DollsArtCats

It turns out that many of the overseas NYT correspondents end up picking up local cats; which usually end up coming back home with them. This article shows a few of the cats (Purim was my favorite, with kitten goodness). Hopefully the link will work--I have a subscription, but the NYT sometimes will let you read one or two articles for free. And in case you can't see cats, here is a local chipmunk who was washing his face in my fountain before I startled him with my camera:

Akutenshi made me a couple of new mohair wigs, and I wanted to take a few pictures of Nikki in her new soft brown wig, which meant going outside. We have flowers, birds, and things coming up: I think those are bluebells, I need to look them up--I did not plant them, they just volunteered :D Here is Nikki's wig up close (I added some braids to keep the wind from blowing her hair in her face): The wig is so soft!  I didn't stay out long because the wind was cold--you can tell by looking at this chipmunk that it's still chilly out: But we have daffodils!

The old, old magnolia tree in front of out house was in bad shape--it had a great year last year, and then this year just looked sick, and the larger branches were developing cracks, so I decided it was time to take it out. (It was also a convenient way for raccoons to get on our roof). So we had a local company, "For the Trees" come out and remove it and also a lot of stuff in the back. I had no idea they were a huge, professional operation. Picture my surprise this morning when a whole cavalcade of trucks came at 10:30 AM (half an hour early) to discover me with my hair unbrushed and still Before Coffee. At least I was up and dressed. They did a superb job, though there were a few surprises. This is just normal tree chipping. I had a lot of brush and small trees in the back, and they trimmed back a huge maple as well. But when they started on the magnolia, one side cut normally... But the other side cut normally for one second and then there was fluff and feather...

It's finally nice outside! And we have broccoli in the back: See the holes? We have cabbage butterflies, too. We have lots of rabbits--they ate the cucumbers because we didn't put a fence around that planting square, but I can buy ok cucumbers at the store and there are only so many cukes a person can eat: There are also chipmunks, including this oddly pale one: And then there is this one, eating mulberries by my dining room window. They are adorable as long as they stay out of the house (and the heating ducts).

So it was really stormy last night, complete with tornado warnings and the usual lighting tantrums that seem to come with storms here. We had one strike that sounded really close to the house (where you can actually hear the sizzle and the displaced air) but I looked out at our trees and didn't see anything. Then this morning I saw my neighbor out in back taking photos of their house and I was like..hmm. This is what she was photographing: She said the hole was tiny because the multiple smaller branches kept the trunk off the roof, but today they are chainsawing it up so they can slide it off the roof, and more rain is on the way. The cat, being bored and a little stressed out, brought in a friend to play with-- a very large chipmunk. (It's behind the tupperware here). This is the chipmunk--you will just have to take my word for it: The havahart trap is once more set in the hall. 10 PM that evening, the chipmunk is on his way out at last, after peeing in the closet.

J has been digging a trench around the shed to divert water coming down the hill, and he turned over one of the concrete pavers to discover that it had been the roof to a chipmunk den. Instead of a nice leafy bed, we find a bedroom full of trash landscape plastic; and only one nut in the kitchen, already opened. I'm surprised there were no tiny beer cans or empty pizza boxes in there.

We has them. And they are not all as cute as the one above. The chipmunks stay outside, but the mice, attracted by the leftover seeds from the now-removed bird feeder, have learned how to climb in under the air conditioning pipe into the house, then walk along the top of the foundation wall inside, and then back under the kitchen to find people food. The larger kitchen was an addition to the original house, so the basement doesn't extend back under the kitchen--it's just a narrow space underneath the floorboards, about 50cm high, with a small-rock-and-plastic-sheeting floor. I know this because I took my camera, set it on flash, and stuck my arm in wherever I could wiggle it in around the pipes. The photos look like something from a James Cameron remote camera, but they are useful for seeing not only the mice, but the wiring and piping down there. It looks like soon all the Ikea drawer cabinets,shown here: (which we have dubbed the Fukken cabinets because of how they are...