A Cool Vacation... Part I

So, where have I been for the past week? Michigan! The area that Michiganders call "up north". We left the hot, hazy and humid mid-south to travel to the cool, clear, crisp air of northern Michigan.


I took this photo from the car. Look at the sky... it's a cool, clear blue without that hazy smog that comes with heat and humidity.


I took this photo as we got closer to the lake, where we were staying. Unpaved road, trees all around. The car windows are open now, the scent of crisp air and nature all around. I am beginning to relax for real as we drive down this road!



I love being surrounded by trees. Trees are my favorite companions.


We were staying at a friend's cottage, right on the lake. Open the back door and you are just steps from the water!


I have to go now, to a dentist appointment. I will write more and post more photos when I get back!

Have You Read This Book?

Three Cups of Tea came out in paperback quite a while ago. I had passed it by many times in the bookstore without taking particular note of it. Then I saw a feature about it on the news, and decided to pick it up and read it. Now I am hooked. It's a wonderful, amazing true story. If you haven't read it, I hope you will.


It's the true story of the man in the photo above, Greg Mortenson, an American mountain climber who became a humanitarian. He began as a mountain climber, traveling to central Asia to climb K2. His attempt at K2 failed, but he was rescued and taken to a remote village in Pakistan. He befriended the people in the village, and the rest of the story goes from there. As you read the book you can't help but fall in love with this man. It's a fascinating story.

New Kitten Update

This is the little feral kitten who isn't so feral. She's part of a litter of four, born in our back yard. When we come outside the others run away, but she runs toward us. I think she wants to be adopted! I haven't convinced my husband yet, but we will see. Today I took her for her second vet appointment. She was treated for fleas and got the first of her kitten shots.


She's still living outside with her mother (who was spayed this morning) and her littermates, but whenever we come outside she comes runs right up to us. Yesterday my husband was outside doing some weeding... he turned around and there she was, following him around. She's a sweetie!

This Is Summer

The best part of summer to me... a cabin on the lake in Michigan. Days are warm, nights are cool. The lake is quiet first thing in the morning, the sound of the occasional fisherman's boat putt-putting out on the lake and the birds singing in the trees. Days are relaxed, padding around in bare feet, wearing shorts and an old t-shirt. Do we go fishing, or hiking, just sit and read, or go for ice cream at the local dairy?

Sitting on the screened porch in the evening, smelling pine trees and wood fires and listening to loons on the lake. Family relaxing, playing gin or Scrabble, taking a break from T.V. and the latest news. It's a time for relaxing the body and refreshing the spirit.

Our Furry Little One-Pound Patient

We have a mother cat with a litter of four kittens in our back yard. On Monday I went out to feed them. Usually, they turn and run when they see me, because they are feral cats. But one little black kitten just sat there looking at me. I slowly stepped closer to it, and still it didn't move. When I got close enough, I could see that one of its eyes was inflamed. "Poor little thing" I thought. Its good eye looked straight at me. It was bright blue. The other eye was watery and just didn't look right. I walked over to it and it let me pick it up! I was amazed! A little feral kitten let me pick it up. I was afraid it must be very sick. It lay very quietly in my arms and let me carry it. It was a tiny little thing, light as a feather. I took it over and showed it to my neighbors, two ladies who are fellow cat lovers. They also were amazed that she had let me pick her up and carry her around.

We put her in a carrier with some food, which she ate. I wiped her eye with a warm cotton ball and put in a drop of eye medicine that we had from another cat. The next day I took her to the vet. The vet techs and the vet all fell in love with her (they confirmed that she is a girl). They weighed her and she was only one pound. They tested her for the regular cat diseases and for worms, and she was found to be healthy. The vet gave her some food and she ate. She became very active, running around and exploring the exam room. We were given some medicine to give her three times a day and some eye ointment. The vet said she only had a cold, a form of rhinitis, but was healthy otherwise.

I brought her home, and we kept her in a crate with a litter box and some milk and food. She drank a lot of milk and ate some food. She meowed at us and made it clear she wanted to be held. When we let her out of the crate, she ran right over to us and climbed all the way up to our heads and over our backs. She purred like crazy. It was so cute watching her wobbly little run as she took off across the floor!

We medicated her for three days until her eye looked better. I was anxious to let her back out with her littermates and her mom before they forgot about her. The kittens aren't completely weaned yet; they are eating dry food but also still nursing. I was afraid they wouldn't recognize her after being with us and to the vet. I have had that experience with my own cats; when one comes home from the vet's office it doesn't smell the same to the other cats.

When I first put her outside, she kept running back into the house. I was worried she wouldn't want to stay back outside, but I thought it would be best for her to be with her family. Finally, I put her out in the carrier with the door unlatched, so she could get out if she wanted to. Soon, her mother and littermates were there, sniffing around the carrier. After a while, she came out. At first she hung around close to the house even when the others wandered away. Later, I looked out and saw her playing with her littermates.

This morning my husband went out to give them food. The little family was gathered around the food dish, but when he came out they all ran... except our little patient. She stayed right there, and even followed him halfway back into the house. So, now she is with her family, but she still comes to us. Such a sweet little cat. I am tempted to adopt her, but we have sworn to ourselves that our four indoor cats is our limit. If we keep adopting them, we will become "cat hoarders" that you hear about. I look out several times a day to see how she is getting along. So far, so good, knock wood! I've seen her romping around with her littermates. I think she is doing okay.

I Am Love

We went to see this movie last night. It was beautiful, and very Italian. It's a little puzzling at first, because it doesn't explain anything. You just have to watch and let it unfold. It's a far cry from a typical American movie. If that's all you are used to, you might not have the patience to appreciate it. It focuses on beautiful details and subtle gestures. More is said by nuance than by dialog.

Tilda Swinton is incredible to watch. It's her movie. She was fascinating. The movie was fascinating. Sometimes I thought the music was a bit too melodramic (especially at the end). That was the only fault I found with it. I think it's a movie that would be good to see over again, so that once you know the story you can go back and savor the details.

What A Week!

Yesterday, I had to drive an hour and a half to attend a family meeting. I noticed that the thermometer on my dashboard registered 99 degrees. Someone on a local news show was baking cookies on the hood of a car. It was hot!

The family meeting involved a farm that's been in our family for many generations. No one in the family has actually farmed it since my great-grandfather, so now it's farmed by a man who has a neighboring farm of his own. Not exactly a "tenant farmer" but a "hired farmer" I guess you could call him. In order to share the farm with all family members, the family in my dad's generation decided to incorporate it so shares could be distributed.

As a corporation, we are required to hold a meeting once a year. So, this was the "farm meeting" as it has come to be known to all my sisters and cousins. They made me the secretary, so I have to keep the minutes. I find it kind of an onerous job, but no one else wants to do it. Instead, my younger family members wait for me to read last year's minutes, then they sit there and suggest all kinds of corrections. I wish one of them would take over, but they won't. They all sit there taking copious notes, so they can correct me at the meeting next year.

Also, I broke our shredder. It's supposed to shred six sheets at a time. We receive those pesky credit card applications in the mail and they have to be shredded to prevent identity theft. Once I noticed the man who picks up our trash standing in the street, reading discarded mail. It made me worry. Anyway, to shred all our dangerous mail we have to open it and make sure we are not shredding too many sheets at once. This week I got impatient and tried to shred something without opening the envelope. Turns out it was too thick and it got stuck in the shredder. The shredder is broken. I can't get the offending piece of mail through in either direction. So, I had to go and buy a new shredder. My husband was out of town and I haven't told him. I decided to quietly replace it with the new one and hope he doesn't notice.

As usual, I babysat my nieces on Tuesday while my sister went to work. Their aunt on their father's side took the youngest shopping for her birthday. All the girls in the family have "fake Uggs" because their mom and dad refuse to pay the price for "real Uggs". Well, the lovely aunt bought the youngest a pair of "real Uggs" so now the other girls are jealous and want "real Uggs" of their own. I thought Uggs were out of style! Maybe it takes longer for trends to catch on here in Kentucky.

My husband was out of town for the last two weeks in a row. Business trips plus a weekend-in-between visit to California to see his daughter and granddaughter. I made sure to do all the chores and keep the house neat and clean, so when he came home he wouldn't find me lacking in the housekeeping department (I know, I know... but it helps to keep the peace around here). I hoped he would come home and relax for a while, and we would have a chance to talk. He did, in fact, make drinks for both of us, and we had a chance to sit and talk. Then we went out to dinner. So, the week ended on a good note. (Even if he did retreat to his "man cave" after dinner to watch sports on the big screen.)