Monday Mews

On certain Mondays, I have featured a post called Monday Muse. It's obvious that today's title is a play on words, once you see this very cute photo!

My cat, Lola, had kittens on May 12th. I knew she had at least three, but she promptly removed them from the birthing chamber (aka "cat house") to a safer spot, as cats are known to do. I left for vacation two days later, and when I came home, the kittens were still nowhere to be found. It seemed as though she was regularly producing milk and that something was nursing. However, try as I might to find the kittens, I couldn't seem to locate them...

Just as I had given up hope and thought the kittens were probably dead, Lola emerged with her brood. That was three weeks ago, and the kittens are just beautiful, friendly little bundles of fur!

Since Monday Muse always has a poem accompanying it, here is my little verse I sang to the kittens:

"Pretty little kittens, playing with each other...Which is a sister and which is a brother?"

From the top of the picture, counter-clockwise, we have Silver, Micah, Willow, and Rosie.

Silver is the boy and the others are girls.

I thought I had homes for two today (Silver and Micah), but they backed out at the last minute. They are missing out on two very sweet kitties. I will keep trying, although I am keeping Willow. She is too special to part with!

And, Lola will be spayed shortly (in case you were wondering)...

Monday Muse - (Five)

Beyond the Garden Gate (first verse only)

Step into my garden
Step in and you'll see


A measure of peace
And tranquility...
(Anonymous)

Are you kidding me!!!!!

Yes, Sydney and Phoenix looked really calm and composed in this still frame. However, they are anything BUT when it comes to the garden! They couldn't wait to sink their serrated little bills into this romaine that I was tempting them with to get this shot.

In actuality, Phoenix (on the right) has never ventured past the gate into the garden or out of the yard. In fact, she has never even been out of the yard since she came here as a baby last year. She is in some ways the more timid of the two -- although she is the one who will go after someone she doesn't know or doesn't like (she will bite -- not me, of course).

Syd, on the other hand, sees the prize (aka, lettuce) and she will charge her way through the open gate! Before I can grab her (carefully, to avoid those sharp claws of hers that have scratched me to the point where it looks as if I have attempted to slit my wrists!!), she will make mincemeat out of anything green and frilly she can latch her bill onto.

When she was hospitalized last year after swallowing the nail, she learned that her greens were kept in the small refrigerator in the surgery room. I have been told numerous stories of her hanging out (they would let her out to walk around) by it, just so she could make a beeline for those tasty morsels when some unsuspecting vet tech would open it to retrieve their lunch. She had the moves of a pirhanna attacking its prey -- a real feeding frenzy!

It's not that Phoe doesn't enjoy the greens, too...she is just a bit more mannerly!

Monday Muse

I wasn't gone from blogging -- just gone on vacation! Now, I feel that I need a vacation from the vacation! I left on May 14th, traveling with my friend Sue -- and three dogs between us! We drove from Virginia to Mystic, Connecticut, which is about an 8 hour trip. Two nights there, then a relatively short drive (about 2 hours) to Cape Cod. We rented a very cute house in Dennis, close to Route 6A, for those who are familiar with that area. After a week on the Cape, we drove back to Mystic overnight, then home on Sunday the 24th. It was a good decision to wait a day and travel when traffic was a bit lighter on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend.

I envisioned doing some posts during the trip, but it turned out the internet was down at the house we rented, so that thought went out the window! Last week, try as I might, I couldn't seem to get the time to post. I suppose I should back up and say that the trip almost didn't happen. In the picture is my sweet boy, Dallas! We have been a pair for twelve years, having adopted him after my yellow Lab, Muldoone, passed away. About 3 or 4 when I adopted him, he had been at a no-kill shelter for nearly a year and a half! Now, nearly 16, he has become very arthritic. So, I put him on some medication (Metacam) and it helped for a bit. I needed to add a pain pill, and then right before vacation, I added an injectable medication I was taught to administer called Adequan. I was not certain I would be able to take the trip, but because he responded so well to the medication, I decided we could after all. However, I will admit that the long car rides have set Dallas back a bit and he is recuperating. But, his spirits are excellent and he is now allowing me to help him get up and move about -- something he wouldn't do before. I also have arthritis (rheumatoid) and he is a big dog, so by the end of the day, I am worn out from helping him and everything else I do throughout the course of the day. Much of last week was spent just getting him into a comfortable routine, then crashing -- hence, no blogging.

So, to make a long story short, Dallas serves as the inspiration for today's Monday Muse --

I Think I Know No Finer Things Than Dogs

Though prejudice perhaps my mind befogs,
I think I know no finer thing than dogs;
The young ones, they of gay and bounding heart,
Who lure us in their games to take a part,
Who with mock tragedy their antics cloak,
And, from their wild eyes' tail, admit the joke;
The old ones, with their wistful, fading eyes,
They desire no further paradise
Than the warm comfort of our smile and hand,
Who tune their moods to ours and understand
Each word and gesture, they who lie and wait
to welcome us -- with no rebuke, if late.
Sublime the love they bear; but ask to live
Close to our feet, unrecompensed to give;
Beside which many men seem very logs --
I think I know no finer things than dogs.

--Hally Carrington Brent

Da

Monday Muse

I am slowly reading my way through the vintage gardening book, Gardening on Nothing A Year, by Mary S. Griffith. Each chapter begins with a poem and peppered throughout the book are these very sweet little sketches.

The poem that precedes Chapter IX is today's Monday Muse...

A Perfect Lady

I knew a girl who was so pure
She couldn't say the word Manure.
Indeed her modesty was such
She wouldn't pass a rabbit hutch;
And butterflies upon the wing
Would make her blush like anything.

The lady is a gardener now,
And all her views have changed somehow;
She squashes greenfly with her thumb,
And knows how little snowdrops come;
In fact the garden she has got,
Has broadened out her mind a lot.
--Reginald Arkell

Of course, this is not a practical look for any gardener, but I think it makes a cute accompanyment for the poem! Oh, to be sooo stylish in the garden -- though the heels would surely be hazardous!

In reality, I wake up very chipper, which is fortunate because I hit the ground running...let the dogs out, make the coffee, run outside to let the geese out before they wake the neighborhood, come back inside, feed the dogs, feed the cats, THEN I get to pour a cup and perhaps drink it before it gets cold -- sigh! THEN, it's out to the garden to give it a morning drink...dressed in whatever happened to be handy enough to throw on!

Monday Muse -- Thanks to Esther!

It's amazing how some things just fall into place when you are looking for inspiration -- like finding my little frog yesterday.

Recently, I began reading a blog I found on Blotanical called Esther's Boring Garden Blog, written by Esther Montgomery in the UK (It's anything BUT boring, by the way). Today, she mentioned that many garden bloggers apparently follow a tradition called Monday Muse, whereby they post a poem on that day.

It just so happens that I am reading a vintage gardening book called "Gardening on Nothing a Year" written by Mary S. Griffith and published back in 1937. There, when I turned the page to Chapter IV, I found my inspiration! It begins with this poem, written by Christopher Morley:


My Favorite Flowers

The yellow orchid why discuss,
When you can eat asparagus!
What stained-glass window could repeat
The red-veined leafage of the beet?

What delicately mottled green
Is in the humble, honest bean,
And what a balm for sin and grief
The crisp and curly lettuce leaf!

The corn, in green, translucent files,
Shimmers like cathedral aisles,
The cabbage that the frost has touched
Is like a pigeon's throat unsmutched.

An onion, if you hold your nose,
Is marvelous as any rose!

What a wonderful little poem! Vegetables ARE my favorite flowers at this point in my gardening life! And this is my Monday Muse! Thanks Esther!