A Carmen Update
Little Carmen is adjusting well to her new life as an indoor cat. “She loves to play,” Rob says. “She just wants to play and play and play.” It’s so true. The other night, we were playing with Carmen with her wand toys, making a …
Tag: cats
Recent Paintings and Some Old Family Photos
On November 18, I finally found a foster for Famke’s kittens. This was a great blessing for them, I know, but it was hard for me to say goodbye. The yard is so quiet and still now, without them here. Famke’s gone too. My mom, …
Sugar-Free Vegan Baked Oatmeal and More
I’ve been eating a lot of baked oatmeal lately. It’s so satisfying and easy to make that I decided I’d share the recipe with you. Of course, this meant that I needed to get a blog-worthy picture of oatmeal, a tall order.
I did the photo shoot on Saturday morning, heading out early, before it was even quite light, to set up the scene. The air was refreshingly cool at this early hour as I squatted among the oxeye sunflowers by the breezeway, tinkering with china plates and my vintage orange-juice set painted with oranges, trying to get everything just right. Pretty soon, Famke, my little stray-cat friend, joined me. I went inside to get her some Fancy Feast, and in a moment she was nibbling and purring beside me. She’s so cute, probably only about nine months old, dainty, with a tiny pink nose and tiny pink mouth. She’s white with silver tabby splotches. On Monday or maybe in the wee hours of Tuesday, she had kittens. They were hidden somewhere, and I hadn’t seen them yet.
I kept fiddling with my photo props, squatting near the little table I was using and moving a plate or a glass a fraction of an inch. When Famke was done eating, she came and stood very close to me so that her warm side was touching my thigh. She purred and rubbed against me.
Then another friend entered the scene: Shelby, my favorite box turtle! She’s small, very petite, a yellow stripe running down the center of her shell. Her face is sunny yellow and always has a little smile! I rushed inside to get her some organic blueberries. She ate those, even though I was right there, watching. She wasn’t scared of me. But what she was really interested in was Famke’s cat food (Famke hadn’t quite finished it). I went inside to get her some more blueberries, and when I came back out she was stuck in/on Famke’s bowl! She was truly stuck, her head in the bowl and her butt on the edge of the bowl. She was flailing all her limbs, including her adorable little tail. She was flailing them in the air, trying in vain to get out of her predicament.
“Oh, no! Shelby!” I cried. And I rescued her from the bowl. She started eating the new blueberries I’d just fetched.
I made a mental note to serve Famke’s cat food on a plate from now on, just to prevent any more mishaps with turtles, and to try to remove the food as soon as Famke is done eating. Turtles shouldn’t be eating cat food. I’m sure it’s not healthy for them.
Later, I told my sister Bunny about Shelby getting stuck.
“She was flailing her little . . . “
“Oh, her little flippers?” Bunny said.
“Yes!” I said. “It was sad but so cute. She was even moving her little tail! She was trying every tool at her disposal to help get herself out of that pickle.”
“Luckily you were there to save her,” Kris, my other sister, said.
Anyway, after rescuing Shelby, I went back to taking pictures of my baked oatmeal as Shelby ate her blueberries and Famke rubbed against my thigh. Then Famke ran off. I kept taking picture after picture because I wasn’t satisfied with the lighting. I kept hoping a sunbeam would hit the little table and add some razzle dazzle to my shot. (None ever did.) I was snapping away when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was Famke with something in her mouth! A little gray fuzzy ball! It was one of her kittens!
She was coming toward me with a kitten! But as soon as I realized what was going on, she froze, then turned around and started running away! By the time I got to my feet, she was gone and I couldn’t find her.
I think she had wanted to show me her kitten but then got scared and changed her mind. I had to leave (I was going shopping in Monticello with Mom, Kris, and Bun), but I was so excited and happy. As soon as I got home, I’d find her kittens, I thought. I’d spend time with Famke and take care of her and she’d show them to me.
The morning had been so wonderful and so eventful. I love going outside very early, when the air is still cool and fresh. The early morning is a magical time in the yard, and I’d felt marvelously un-lonely hanging out with my little friends Famke and Shelby.
I was terribly excited about Famke’s kittens. All day I was extra giddy, because . . . because I felt I’d been witness to a miracle—a kitten, a brand-new being, a precious thing. I was full of awe at the great mystery of birth. And I felt special because Famke had trusted me and had been about to show her kitten to me until she got scared. I made happy plans to win her full trust.
Anyway, it was the most delightful few hours out in the yard. It set the tone for my whole day. When I got to Mom’s house (where we were all meeting before going to Monticello), I announced, “Oh, my gosh, you will not believe the sh*t I’ve been getting into this morning!”
Oh, well, here’s the recipe for the oatmeal:
Leslie’s Sugar-Free Vegan Baked Oatmeal
Ingredients:
4 very ripe bananas
1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sliced almonds or chopped walnuts
2 cups fresh blueberries
Directions:
Mash the bananas in a large bowl. Then add the almond milk, coconut oil, and vanilla and stir to combine. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients—the oats, flaxseed, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and nuts. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine. Then stir in the blueberries. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan and pour the mixture in. Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.
Slow-Living Sunday
Last Sunday, I had the best day ever, not because anything exciting happened but because of how peaceful I felt in my heart. I played with the cats, polished the furniture, carefully cleaned and rearranged my collection of Fiestaware, and hung a little garland of …
A New Crafting Space and More
For the last six years, I’ve been using the dining room as a makeshift crafting room, sitting at the big table to paint and sew. Well, the other day Rob and I started talking about how I needed better spot to work in, and we …
A Few Little Improvements
I wanted to share a few little improvements I’ve made around the house and yard recently. I’ve lived in my house for 19 years now, but I’ve still got so many dreams for it.
About a month ago I found the neatest little rocking chair at the Planters Exchange in nearby Havana and got it for a song. It’s so cute—petite, with light-blue velvet upholstery, and dainty mahogany arms carved with flowers. The lady I bought it from was really nice. She carried the little chair to my car for me and asked me if I planned to have it reupholstered.
“Oh, no!” I said. “I like it just as it is! I don’t mind a few stains as long as I didn’t cause them. They just add character, in my opinion.”
“That’s what I was hoping you’d say!” she said.
I brought the chair home and set it up in the back bedroom as my cats gathered to watch. So far they’ve been really good and haven’t chosen to condition their claws on the velvet.
Last week I finally hung up some pictures that Rob’s aunt gifted us back in May when she moved from her big house in Tampa to a cabin in the North Carolina mountains. The pictures are really pretty, featuring pink flamingos and other graceful tropical birds, and they’re a perfect fit in our pink sunroom. I had a grand time putting them up. I always feel like a superhero when I successfully complete a task that involves using a level and measuring tape. The cats had fun too. I’d gotten the ladder out, and everybody took a turn climbing to the top.
This summer the meadow garden has amazed me every day with its buzzing, fluttering liveliness. It’s a mecca for pollinators, including butterflies, bees, moths, and hummingbirds. I’ve become such a fan of the meadow that I’ve decided to expand it down around the garage. In March Rob and I removed a Ponkan tangerine tree near the back of the garage (it was damaged in the big freeze we had at Christmas), and for the past couple months I’ve been filling the empty space with Indian pinks, prairie coneflowers, purple coneflowers, and oxeye sunflowers. I also planted a plant that’s new to me—golden zizia, which is in the carrot family, has delicate yellow flowers and dark, fern-like foliage, and is a host plant for the black swallowtail butterfly.
Vegan Strawberry-Almond Smoothie
One of my favorite Saturday activities is whipping up a smoothie for myself in the early morning hours. It’s so fun and easy. I use almond butter, almond milk, ripe bananas, and organic frozen strawberries. In the lamplight before dawn, I like to sit with …
Reorganizing
I spent the last two weeks of February reorganizing the back bedroom. Every night after work I’d hurry home, eager to get started. I’d change into my comfy fleece pajamas and socks and sit on the rug in front of the bed to sort through …
Pink Cyclamen, an Old Clock, and More
I took last Friday off and had another long weekend. Hooray!
“I have so much to do!” I said to Rob on Thursday night.
“Well, you won’t be able to get to it all,” Rob warned kindly.
“But I’m going to try!” I said.
Here are just a few of the things I managed to squeeze in:
Rob and I spent Friday morning in the backyard pulling up our homemade stone paths and stacking the rocks neatly behind the garage. We’re planning to have the narrow, bumpy old paths replaced with wide, smooth, professionally installed brick paths. I don’t know when this will actually happen, but I hope it will be soon!
Pulling up the paths was pretty hard labor because the paths were composed of some very large rocks.
“So,” I said to Rob as we worked, “what’s the worst part of dealing with the rocks? Digging them up, pushing them in the wheelbarrow, or stacking them?”
“Probably stacking them,” Rob said.
“Agreed,” I said. “My favorite part is when I’m done stacking my load and I get to push the empty wheelbarrow back.”
The sun felt so nice and warm on my head as I strolled along with my empty wheelbarrow. Bees buzzed in the camellia blossoms, and I spotted two yellow-rumped warblers flitting about in the satsuma tree by the garage door. The sky was sapphire blue.
That afternoon I finally filled the pots that have been sitting around empty for months on the front porch and picnic table. I bought some pink cyclamen at Lowe’s and planted three in each pot, tucking them in among some fresh, soft Spanish moss that I gathered under our giant pecan tree in the backyard.
Cyclamen are so cute. With their wing-like petals, the flowers look a little like butterflies, I think, and the leaves are extra fancy—heart-shaped and decorated with intricate patterns like silver lace.
On Saturday morning I met Mom and my sister Kris in nearby Havana to do some antiquing. We spent a few hours joking and poking around in the shops and, in the end, Kris and I each went home with a treasure. Kris’s was an adorable Belleek porcelain lamp decorated with shamrocks, and mine was a Seth Thomas mantel clock with lots of gold embellishments and an interesting curly-grained burl wood veneer. I thought the clock would look perfect in the front bedroom next to the foggy, gold-framed mirror I bought recently and hung over Rob’s dresser. The mirror has such wavy, hazy, distorted glass that it seems like a magic mirror, a portal for (friendly) ghosts perhaps.
On Sunday, Rob and I cooked a feast—country-fried seitan steaks, black-eyed peas, mashed potatoes, sautéed kale, and cornbread. At least four cats were in the kitchen the whole time we were cooking. Carl was supervising from a perch on the Hoosier cabinet, and Becky and Tellie were rolling in the warm air that was blowing out of the oven vent as the cornbread baked. Becky was having a grand time but was also getting overstimulated, and pretty soon she wanted to wrestle little Tellie. Meanwhile, Buntin was on the lookout for crumbs and scraps. I had just fed her, but she was acting like a ravenous freak. At one point we caught her licking melted butter off a paper towel I had dropped. Then she ate a black-eyed pea that fell.
“I think maybe she just wants to participate in what we’re doing,” I said to Rob. “I think she’s just trying to take part.”
“That sounds right,” Rob said. He petted dear old Buntin, who turns sixteen this year. “Buntin is a good, good friend.”
