My sweet girl is gone

She died at home in my arms on July 15.


My lap is too too empty, and cold
the soft resting head no longer there to warm it.
No comfort to be found, no furry body to stroke
my quiet companion gone . . . .

My heart is broken, there are no other words
to write it - this empty ache, this space
you filled, loving always, never judging . . .
My friend has left, and my hands, arms, all
helpless to stop it.

Little one, fly free, where the fields are green
and filled with friends gone before. I will
carry you always, your pawprints ever beating,
running joyously to greet me whenever I call
and memory stirs in my heart...

(from http://www.petmemorialjewelry.com/cat-memorial-jewelry.html)

Helpin' da Kittez*

So I've volunteered to work a few hours tomorrow at an antique/collectible sale to benefit the Oklahoma Humane Society--a former work colleague is now employed there, and she has been after me to get involved, so I'm getting involved. Easy enough, right?

Except now I have to explain to Maggie why I won't be home Saturday.

We had a long discussion about this last night:

Me: Maggie, honey, Mommy is going to be gone for a while on Saturday. I'm going to go help the kitties. But I won't be gone long, and we can play when I get home, okay?

Maggie (ears UP): Kitties? Where's the kitties?

Me: No, Spud (it's a nickname--I should explain that later), there aren't any kitties here--well, maybe downstairs, but Mommy's going to help the kitties that don't have a home.

Maggie: We are NOT giving any kitties a home!

Me: No, no, no, I'm going to help raise money so other people can build them a home.

Maggie: NOOOOOO, no monies--I need chewies!

Me: You don't need to worry about chewies, and it won't be my money (hopefully--I get rather weak around antiques).

Maggie (giving me a funny look): I don't know--I don't trust the kitties! They're evil!

Me: MAGGIE!!! (I actually shook my finger at her.) You were homeless once, too, remember? And you love your home, right? Well, don't you think the kitties should have a home of their own, too?

Maggie: NO KITTIES!

At this point, she runs to the window to look for the kitties.

Me: Maggie, I PROMISE you, no kitties here, but we need to help the kitties, okay?

Maggie (resignedly as she looks over her shoulder at me): Okay, but I get more treats for this.

What can I say? I know who's queen of this house--and I think she's channeling Delores.


*Props to I Can Has Cheezburger for the title of this post.

What's that in the sky--COULD IT BE?

Oh, my--it's the SUN!!!


It looks like we are finally done with the continuous rain-at least for a few days. I'm not holding my breath, though--there's still rain in the forecast for next week. Unfortunately, the humidity hasn't gone away, so it's HOT--no more 70s and 80s this weekend, for sure.

Yes, I've been away for a while, and I apologize, but I didn't really think I had anything to say that anyone would want to hear. For those of you who were worried, thank you for your concern, I'm fine, and for those who sent birthday wishes, thank you also. They were very appreciated--I'm just glad it's over.

As for my little "bounce" down the stairs, I actually healed up pretty quickly. My arm didn't take long at all to clear up, although you can still see just a shadow of the bruise, but it's fine. I was quite surprised--I figured it would be around for quite a while.

Honestly, not much has been going on at Casa Katya. We've just been trying to survive a record-breaking siege of rain and cloudy days. We've not had it as bad as some areas, but it has definitely been hard, both on Mother Earth and us folkel-yokels.

My garden is starting to recover, but I've lost all my squash and sunflower plants--there was just not enough sun to counter all the moisture in the air. I need to go out and pull them up, but I'm going to replant--we have a long growing season here and damnit, I will have my plants if it kills me.

I did get a few sunflowers, and my tomatoes are doing pretty well--



Now, if they'd just ripen; hopefully all this sun will kick-start them into gear.

As you can see by my last post, I've joined this year's Tour de Fleece, which starts today. I'm hoping it will push me back into spinning and knitting--I haven't really done anything in months. However, that didn't stop me from ordering some sock yarn yesterday--I blame Stephanie, she's making some socks from some really pretty yarn, and I decided to order some--call it a late birthday present. That's the first fiberly stuff I've bought all year, not counting what I bought at Rendezvous--that doesn't count 'cause it's a once-a-year thing.

Those of you who remember all my ranting and raving about weird crap happening? Add two more--my "new" grocery store is being sold to another chain, and my bank was just bought by a group from Texas. I'm cursed, I tell you, cursed. It's enough to make me want to hide from the insanity (not that there's much that DOESN'T make me want to do that these days).

The saddest thing lately has been that my long-time neighbors downstairs moved out last week--just down the street, but I miss having them around, especially their little girl, she was very sweet. We have a lot of new neighbors lately in the building across the parking lot, and it's put me a bit on edge. Frankly, I'm not quite sure about some of them. When I first moved here three years ago, most of the residents were either retired, singles, or young couples, and most tended to be the kind to stay a while. These days we have lots of turnover, and the new renters are families with children--LOTS of children, in some cases (and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with children, don't even go there). They also tend to be rather--ahem--combative with each other, if you catch my drift. That plus the fact that the management company here has pretty much stopped taking care of the complex, and I'm not sure how much longer I can stay here. Honestly, I'm wondering how long it will be before we starting having major issues--we've had the police here several times in the last month (I'm not sure why, but it's still worrisome). Unfortunately, I don't have a clue where I could go. There's not much out there that looks very appealing right now.

I've been listening to the Live Earth concert this morning. I've been leaning toward the Australian feed, although I did see a replay of the DC concert that featured Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood. I'm waiting for the Crowded House reunion later in Sydney. Usually I'm not much for listening to music these days, but I'm enjoying this. Right now Metallica's on in London, and Spinal Tap is next--can't miss the Tap!

I hope everyone had a good Fourth and that you're having a great summer.

Oh, and Maggie says to tell you she's very glad the sun's back:


She's such a sun dog.

Well, I think Summer is finally here.

Welcome to my new friends at iVillage's Oklahoma Gardening Forum--make yourselves at home!

Hot and humid, that's what we've got lately, with an occasional rain shower thrown in for good measure. We're better off than some parts of the state, though--too much rain is causing all kinds of problems elsewhere.

I'm still recovering from finishing the garden. I also keep telling myself I need to pick up the house, but it's not happened yet. Maybe later . . . .

Look--my first sunflowers!


Aren't they pretty? Something's eating the leaves, though, but after my little run-in with caterpillars eating my tomato plants, I'm happy they've moved on to something else. The sunflowers can spare a few leaves here and there.

My cypress vine is blooming--I think it looks like Christmas:


I've never grown this before, and it's a really vigorous vine. I thought about trying to grow it up a gutter pipe, but I thought that might be a bit much (or maybe not, I still might do it).

My tomato plants are blooming, and my squash is slowly coming along. I have a few blooms on one of the two varieties of eggplant I planted, but the other one is not growing at all. I'm not sure what the problem is.

My poor pansies from the spring are still hanging in there--I keep feeding them and cutting them back:


And lastly, I think this is the first "full frontal" photo of Maggie I've been able to take in the almost six years we've been together (I can't wait to see the hits I get from that terminology). She likes to sit close to the door and supervise my gardening activities--she's a real slavedriver.


Can't you grow some chewbones, pleeeeezzeee???

I swear that this weekend I am going to finish plying the yarn I've had on my wheel for months now, so there'll be some Actual Fiber Content (TM) soon--I promise!

Have a good week!

Welcome to the new Blogger . . .

at least most everything transferred over without any issues. I can see I need to do a little tweaking on the right, but other than that, I'm happy it's done.

This will be brief this morning because I have a bit of a headache, but Sue wanted to see the flowerpots I've been working on, so here they are:



I think they turned out pretty darned cute, if I do say so myself. I have a couple more to do, maybe this afternoon if I get around to it.

If you remember the "big opportunity" that I spoke about earlier--I had to turn it down. I've been bummed ever since. It's depressing knowing that you're making good money and still can't afford the simplest things. Oh, well . . . .

My attention lately has been turned to the influx of gardening catalogs that have been filling up my mailbox. I think this is a good thing, because I have to admit that I'm tired of winter. I've been thinking about what I want in my "garden" this summer, and I've ordered more tomato seeds, some lettuce blends, and some flowers that I want to try. Did you know that there are "dwarf" varieties of sunflowers now? I've ordered a couple of different varieties to try this year. The birds will like that, for sure--they've been gobbling down the birdseed as fast as I can put it out. I do know that if this summer is as hot as it was last year, I won't be doing as much as before. The plants just can't take the heat and the high UV.

However, in my attempt to "save money" (code for "spend a lot to save a little"), I've invested in a small growlight. My friends at work now think I'm growing something other than tomato plants! (Hee!) That was my biggest problem last year--not having enough light close enough to grow strong seedings that weren't spindly. The light I bought is just big enough for one flat of seedings, and I think I'm going to fill it up, and whatever I don't use I can give away to a couple of friends at work who also like to garden. Once the seedlings are done, I hope to use it for my orchids and african violets.

It's rather dark and dreary today, and I'm really happy about that. I've been up long enough to get my laundry done, and as soon as I can get it put away, I'm going to sit down and spin for a while. It's been too long, and I miss it. I just can't seem to get the energy to sit down and do it.

I missed Saturday Sky again yesterday, and I don't have a photo, but I do have this:


Maggie enjoying her "Saturday Sky."