Catching up 2

This textured, no longer photographic, image should make fun fabric, maybe for curtains or cushions. I'll be getting a swatch from Spoonflower to see how it comes out.

I had forgotten what it is like to work retail during the holiday season, and didn't get any entries posted here for a long time, but I was still taking pictures and thinking of things to write about. I am going to add a list here as I add backdated posts.

Post date: 2-22-2009 Post: OK Kelvin, if these aren't interference patterns, what are they? 4-29-09

Reposted into 2018, Feb 6.

Buddy misses her

Dovey and Buddy Greeting Ritual, photoshopped

This was Dovey's and Buddy's greeting ritual. I tried to get pictures of this for years, but since it was always in motion, I wasn't very successful. They would walk together, and rub against each other, and entwine their tails. Then one would turn around and they'd pass each other, with more head-bumping. I think I remember that that means they think of the other as family.

After Dovey disappeared, when Buddy was let out he went around the house calling, and over the roof and into a window that had been open for weeks with no one coming in it. Buddy and Dovey were both named as kittens for their friendliness to other cats, but as adults it was mostly each other they were friendly with.

And now Buddy doesn't have his friend.

He spends more time with me, at a safe distance. Maybe someday he'll let me pet him again. He used to be pettable only on the feeding table, over the back of Valentine or Dovey.

These pictures were taken July 28, 2008.

Live by the Sword . . .

Dovey hunting

Die by the sword? Or, in this case, by tooth and claw.

Dovey is gone. It's been over 2 1/2 weeks now. I used to tell her that, when she was busy hunting, and didn't want to come in at night. But I never thought it would happen so soon. She was young, and a wary former feral cat, more likely than most to survive. Photoshop fun

8-24-08 Dovey the black cat has not come home. Wed night I got off work late, and didn't call the cats for dinner and to lock them in safely for the night until almost midnight, and she wasn't there. I haven't seen her since.

I haven't heard the coyotes singing in the orchard for a couple of months now, but that's most likely what happened. At least that is quick.

Buddy misses her.

It's time to test the roof sprinklers again . . .

When Grandpa Hubbard had this house built in 1917, he saved $300 by doing the plumbing himself. (Three floors, plus an attic, and the roof sprinklers.) He put a hose bib in a closet on each floor, with a hose ready in case of fire. And the roof sprinklers. This is the California foothills, and fire is always possible, as we can see now. And originally the house had a shake roof, as well as sides.

This is gravity-flow water, coming down from the mountains, so it should still be available near a fire.

It has been my custom to test them each year on the first really hot day of summer. The best time is when the very last sun is on the roof, for the maximum evaporative cooling, but so the sun will be gone when I turn them off again. It has the advantage then of starting to cool the house off for the night - acting like a giant swamp cooler.

On the usual hot day, this is lovely: it smells like rain, it sounds like rain, it looks like rain, it cools things off. I open all the windows that won't splash in, and after walking around to get a view of all the sprinkler heads, I sit on the porch for a few minutes enjoying it, before turning the water off again.

But Mom called to say that the sprinklers should be tested right away, after all there are fires all over - and I had to agree with her. But it is all smoky and muggy today, and I couldn't open most of the windows. And since it is so muggy, probably the sprinklers didn't cool the house off much.

But it still smelled like rain (and smoke), and sounded like rain, and looked like rain. And I sat out on the porch and enjoyed it.


PS You can see that some sprinkler heads need replacing.

PPS The sky is not blown-out in this photo; that's the color the sky has mostly been for weeks - greyish brownish white.

Where there's smoke . . .

There's fire? Well, somewhere, but not here. The closest is near the little town of Washington. But there're fires all over N California, more than 840 of them started by one lightning storm last weekend. The previous record was 73.

On Saturday, some friends and I had gone to Downieville for their Gold Rush Day; costumes, shootouts (picture 2 terrified little kids in a twin stroller, 10 ft away from a victim), stagecoach rides, food and crafts. And an appearance at the little local theater (in which the original Mark Twain had spoken) by "Mark Twain", the celebrated lecturer. We went especially to hear a friend who was providing the live music for Mark Twain's performance.

During Mr Twain's talk, the lights went out. When they came back on a minute later, and Mr.Twain was reclining in a chair, instead of standing behind his lectern, we thought it was part of the show. Then the lights went out again, and stayed out, while we heard repeated thunder outside. So there was Mark Twain, lecturing in the dark, in a little old theater, in a thunderstorm.

Very Old West. But unfortunately, no rain. So there are lightning fires all over, many still burning. And smoke everywhere, for days now.

Looking at the hills and trees receeding into the smoky distance, it made me wonder just how smoky the Italian Renaissance was. I think I remember that that was when painters discovered "atmospheric color", in which the more distant landscape elements are, the lighter and bluer they are. And I think the answer might be, not this smoky, but more than nowadays, judging by the backgrounds to some of the pictures.

I had opened some windows last night, to cool the house off, and because there was less smoke. Then about 3:00 AM it got more smoky again, and I went around closing windows. (Well, not the ones that require climbing a ladder to take the screens out, not in the dark without my glasses on.) And the moon was as copper-colored as it was last summer during its eclipse. And the sun rising this morning was flame-colored.

Another thunderstorm due this Saturday.

Update: the final total of fires for that storm was somewhere around 1200!

Missing Valentine

Valentine in the laundry room - photoshopped

 
This was Valentine. Today I am missing her and Lovey and Claudia and Lisa and Fussy - and all the other dear loving cats who have lived with me over the years. They gave me someone to love, and they loved me back, and purred in my ears at night, and licked my face to wake me up in the morning. They were there. Today I still have Cheesecake, though he is old and frail, and Pandora and Bob.

Living alone over the years, one learns to take care of oneself emotionally. To buy the roses and chocolates, if necessary. To read books instead of talking with anyone in the evenings. To do projects, or garden, or design things on the weekends. Or sometimes just read more books.... an average of a book a day, until I went back to school a few years ago. To think about things - like animal intelligence and emotions. To carry upstairs my own firewood, and home my own groceries. To build my own fires.

But the cats made it possible. They still do.