Cats and Flowers

Not cats in the flowers, thank goodness :)

The two orange kitties are Clara & Christina...they're two of the loves of my life :) who came to live with us (along with their two brothers and 1 other sister) from our son's apartment complex...

The conversation started like this:

Son: "Guess what?"

Me: [thinking to self "oh Lord"] "What?"

Son: "Guess who looked out of the bushes outside the apartment door this morning?"

Me: "a squirrel with a bad attitude?" [DS & myself really seem to run into a lot of BA Squirrels]

Son: "No...a little black furry face"

Me: "That's nice, son...it isn't coming here"

Son: "I was just calling to tell you"

Me: "Okay...well, love you, bye"

Son: "Love you, bye"

Over the next couple of days, the Faces Peering From the Bushes increased until there were 5 of them...and then DS tossed his Ace in the Hole onto the table...

Son: "Mom, they're sick"

Me: "Crap"

Bluff called, fold...

anyhoo...3 months of ringworm treatment later [our beloved vet declares she never has had to treat ringworm 3 times] and 3 months of isolation from our cats...ringworm is highly contagious...and 3 months of hand-bathing all 5 and bottle feeding...and, well, I made the call that Mr G knew was coming from the time I opened up that box and saw 5 little pairs of shining (but goopycrusty) eyes staring up at me...

ah well...

on the garden front, Mr G and I have been slogging through the back-breaking stuff that comes in later winter and early spring...

we decided that we'd try and re-do this eyesore that we don't see often but the neighbors get to see every Happy Morning...last year (our first year here), there just wasn't enough time in the cooler weather to get to this...and once Summer comes on, I don't fool around with putting in new beds and trying to establish tons of new plants...well, last year I sorta did go that route, but only because there were so many problems to be addressed here...but not this year...if it ain't done by May, it will wait until late Fall or next Spring...

I need to get that dirt pulled off the brick some time this week...and we're going to aerate the soil (look how compacted & cruddy it is!) and encourage the bits of centipede that are still hangin' about the place to spread...I'm not a big one for massive lawns (I'm a huge Water Miser), but there are places where a bit of sod helps...

and some flowers that are about the place...I took this photo several days ago...now there is even more blooming going on around here...the dogwood is in flower, my first daylily has opened up (so soon!) and the azaleas have ramped up...

and here is the Atlantic Cedar that has since been planted in the backyard...I love this tree! I can't wait to see it in a few years :) ...and that little bushy thing sitting to the left of the cedar is another pomegranate waiting to go in (it is in)...

and here is a little bed I just started on a whim with leftovers from the bigger beds on the other side of the house...

you see white petunias, purple sage, white night-blooming stock and pineapple sage...and that rosemary went in last year....

I'm going through a "white stage"...the azaleas that went into the beds on the other side of the house are white...and I'm continuing them around the front of the house, taking out the pink azalea and the pink-ish crape myrtle...the bed is seriously compacted, unlevel and in dire straits...that's my story and Ima stickin' to it :)

and last, but not least, the little sprig of variegated artemsia that I planted last year has happily spread...so now I'm taking bits out of here to plant in the countless other gaping holes in the garden...

***Footnote: we tried to trap Mama Cat with a humane trap, but were not successful...but there is some hope...one of the local rescue groups has a feral cat program and that apartment complex is on the waiting list for help with their feral cat population...

Please Spay & Neuter Your Pets!