Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Flies, Strider, & Bleu

Flies. Summer. Ugh.

Why is it that flies WANT to come inside houses? They are only around outside when it's warm ... no flies around in the Winter. So, in the Summer, when the house is COLD from the Air Conditioner, why do they come inside? Just to be pests. Sit on the ceiling, sit on the ceiling fan. Sit on the curtains. Buzz at the window, trying to escape to the outdoors, only to NOT go out when you open the door for them. They go deeper inside the house at that point, or to the corner of the wall away from the door opening, or some such thing.

Enter Strider. My most favorite kitty. Strider and his sister, Dixie Blossom, were adopted from a shelter the end of December 2001 (they were part of a cat colony, captured as young kittens in June 2001). They are both beautiful, similarly marked though very different from each other. They are charcoal gray with silver markings, tiger-ish, but not tabby markings. Strider has more straight lines of silver. Dixie Blossom has more swirls of silver. She is also darker looking overall, with decidedly tabby markings on her chest, in silver.

Strider is lighter charcoal overall in appearance, but his ears ... silver ... beautiful silver ears. His eyes are haunting, frightening to look at actually. Unless you love cats. And know that cats love you.

Strider is a name from Lord of the Rings trilogy. Aragorn's nickname as a Ranger.

What does Strider the cat do? How does he have anything to do with the flies? Ah, he catches them and eats them.

Hurray for Strider!

We are so happy to have this brother and sister duo. I am so glad for them, and feel very fortunate to have them in our household. Why did they grow from kitten-hood to nearly adult-cat-hood without any prospective owners? I don't know. They are lovely pets.

And Strider has replaced Bleu. Bleu ran away a few years ago, an old cat, he was my baby. He was 11 and the door was left open down in the basement, by accident. Never saw him again. Strider is my buddy. He is such a lover. He has healed that loss for me.

And he eats flies.

What more can one ask for?!!!

posted by Maisy @ 8/21/2002 05:14:00 PM

Monday, August 19, 2002

Hummingbirds, not much rain, Hummingbirds

The rain that comes is not enough. Tree leaves are turning brown, or way-too-early-for-Autumn yellow or red, etc.

We've been in drought mode for the past 5+ years, things seemed better the first part of this year, but that's not the case this Summer. Storms pop up and drop nothing on us. Frustration to hear the thunder, see the dark clouds, feel their heaviness, see lighthing jolt across the sky -- cloud to cloud -- or earth to sky -- and no rain comes. Nothing, but the heat and humidity, and crackling grass at ones feet. I like the weeds in the yard. THEY stay soft. THEY are taking over bit by bit, inch by inch, and this year, probably square foot by square foot.

Those weeds have other nice habits too. In the Spring, at different times, they bloom under your feet. Bright yellow, white, red, whatever. Lovely. Low growth plants for walking areas are nice. I've wanted to install some in our yard. Like Thyme, the kind that can be walked on and survived, and produce heady wonderful aromas. But money is tight. Nature taking over is free.

I don't like the weeds that send up big tall seed stalks. They get bad when my dear husband hasn't mowed. In spite of the lack of rain, these things grow, grow, grow. The grass gets the crackly brown-ness.

It's August, and with this heat, the Hummingbirds like the feeders even more than usual. This year we are seeing them in higher numbers. Maybe it's the lack of rain, flowers are less where they can get natural nectar. And so they are glad for my 4 feeders I have (as are the wasps and bees, of course!) out for them. Yesterday, we had 7 Red-throated Hummingbirds flitting all over the front porch area, WOW! It was massively beautiful. 7 at the same time is quite noisy and active, and is the top number at one time for us ever.

Maybe others have experienced more at one time. That's fine. Our area isn't exactly known for heavy Hummer activity, so this was a blessing for us.

posted by Maisy @ 8/19/2002 12:35:00 PM