Cats, birds, ducks....

.... and other things that go bump in the night.

Mickey has seemed to settle down a bit this past week.... a nice sprinkling of catnip on a cat-scratching pad is his favorite place to be now.   No one has had any 'accidents' lately.... and there have been no visiting cats on the porch since the week before last, as far as I can tell.  Gatsby has been sleeping outside, and very happy to be there.  Sweet Pea has been going out for about an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon, but quickly runs to the back door when the barn swallows start swooping down near him.  Sweet Pea's reputation as a bird-catcher must have been announced to the bird world out there.  Mickey is the only one in the house at times, and he seems content with that, as long as he has his catnip.

I have vowed not to feed any more stray cats. Period. End of story. No exceptions.  Once you feed a stray cat, it's yours.  The cat will stay around, mark their territory (if it's a male) and they will remind you when it's meal-time.  And the inside cats will have a royal fit, and start marking their territory inside the house.   Male cats.  I have had enough male cats to last me two life-times now.  So.... no more feeding stray cats unless we truly want another cat.  (Note to self:  We do not want another cat.)

The ducks are back in the pond... sometimes two, sometimes four of them.  Can't tell if they're the same ducks that were here a month ago, but in my mind, a duck is a duck, and they sure do look nice floating on the pond.

The neighbor with the dogs that have been swimming in our pond at times.... the dogs haven't been around lately.  I drove up to that neighbor's house to tell him that one of his cows had gotten outside the fence, and the two dogs were sitting up by his house. One of the dogs had a bent paw, and it looked broken because when the poor dog got up, he couldn't put pressure on that leg.  I'm guessing that because the one dog is hurt now and can't run down the hill, the other dog is staying close to him and not leaving the yard until his buddy can do the same.  Dogs are so loyal. Even to each other.  Those dogs are too good for that neighbor. But they're his dogs. And in this state, you don't exactly tell anyone how to take care of their animals, pets, livestock, etc.

The wildflowers are still flowering.... the bluebonnets are going to seed, but they've been replaced by acres of yellow Texas Stars, red-orange Indian Blankets, and Queen Anne's Lace (it looks like Q/A Lace, but it's not as tall...... when you look out over our back pasture, it looks like it's been covered with snow.  Get up close to it, and you see the thousands upon thousands of white flowers.

The library..... we're waiting to hear from the contractor about the floor.  We've picked out the flooring but haven't ordered it yet.  I'm guessing that this may become a summer-long project because the contractor is very busy, juggling many jobs at once.  I have to laugh at that because when you watch the home improvement shows on HGTV, it seems that the renovations are completed within 24 hours.  The unbelievable magic of television.

My new laptop..... the old one died a horrible death.  This new one is faster.... it now has all the eMail addresses and websites from my 'favorites' file...... the speed is faster, the keyboard is smoother.... but it's still a computer with a mind of its own. Oh well. It is what it is, and what it is happens to be working.

The third floor...

When I was a kid, we had a big house in Woodhaven.... there was a basement and three floors.  The first floor had the usual living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry... the bedrooms were on the second floor (that house had three), and the third floor had two rooms, one of which was my playroom.  My dad set up a Lionel train in the playroom, which was left out to play with all year long, not just at Christmas-time, and I had a blackboard and a little desk, and shelves of books and games and dolls.  Mostly books... I remember having so many books up there.

In my grandmother's house (daddy's mother), there were also three floors and a basement.  The third floor (which Aunt Dolly always called 'the attic,' had three bedrooms.  From the middle bedroom, where I would sleep when I was a kid, my cousin Connie and I would watch the planes taking off and landing at Idlewild Airport (way before it was re-named JFK Airport).  In that middle room, I would sit by the window with my books.... the bookshelves were in the basement of that house, but I would always carry the books up to the third floor so I could read by the window up there.

In this house, a design combination of that Woodhaven house and my grandparents' house, the third floor will soon (very soon!) be a library.  Once the flooring is put down and the bookshelves are built, I will be carrying all the books up there.  Fiction from my sitting room, non-fiction from the breakfast room, British history and travel books from the living room, decorating and reference books from the dining room, Christmas books from the second floor hallway, the classics from my dressing room... my Charles Dickens set, all of British author Beverley Nichols' memoirs.... all of those books will be going up to the library. The Library!

We already have a sofa for up there, and tables... and a lamp or two.  I've been buying pillows for the window-seats as I find them... and I will be taking accessories from different rooms of the house and arranging them up in the library.  Along the way, I will find accent pieces and artwork for upstairs.

My favorite place to be in the Woodhaven house was that third floor playroom.... in my mind's eye, I can see myself with my books, reading out loud to my Lady Revlon doll. (She had short dark hair, a bright red dress, tiny pearl earrings, and a white fur cape.)   I know that once the library is done and all of my books are upstairs, I will be sitting on that window seat up there, reading by the open window and feeling the breeze coming through from our back pasture. 

In the very first house I remember, the third floor was the place to be.  In this big old house, which I hope will be our last and forever house, the third floor will soon be the place to be.

Saturday stuff...

The painting up on the third floor is finished....... it really looks like a room now.  And it's a room with a view!  I didn't realize how far you can see from the windows up there...... out into our pastures, far into the woods surrounding our property, and further still out over the hills.  Truly a bird's-eye-view from those third floor windows.

I need to quit calling it 'the third floor.'  Now that the painting is done, the electrician will be back next week to install the light fixtures...... we've picked out the flooring...... and we've talked to the construction man about building bookshelves all along both sides of the room.  When all of that is done, the third floor will really be 'the library.'    Sounds much better than the third floor.

As I type this, I'm working on a new laptop. My other one just up and died this morning...... it had been making weird noises for the past few days...... wouldn't turn on properly....... took forever to do one simple task..... my husband said the other night to 'jiggle it' when it wouldn't start.  Well, I guess I jiggled it a bit too much last night and the top separated from the bottom.  That's about when it died. And all the king's horses and all the king's men... couldn't put it back together again.

Off we went to look at new laptops.  My husband found this one...... the screen is a little bigger than the one I had..... it's faster (a Pony Express horse and buggy was faster than that old laptop) and so far, it's working well.   This page for the blog looks very different than the one I typed on before, so I don't know how this will look when I hit that 'publish' button up there.

If you see a Toshiba laptop flying through the air in a few seconds, you'll know why....

Monday stuff....

The workers are upstairs on the third floor as I type.... that big old empty space is getting to look like a real room now. The ceiling is up, as are the walls. Everything was primed and taped (or whatever they do to sheet-rock) and now they are spraying a light texture on the walls and ceiling. We went to Home Depot yesterday and I picked out a paint color..... a light ivory called 'Cafe Cream.' My husband had brought home dozens of sample cards a few weeks ago.... the top three colors that I thought would work just didn't look right in day-light..... one had a yellow tint, one had gray in it, the other had a pinkish color. (And those were supposed to be 'antique white' colors.) When we got to the store yesterday, I found the perfect shade of true ivory and we bought four gallons. My painting gloves will go on again at the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

We'll have to pick out a floor..... and have it installed... most likely a wood floor. Not too dark, not too light. (This sounds like "Goldilocks.") Then the workers will have to come back and finish up the trim on the little access doors to the attic space up there, and also put the finishing touches on the window seats. Then the doors and window seats will have to painted. And then, bookcases..... if we can't find book shelves the correct size (not too high, not too low) then I guess we'll be calling the workers back to build just what we need.

And then the fun part...... let's see.... fiction on the left, non-fiction on the right? A special bookcase for biographies and classics? And what about my collection of British history? And the classics? And then there's my set of Dickens.... and the memoirs of British author Beverley Nichols....... plus travel books..... decorating books...... I could easily lock myself up in that library and not come out for days, until everything is just right. ("Goldilocks" again.)

Speaking of Goldilocks....... (not that my hair is golden).... but I've been letting my hair grow out these past few months. I don't know exactly how that began, but it may have something to do with the hair stylists here. I used to have a stylist in Clear Lake that I could call in the morning and ask her for a little-bitty trim....... I'd get there in the afternoon and she would just "kiss the ends," as she called it..... and I'd walk out of there with the slightest of trims and my hair would be perfect. Two weeks later, I'd do the same thing...... and every two weeks after that. Can't seem to do that here...... they charge $25 for each appointment, whether you're getting a full cut or a slight trim... and because there are so few salons, they're booked up for several weeks in advance. The girl in Clear Lake would charge just $10 or $12 for each little-bitty kiss-the-ends trim.

So I decided to see what would happen if I just let my hair grow out a bit..... and most mornings after I've washed and blown it dry, I'm happy with it.... my hair is still more brown than gray, and I could swear that I have less gray now than I did five years ago. Is that even possible? Seems to me that I had more 'gray highlights' years ago than I do now, and my hair even seems thicker now than it did when I was wearing it shorter. One thing about long hair-- you can put it up in a clip when the temperature gets too hot....... but that always seemed to be the easy way out. I don't like sloppy hair.... I don't like sloppy anything...... so as it gets longer, I'll have to see how neat it will look when the temperature gets over 100 here.

The cats....... Gatsby is in the house at night now, and so is Sweet Pea. Gatsby had a fight with Pumpkin Kitty one night... or rather, Pumpkin Kitty did the fighting, Gatsby just sat there in a huddled ball of gray fur. When I opened the door to see what the screeching was about, Pumpkin Kitty ran away and Gatsby ran into the house. Sweet Pea doesn't want to stay outside all the time..... Gatsby doesn't want to be out there at night.... Mickey thinks he's missing all the fun by being kept inside all the time. And me? I have just about had it with male cats. I never had such problems with the female cat I had years ago. Female cats don't have to mark their territory. They have nothing to prove, they don't have to pick fights. They're neat and tidy and quiet.

Pumpkin Kitty still doesn't want to go back to his own space in JS's yard.... she still has workmen there. Gatsby doesn't want Pumpkin Kitty here, but for some reason he has stopped chasing him away. Lady GaGa still comes around at night to eat. And I did try NOT leaving cat food on the porch at night, but Pumpkin Kitty screeched and howled his disappointment at that, and even my husband said to me "You've got to feed that poor cat."

No more cats. No more cats. No more cats. Is that too much to ask? We have three chickens, two parakeets, one cat that's always in the house (Mickey), one cat that's inside most of the time (Sweet Pea), and one cat that's outside most of the time (Gatsby). I am just getting tired of having all these feathered and furry creatures to worry about and take care of. If JS can catch Pumpkin Kitty, he'll be back at his own house. If I can ever catch Lady GaGa, she'll be taken to the shelter. And then maybe, just maybe, my own three cats will quit doing stupid things because their line of vision from the windows in the TV room and the kitchen won't include little whiskered faces looking from the outside in.

Cats, books, ducks, dogs.....

There is just one cat in this house tonight..... Mickey Kitty. Both Gatsby and Sweet Pea are outside, along with the stray cat who's been hanging around (Lady Ga-Ga) and JS's cat (Pumpkin Kitty) who left her yard when the workmen came to re-construct her porch. (Poor Pumpkin Kitty doesn't like noise, and he doesn't like strangers.) This is the first time I've let Sweet Pea stay outside at night since we found him two years ago... but he earned it-- by peeing outside the box. (Shades of AngelBoy.)

I think Sweet Pea started doing that because Lady Ga-Ga and Pumpkin Kitty were outside and he was inside. I think he wanted to be part of that outside-cat world, and after cleaning up a few puddles during the past week, I was only too happy to oblige. Not really happy, because I don't like to keep them outside at night with heaven-only-knows what else is out there, but I don't want to keep cleaning up messes outside their litter box that should have been inside the box in the first place. (Didn't I learn that lesson well with AngelBoy?) And Gatsby..... I put him outside just so Sweet Pea will have an ally against the two other cats. Besides that, Gatsby eats less when he's outside.... and that cat is getting as big as a truck these days.

When I opened the back door this morning to let Sweet Pea out, he ran out as if he'd just been released from prison after a stint on Death Row. Off he went to explore.... but before he left the porch, I made sure he knew where the dish of food was out there on the table. Sweet Pea learns quickly, and he spent the day munching on the dry cat food from time to time..... and tonight, there's enough food for Gatsby and Sweet Pea, along with the two "visitors."

I hate, hate, hate that Sweet Pea is outside, but he gave me no choice. I'm not going through the AngelBoy thing again, especially with a cat that's been with us for just two years. Mickey Kitty seems quite content to be the only cat in the house now. He hasn't cried by the door, but he has watched from the window as the 'outside cats' have come and gone on the porch all day long.

The ducks in the pond have come back...... there were half a dozen of them yesterday, and two this morning. Along with the ducks swimming in the pond, two of the neighbor's dogs were swimming and playing like puppies in our pond yesterday. They were having so much fun (and not bothering the ducks) that I stood there with the binoculars and just watched them. I can't be upset with the dogs... they're just being dogs. I wish the neighbor would keep his dogs inside his own property, but that's not going to happen. His goats and cows get out from time to time also, and even his horse has found its way down the hill. There's no reason to have a gate enclosing your livestock if you're not going to keep the gate closed.... but that's been going on with this neighbor for years.

Books....... the workers have started to turn our third floor into a library. They came yesterday morning with a truck filled with wood and sheet-rock, nails and hammers and a radio tuned to a Mexican music station. They're working hard, they're clean and quiet, and the music isn't ear-splitting. Lunch for them is at twelve..... they sit on the floor of our side porch even though I've told them to make themselves at home with the tables and chairs out there. They seem to like the floor.... they take off their shoes, stretch out their legs, eat their lunch, rest up against the side of the house and take a nap. Within the hour, they're back up on the third floor and the hammer and the nails and the music continues until five o'clock.

I'm currently reading "My Reading Life," by Pat Conroy. I found the book in the thrift shop (where I find such wonderful books each week for a dollar or less). I haven't read one of Conroy's books since "The Great Santini" and "The Lords of Discipline." Those two books were page-turners, to say the least..... and I found a copy of "Santini" on Half.com so I can re-read that one. "My Reading Life" also talks about one of his first books, "The Water is Wide," and I also ordered a copy of that. Not until I discovered Conroy's "My Reading Life" did I realize that his books are based on his own life history. Well, shame on me.... I should have known that when I read "Santini" the first time....... most great novels are usually more or less autobiographical.

"Write about what you know and you will always write well." I had an English teacher in high school, Mr. St. Hill, who used to tell us that all the time. When I graduated, Mr. St. Hill wrote in my book....... "To L, the great short story writer."

Do blog entries qualify as short stories?

More wildflowers... more company.

I am all wildflower-ed out. March was a busy month..... Cookie Madness and St. Patty's Day and two weekends of friends coming to see the flower-filled pastures.

V & S were here on Saturday, along with their son and daughter-in-law. We hadn't seen 'the kids' since their wedding last summer, so it was good to see them again. Friends H & K also came for lunch, to visit with V & S..... it's always nice to have a full dining room table, but I always forget how much work goes into planning and preparing. I can't seem to scale down the preparations, either..... there are always handmade place cards and little favors and/or gifts as everyone leaves.

And V brought along her own little favor gifts for the ladies..... embroidered silk travel bags to pack clothing or shoes before they get tucked into a suitcase. It was S's birthday, so V baked a buttermilk pound cake for him and we had that for dessert. And I left all of my cookbooks on the shelf and didn't make another dessert.... V's cake was all we needed and it was delicious. (So I did scale back there, come to think of it.)

And here we are in April already, with Easter less than a week away. Usually by this time, I have place cards and favors ready for Easter Sunday. Not this time. Easter Sunday has come along quicker than ever this year...... between the Cookie Madness we had in late March, then the visits from friends... Easter just stuck its head around the corner the morning after the lunch with V & S.

I had the St. Patty's Day decorations out for the month of March, and didn't put all the shamrocks and leprechauns away till this past Sunday morning. As soon as that decoration box went back into the closet, I took out the Easter boxes..... and out came my Easter Parade. Porcelain bunnies and chicks and ducks. And then the mailman came with a box from my cousin F, who sent us a beautiful Fitz & Floyd Easter basket, filled with hand painted pansies and the most adorable little bunny. That basket has taken pride-of-place in the center of the dining room table. Just beautiful...... the star of this year's Easter Parade.

Easter may just come and go with a whisper this year... and that will be fine with me.

Our mother-hen Scarlett is once again sitting in her nesting box, trying to hatch a fake egg that she's keeping warm and protected underneath her feathers. She's in her 'broody' stage now, and if she does the same thing she did last year, she will stay on that nest for about four weeks. JS was going to get some fertilized eggs for me to put under Scarlett, but she's busy with other things now, so we'll let Scarlett be a surrogate-hen another time. Scarlett has been 'broody' twice a year since we got her, so there will be another chance for egg-hatching.

The barn swallows are taking over our porches..... three pairs of the swallows are in three nests on the back porch, one pair has taken over an old nest on the front porch, and another pair built a new nest on the side porch. When we walk up the porch steps, all the birds start chattering and flying in circles over us.... surely they must recognize us by now. It's like that old Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds."

Spring has definitely sprung here. And on most days, the temperatures have crossed over into Summer. The fields are filling up with yellow Texas stars..... they've grown so high that the bluebonnets are just about able to peek up through the taller yellow flowers. When we look out on our pastures from the upstairs balconies, there is a sea of yellow with touches of red and blue dancing through it.

This is the time of year when we pinch ourselves..... we live here..... we actually live here in the midst of all this beauty.