The Cat Days of August

This is me many years ago. One thing has been pretty consistent through my life though, cats. Love them, they've owned me for most of my life! This poor kitty let me squeeze on it until the photo was over. I really don't remember any cats scratching me when I was little, maybe that's just selective memory. I was about five years old in this photo, I still remember bits and pieces of that time in my life.

 My Great Aunt made this cute little card for me when I was little. She was the 

'Martha Stewart' in our family!

 Guy loves this little camp chair!

Dot is the great Lioness atop her mountain surveying her back yard!

Of course, she has to have a nice cushion to rest on!!

It's been hard to blog this summer, the world has gone mad and every day in our country brings some new terrible thing. Children taken from their parents, perhaps never to be returned. Russians are our new allies, and the UK and Canada are our adversaries?? Up is Down and Down is Up. The sky is not blue it's red. Which is true in California, the red sky of fires consuming everything in their paths. I see it on the news and from folks I follow on Instagram, photos of the hills flaming red into the sky, and sometimes the sky has turned black from smoke.

I tend to turn inwards at these times and have been working on my shop trying to list and sell as much as possible before everyone runs out of extra cash to spend on such frivolous things. The strange thing is, I seem to be selling more than ever. Maybe people are trying to sooth that inner longing for something nostalgic and safe perhaps?  Anyway here are a few photos of a few things I've picked up, some are in my shop already. Most of these are from an estate sale of a ladies home, I found out that she was a teacher and she saved just about everything. Her name was Vivian, and even though I've never met her, I feel a great fondness for her delightful spirit.

 In this cute old board game from the 1930's, I found a handmade paper doll set. I'm guessing the paper dolls were made by Vivian and tucked away in the box under some paper and then were forgotten. As you see, some were never cut out.

Here's a set of children's puzzles still in the wrapper, from the 1950's. 

Cute as can be and the colors and condition are wonderful!

 We had lots of rain this summer and our flowers and the butterflies are very happy. 

Our weather has been a roller-coaster this year, hot humid, then cold, then raining every day and now hot and dry. The perfect days here are getting few and far between, high temps over 90 degrees used to be rare and now we're up to about 3 weeks! Every year we seem to add a few more hot days to the record. So on those rare warm but dry summer days, when a cool breeze wafts through the air, I get outside to enjoy it. One of those perfect days was a couple of weeks ago and I headed to our Arboretum and here is what I saw....

 The flowers are always beautiful at the Arb and this year they have a 

new art exhibit featuring Origami animals made from metal. 

The cranes below where in several features and I really loved the horses!

 The lilies were dazzling!

 The Dahlia's were divine!

 Stacked crane tower!

 The wildflower praire garden is a newer feature.

I purchased several boxes of items at the estate sale, I hadn't been to one all year! It took me days to sort through all of it, and it will take me another year to get it all listed in my shop!

I have to say though, some things have already sold! The pink angel trays sold right away.

 I think I'm going to fill the old tin with Christmas cookie cutters

 and put it up for sale in my shop.

The Littlest Angel book is so cute, I found several other really old books there.   They even sold the letters she had written to her boyfriend, husband when he was away during World War II. I'm not sure how the story goes, I haven't had time to even look through them. I'll let you know if I find out anything really interesting.

Here are some Christmas items I've already staged and have in my shop, or will have ready soon. The Elves are ornaments to hang on the tree.  The train light set is listed and I was so surprised that the lights actually worked!

Finally I'm closing out with this cute book illustration. It's from the book entitled

 "Doings of Little Bear", written by Frances Margaret Fox and illustrated by Warner Carr, 

1915, from Rand McNally Publishing. 

I hope that you are all feeling well these days, I know that some of you have also taken the summer away from blogging. Maybe in the Autumn with cooler weather we'll all be refreshed and ready to go again.  I just have to say that I still adore my friends here in blogland! And all of you in Canada and the UK, you are still our friends and allies, please know that the majority of the people here in the states feel the same as I do. Please don't give up on us. We are going through a rough patch, but things will get better.

Now don't mind me, but I'm going to round up my cat companions and head out side to commune with nature. Watching the butterflies does my soul a world of good and after all it's the Cat Days of August....

😸🍃🦋~ Diane

Spring was Short ...

Yes it's me! This is a super long post, so you might want to grab a beverage and settle down for a bit.  I'm trying to catch up on what's happened since I last posted, so here goes.

Maybe you noticed, but spring was really short.  One month ago it looked like this in our backyard!

Even my Norwegian Forest Cat was sick of the snow! Guy was not amused by the late snow fall and our really long winter!

But then we started to see some changes and a few thunderstorms crept in to get rid of the final traces of snow! The image below does not even come close to how gorgeous this rainbow was!

The image below was taken about a week later, and shows the trees just budding out. The sun made them glow like gold!

Not sure if you have ever watched the show "The Big Bang Theory", but I always pause the DVR so I can read the notes at the end by Chuck Lorre. This one really sums up my feeling about the current occupant in the White House and the past year.

Above: The lake thaws and the plums bloom.
Below: Out for a walk I saw this pretty Flowering Almond shrub.

The lovely lilacs bloomed like crazy this year and the scent always take me back to my childhood.

The crabapple blossoms don't last long but add a needed color infusion to the backyard!
After months of white and gray it's nice to see color again!

Guy waits for a chipmunk...

Pink geraniums and Dame's Rocket....

Suddenly our temperatures are 20 degrees above normal and it feels like August. Don't tell me there's no global warming because it should be pretty obvious to everyone by now that our climate is changing and not in a good way.... Anyway, as I said spring was short, and now it already feels like summer, not just hot, but sticky humid too.  It feels like Kansas City weather to me, it's not supposed to feel like this in Minnesota.... So yes, I'm already complaining that it's too hot! Yes it was too cold and now it's too hot!! Apparently there is no "Normal" anymore.

Dot enjoys a little salad. She loves to chew on this wild grass next to the lake and we walk her out there and let her free range a couple times a day for her greens!

So finally, all caught up. 

What say you?

~ Diane ~