Dusty

Meet my new ragdoll cat (above).  My very, very beloved favorite cat, Carly, died on February 24th.  Her dementia was worsening.  She was 16 years, 10 months and 5 days old, my favorite cat of all time.  I cried like an hysterical nut when she died.

Lovely, sweet Carly.

She had become a constant source of worry for me.  So, I went from three to no cats.  The house was unbearably lonely.  I had decided to get a dog in a few years when I retired.  But one day my sister-in-law texted me a picture of an eight-year-old cat she saw at Pet Smart.  She suggested I adopt an older cat who had fewer years left and could be with me until I retired.  So I started looking.

I found this beautiful boy at a no-kill shelter in the town where I work.  He was raised with another boy the same age.  The story goes that an elderly couple had to be cared for by their family, who was allergic.  They'd been in the shelter two months.

He's very low energy.  I may rename him Jeb Bush.

He's a seal point ragdoll.

What are you looking at?

He's ginormous.

So cute!

Look at the size of those paws.

I'd show you his brother, Dickens, but he's still in hiding . . . after almost three months.  Any suggestions?  They're living in the basement.  They prowl around at night.

Dusty doesn't like to come upstairs.  He is the biggest scaredy cat I've ever seen.  My friend says he just doesn't want to abandon his brother in hiding.  What do you think?  Any cat behaviorists out there?  I need help!

Summer

Wow, what a great summer this has been.  Not blistering hot like last year, nor lacking rain.  The gardens were beautiful.  I had given up on my roses out back, but they've come around.

I attended a garden lecture and the speaker said that we are experiencing different seasons of late - winter is late coming (December) and late to leave (it doesn't warm up till late May, if then).  Unfortunately that doesn't bode well for spring blooming shrubs, like hydrangeas.  So my macrophyllas were very disappointing again.

All my transplants (80?) made it except some phlox out back, a mock orange and part of a dwarf blue spruce.  My new plants came back, except one veronica and a clematis which started growing then died.

I was determined to make my gardens look perfect this year, and nearly accomplished this.  I ran out of time but had a couple of garden parties anyway.

I was surprised that these iris bloomed because I had divided almost all mine last summer.

These didn't really bloom well last year, a victim of the porch rebuild.

This picture doesn't show the beautiful, intense blue color of this Blue Willow hydrangea.

Just ignore that garbage bag full of leaves.  Focus on the new gazing ball!