Photos from My New Camera

I have been experimenting with my new camera. It has many different modes, settings, and icons. It's a little bit intimidating, but I am taking it a step at a time. The above photo was my first experiment using the Macro mode... I just snapped a photo of a ribbon lying on my desk.

Below are some photos of the little black kittens that have been visiting our back yard. They are about 30 feet away, so I zoomed in on them.



The next one shows them play-fighting. It's blurry because I took it through the window glass:


I have become very protective of these kitties. I feed them twice a day and worry if I don't see them for a while. They live somewhere in the bushy , tree-lined area behind our yard and come out in the open to visit our yard.

I will be out and about, taking more photos in the coming days. I still find it easier to carry my small camera with me, but I am determined to become more proficient using my newer, larger, more complicated one. It doesn't have detachable lenses... I guess that will be my next step. I have no one to teach me how to use these things; maybe I can find a class.

Blocked!!

I have writer's block. I have artist's block, sewing block, quilting block, every kind of creative block. I have oodles of materials: old quilt squares, cutter quilts, a huge fabric stash, needles, thread, embroidery floss, canvas, acrylic paint, mod podge, boxes full of clippings and ephemera for collage, and more. But I can't do anything with it. I have no spirit to move me. I have no confidence in what I can do. I go into my craft room and just look at everything. I pull out pieces that interest me, but nothing comes of it. I have little stacks of half-inspired ideas sitting around. I fiddle, but nothing seems right.

This has been going on for a couple of weeks. Do I need to increase the dosage on my anti-depressant meds? Or are the meds sapping my creativity? A fire has gone out inside of me. I still function in my life. I get up, get dressed, shop, cook, have conversations, take care of my nieces, look out for the kitties, both inside and outside, drink wine with my husband... all the normal things of life. I just can't satisfy my creative urges. They are there, but it feels like they are taunting me... it's weird. Is this normal? Will it go away? It's maddening. Maybe I should just put all the materials away, out of sight and forget about them for a while.

Rain, Rain, Rain

This is what it's like at my house today. No floods (knock wood) expected, as in Atlanta this week, though. This kind of rain is good for the grass, flowers and trees. Not very good, though, for the harvest fests, hay rides and corn mazes. I like a rainy day. It's a quiet, steady rain, no histrionics like lightning, thunder, or gusty winds. A lazy, rainy day...

No News Is...

No news today... just want to touch base with my blog. Sometimes no news is good news, right? I am fine... my kidney stone is out. The stitches in my arm are out, although I have what they call "dog ears" (little bumps where the knots were) at the ends of the scar. My brother-in-law (a surgeon) says they will go away in time... but he's a Republican. (Just kidding!)

My kitties are fine... no more worries about Tiger. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the outdoor (feral) cats that inhabit our back yard. There are four little black kittens that are adorable. They sun themselves out there and romp around and play in the grass. I suppose the best thing to do is to have them neutered and turn them loose again. But, winter will be coming soon and I don't know how they will cope. The animal shelter here will try to have them adopted if they are socialized; otherwise they will be killed. I can't bear to think of that. We have no-kill shelters but they aren't any help. When you call on the phone there is a recording. It says they are full and can't take in any more animals, but "if you want to adopt one, these are the hours you can come in". I have searched the internet for other help, but there just isn't much in this county. All the services in other counties take only feral cats from their own counties.

I picked up my three nieces from school yesterday and took them home to do their homework. They got distracted by "I Dream of Jeannie" on television. When the television is on, no homework gets done. So I make them turn it off. One time they hid the remote so I just unplugged it. They panicked. "You broke the T.V. Dad is going to be mad!" they said. I told them I think Dad can figure out how to plug it back in! But at least the homework got done. They are cute, though. Yesterday they were in the back seat having a conversation about angels. The ten year old knows all about angels, and she was answering all the questions from the eight year old. The ten year old swears she saw an angel one time, in her bedroom. I love just listening to them.

In the car, they were watching a new movie about Barbie and the Three Musketeers. It was full of girls being empowered to be strong and brave. I could tell they were loving it. I looked in the rear-view mirror at them smiling. So, now they have a new motto: "Don't mess with the dress!".

Well, that's all the news from here (not as exciting as Lake Wobegon, I'm afraid).

Worried...

This is my sweet cat, Tiger. I am worried about him tonight. He started acting strangely today, and I think he must be sick. At first we noticed him sitting in a strange, hunched over position. Then he withdrew from us and began hiding under furniture. He didn't participate in any of his usual activities, like jumping on the window sill when we opened a window. I will call the vet first thing in the morning. I don't know how we will catch him to put him into a carrier; although he is very sociable he has never allowed either of us to pick him up. I've been reading on the Internet; many suggestions say to throw a towel over him, wrap him in it, and place him, towel and all into the carrier. Well, we will see tomorrow. I just hope he is okay.

**Update on Monday: Tiger seems fine today, is eating and acting like himself again. I'm not as worried, but I am
still going to talk to the vet and see if they want to see him. I know some of my readers are
animal lovers and didn't want to worry you.

Domestic Cats, Feral Cats, Race Horses and Farm Animals, All in My Neighborhood

First, the race horses... we are in Kentucky, after all. In my neighborhood, all the streets are named after famous horses and jockeys. This is an intersection near my house: Aristides and Sea Biscuit. Aristides was the horse that won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875. In 1938, Sea Biscuit won a historic race at Pimlico against War Admiral, a Triple Crown winner. It was called "a race for the ages' and was featured in a popular movie made in 2003. By the way, War Admiral is another street in our neighborhood.


Farm animals aren't far from our neighborhood, either. I took these two photos between two houses down the street. Notice there is a barn in the background, and those little dots are cows. (Not very good photos; I had my old camera with me.)




There is a colony of feral cats behind our house. The photo below shows the food dishes we fill twice a day. The cats come out of the bushes in the background, eat the food, then run back into the bushes. A few are beginning to feel more at home, though, and will come all the way up on our deck. The little kittens sometimes come out to sun themselves or to run around and play on the grass. It's hard to get photos of them because they run when we come outside. The biggest family includes black cats: there is a small adult we call "Little Blackie" and a bigger adult we call "Big Blackie" and four kittens, born in June. There is also a gray cat, a black and white cat, and a new litter of gray kittens born just a few weeks ago. We hope to catch all the cats and have them neutered before the colony grows out of control.


Two of the black kittens:


Then there are the cats who live with us in our house. This is Katie, the oldest. She came with us when we moved here from Philadelphia. She is a Maine Coon cat.


Then there are the two former feral cats we adopted from our back yard. They were little kittens who came up from the bushes behind the house. We started feeding them, then playing with them. Now they are perfectly adjusted house cats. They were easy to socialize. This is Tiger:


And this is Tinkerbell:


It's pretty easy to see how comfortable they are as house cats! They are friendly and playful and completely well-behaved.

Little Miracles

There is something about cats' eyes that makes me stop and think. Actually, it's not just cats' eyes... it's the eyes of all animals. Cats are the ones I live with, so I see them the most often. It makes me think of James Herriott's stories. He took the titles of three of his books from this poem:

"All things bright and beautiful;
All creatures great and small;
All things wise and wonderful;
The Lord God made them all."

I saw this alternative version on the web:

"All things bright and beautiful'
All creatures great and small;
All things wise and wonderful;
Evolution made them all."

I'm not taking sides here; I don't think the two are necessarily incompatible. I regard them as miracles in either case.