A Short Trip to London

When all else fails, go to London even if it is only for artistic inspiration. Covent Gardens is one of my favorite places to visit. If you are looking for something in particular to purchase, chances are you will find it here among the many dozens of shops and merchandisers. Plus, there are many other sites to see here such as jugglers, unicyclists and flame swallowers. Stop by at night to see an opera or a play. All in all, it is a very lovely place even if humanity abounds in a concentrated area.

The Royal Exchange is another fascinating area to visit comparable to the American Wall Street. They say the area of the Royal Exchange is the most highly monitored area in the world. Supposedly there is no place you can go in this area of London that escapes a camera monitor's view. Pretty high tech stuff but the paradox is that it still completely fits Dickins' description of it in "A Christmas Carol". That is the beauty of London. Modernism among antiquity. My anglo roots are showing, aren't they?

Bella, the Troublemaker

This is Bella, the troublemaker. She does not look like a troublemaker, does she? She looks beautiful. She has had so many children that I have lost count of them all. Standing next to her is Patch Adams her son. She has another son, Puff Daddy who is not in any of these pictures. He is beautiful. The red guy is my guy, Sugar Plum. He likes to bring his friends down for dinner. All of these cats are neutered/spayed except for Ms. Bella. Of course, she always manages to contact some guys that we do not know and that is where the trouble begins. You would think that if I could get this close to take her picture that I could catch her, right? Wrong!

Speaking of trouble, we had nothing but trouble all night long. Apparently, a gecko made its way inside yesterday. At one point around 4 am, I woke up with a start. It sounded as if the house had fallen in. I got up to assess the damage. The kittens had knocked over some wooden tables which had fallen into some doors crashing into another table causing a case of dvds to fall. It was sort of a domino effect.

Behind a Multi Colored Veil

I really do not have much to blog about today. Maybe I am all blogged out. Maybe I am just tired. I love this wild cat I made. She is pretty. I call her a she because 'she' is pretty. I used to have a 'he' that was so pretty that everyone refered to him as 'she'. His name was Blaine. I loved my Blaine. I still love him. I still miss him. I miss my Maxie. I miss my Russell. I miss so many. Maybe that is what I am...not tired at all...just feeling absences. However, I know that they are only behind a veil that I cannot see through. They can see through it but I cannot. And on that note, I think I will go see Sugar Plum.

Skanky possums

Have you ever seen that commercial on tv of a woman who is not wearing her glasses and lets a raccoon into the house rather than her cat? Well, tonight I was out with Sugar Plum and I saw some cat come lumbering up and thought to myself "Great day! Here comes some other cat I do not recognize." Plus, I noticed he was slow. I thought it might be one of the old fighters. He confined himself to the shadows. I went in the garage to get a flashlight. When I flashed it his way, it was not a cat at all but an old skanky looking possum! (I know the correct word is opossum but does anyone ever really say that?) Not even a cute young possum. This one was grizzled looking. I noticed Puff Daddy who is one of the most beautiful cats I have ever seen giving him a look like "Woh...that is one ugly cat."

Can you see the poster in the rock wall?

Odds and Ends

We finally got a break in temperature and it has made all of the difference. Today was mostly cloudy and beautiful. I do not think I have ever loved the clouds so much.

I can talk about it now because I am further away from it. I fostered a kitten this past weekend. He stayed with me two and a half days. He was only four weeks old. I had to feed him kitten meal replacement. He was teeny tiny but loads of work. It was hard for me to let him go back. I don't think I will be fostering again anytime soon. This was a necessity though.

Earlier, I thought I was full of things to talk about but now that I start blogging, I cannot think of much at all. Guess I will go then because I have some things to look up on the internet...like Magic Bullet. My neighbor loaned me one over the weekend and now I want one of my own. That thing really pulverizes.

Not related to anything is another one of these poster creations I made in photoshop using a displacement map.

A Memory or a Premonition?

A writer will tell you that when writing a particular piece with a particular theme to tread cautiously when considering writing every single day. See, moods change with the days. Some peoples' moods change more than others. The same is true with writing on a blog. If I wrote every single day, you would see the depth of my emotions and the possibility that yes, my mood might be swinging. Plus, it is just hotter than hades which does not help my mood at all. I want my blog to be light and fun. I do not want it to be a soap box. I have always felt that people pretty much get what they want in life. Pretty much. If you really want something, you will not be denied. You will find a way. I am not sure how much of this is done consciously.  Just to take a simple example, if you wanted a car really badly and did not have one, you would find a way to get one. It might not be a Bentley but you would eventually get some kind of car if it was a 'driving' passion pun intended. All of this serves as a pep talk to myself because I am about to shift gears in life. It is my time. I know what you are thinking. Late bloomer, huh? We will see just how much I want my career goals to succeed. In the mean time, I will continue with these 'ghostly' vignettes which are perhaps only shadows of things to come.

What if...

What if you walked deep into a forest at some point far into the future and found this famous black cat poster stuck to a redwood tree? What would you think? Would you think a little wood nymph had tacked it up in an attempt to decorate her abode? I would think the forest would be lovely enough without bringing in foreign items. More than likely, it would mean that I had gone mad from trying to capture Bella, ran off to live in the forest, tacked up a poster on a tree symbolizing a "wanted poster" for Bella.

"C" stands for...

Hey, I made this in photoshop as per usual. What does "c" stand for? At the time, I was thinking "crown". Now, I am thinking "cat". I always wished my name was Catherine so people could call me Cat. I suppose people could call me Cat anyway but it would be kind of weird as it would not mean anything. I have a thing about cats...no big surprise there. I was watching a show the other night about some native tribes in Washington that believes their people to be shape-shifted from animals. For example, there is the tribe of the whale, the tribe of the eagle, the tribe of the bear, etc. All of their family names are prefixed with the native word for that animal. That is how they follow their heritage. They follow the family lines of the females in the tribe. I do not think there is any doubt that I would be from the tribe of the cat. Their legends are not a mere descendency from animals. There is more of a symbyology between the two. God gave the animal the choice to stay an animal or to be a man that fed off of the animal. It was a choice. It was an agreement between the two. Neither is more. Neither is less. There is a mutual respect. One agrees to give its life to be sustenance for the other. The hunters thank the animals for being food before taking their lives. I love that. I love the mutual respect the native people believe in. I love the respect they have for the gift of the planet. Before you scoff too much at what might seem a silly legend, think about how much thanking probably goes on at a slaughter house. Probably not that much, huh? A thought just occurred to me. I hope the "C" in my piece does not mean that I am from the pale face tribe of the "Captive Cow". Seriousness aside, I really like the way this picture turned out and "C" could stand for Cindy.

Black and White

I just love this thing I have been doing in photoshop lately converting some of the photos to black and white. Are you a black and white person? You know what I mean. Do things seem black and white to you, right or wrong, yes or no? Do you think in a binary pattern? This path or that path? Or are you a shades of gray person? Nothing is ever black and white to me. I have always been a shades of gray person. Nothing is ever that neat and tidy to me. Nothing is ever clean cut. I remember once my sister said the funniest thing about me that I had never thought of up to that point. She said if someone ran up and said "A spaceship just landed outside and it ain't got no doors!" that I would say "They said 'ain't got no doors????'" Someone having seen a spaceship would not be nearly as important to me as how they expressed themselves when describing their astonishment. After she pointed that out to me, I realized she was right. I am a word person. They carry a lot of weight to me. However, I also know this much is true. Never judge a person by their accent. Accents are often very misleading. They cannot be used to judge a person's intelligence level or educational level. However, if you ever do hear someone say "It ain't got no doors", I think it might be safe to assume that something has gone sadly awry somewhere along the educational way.
By the way, I am still dreaming of the North West.

Portland

Seattle

God's Creatures

One of these days when it is coming an ice storm here, I will be wishing for these 105 degree days, right? Besides constantly thinking about how hot and sweaty I am, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about how to catch feral mother, Bella. I think I may have the ticket but I am not going to post about it until I have a success which will hopefully be soon. Let me just say here and now, I cannot take much more of her baby birthing. I am almost certain that it is worse for me than it is for her but I cannot know that. I do not know how she feels. All I know is that I feel extremely sorry and sad for her. I want to help her. I wish you could hear the conversations I have with her when I am trying to explain to her that I just want to help eventhough I know it appears that I am doing more harm than good from her vantage point. Sometimes, I think she might understand what I am saying at least a little bit. She gives me a look with her big blue eyes like "Cindy, you might just be approaching decency...maybe...possibly...no, nevermind. You are human after all." Anyway, I am going to be working on catching Ms. Bella very diligently this week so she can have a surgery because I just cannot take anymore of her wee, sick children. I talk a good game but honestly, I am very tender hearted. I fall in love so quickly with the four legged variety. I do not have nearly so much love for the two legged variety. Is that sad? No, some of us are just that way. When it comes to God's creatures, it is God that I want to talk to and ask just what does He want me to do? I so hope I am making the right choices for them.

Underwater Dream

I have not done much photoshop lately. I have not done much of anything lately except deal with feral cats. I am feeling kind of  a whole lot sad about a feral situation we had to deal with this week so I am not going to stay on that topic. Instead, I am going to 'preach' about my fave topic of the summer...the incredible heat wave we are having to deal with. Today was 105 degrees. When I got in my car after work, the thermometer on my car was registering 119 outside on that parking lot and I did not doubt it. The good news is that there will not be much more of this...at least in another month, we should be safely out of the 100 degree days. Maybe we will be in the cool upper 90's. Plus to soothe myself, I have been planning a vacation to the upper North West. The cool rain  or even the cold rain seems very relaxing to me. I should have planned this vacation for now! One of my good friends is leaving for Alaska in a couple of weeks. I soooo envy her! She is very excited about getting all cold and frosty. I am very happy for her. I will just dream about it awhile longer. October seems like a good month for Seattle, right? Besides it is mostly still hot here in October.

I Packed My Bags Last Night Pre-Flight

But I am not a Rocket Man. I should say, my bag packed itself. Remember I said that Claude and myself were going to visit his doctor today? Well, we did. We are awaiting the results of his blood work. After we got home, I opened the pet tote to let Claude escape in his own time. That did not take long. I left the tote there for a little while. I could not have made Henry do this. He just did it on his own volition. Henry got in the tote and acted as if he was ready to go. Remember I said how sweet he is? He and I have really been getting along well today. We have reached a new understanding of each other. He realizes how much I love him and I realize how sensitive he is. He is a sweet baby boy, isn't he?

One Step Up, Two Steps Back

Do you ever feel as if your life is shifting gears? Do you ever feel you have reached a new life level? Like you went from junior high to high school? Lately, I feel as if I have progressed to a new level. Just when I was congratulating myself on becoming a more highly evolved individual, I took a few steps back. It all happened today. It goes something like this.

I talk a lot about Nigel and Ollie. Claude and Henry do not get as much press here on this blog but only here. In real life, Claude gets mucho attention. I love him so much. He is 18 years old this year. He has not been well. He is really showing his age lately. He and I will be visiting his doctor tomorrow to see if there is anything we can do to make him fell better. His appetite has dropped off. I have been trying all kinds of things to peak his interest. On the flip side of things, Henry likes to eat. He has an extremely healthy appetite. He loves to check out what Claude might get. He loves to check it out in a very rowdy kind of way, I might add. However, I like for Claude to eat at his own pace, therefore, I have to patrol Henry while Claude is taking his own sweet time. Henry and I have been having skirmishes in the process. I am stressed about Claude's failing health. Plus, it is about 2000 degrees here. Both make my temper short. This is not a trait of a highly evolved creature, huh?  Henry is sweet, sweet, sweet. His personality is so loving and so forgiving and so happy-go-lucky. Even with a short temper, I hate to scold him. He always seems so hurt as if how can anyone deny something to someone so sweet and loving? He is right. How can I deny him? I really scolded him earlier today. He was in deep, hot water for eating all of Claude's food. Henry's feelings were very badly hurt. He hid under the dresser. I felt so sad for him. He trusts me to love him yet I hurt him. I drug him out from under the dresser and made him play me. In no time, he was purring and playing just like his sweet little self does. This only made me feel worse. I must always remember to treat him as if he is made out of glass. Lesson learned.

Reminder to Self

Once Upon a Time I Wished Upon a Falling Star

There is an interesting display in the sky tonight. Three planets form a triangle within a circle of 5 degrees. I love it. Sugar Plum loves it too. I am a star gazer. I cannot look at the night time sky without thinking I am looking at God's fingerprint. God's handiwork surrounds us but our eyes have become jaded. We can no longer see. Instead, we have made mankind the god of the universe because we have become so puffed up with our accomplishments. That is so human like to be egotistical. In my estimation though, I put mankind way down in the order of animals according to decency. I mean animals at least know not to poop where they live. Anyway, back to this planet trio of Venus, Mars and Saturn. I took a picture, yes, with my phone (man's invention). As you might guess, a phone is not high powered enough to pick up Mars and Saturn (God's invention). But here is the evidence that I tried. Please just take my word on the planet trio. It is really there.

Back to star gazing, last night I saw a falling star. I was looking straight up at the zenith of the sky when, what was that? Movement? Yes! What appeared to be a stationary star began to fall straight toward the Earth. Closer and closer it fell while its tail grew longer and longer. Brighter and brighter. A thing of beauty she was. She fell right into my hand all glittery and shimmery. She wanted to bring me a memory and she did. She brought me a memory of when I was a small child. I used to sit outside on summer evenings with my mom. We had a big three seater rocking chair outside. My mom and I would sit there and star gaze together. Sometimes we would play a game. She would ask me to look for the first star and tell me to make a wish when I found it. I do not recall any of those wishes. I cannot even begin to imagine what I might have wished for at age 4 or 5. I do recall those stars though. They are the same ones I gaze at now. Except now, I do not really wish when I see them. Now, I pray. I am certain what I pray for now is nothing like what I might have wished for then. And then, the memory continued. In my memory, I saw all of the hundreds and hundreds of fireflies that my mom and I used to watch while we were outside on those summer nights. Even then, mom would ask me not to catch them because she said they were prettier flying than they would be in a jar. I remembered hugging my mom while my heart felt as if it would burst from the love I had for her. And that is the memory that the falling star brought me as I looked at those ancient stars that God made.

I really did see a falling star last night.

Hot and Scary

Well, I haven't even mentioned how hot it is and it is HOT! I am sure there are places hotter. Maybe Death Valley, California. Hot makes me live like a vampire and I.do.not.want.to.live.like.a.vampire! I have even been cleaning my house out so I will have less things to move when I do move to a cooler climate. For now, I dream and live like a vampire. But as a side effect, I am creating oddities with photoshop. This is me or at least how I feel. Yeah, it is scary to be this hot.