25 July 2008

Vinny, our current “top cat”, loves to take mid-morning naps curled around a small tree trunk.

Sometimes, he turns over and “curls” the other way.

We have had as many as seven cats at the same time.

Now, we are down to three: Vinny; his sister, Vicky; and Bill, our oldest. Bill is a retired top cat, and he sleeps a lot. Vinny and Vickie came to us as tiny kittens a few years ago – we found them under a tomato plant in the garden.

We have learned that cats have varied, distinctive, and interesting personalities.

All tolled, we have shared our home with more than a dozen cats over the past twenty years, or so. All of our cats have been “strays”. They come, and they go. We found homes for some of them, some died from “natural” causes, one died during surgery, two were killed in the street by automobiles, a couple simply disappeared and we don’t know what happened to them.

24 July 2008























These peaches are ripening on a tree that sprouted at the edge of the compost pile about six years ago, and there it remains. I never got around to transplanting the tree. This little peach tree has been blossoming each spring for the past couple of years, and this year it finally set a few peaches.

The tree seems to be perfectly happy right where it is even though it gets little direct sunshine, so maybe I will simply leave it where it sits. With an occasional pruning, and a bit of water now and then, it seems to be doing just fine, thank you.

17 July 2008

Summertime distractions have kept me from updating this blog for the past few weeks. Here is an entry to get things rolling again.

Dixie and Louis, our pair of Cayuga ducks, are now (almost) fully grown. I have found photographing black ducks to be a bit of a challenge. The background must be carefully chosen, else they seem to appear as little more than dark blobs in the photo.

Here is a photo of Dixie flapping her wings.

Dixie has never really taken flight, but she loves to stand on tip-toes, furiously flapping her wings. She bounces up and down as if on a pogo stick. Louis, on the other hand, has actually flown short distances. Louis is larger than Dixie, and his wings are more fully developed, but I have yet to catch him in full flight with the camera.

Here is Louis, waddling about near one of their watering dishes.

Some of the green iridescence is clearly visible on Louis' head.

In addition to their watering dishes, the ducks have a wading pool in which they can splash about and go for short swims.

Here is a photo of them in a couple of their watering dishes.

Louis, in the blue dish, is “helping” Dixie wash a munchie of some kind. Yes, they spend quite a bit of time in their watering dishes (which are plastic dishpans). The ducks seem to prefer their drinking water to be “seasoned” a bit before drinking it.

Their duck house, duck pen, and water facilities are works in progress; they enjoy full access to the garden in rear of the house until such time as I have finished fencing “their” territory. We were concerned that the ducks might destroy the plants in the garden, but they seem to be mostly carnivores, and do virtually no damage to the plants while searching for munchies hidden by the foliage. Snails, slugs, and earthworms are their favorite food. They will eat store-bought food that is formulated especially for ducks, but only as a last resort when they can’t find enough “real” food to satisfy their appetite.

These guys are excellent foragers!