16 August: Long Beach etc etc etc

Thursday, 16 August

Before work, I picked and delivered a bouquet to Queen La De Da for a bridal shower that she was hosting.  Allan photographed it for me.

Queen La De Da’s gallery and event center

At the post office, I asked him to photograph the planter; the deer are finally leaving the little rose alone.

Still before work, we visited the South Pacific County Humane Society to make a contribution in honor of our friend Larry, spouse of Diane whose garden we care for.  Allan photographed some cats.  I do long for a satisfactory lap cat.

The shelter had a large crop of kittens.

Long Beach

Sometimes toward the end of the day at this time of year, I find myself saying a little chant, especially while dragging hoses, in a high pitched monotone: “Help me helpme helpme helpme heeeelp me.” Today, it started at the beginning of watering Long Beach and that is when I knew that summer burn out had hit hard.  While I still do love my job, certain factors are wearing by now: hose-rassling, navigating around crowds, dragging heavy hoses (not in Long Beach, fortunately), and loud cars booming music with misogynist lyrics (in Long Beach, unfortunately).

While watering, I finished the August planter reference post, and that will appear tomorrow, mostly for my interest.

I noticed a chrysanthemum blooming in the planter by NIVA green and thought it was way too early and that I should have given it the Chelsea chop.

When I headed down the other side of the street, I saw that Dennis Company is already selling chrysanthemum plants—so I guess it is just right.

chrysanthemums for sale already

I still love Oregano ‘Hopley’s Purple’ so much. What a doer!

Origanum ‘Hopley’s Purple’

The planter in front of Stormin’ Norman’s needs a dig out.  That darn wire plant, that I thought was a house plant when I planted it and then it took over, is trying to take over again.  We should have dug out ALL the soil instead of hoping we could control the starts from bits of root left behind in our clean out two years ago.

It is creeping everywhere.

I only had to ask one person to move off a bench for watering today.  I was glad I had already done the Funland planter before a large crowd appeared.

We watered the Sid Snyder planters. I should do a reference post for the beach approach planters.  Allan parked by Adrift distillery, owned by the Adrift Hotel, whose owners are our clients now at the Shelburne.

planters at the distillery (Allan’s photo)

World Kite Museum

We checked up on the kite museum garden because kite festival starts next Monday.

Allan’s photo

The Shelburne Hotel

We planted one more daylily from my garden, making room for it by moving a sad rodgersia to a spot where I hope it will be happier.

Allan’s photo

Allan’s photo: must get a bag of compost to make this daylily patch look better.

We weeded, deadheaded, and watered thoroughly, hoping it will last well till Monday.

The garden looks different now because I cut back all the Nicotiana ‘Fragrant Cloud’ to new growth halfway down. They were tired and had no no blooms to offer up high.

looking south, no more cloud of white

looking north, the tall non blooming cosmos is most irksome!

not one flower bud on most of the Cosmos ‘Sensation’

Cutting seed pods off of the many sweet peas takes a long time now.

I am happy in this garden and never sing the help me song here….not even when I see the horrors of houttuynia in this back yard shady bed, waiting a fall clean out.

horrors

I wish I had time to work on this bed more during the summer.

We remembered to clip a dead blackberry cane from the  next door yard off of the totem’s beak.

so glad this bed does not have the houttuynia

Brown Turkey fig tree has figs!

I got to pet a good rescued dog named Buster Brown.

Allan’s photo

When his person began to have dinner, Buster was all attention.

I wanted so very much to stay for dinner, too, but we had another couple of hours of our watering ritual.

Ilwaco

Allan watered the trees and planters, while I watered the boatyard garden.

The Pennisetum macrourum is coming back strong and will need another big pull out this fall.

I saw a boat name that spoke to me.  This is my dream, too:

Autumn Dream

Autumn, when we can stop watering and when the Pacific Breeze blows all the wildfire smoke away.

I walked home and saw just one of the Main Street cats.

I went out of the way to deadhead our volunteer garden at the fire station.  Allan would water it last.

ornamental corn—will it make an ear?

I am so looking forward to our three day weekend—but first (tomorrow), the Planter Reference Post.

 

 

 

 

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23 April: Community

Saturday, 23 April 2016

The perfect way to start this day of community events would have been to participate, as we used always to do, in the spring beach clean up with the Grass Roots Garbage Gang.  Unfortunately, I never have warning of when my collapsing right knee would put me in a state of collapse and I would not risk it happening out on the beach, necessitating a vehicular rescue and inconvenience.  Walking on uneven surfaces is tricky for me these days.

I hope that a new knee will enable me to start doing the clean up events again.

Instead, I spent the morning reading Love All by Elizabeth Jane Howard and waiting for some migraine medicine to take effect.

On the way to our first event of the afternoon, we stopped at the library because to my great happiness, the second book of the Cazalet Chronicle had arrived through interlibrary loan.

Tulips at the Ilwaco Community Building, which houses the Ilwaco Timberland Library and the senior lunch program.

Community Building garden

Bayside Singers

the rose garden at Peninsula Church Center in Seaview.

Todd is a member of the Bayside Singers chorale group, inspiring us to attend their concerts.

That’s our Todd to the far right.

Allan’s photo

He had told me that I would particular like one song from their spring programme, and indeed I found the poem set to music to have perfect words:

 Afternoon on a Hill by Edna St Vincent Millay

I will be the gladdest thing

Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds

With quiet eyes,

Watch the wind bow down the grass,

And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show

Up from the town, I will mark which must be mine,

And then start down!

****************************************

That was perfection indeed, and I do wish that all flower admirers would touch and not pick (without permission).  It is the Anti Finger Blight Anthem.

The singers applaud a duet.

intermission treats and Tulip ‘Greenland’ from Todd’s garden (Allan’s photo)

Tulip “Greenland’ (Allan’s photo)

I briefly met Carole of the darling pink house in Ocean Park but due to migraine issues did not really have time to chat.

We had to leave the Bayside Singers during their last song in order to get to the next event, for which we had already purchased tickets.

South Pacific County Humane Society Dinner

in the parking lot

beachy

The event took place at the old Chinook School.

We arrived late, but fortunately Our Kathleen was there, knew we were coming and had saved us two seats.

The dinner, pasta with four different sauces and a good green salad, was provided by the Cove Restaurant, one of our favourites.

one of two cakes

center: our friend Wendy in a doggie outfit, and Monica “Cosmic Bombshell” Morley to the right, with another cute doggie to the left.

My photo taking was minimal because I was still experience a muffled migraine (muffled by medication that had ALMOST worked, wonderful migraine meds that I wish I had had during the suffering migraine-y thirties and forties).  So I pretty much just kept to my seat and missed recording the tables of silent auction items that had been donated.

Monica had this darling frock especially made for the event.

It was well attended.

As you can see, our shelter is beloved and well supported.

 

Catherine and Ed of the Oceanside Animal Clinic were the honored guests because of their years of veterinarian work for the shelter animals.

Allan’s photo

The beloved Dr. Ed made a moving and informative speech about the origins of the shelter.  He said that in the beginning, a group of women formed to create the no-kill shelter.  Very important people from other important shelters told them that a no kill shelter was a lovely idea, but that sadly the world does not work that way and it would be impossible to achieve.  They refused to sacrifice their principles. They did achieve it, and have saved and re-homed so many animals over the years that Dr. Ed, became choked up just telling the story, as did probably every member of the audience.  He said “They used to go to people’s doors and take away abused animals.  They were scary!”  A huge round of applause followed.

We won a nice big basket of doggie treats during the raffle, which will go to Dave and Mel’s dogs, Anna and Coulee.

Darling Sondra had some food left over and sent some pasta home with Kathleen for her Sunday dinner, some salad and bread sticks home with us for a snack later.

Just a few good bread sticks were left! Photo by Robbie Richeson, before the dinner

Yesterday, Ray Millner of The Planter Box had given us some Yacon tubers to try.  We had that and some apple added to our salad at ten PM (while watching Love in a Cold Climate, which goes well with the Elizabeth Jane Howard historical fiction I’ve been reading this past week.)

Yacon tubers, look like they would taste like sweet potatoes. (Allan’s photos)

Instead, they taste like a delectable and sweet combination of apples, celery, and jicama.

I am hoping to grow the plant; the flowers are like sunflowers so it will even be ornamental.

1997 (age 73):

April 23:  Planted some flower seeds in APS.  Brought wood in.

April 23:  Rain, cold   I got my #2 tooth filled but they said it isn’t strong and if it breaks again I may need to have a crown put on.

 

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21 Nov: crab pot, kitty, KBC, concert

Saturday, 21 November 2015

My big plan for the day was to get Klipsan Beach Cottages and Marilyn’s garden both erased from the fall clean up work list, and then to finish Ilwaco and Long Beach tomorrow and have staycation begin on Monday.  (Except for the post frost clean up.)  Didn’t quite work out that way.

We pulled the last of the cosmos out of the post office garden.

post office window

Before driving north, we swung by the west end of the port to get some photos of the crab pot tree decorating party.

My good friend Misty was there.  (That’s Allan taking photos.)

Misty getting her butt scritched.

That meant our gardening client Diane was there, also.

Diane decorating the crab pot tree

Saturday Market manager Bruce Peterson on the right

Our former garden client and realtor Cheri Diehl (Discovery Coast Real Estate)

Allan’s photo

On the way to KBC, we dumped yesterday’s last partial load of debris in the city works pile, figuring we would need room for lots more at Marilyn’s.

park debris from Long Beach, and a sign we found floating in Fifth Street Park pond yesterday.

The day was progressing as planned when, about halfway to KBC, we passed a cat lying in the road, and Allan said “he’s alive”.  A surprising amount of traffic was on the highway and as we slowed and turned around (not easy with the trailer on), we saw him get bumped twice by cars, one of which appeared to run over his tail and one which maybe just jostled him or came really close.  It was a traumatic sight.  Allan ran back and scooped him into a bucket (while I hobbled along).  With the bucket set down on the edge of the side street, I hurried to the nearest house and knocked, and asked if the resident knew of the cat.  He did not, nor did his sister who lived just north.  Meanwhile, the cat lay sideways in the bucket.  We called the shelter and were told we could bring him in.  Thank goodness, because we could then count on a volunteer from there to take him to the emergency vet, which we knew from experience might be all the way to Seaside, Oregon.

Allan’s photo: After looking almost deceased, the cat nestled into the bottom of the bucket.

In the van, the cat curled into a ball and let me pet his head.  His breathing was ragged.

The rescue operation went pear shaped when we got to the shelter.

South Pacific County Humane Society

Thinking the cat was pretty much comatose, Allan got the bucket out to carry kitty into the shelter and suddenly kitty woke from his stupor and ZOOMED out of the bucket and around the neighbouring building.  We and three humane society people followed; they got a cat carrier and a blanket to catch him with.

in an open storage area

humane worker goes with blanket to nab him

And VROOM, kitty ran out and around the building and disappeared.  Damn it.  We felt like pretty lousy rescuers even though he was better off than an awful death in the road.  The humane society folk said they will put out food for him and I suppose they will put out a live trap.  Feeling frazzled and unhappy, we went off to work an hour later than we had planned.

Klipsan Beach Cottages

The first thing on my mind for the job was to clip a climbing rose that had been drooping last time.  Today, it was right down in the path, so both Allan and I worked on it in succession.

rose over path

later the same work session

Meanwhile, Allan spread 10 bales of Gardner and Bloome Soil Building Compost and I got myself into a pruning mess.

This rose and honeysuckle combo was way tall over the fence, which unfortunately this before photo does not show.

Once I began clipping, I simply could not stop till the climbers were well thinned and off the fence and level with the top of the arbour.  Mary and Denny were grateful because now they will have a winter view of the garden from their dining room and kitchen.

end of day, Allan rakes the debris while Denny enjoys “beer-thirty”.

What with embarking on that project and the hour lost to feline almost-rescue, I realized we were not going to get to Marilyn’s in time to accomplish enough, and therefore we stayed at KBC to make the pruning job pretty near perfectly detailed.  You can see in the background, above,  the deck from which Mary and Denny will now have a good garden view.

I clipped some perennials as well: shasta daisies, old hellebore leaves, Persicaria ‘Golden Arrow’, lavender.

garden all mulched

KBC garden is now officially cleaned up for 2015.

the debris pile from the rose and honeysuckle pruning

Score! Denny gave us this little picnic table that he built years ago.

On the way home, we drove by the humane society again just to look for Mr. Orange, to no avail.

sunset from the humane society parking lot

He is very much on my mind.  At least I noticed, back at the shelter,  many doorless storage areas, nooks and crannies where he could shelter out of wind and frost.

We had a look at the progress on the crab pot tree.

I hope Mr. Orange Cat ends up as safe and contented as these two who had snoozed the day away at home.

Staycation will be delayed by one day as we will now hope to do Ilwaco and Long Beach tomorrow and Marilyn’s on Monday.  That will be better.  We won’t be rushed, we won’t end up doing a half-arsed job trying to fit Marilyn’s final fall clean up into the end of a day, and we will be able to take the debris to the dump instead of ending up stuck with it at home.  (Later: or so we th0ught!)

the work board as of tonight

I just had time to post the crab pot tree photos on Discover Ilwaco and write up this post before turning around and going out again to a musical evening at:

The Sou’wester

The band tonight was Jenny Don’t and the Spurs, an ensemble featuring an alumnus of Napalm Beach, one of my favourite punk rock bands from olden days.   Click here to listen to a love ballad by Napalm Beach with an unusual subject, one of my favourite pop songs of all time.

Later: We had an exceptionally excellent evening at the Sou’wester.  Not only was the band great, but I had the delightful experience of finding out that a Peninsula acquaintance of mine (soon to be a closer friend, I think!) was the mother of the bass player and therefore had known many of the punk bands that I knew back in the day.  I’ll call her Ocean Park Debby to differentiate her from my good friend Bayside Debbie (with whom I share plants for the Master Gardener Plant sale).  We’ve met before when her garden was on the 2007 Long Beach Peninsula garden tour, and she’s friends with Prissy, the legendary plantswoman who used to be at Back Alley Gardens in Gearhart.

OP Debbie and I enjoyed our conversation and agreed that it is funny how people who meet us now just think of us as nice older ladies.  I certainly would not have guessed the truth, that her spouse played in a band that even predated my days attending show after punk rock show in Seattle.

on the sun porch at the Sou’wester

It’s an honor system store.

Jenny Don’t and the Spurs

I love the new neon sign in the living room; the trailer and car rock up and down.

Here is a clearer photo from a seller of this charming piece.

At the beginning of this brief video clip, if you look closely, you can see the trailer and jeep rocking.  It just made me happy and I gazed upon it frequently during the evening.

Allan’s photos:

my friend Debbie’s son!

appreciate audience

the wonderful sign

Folks got up and danced.

Ocean Park Debbie and I

I was quite possibly telling her that sometimes, at a show like this, I desperately miss being young and not in pain and able to dance until the wee hours of the morning.  Yes, sometimes that makes me sad.  I feel so old when I hobble around but in my mind I am still dancing.

Debbie recommended to the entire audience that we watch the band’s video filmed in the desert.  While they were filming, a fellow offered to do a shot for them with his drone and it turned out very well.  Here it is: Rattlesnakes and Dogs.

If all goes as planned, we’ll return to the Sou’wester for their Thanksgiving Potluck and then for a show I’ve been anticipating for a month:  A band called The Skinks will perform the entire Village Green Preservation Society album!  We ARE the Village Green Preservation Society, so I can hardly wait!

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Olde Towne and cash mobbing

The Staycation routine of Olde Towne, reading, restaurants and a bit of gardening got interrupted by another holiday event somewhat of my own making.

Thursday, 19 December and Friday, 20 December 2013

Let me throw in three photos taken in downtown Long Beach on Thursday evening that did not make it into the Holiday Village post.

decorations at Marsh’s Free Museum in Long Beach

Long Beach looking south from midtown

and looking north in the sparkling holiday town

Friday, I made the usual restful round of the post office and Olde Towne Café.

cute decoration at the Ilwaco Post Office

At Olde Towne, Chester showed me a beautiful birdwatching calendar by Doug Swanson that is for sale at Rusty’s Coin Shop (First Place Mall in Long Beach).  (The red bird is a Summer Tanager.)

three of twelve impressive bird photos

Plenty of other folk were enjoying the good ambience of Olde Towne, as well, including a gathering including (left) Doug “In Doug We Trust” Knutzen of Box K Auto Repair and (right) Wendy from beachdog.com (expert local website design business) and her family.

Errands followed after Olde Towne.  At Long Beach City Hall, while picking up the last cheque of the year, it was pointed out to me that the cyclamen were blooming in Peggy’s memorial garden (Peggy’s Park).  For more about Peggy, see her garden on the 2013 Music in the Gardens tour.

Peggy planted these.

We acquired more lights on our errands run at the Dennis Company store in Long Beach where, in small town fashion, we encountered Tom and Judy as well as Donna M.   Our colour choice for lights was driven by the fact that the store was out of long strings of multi coloured lights, and white would be too glaring.  Purple will work for Halloween also (a big night here in Ilwaco).  Allan could not wrap the posts because of the wire mesh trellising right behind them; I think the way he attached the lights looks just fine.

Allan attached the new lighting in the pouring rain, at dusk!

Friday, 21 December 2013

I woke early (for staycation) to pleasant weather, with a feeling of mixed excitement about the cash mob event of the day mixed with frustration that I had indoor plans for the entire day during unexpected good gardening weather.

looking south…I want to clean up that center bed!

From my window, to the southwest, I could see the entrance to the Saturday Christmas Market.

The flag marks the market space, next door to Time Enough Books, telephoto (like my mind sees it)

The Peninsula Cash Mob, created by me and Michelle Z of The Breakers resort, encourages people to go to a certain shop at a pre-arranged time and spend between five and twenty dollars to boost the business.  Usually there is a café associated with the event.  For December, it had been Michelle’s brilliant idea to mob the Saturday Christmas Market where a few vendors from the much larger Ilwaco Saturday Market set up a festive Saturday sale during the month of December.

me, in purple, entering the market with another local

I became anxious immediately because the market, at 11 AM, did not look mobbed at all, so I went next door to Time Enough Books.  I always worry that a cash mob will turn out to be a flop with hardly anyone showing up.

Time Enough Books

After a few minutes, I dared to go back into the marketplace…and it was mobbed!

inside the Christmas market

wreaths with sand dollars

Rebecca, who used to operate The Canoe Room café at the port, shows off her purchases.

Charlene and Debbie, gardeners and readers of this blog, in holiday outfits

and buying treats from Pink Poppy Bakery

Allan looks over some glass colours; the Suzie Q’s Magical Glass folks are going to cut pieces for us to replace the ugly orange plastic in our very 70s exterior doors.

Jenna (Queen LaDeDa) supporting the market. I saw her at every booth.

Jenna fell in love with a purple bag.  If I used bags of this type, I would have been some tough competition for it.

a really gorgeous purple bag!

Our friend J9 is a big fan of the same style of bag and she and a friend each bought one at the market last weekend.  This vendor is at the summer market every Saturday.

I bought one of these adorable pillows two weeks ago as a present.

(It’s for someone who doesn’t read this blog, so I can safely post it here!)

Harmony Soapworks

Harmony Soapworks sells their soap online as well as at local shops, and they have regular shipments of soap going to Japan!

Our gardening client Ann

and another client, Cheri

Harmony Soapworks

Our friend Ed Strange of Strange Landscaping was at the Pink Poppy Bakery booth, and I swear he posed for this photo.

Madeline and Ed!

Pink Poppy Bakery is run by the daughter of Pink Poppy Farm, my favourite garden on both local garden tours this past summer.  Because she had run out of her amazing lemon sugar cookies, I ordered a box to be picked up on Christmas eve at her new storefront by the Long Beach arch.

Pink Poppy Madeline and Kathy (sister of Time Enough Books’ Karla) pose for the definitive cash mob shot

The camera loves Madeline and her Amelie-style flair

I was smitten with a new vendor.  They’d  been at the last outdoor Saturday Market in September and plan to be there twice a month next year.

Everything they had to offer appealed to me!

wreaths

signs

beachy words

beachy scrabble racks

At the other end of the room, Knotty and Knautical was down to just three glass bricks, having sold one to Debbie or Charlene (I think).

the Knotty and Knautical booth, also a regular at the outdoor market

the market, pretty well mobbed

I stepped out to stroll down Waterfront Way to Jenna’s shop and had a moment when I very much wanted to be home cleaning the dead foliage off of my river of Geranium ‘Rozanne’.  I find it hard to staycation without gardening; rainy days are a blessing to me.

the view from right outside the market

The good weather enabled a cute picture of “Queen La De Da” outside her shop.

our Jenna

inside the Queen La De Da’s shop…

Who did we find but Debbie and Charlene!

Jenna asked if I had told her spouse, Don, about the purple purse, so I popped back down to Don’s  art gallery and informed him.  He had me watch the shop while he went on a Christmas gift mission.  (I’m 100% sure they are too busy to read this blog, so don’t tell!)

Don almost ALWAYS has treats for customers in his gallery.

At two, Allan and I went to OleBob’s Café and met Michelle Z for lunch.  And who did we find there?

The very festive Charlene and Debbie!  Those gals know how to do a cash mob!

They had their Christmas present exchange, which included the wonderful new book of collected gardening columns by the late and much missed Dulcy Mahar.  Michelle, meanwhile, gifted me with a gorgeous green and purple scarf, the knitting of which benefits the South Pacific County Humane Society.  (Bonnie Carey of “bjs pet projects” makes the scarf, and donates her profits to the no-kill shelter.)  So I thought it was appropriate to have Mary model it later on in the day.

How did Michelle know these are “my” colours? 😉

And here I am with hardly any presents even wrapped!

We visited at OleBob’s for well over an hour…

OleBob’s holiday decor, and boats

…and were only a few minutes late to coffee klatch at Olde Towne!  Patt had come back to town and of course we had to gather with the group of her special Olde Towne friends.  Rain began to fall and I could finally stop thinking about gardening!

At Olde Towne, Jenna, MR and Donna, Tom and Judy, and Patt

Allan ran errands instead of joining us, his main mission being to donate some extra things to the Reach Out Thrift Store in Long Beach.  Our friend Cat (very much an Olde Towne regular) was working there and asked Allan to say hi for her to the gang since she couldn’t be there with us.

Cat with a little thrift store tree she was about to decorate.

I have to close with a little Olde Towne item that I found so charming (but was able to resist buying).

the idyllic childhood Christmas I didn’t quite have!

Now it haunts me.  If it is still there on Tuesday, it might come home with me!

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flashback: July 2010 — Sand Flea Pet Parade

buddies

Lilly, “donation dog” for South Pacific County Humane Society

beach dog

tiny

nose

dachshund

greeting

Perdita takes a break

tricolour pup

dog-human look alike contest

dog-human look alike contest

dog-human look alike contest

dog-human look alike contest (Cisco)

Cisco with his specs on

Cisco

Yorkie

winner: beachiest dog contest

beachiest dog contest

beachiest dog contest

beachiest dog contest

audience

best trick contest

best trick contest

best trick contest

eyes

that pup!

Golden Doodle pup

Golden Doodle pup

Golden Doodles meet

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flashback: 2009 — The Cats of Autumn

I’m both a “cat person” AND a “dog person” and want to be sure to give cats equal time...

First in my heart was my own good cat Dumbles, a shy boy who loved only me.  His sibling, Miss Marble, had died a couple of years before, which had bonded him even more strongly to me.  He feared all other humans (although he had accepted my former partner, Robert, but had never sat on his lap).

Dumbles, 1999-2011

Our other cat Maddy, two years older, had never forgiven us for bringing Dumbles and Marble home.  (I had mistakenly thought she was lonely and would enjoy the company.)  She still growled at the very sight of them and had moved outside in a huff for a few years, but as she got older she relented and came back in.  She despises all cats and likes every human she meets, although she will lure a person into scritching her belly and then give a bite as a reward..

Maddy the grumpy

At The Planter Box garden centre we were always greeted warmly by the gregarious Cassius, who liked all people but would chase a dog right out of the shop.  He had originally lived at Sea Garden but there he had bullied a shy and timid resident cat.  Being a shop cat with important jobs to do (greeter, mouser) was ideal for Mr. Cassius.

Cassius, King of the Planter Box

Meanwhile, a friend  had begun to foster kittens from our local South Pacific County Humane Society, so one precious litter after another made its way through her guest room.

The first litter came complete with momma kitty and all of them, including the mother, were adopted.

first litter and mother cat

litter number one, growing up

The second litter was motherless and had to be bottle fed, which we helped with occasionally.

bottle feeding kittens

kittens from the second fostered litter

They grew up scrappy and brave.  One got adopted, but our friend found she could not part with the other three.  That’s the danger of being the kitten mom with a bottle.

confident kittens

three of the bottle fed crew

Bottle fed kittens also must be washed by their human with a warm washcloth to mimic the licking of the mother cat.

weaned

2 bottle-fed kittens grown up

the pinky white pair

The next pair of bottle fed kittens was a pinky-white pair.  Our friend’s mom helped out with the frequent feeding.  All the cats got along well, usually.

second and third litter

pinky white kits

Finally came the last fostered litter of 2009, this time with their mother.  We called them the hat cats because each kitten and the mom had hats on their heads.

hat cats

Again, all were adopted.  Our local shelter is no-kill and is aided immeasurably by a revolving and caring bunch of kitten and puppy foster homes.  You can interact with the shelter via their Facebook page.  If you have time and the space to do so, consider fostering.

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1 December 2007 — calm before the storm

South Pacific County Humane Society Brunch

We knew from the news that the storm was coming: Hurricane force winds bearing down on us from across the Pacific.  Saturday, December 1st, was windless but snowy and sleety…Not the sort of day on which I usually venture forth as I’ve an intense dislike of walking around on slippery snow.  However, since our friends the Grey Sisters, J9 and Jill, had organized the wonderful Humane Society Brunch, off we went.

J9 (Jeannine) put her decorating expertise to making the Senior Center seasonally festive. (Her party helper business is called Have Tux, Will Travel, and indeed, she wore her tux for the occasion.)  The food, donated and prepared by local chefs, was outstanding and lavishly generous.

beautiful table decorations

I’ll take credit for the spray painted twigs idea.  Later we put these same twigs in the windows boxes at Klipsan Beach Cottages.  Allan helped set up for the brunch the day before while I did some late fall clean up at the Shelburne.

The big topic of conversation was the storm, and whether or not to take the warnings seriously.  I called Denny at Klipsan Beach Cottages to warn him and he laughed it off.  We did think it might be a big one so on the way home we bought more batteries, lots of candles, and a tank full of gas.  Had I known the severity of the next three days, I would have purchased a lot more chocolate.

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