ago, in 2001. Each time I pick them up to print, I carefully check them over, because linoleum blocks don’t last forever. Edges may start to crumble or curl, the flat areas start to sag, and the linoleum may become to soft or too hard to print with clean inked areas and edges. In fact 20 years is quite a long time. When I began printing this time they were a little messy, and I was frantic that both blocks might be unusable from now on. But after I finished a few, washed up and put them away to think about what to do, the next day the blocks were in fine shape. They just needed to be reconditioned with moisture, patted dry, and then let sit overnight to absorb it. I made my dozen of each, and they are as purrfect as they were the very first time I printed them.
I print the black ink, then each print is handtinted with #watercolor and let dry. I double mat them with specially chosen mat boards, and frame them with a matte black frame. I’ll be shipping them out tomorrow, and in this case, one of the two girls is in memory of a special tortie cat and the other one is a gift for a father who loves #torties too.
You can see my studio supurrvisors were right on the ball. At least they made a nice spot to catch all my paper scraps.
I also make a lot of gift items with the tortie girls on them, like tote bags and trays and wood-mounted prints and even garden flags. Find everything available here.
From the Back Yard and Beyond
Mother Goose keeps a careful eye on me as she sits on her nest under a honeysuckle bush. I was not that close to her, I was using my telephoto lens.
I went on an unexpected walkabout Tuesday. I took my car for an alignment, and also had a leak of something that showed up on the driveway in rather large amounts, and bear in mind, this is the brand new used car. The garage I took it to was concerned about all the transmission fluid, it turned out, all over the underside of the car and suggested I have my transmission looked at. I found a wonderful business at the other end of town, drove my car down and talked to them. It’s not something that was there when I bought the car. Car is going to cost another $2K to fix this, so if you were ever interested in buying a piece of artwork, getting a portrait or buying a gift item, now is the time to do it!
Since it was a warm afternoon and I had my camera with me, I decided to go and explore/reexplore a new/old trail. This took time I hadn’t anticipated spending, but concerned about the car and money, exploring a place with my camera helps me relax and let go of it so that I can get a perspective. And interesting photos.
It’s a strip of land between Chartiers Creek and the industrial park on the west end of town where a single rail line traveled across the creek to the next community to the south, now quite overgrown, that we had once wanted to develop into a walking trail. The creek channel is quite deep here, the banks are steep and around the bend it’s steep hills with no development at all.
All the wild animals were having a great time on a warm spring afternoon. I saw several Canada geese, like Mother Goose, and three young male geese who were walking around looking for something to do, camouflaged mallards, deer on the opposite bank, the tracks with bonus spiderweb, Robinson Run enters Chartiers Creek here.
Also, not pictured, Muscovy ducks, cottontail rabbits, lots of chattering birds.
Then there was all the cool stuff in the industrial park, but…another day.
I have a couple of posts for this on my photo blog Today:
www.bernadettestoday.com/mother-goose/
The post about the three male geese is actually a story post with lots more photos.
www.bernadettestoday.com/the-three-geese-and-the-concert-at-the-creek/
From around this date in past years
Three Silhouettes
Whether together or apart, hope you are all sharing a virtual box with friends and family today (Easter Sunday). I don’t often get the front and back images of their groupings, but their expressions often belie their silhouettes. Mewsette, Sunshine and Giuseppe.
My Afternoon on the Trail
I am so far behind with posting here, despite the fact I’ve had articles lined up to share for weeks. Getting the work to get the money to get the car really took a bit of time. Last week and over the weekend I was organizing last year’s financials and current ones, and applying for grants and unemployment compensation. And then spring has me kind of frantic with photographing everything that blooms, all the new sun on my cats, and interesting things on my walks to Main Street, plus spending a little bit of time working in the yard each day as well as seed starting activities. I never wish I could just focus better and not see these things and thereby have to share them, I only wish there was more time to share more.
On Easter Sunday, the day after I got the car, I decided to visit the Panhandle Trail. For the first time in two years I could comfortably walk my favorite trail in the woods, and I had a car to drive myself there. As soon as I stepped into the woods all worries dropped away and I saw only the wonder of new life all around me. So here are my photos from that walk because I kind of figure many of you are interested in these things.
I found the Fern family celebrating with a Spring Party in the woods this afternoon. I was celebrating being able to get there in my new car and my ability to hike in the woods for four hours after my hip replacement! It’s the first time I’ve done this in about two years.
Just some of the wildflowers blooming now in the woods.
I was barefoot on the trail for the first time this year. How good to feel the earth against the soles of my feet. I had some cleanup to do when I got home!
Up and down the trail I call the wildflower walk! I’ve missed it and welcoming all the flowers. I’m glad I can enjoy this trail again.
Two interesting photos of the limestone highwall in the old quarry pond reflecting on the water.
And…a new painting. Though I’d taken pastels and papers with me the weather was drizzly and that doesn’t work well with pastels. I knew of two scenes I wanted to paint, but when I got home I was darned hungry, the sun had come out before sunset, and Mimi and I went out into the yard. The need to create the painting stayed with me and I decided Tuesday I’d better just do it. Looking over my artwork in preparation for my Panhandle Trail exhibit last year I realized I was deficient in spring artwork and was happy to be able to sketch at least a small one, 7 x 9 inches. I wasn’t so sure about it when I’d finished it, but it’s really grown on me, and looking at it on my wall here in my studio I know it’s perfect for the event. It’s called “Social Isolation”. That’s part of what I go into the woods for, and while it may seem strange in everyday life, sometimes it’s a good thing. The reference photo is in the gallery above.
From around this date in past years
Sienna Gets Tips From Mimi, 2018
Sienna joined us in the studio the other day while Mimi was enjoying a sunbath in the late afternoon. Sienna is still a little cautious about the cats she hasn’t developed a relationship with yet—so many other cats! And Sienna has to get to know them each one by one. And this meeting was important to Sienna because she typically steals all the time on my lap she can get, and with Mimi at the window it was wide open for her, but she bypassed me and went to sit next to Mimi. Mimi isn’t always keen about sharing her studio time or her sunny spot, but she was fine with Sienna joining her. But the two sat side by side, at first touching noses, a shot I missed because my work lights were in the way, then looking out the window watching the birds and the squirrels, people and cars out in the street, and the neighbor’s cat on his porch.
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Siblings Day
We’re tired of getting our photo taken. The human heard it was siblings day so we had to sit still here until she got a good one. Can we have second breakfast now?
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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?
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Wordless Wednesday: Studio Cat Basil, 2017
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Basil, 2017
Basil’s typically not one of the windowsill crew in the studio, but instead prefers a nice box or basket on my work table, or lolling about upside down in a tangled position on my lap—or stealing my chair when I stand up. But here he found a nice sunny spot on the windowsill and enjoyed it for several hours, as I was totally distracted by enjoyed his quiet enjoyment of the sun and trees and warm air and bird songs. Here’s another photo I took that afternoon too.
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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?
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Catching Up With This Week, 2016
Working my way backward from Saturday to last Tuesday, here are the photos I posted this past week.
You can always tell, when I don’t post at all, that work and things needed time and I had to give up posting for a few days. I’m still building Portraits of Animals, Hamlet and Ophelia have been moving forward and backward and needing time, I had to focus on two websites and other work for the week, my brother needed a few things, I took my camera for repairs, one of the ferals I’ve been helping the neighbor trap gave birth to her kittens on Thursday, the list goes on. But my cats never quit being inspiring, especially on the rare sunny day—Tuesday was overwhelming with the sunshine, as well as touching Hamlet’s belly.
It was really hard to choose the featured image for this post and I almost broke it up into several posts to be sure each group of photos got their due. Just scroll down and enjoy all the pictures!
Saturday is often a day in the kitchen, and that traditionally includes making a pot of soup and some baking and some other cooking. Today was just a pot of soup as everyone slowly gathers in the warm steamy kitchen on a cold and snowy day.
Thursday
Tuesday
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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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