Happy Birthday Dad!!

Arthur Anthony

February 28, 1920 - May 24, 1984

This is a photo of my dad fishing with two of his brothers, my Uncle Andy and Uncle Dicky. My dad is the one perched on the rock. I don't know for sure how old he was, he looks about 12? So that would make this photo date back to around 1932.

A Little Wintery Mix???

I hear it from all the weather forecasters around here, "the DC area is very hard to predict." They say it is because of our close proximity to the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. We are always on the line of weather systems that could go "either way." Even so, they have been warning of a wintery mix for today. Mostly rain with some sleet and freezing rain mixed in, turning into all rain by the afternoon.


Here is a photo I took at 2:00 pm today from my front porch


Beautiful as it is, it did take us all by surprise. I needed to go out and do my food and pet shopping for the week. The roads were horrible. The county was counting on a freezing mix so they just put down a salt mixture. When I went out around11:30 absolutely no roads had been plowed yet and it was a very wet heavy snow. It took me over an hour to get home from a shopping center that is usually a 15-20 minute drive. Luckily driving my little Element I had no problem, but I had to keep turning around because smaller cars were spinning out and blocking roads.



And yet, there is beauty to be found






I did let some of the cats out when I was shoveling and they LOVED the snow! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me then. I shall try and remember next time.


I'll leave you with a photo of Jelly. She is a 7 pound ball of fire. She came over from my neighbor's house after breaking out several times (she literally pushed out the screens on my neighbor's windows). I tried many, many times to make her an indoor only cat. After all, I took Sweet Pea and Woody, both strays, and made them indoor cats. But Jelly refuses to be tamed. I wanted to change her name to Kate in honor of Katherine Hepburn after she died, because of her feistiness and independence, but it didn't stick. Jelly will come in to sleep only when it gets below freezing and even then she jumps on me at night and will hang on the shutters trying to get out.

Let me out NOW!!!!!

Cats, Cats and a visitor (maybe a relative?)

Okay, I said this wasn't going to be a blog on just cats and if you look through the few posts you will note that I haven't focused on them at ALL. So I think we are due. Ah, too bad--I was going to include a couple of videos, but I tried to upload them like I do photos and it didn't work :(

What do cats do when they are trapped inside the house all day and night because of cold weather?

Figgy and Chloe playing tug of war with my old tennis shoes.

Then Figgy gets bored with that. What's on the Tele?

Figaro is the only cat I know that actually watches television. Since I watch so many nature programs there are usually great sounds and running animals. He has actually jumped on the tv and looked behind it to see where a bobcat went!!

Then I was ready to close up and go to bed last night with the winds howling with gusts up to 55 mph, I found this little friend looking for a snack

My namesake

Have a great weekend everyone. I'll be heading to a Home and Garden show tomorrow with my sister. I really need some inspiration to get my bathroom remodeled and get someone to work on the vacant-lot of a backyard.

Time for dinner. Looks like it will be the last scraps of the bowl of my chocolate chili and a beer. Whowee do I lead an excitin life!!

Resurrection by Vladimir Holan

Is it true that after this life of ours
we shall one day be awakened by a
terrifying clamour of trumpets?

Forgive me, God,
but I console myself that the beginning
and resurrection of all of us dead
will simply be announced
by the crowing of a cock

After that we will remain
lying down a while
The first to get up
will be mother

We'll hear her, quietly
laying the fire, quietly putting
the kettle on the stove and
cosily taking the teapot out of the cupboard.

We'll be home once more.

The Ice Storm Cometh

Things are pretty messy around here today. Our office is on the same schedule as the Federal Government that is 2-hour delay opening with liberal leave. I've decided as a Valentine's gift to myself to take liberal leave! My boss is in Istanbul and things are in pretty good shape at work so why not? The weather folks said things will be deteriorating this afternoon with lower temps and winds up to 40 mph.

The photo was taken as I was leaving for work yesterday when the ice storm was just starting. House sparrows! The bane of my bird feeding existence!

At least today I have a group of cute song and white throated sparrows also looking for seed. What a nice Valentine's Day. An unexpected day off surrounded by happy and snoring kitties and munching Dove chocolate hearts. The only fly in the ointment is having to finally get dressed and shovel the walk before the winds do pick up. Maybe I'll walk to the Co op and see what strikes my fancy for food tonight.

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Happy Birthday Lucky Leo!!

Leo Arthur

Born 2-13-06

The above photo was taken on Leo's actual "birth day" last year. He is my first and only Great (Grand?) nephew. Hope your day is full of fun, love, good food, and naps!

Love,

The Great Aunt Possumlady

Have your heard of a three dog night?

How about an eight cat night? Well, I finally found my cable and was able to download a couple of photos from last week. The one above was the first night it was REALLY cold outside. Yes, you only see five cats, but there were three more cats snoring in the bedroom.

And yes, I know, I should take the food in late at night but it was soo cold that I thought I would give the little woodland critters a break and let them eat. You know what they say "food is fuel." Not the best picture as it is taken through my storm door. Well, I just heard the POLICE starting to sing on the Grammys so I gotta run!

A picture is worth a thousand words

That is why I haven 't posted for a few days. I can't seem to find my cable to plug in my camera to my computer so I can't post any new photos. I guess this means I need to clean a little today! It will be getting into the upper 30s -- Yeah!! Nice and sunny too. This is the calm before the storm as they are predicting a storm on Tuesday and we could get 6 inches of snow. Of course this comes right when I'm on deadline to get my organization's board book put together and to the printers. My deadline was getting it to the printers on Tuesday but it looks like I'll have to scramble to get it done by tomorrow night. Well, I've stalled long enough. To the vacuum cleaner, away!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Agatha Eve (Jackie)

February 5, 1919 -- February 21, 2005

I woke up this morning wishing you a happy birthday! You would be 88 today. I miss our Saturday talks. I don't believe there will ever be another person THAT interested in what I will be having for dinner at night :-) I remember you once told me the greatest gift a mother can give their children is their independence and you gave that to us in spades!

Okay it works!!

Alright! I posted my first photo. Let's see what else I can post. The polar bear was from a trip I took to Churchill, Manitoba in October, 2005 to see the polor bear migration to the Hudson Bay

Photo testing?

Trying to get my first photo posted.

Rest in Peace dear Sammy

Just heard from my dear friend Pat that his beloved dog Sammy passed away this morning. Sam was a black chow that I helped pick out at a breeder's house way back in December of 1991. At that time she was a little 4 month old black ball of fur. She was the only dog I knew that would actually smile at you! Okay, I never admitted that I believed it, but I know she loved me and whenever I came over her whole body would wag along with her tail and she would get the biggest grin on her face. I have not seen her since they moved down south in 1999 but she will always have a special place in my heart.