THE HOLIDAYS ARE ALMOST HERE!

The holidays are fast approaching with Thanksgiving just around the corner. We will be visiting our cousins in New Jersey this year. Of course, we are looking forward to our visit as we always do.

No driving for us, we checked the train schedules in preparation for our trip. Next, I have to shop for chocolates to bring for the dessert portion of our meal. We also bring a bouquet of flowers for our cousins to add to the holiday table as well as a few "thanks for inviting us" gifts.

Seeing our three feline cousins is a treat we always anticipate. You never know what they will do - for the most part anyway.  Athena is predictable as she is aloof and most likely will spend her time lounging on the bed in the master bedroom. Lucky, on the other hand, will come to sit between us on the living room couch as we have cider and appetizers before dinner. One will never know what Midnight will do from year to year. 

Midnight was a feral our cousins took in after my cousin-through-marriage Mom moved out of state. The first Thanksgiving she hid in the basement. I managed to catch a glimpse of her by remaining quiet until she came out thinking everyone retreated above stairs. Each year midnight takes a new step towards integrating herself with the family. She has progressed to coming upstairs when the house is quiet, then coming up when the humans are about, to trying to make friends with the other cats who ignored her. The last we heard, Lucky and Midnight are pals which is great. They spend time together.

So this year I'm hoping Midnight will decide to visit us instead of retreating to the basement as she's done in years past. I guess we'll find out a week from tomorrow whether or not this little black cat will accept us as part of her family and join us during the festivities.

courtesy Webweaver

THIS IS HALLOWEEN!

The Danny Elfman song from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas has been stuck in my head all day long, playing over and over reminding me tomorrow is Halloween.  My day has been a busy one since I finished Annie's meals and need to cook more for her.  It's a lengthy process of boiling a whole large-size chicken, cooling and de-boning it, shredding the meat, preparing the vegetables before finishing off by mixing everything together.  Then I refrigerate the stock so I can skim off the fat, strain the liquid to freeze it for soup.

While getting ready to do this I realized how frightfully out of time I am and that I don't have any candy in or anything special for a Halloween meal for the humans in this household. All of this means I'll be busy for the rest of today and more than likely a good part of tomorrow but I'm not complaining since Halloween is my all-time favorite holiday, followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Whatever you're doing I hope you have a very Happy Halloween and remember to keep your furry family members safe. Reading my previous' years posts will help you do just that:

http://8pawsand2tails.blogspot.com/2012/10/happy-halloween.html

http://8pawsand2tails.blogspot.com/2013/10/chipped-and-tagged-for-halloween.html

                                                              courtesy of Webweaver

THE END OF SUMMER

We are heavily into fall 2015 and with Halloween fast approaching, winter and the holiday season aren't very far behind.

The other day I decided to survey the back yard; we started preparing for winter but by no means have we finished and as I continued my visual assessment, my gaze fell upon a wild Rose of Sharon bush that sprang up on its own a few years ago.

The 'bush' is now 7 or 8 feet high, done flowering for this year as I suspect the weather has turned too cool signalling the start of the dormant period. It brought a smile to my face to recall the beautiful white, pink and mauve flowers of summer and the bees busily gathering pollen from them.

Bees are precious commodities. We need to do whatever we can to help them thrive so remember them over the winter especially when you start to plan for your outdoor gardens. Don't use pesticide, don't intentionally kill any bees and make room in your gardens for flowers that attract bees.

I have to trim back our Rose of Sharon to prevent it from growing out of control but I will make sure there will be plenty of branches left to bud beautiful flowers for the bees come summer. YouTube has some great videos on pruning I found particularly helpful.

Maybe I'll plant a few sunflowers next spring for the bees to enjoy...

WHAT'S GOING ON

2015 has been an impossible year. Annie's surgery and subsequent illness took up the better part of ten months. She is completely healed and we are ready to close the chapter on this terrible experience as soon as we have the results from one final urine analysis which will tell us if she is totally fine.

It was hard not to write about this medical crisis but at the same time it was a relief not to post. That might sound strange because the desire to share was there but the hours in the day weren't. Annie needed constant care. So much in fact I was barely able to do the minimum work needed to prepare meals and keep the house running smoothly for the rest of us.

I hope to get back on track with my blog as our life returns to normal (whatever that is) and I will begin to post about the ordeal my sweet little girl had to endure.

For now, here is a recent picture of my very special patient.

My Mom & Dad are the best!  Excuse me it's time for my beauty sleep.