Thankful

I know. I've been gone over a month. My reader has given up on me. Still, I find myself here again. It's mostly the usual excuses (changes, stuff happens)...but also, and this is a big one, my camera is temporarily (I hope!) out of commission. I believe it's just the preview screen and that there's a relatively inexpensive fix for it, but frankly I haven't sat still long enough to research it. Without the excitement of new pictures to post, I tend to slack off on the posting.

Having said that, it is Thanksgiving Eve....I find myself in a contemplative mood. Mostly I just wanted to share with the cosmos that I truly am grateful for all the many blessings in my life. And they are many! Those blessings include wonderful friends and family...both hooman and otherwise...and I share one with you to prove my point (if this doesn't make you smile I don't know what will!):

Xander

a/k/a "the leaner cat." Well, that's just one of his many nicknames. As this post relates to the last one in the category of Sleeping Places & Poses, that's the applicable nickname.

Xander likes to lean against things (i.e. walls, pieces of furniture) and then gradually slide down..that's how these poses came about.

Spike

I know, Polly (sweet greyhound friend)...you want dogs, not kittehs on the blog. But, seriously...how can I resist sharing this:

 Or this. Which isn't the best shot, but is meant to illustrate a point. Spike doesn't have bones in his spine. It must only be cartilage. In this picture he has his front paws pointing to one side and his back feet pointing straight up. Often, though, he rolls farther over so that the back feet are pointing completely the other way! The cuteness is almost unbearable!

Fall-Related

 I thoroughly enjoyed watching the lunar eclipse the other day. Tried to capture a few pix of that beautiful blood moon, but wasn't particularly happy with any of them. This is the best one...and it's admittedly not all that great.

On a different note, here's 'Mo's fall shot:

Handsome boy, eh?

Fall

I love fall. (And, actually spring...and summer...and winter....well, maybe not so much winter. I dislike being really cold and the short days. So, I'm going with no on winter. But I digress.)

 I like fall. I like it when the days are still not terribly short and it's not cold yet, but a tiny bit crisper. And I like the colors of fall.

 We went to Virginia a couple of weeks ago to spend some time with friends. We visited and relaxed; we spent some time just walking around the town. There's a beautiful cemetery that has a lot of civil war-era graves.

Tin roof...rusted! (My nod to the B-52's song...)

Love Beside Me

"If this is love beside me
I’m working on forgiveness
Laying the past down behind me
Letting go the ways that I’ve been hurt
Let the rivers rise and rage
I’ll try to stand with grace
If everything is love"........Sarah McLachlan

Horse Yawn

Today was a good day. It was the first time I've been able to ride in quite some time. Solana was very relaxed. :D

A Dog's Memory...

...and other things I wonder about.

Gwyn's behavior has gradually improved over the past few days and now she seems to be back to her normal self. She's not too fixated on what's going on outside. On our walk Tuesday morning she very much wanted to go off in a different direction--a farther walk than we normally go. She was spending a lot of time looking around. Which made me start wondering about how dogs' memories work.

I've read some (ridiculous) theories that dogs can only retain things for so brief a time that as soon as we leave their sight they've forgotten us. Leading to the equally ridiculous notion that that explains why they're always happy to see us. I don't subscribe to this notion. However, I also recognize that dogs are much better at living in the moment than we are...a feat I strive for so much that I have a bracelet that reminds me to do just that. So, where does that leave us? It leaves me wondering what was going on in Gwyn's brain as she was obsessively looking for the elusive black dog. Feel free to weigh in with theories of your own!

On a different note, we could discuss cats' brains! Note in the above picture that Xander is lying on a string. A boot lace, to be more precise. Those are Xander's current favorite toys. He carries them around the house and will lie on top of one and roll around making sweet little "play with me" noises. :D

Birthday Girl

Guess who's six years old today? That's right. Gwyn. And I elected to use a slightly different perspective than the traditional shot :D Thought maybe I needed to shake things up since I've been suspiciously absent for 2 months! Geez. The quick version is that I've had some health issues that I won't go into here. One aspect has been a lack of energy and a lack of focus...with the result being that I just needed a hiatus from blogging. I'm feeling good again and am hoping to start back posting regularly.

So...back to Gwyn. Hard to believe she's six. She's doing really well....except that I don't think her birthday's turning out the way she would like.

It all started last night. She went out in the back yard for a little while. When she came in she rushed to the front sliding glass door and stared out and whined. It soon became apparent she was in that full-on greyhound fixated-obsessive....thing. You hound people know what I mean, right? She paced. She whined. She went out. She came back in. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. This morning it started up again and I think I figured it out. When I went to take her for her walk there was a timid black dog running loose. He (or she) appeared very interested in us but wouldn't let us get too close. I think this dog had been running around and gotten Gwyn all excited. I think that's what she wants for her birthday! I've tried explaining that it's just not gonna' happen....she's starting to believe me...begrudgingly.

Clearly we set the bar too high last year...after all, this is what we got her last year:

Because she's the

From now on it's stuffed animals and extra treats for birthdays!

Working with Boys

It can be difficult to do some work at home with the boys around.

They have a lot to supervise.

Throw a box into the picture and things get more exciting.

Spike is licking Xander's ear.

Eventually Xander moved on for a bit and Spike came over to check on me:

Random Musings

Well, lately it's been hectic working on computer updates and other assorted, random life events. So here's a hodgepodge of stuff to show you what's going on.

Xander gets comfy supervising the hook-up of the newly refurbished audio-video receiver (he's a very good supervisor!):

 We recently ordered personalized memorial stones to place at the graves of our dearly departed pets...they're actually made out of resin. We were very pleased with the company's service. Here are my two boys in the back yard. The lighting was off but I'll show you pix from the front memorial garden soon. My sweet BIL & SIL found the hound glass stone...

 Our new welcome mat:

 Our new bench:

 Gwyn. Baking her brains out in the hot sand...she loves it!

What the Cats are Up to

Sorry dogs. It's time to peek in at a typical day for the cats.

 It's a rough life...

Flowers Before the Storm

Well we've already gotten one hurricane under our belts for the season. Hopefully it'll be the *only* one we have right here this year! Arthur came ashore as a Category 2 pretty much right on top of us. We were very fortunate to not have any structural damage...just a lot of yard clean-up and power out. Our power's back on...my parents' is not yet as they're at the end of the line! Hopefully by this evening it will be on. Still, all in all, we're quite blessed.

The horses fared just fine. They had two trees come down in the back pasture, but no injuries.

Here are some of my sweet yellow flowers taken pre-Arthur:

Soar

Truth is rarely writ in ink; it lives in nature. ~Martin H. Fischer

Love of My Life

For those who don't know, when I first started this blog I started using the acronym "LoML" to refer to my dear, sweet husband....it's short for "love of my life." And he is. We recently celebrated our 19th anniversary.

He went to my favorite local gift shop and got me these lovely garden stakes...special-ordering the greyhound :D

Made in USA. Nice.

I'm so grateful to have been blessed to find and marry my best friend. Love you LoML!

Cape Shots

A few shots from a recent trip to one of my happy places:

Baby Canadian Geese

Misc. Critter Shots

I've been neglecting you, I know...what can I say? It's been crazy-busy around here as per usual. So, no defense...but I have a few new shots to share with you today:

Once again, *this* is why it's so hard to leave my house...and yet this is actually the sweet shot of how I'm greeted when I first pull in the drive in the evening...this scene doesn't last long after I pull in. As soon as I head up the walkway she comes to life and bounces to greet me at the door.

While not a critter shot, here's a look at a surprise present a coworker brought me:

And then there's this:

I don't think there's anything else I can say about that.

What are They Up to?

Spike has a new (temporary--hopefully!) nickname: grease monkey.

All the kittehs got their monthly flea treatment Sunday night. When I woke up yesterday there was nothing unusual about Willow or Xander....a bit of residual product between their shoulder blades. Spike? He looked like the picture above--a great big black spot where his product had been. How does he do it?! Best we can figure is that he managed to find some grease under some of the exercise equipment.
This morning there were two on duty for homeland security:

Good to know the perimeter is secure!

Happy Birthday, Princess!

Hard to believe that Mom's "little one" is three!

 These were taken when she first came home....busy exploring...

 Trouble wasn't so sure he wanted a kitten..

 But eventually he warmed up to the idea...

Another refugee from the Osterberg-Romano Home for Little Wanderers that's found a happy spot in her furever home :D