May 13, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Been another quiet week.  Able to keep up with the usual daily stuff, just not much energy left over.  I seem to be in a fibro flare, but I am hoping it is beginning to let up.  The extra project I worked on this past week was switching over the winter and summer clothes.  Took up the week's extra energy but I only have one bin left and I am done!  Little by little I can get things done even when I feel generally cruddy--lol!  Hey--I have been much, much worse over these past two years.  At least this feels more familiar and I am still functional.  It's all relative, eh?  :)

When we had drizzly rainy days the visitors to the Critter Cafe increase.

This is the pair of partridges that includes Limpy.

But I didn't expect this.  On Sunday I chased away these two beautiful but unwelcome visitors.  They were eyeing the bird seed on my patio.

I think Allie dozed off as she does by the patio door and suddenly opened her eyes and saw those geese right there looking over the planters.  Not her usual channel on Cat TV!  Allie leapt up and ran for the bedroom--lol!  That's what alerted me...Allie airborne and then racing across the room.  Those geese can be elegantly silent as they meander about.  Snuck up on us both--lol!

Those of you who have been around for a while may remember one summer when we had a Canadian goose with a broken wing hanging around until they found a place for it on a farm outside of town.  In summer I usually put a water dish out on the patio for the birds to drink and bathe--but the goose took over that water dish and was here almost all day.  I didn't even have any seed out, but it would even sit down to drink out of that dish and shoot poo out the other end at the same time.  They have that massive slimy poo.  After other people were putting water and food out for it on the patio off the commons room down the way later, I took in the water dish and had to buy a deck brush just to clean the cement off out there--lol!  [Not that the deck brush hasn't come in handy since then.  Little birds poop, too.  But not nearly the deluge that a goose is capable of--lol!]

Anyways, geese aren't very scared of people.  I had to go out on the patio for quite a long time as they very slowly made their way off to the left while keeping an eye on me, but as soon as started to make my way inside...they turned right around to head back to my patio.  I had to stay outside and even walk to the edge of the patio.  They stopped across from me for a while, but finally decided I wasn't going to let them come over so they continued on their way.  Taking their sweet time, of course.

It's a weird thing to look outside and see Canadian geese, that seem almost as tall as you, staring right at you from behind your planters just a few feet away--lol!  They are truly large birds if you've never seen one close up.

Then...not 20 minutes later...

...a mallard couple came by!  I had to shoo them away five times--lol!  Ducks are easier to scare away, quicker moving, but quite stubborn--or have short term memories--lol!  That was right before McFamily arrived.

Leah had made some peanut butter cup type treat that we all loved! 

And they brought me a Mother's Day surprise!!

Since I can't plant flowers in my planters this year, they brought over a huge self-watering pot so I could have some flowers on my patio.  Aren't they pretty?  Happy Mother's Day indeed!  Filling the planter with water from the sink took several trips--so Leah and the boys were on the patio and that finally got rid of the mallards--lol!  Dagan took out the four winter clothes bins to the garage and brought me in some more bird seed on his way back.  We had a nice visit.  Ian was the only one who's been well lately, so I gave him a hug goodbye--lol!

Has been warmer than usual.  Was 83 degrees on Saturday!  Good thing I have my summer clothes again--lol!  There was a heavy smoke haze and it smelled like a campfire all day Sunday.  Not good.  I pray you all are safe and well wherever you are.  I am grateful for another good week.  Till next time... :)

May 6, 2024 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Was not a great week for me again--body-wise.  Fibro, arthritis, IBS, allergies (but they are better now), and tired as all get out.  BUT--this is more like a normal bad week or two for me from before cancer and all that.  So--whoohoo!!  I can't complain.  I just don't get a lot extra done, but I can keep up fairly well with all the usual daily living stuff. So it was really a good week, nonetheless. :)

The week was mostly rain off and on.  Keanna came to clean on Tuesday.  Dagan quickly dropped off some foods Leah had made up for me on Wednesday.  They are still sick with the coughs, so Dagan told me to stay away and no goodbye hug.  Friday Leah dropped off a bag of cat food for Allie she picked up for me.  Again--stayed away and no hugs goodbye.  Been very much like Covid all over again for us this winter--lol!

It was a very quiet, calm week.  One of the reasons why...

...was that I left both litter boxes with the two kinds of litter in the pantry for Allie.  She is happily using her old stainless steel litter box with her old familiar litter.  Yes, I moved some poo over into the pellet box.  I am leaving her favorite box to get really dirty.  Another suggestion I read about online.  Going to try that...for as long as my OCD tendencies can stand it--lol!  I tried spraying the pellets with water.  But if I mist them they just get hard again when they dry.  If I get them too wet they do turn to sawdust and fall down between the slots into the bottom of the litter box.  Turning the box didn't make any difference, either.  (She knew what it was for--went in it at first--one time--and hated the feeling of the pellets sliding against the plastic bottom, I think.)  I plan to search a little more online for suggestions, but if it doesn't work for her...it doesn't work.

Allie went through a lot and we don't know what all happened to her.  But me just being upset with her...well, she needed reassurance like crazy for days!  She was glued to me--cried and rolled around at my feet on the floor when I was up, needed me to be petting her, talking to her, or keeping a hand resting on her at least when I was in my chair with her.  I couldn't even write letters.  It was like she was so afraid I didn't want her anymore...like I wasn't going to love her anymore...like she'd lose me and be alone again?  

Therefore, I will try what I can, but I am not taking her litter box away again.  There are no issues whatsoever if it is there for her.  Her reaction was way, way more stressful than I ever expected.  Which made it stressful on me, too.  She basically quit eating and held her poop for over a day...and the pee for like a day and a half!  

So Allie can have her familiar litter box.  She's always been a good girl.  I don't want her to be any more stressed over this move and all the changes than she needs to be.  Going to be big changes coming.  I'll try for a while to see if she will use the new box, but if she doesn't...I am not going to push it.  I remember how she was half the size and felt so boney when I got her from the rescue center.  She had completely shut down.  Wasn't eating (obviously) and they said she just sat in a corner for two weeks and then in this one cat bed for two weeks.  Which was where she was when I met her...back to the room...curled into a ball...wouldn't move even when I petted her.  Wouldn't even turn her head to look at me.  But she purred quietly...without moving.  And she had been dumped at the pound for a month before the rescue place saved her from being put down.  I don't ever want to see her shut down like that again.  Allie was so very worried.  Wanted to be assured she was back in my good graces...that we were okay.  

It's taken an entire week before she has gone to sleep in the bedroom.  But she wasn't conked out like she usually is in there.  She was on alert, as you can see.

So, if Allie needs her familiar litter box and if Blink prefers that litter to dig in, too, and it costs us more...well, that's life.  There are a lot of bigger things to worry about in this world, right?  

Vegas odds are Blink will soon get a nice new big pellet litter box (she has the smaller version) and Allie will move with her familiar stainless steel one. ;)

With all the light rain, drizzle, and steady rain popping in all week...been a lot of dark days.  Then I see more critters during the day.  Like the big cottontail (Mom or Dad?).

We've had the baby bunnies eating and playing on the patio.  They were the one thing that would get Allie away from my lap--lol!

Mourning doves are back for the summer.  Love to hear them!

The two faithful partridge visitors.  One is Limpy--who has survived the winter! :) :)

I do love seeing when a variety of critters are all out there together sharing the feast.

When the rain would stop...I do love to see the blue skies and big white clouds.

The sky looks different in the warm months than the gray of winter skies.

Oh, and I did doodle until I got tired of it.  Was a fun thing to do while watching the boob tube--lol

Like I said, I am a dabbler who just enjoys having fun.  Not a watercolor artist like one of my pen pals, Doug.  Got a surprise on the back of his envelope a couple days ago.  

I was trying to remember how long we've been pen pals.  Was before I was ever a blogger...so maybe 20 years or more.  I wonder if he remembers?  It's been so long I can't remember if we started writing before I moved up here in 1999 or after.  A long time, anyways.  He has become a wonderful landscape artist and sold his paintings.  Makes me smile.  Kudos!  

Me--I'm just so happy to play.  Used to worry about not making things well enough and all that.  Now, I am more into the process and having a good time.  It's much more a meditative process for me the past decade or two than it ever was in the past.  Even card making or whatever I decide to play with...not so much plagued by the perfectionist's critical eye, you know?  

Sunday--sunny day and 70 degrees.  My allergies are much less of a bother.  Leah sent over some of this nasal spray for allergies with Dagan.  I've been doing this morning and evening.  Works for me!  Whoohoo!  

Allie's here wanting to know we're okay and I love her.  We are and I do. :)  We are good.  She is loved and safe.  And she loves me even if she probably thinks I was being really dreadfully mean to her by taking her box away for no known reason.  Animals are more forgiving than humans, I find--lol!  

Anyways, until next week, my friends.  May you keep all your favorite things around you and have peaceful days...or as calm as life allows. ;)