More fall color for you, courtesy of our trees:
The silver maple.
It’s raining today, so a lot of these leaves will be on the ground by the end of the day.
I’ll miss them.
• Do you remember our honeybees?
They lived in our catalpa tree and we co-existed peacefully for years until a couple of years ago, when some aggressive bees infiltrated the community. It became impossible to get within twenty feet or so of the tree without a bee dive-bombing us or the dogs. We sought the help of a beekeeper, but we ended up leaving them alone as it was late fall at the time. It ended up resolving itself as the colony died out during the winter, so we covered all the access holes with screening material.
This year, they reappeared again toward the end of the summer, squeezing in through an opening at the top of the screen. They weren’t aggressive, so we were thrilled they were back. A good sign. But since the first hard freeze, I haven’t seen them. I have to research it, but something tells me that might be normal.
• Once again, I’ve been waylaid on my way to reading All The Light We Cannot See by the arrival at my local library of a book I’ve long been waiting for. I’ve been on the waiting list for this for a few months – long before it was officially released on October 20th. In fact, this is the book I saw in Barnes & Noble when I was in Manhattan on Tuesday. I held off buying it because I knew I was in the queue and thought, given the number of copies of the book in our Inter-library loan system and the number of holds, that I just might get it by the end of the week.
Sure enough, I got an email yesterday and practically flew over to the library to pick it up. I’m happily ensconced in the world of Cormoran Strike as written by Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling).
• I have a link you might be interested in. The New York Times had a great interview with Terry Gross, longtime host of Fresh Air on NPR. I think she’s the finest interviewer out there. I started listening to her when I was in grad school in Philadelphia in the early eighties and she was still local. She didn’t go national until a few years later.
I’ve always felt like I was in the secret, you know? Even then, I was gobsmacked by her interviewing skills. Here’s the link.
• One more link for you today and that’s to an Instagram account. Reader Margaret tipped me off about this one, Megillicutti. Melissa has the most incredible collection of McCoy Pottery – easily 3 times the size of mine and I’m in love with all of it, as well as her decorating style, which is right up my alley. She loves vintage, so much so that she sells at flea markets. She has a great sense of what to buy. She lives in the Chicago area.
I spent part of the afternoon yesterday going back through a lot of her posts. They are eye candy of the best kind; real, lived-in, not trendy (thank god) and beautiful. She’s got a lot of followers and it’s easy to understand why.
Happy Sunday.
Hi Claudia ~ it’s raining and cold here and the three of us are cozily happy in our warm house. Bentley is on the mend and that’s all that matters to us. Love the pics of your beautiful trees against those clear blue skies. Thank you for the links. If you like them then I am sure to like them as well. Enjoy this Sunday with your little family. We are so blessed don’t you think?
Big Texas Hugs,
Susan and Bentley
We are, indeed, Susan. So happy that Bentley is healing! Give him a kiss from me.
Claudia, It is pretty there. Those skies and leaves are awesome. I can see the leaves are falling quickly, so are the pretty ones in the woods. Our back yard is a leaf carpet. Hopefully we get those cleaned up this week. Glad you have some nice bees again. Blessings for a great Sunday , xoxo,Susie
Have a wonderful Sunday, Susie.
Raining and warm here, although the AC is off for a happy change.
I knew you and Megillicutti were a match made in heaven!
Thanks so much for letting me know about her, Margaret!
Checking out the links esp Megillicutti! Lazy morning but heading out soon to take Mom to the store and spend some time visiting with her. Guess what came in the mail yesterday?? Yes Don’s CD! Love it!!
hugs to all
Linda
Yay! Enjoy it, Linda, and have a wonderful day!
Your silver maple is lovely! Ours is quite a bit smaller, but it’ll catch up in a few years. And ours is quite yellow compared to yours…wonder if the coloring changes with the age of the tree? I checked out Megillicutti…oh my…wonderful! What a home….and her collections! I can see spending many hours just looking at everything! Enjoy your Sunday! ;)
I love her home, Donnamae! A wee bit envious of her style and sense of color.
Best of luck with the bees! Hope they’re back for good and able to nestle in & hibernate or whatever bees do during the Winter. Bumblebees have been kind of a “motif” of mine since high school, when I discovered them on the bottoms of my mother’s Hummel figurines. I like how the company that makes the figurines uses the bee as a marking. Mom’s collection was divided between we six “kids” when she died, and I’ve been reading about them on and off for years. Of course the Internet has been a goldmine of information and images. Wish Mom could have taken advantage of it. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday… ?
I hope they come back next spring – we’ll have to wait and see. My grandmother had some Hummel figurines, in fact, I think I gave her one. But I don’t know who has them now…hmmm.
Love that Megillicutti link! But you’re still my fav!
Aw, thanks, Deb!
Hi, Claudia; hope you’ve had a nice day today, despite the rain.
We haven’t broken 90 here yet because we are incredibly humid, mostly with cloud cover. For me, high 80s with high humidity is NOT comfortable. Our SoCalif coast is swathed in white cotton candy haze.
Your trees are absolutely stunning. Oh, all that lovely color of true autumn!
I’m exhausted.
We cleaned out the garage for 6 hrs in this hot mucky air. It had to be done because, Claudia, my elderly cat’s been living in there for two years and, yes, I had to finally have him humanely euthanized yesterday and I’ve been an absolute basket case. I stayed with him for three hours at the vet; I couldn’t leave, and he had sedation before we administered the last injection, so it was very calm and they had an empty room so the vet, bless him, just let me be for the time I needed. My husband couldn’t take it and had to leave, which I understood.
I had to plan ‘the end,’ for a few days, in order to have my husband home from work to help me through it all; I actually have trouble carrying the carrier as I have a weak hand. Anyway, over the past couple of days, I carried Kitty out to the one patch of lawn we keep green and watered in this awful California drought; I let him sink into grass and remember what it is to prowl and be a Big Jungle Cat in the great outdoors; he came into the house for special treats; we had a few good talks, the two of us…and I spoke to him gently in his ear, stroking the favorite place on his neck, til he breathed his last breath.
The dear old-man cat, my buddy…he did make it to age 19 but the last months have not been good for him and this week was the telling tale, when nothing medically could be done for him any longer and his back legs/hips kept giving out on him. He was just so, so old; very fragile and wobbly when upright, and having disastrous bathroom accidents, one of which I witnessed, and my heart wept for him, this once noble, tough-guy kitty who first came into my life when I could hold him in one hand. He’d had a terrible beginning, with an initial abusive owner, and then a second owner who begged me to take him because her husband was not cat-friendly (and making threats to dump him in the desert).
I don’t think my cat had a great last few years in the absence of kitty companions…I don’t subscribe to the fact that cats are loners; I think, my opinion, after having a lot of cats is that, much like dogs, one is a lonely number; cats need their feline companions and dogs do better with canine companions; I feel they keep each other ‘young.’ When I lost my big Maine Coon cat to natural death 8 years ago, that’s when I noticed my current guy getting quieter and less active although, of course, he-himself was also getting older, too.
However, human life has to sometimes prevail and we’d made the decision not to take on any more domestic pets after this bunch is gone. (I have one dog [inside] and two feral/wild cats [outside] I feed; those now are our reduced numbers.) We may change our minds but we also feel we need a little break from pet care after decades of nonstop pet adoption, in multiples. (Sometimes, you reach a certain age and it’s all you can do to take care of yourself, much less adding pets to the mix. In the senior years, there’s also the cost of pet care to be considered, once on a reduced income. Obviously, it’s also confining if you don’t have a good pet sitter and want to do a little traveling in retirement. Or if you don’t know yet where you’ll be living as a senior…and can that place accept pets? I was staggered by the vet assistant telling me how high her rent is, having to pay $500 per pet for security deposit besides the overall deposit; so unfair. {And that’s after finally even finding a landlord that would even consider pets in the first place.} But there’s also the argument that a pet is wonderfully therapeutic and neither my husband or myself has been petless since we were single and before we were married to each other, so we don’t really know what it’ll be like; my husband still feels he cannot live without a dog, ever.)
Anyway, I tried to make my cat’s life as good as I could…he preferred to live in the garage, so I made it like a house…but you can imagine that we had a lot to clean up in the garage today although I’m not trying to erase his life too fast. I had a lot of guidance from the vet and we all agreed after careful consideration that the cat’s quality of life had deteriorated to the point of no return. But, I’m devastated. Just mentally and now physically spent today, but I’m sure Monday, tomorrow, will be ‘new starts’ because it has to be…and I’m sorry to be cry’in the blues here but, Claudia, I know you know, as a fellow pet lover, what this IS to lose a longtime animal companion. Thanks for letting me spill.
I think to myself what has gone down in the 19 years that I’ve had this cat and, for me, it’s been ‘lifetimes’ of change in my human life, with relocations, catastrophic illness, three different houses, family caregiving and death, job changes and a lot of other stuff not to mention here…but mega personal stuff, and I always had my kitty to distract me and give me a laugh when I didn’t think I could laugh again. Good things, of course, happened in 19 years as well; don’t mean to sound like a complete sad sack here!
But, a rough Sunday; the day after…
Ah, Vicki. I am so sorry. Words always seem inadequate when we have to make that decision. Since Scout has many of the same problems, we struggle over ‘when.’ In her case, it’s not time yet, but you knew when it was time and you compassionately made the most loving decision. It doesn’t ease the pain, of course, and a part of you will never be healed, but you loved your cat and did the brave thing. You were with him and held him as he left this plane of existence and moved on. I wish I could give you a hug, my friend, but I can’t, except a virtual one. We’ve been through it and it never, never is without the most incredible heartsick pain. But we love our animals so much and need to return their unselfish devotion in their time of need. You did that. Take care. Bless you. xoxoxo
Your words mean so much to me. Thank you. I will be there for you when Scout’s time comes. xoxo back atcha
Claudia,
I swear I just saw your husband playing a lawyer
on The Good Wife or his double .
Margaret
And you were right. It was him, Margaret! I did a last minute alert in Instagram because we didn’t know it was his episode until around 7 pm that night.
The minute I read about this on Monday’s post, I finished my comment/reply and ran to the TV. WOWEE, how about that! Don as a speaking person, in the flesh and looking ever-so-handsome in a very nice suit! I am ‘WAY impressed! The Good Wife is one of the hottest shows on network TV. Saw ‘Don Sparks’ in the opening credits, too. GREAT JOB, DON!!!
Very nice suit, I thought! Too bad they don’t let him keep his wardrobe!
Claudia, did I just see Don on the Good Wife? Sure looked like him. I had to rewind to make sure, but I could swear it was him! Exciting!
Michle
Yes, it was him, Michle. I’m glad you caught the episode!
Just watched Mr. Don Sparks, a very believeable lawyer with compassion on “The Good Wife”. enjoyed the moment of recognition & the credits at the end……..ahh, he of course was the best!
Thank you, Marcy Ray! I would have alerted everyone earlier but we didn’t know it was his episode until the last minute.