Happy Kitten Day 2024

Where are we goin' Mama? (approx Nov 2010)
Looks like Grey Mouse, out on the porch, exploring with mama Patches.

The Ambush.
Grey Mouse, cool grey with more stripes as a kitten, on the footboard of Grandpa's old bed, clearly ready to pounce on a sister below.

 

My darling kittens were born on Sept 7, 2010. Only Grey Mouse is still here with me out of 4 kittens, (Rex, Spot, Lassie, Grey Mouse),  Mama Patches, father Sugar Mouse, and auntie/grandmother Mousie.

In the recent "cooler" weather, Grey Mouse was sleeping again on my shoulder or lap. We had another heat wave, but it is cooling again...
 

Little Rexie Kitten and his sisters plus Sugar Mouse October 2010/ Oct. 7, 2023

Written in Sept. 2023,  published Oct. 7, 2023.

Little Kitten Rexie while he/she was getting kitten formula supplemental feedings. You see how much smaller he/she was than the others. That is she-who-will-be-Grey-Mouse cuddling next to the little kitten while Spot and Lassie eat.

 Sugar Mouse was their father, but Patches wouldn't let him near her kittens. She was very protective of them.

 

Sugar Mouse out on the screen porch early in the morning. 9am Oct 25, 2010

Spot and Little Kitten Rex (maybe) bouncing and pouncing Oct 26, 2010
Notice Mama Patches' nose and toes at the far left where she sits on the arm of the green chair watching.

Spot and Grey Mouse (or maybe Lassie) notice their father watching.

Sugar Mouse watching his kittens Spot (and Lassie?) playing Oct 26, 2010

3 kittens looking at Mama up on the back of the chair. Small Rexie is sleepy. Noon Oct 26, 2010

These kitten photos were not published in a timely fashion because the external hard drive they were saved on stopped mounting, and the contents had to be retrieved. Technical difficulties.

Technical difficulties strike again now. As I was editing this post, my computer died without warning. Mostly seems to have been the power cable - but I am finishing this and scheduling it, in case that happens again.

And now I am remembering Rex/Rexie and my other darling kittens while I sort and publish these photos. And being very glad that sweet Grey Mouse is still here.

When Rexie was a small kitten, he/she had two potentially fatal problems. I thought he/she might not survive very long, but I resolved she would have a good life, however long. We had 12 years together.

Happy Kitten Day Sept. 7, 2023

Patches with her kittens, 2010. Sugar Mouse was the father.

 Well... For some meanings of happy... Happy memories...

And Grey Mouse still here with me, purring. Sitting on my lap, mornings and evenings. And on the cool rainy days, Sept 1-3, cuddling up under my chin and on my shoulder. Purring. She is a very sweet cat. 

The kittens were born on Sept 7, 2010. Squeaking in the cupboard.
This is after their Mama moved them into the other (cleaned out) cupboard. Here they are out on the floor being fed. And he/she-who-will-be-named-Rexie is not eating.

Four little kittens. (Spot is between Mama's front legs, getting a bath.) Rexie is resting while Lassie and Grey Mouse nurse. Before she had to get supplemental feedings.

Kitten (probably Grey Mouse) in flowerpot. When I have Photoshop again I need to clean up this image. But notice the interesting light pattern on the floor just in front of the flowerpot, from a reflection off the glaze on the pot.

Grey Mouse, now that Rexie is not chasing her away from the food and bed, is healthier. Now only a slender cat, not a skinny one. No more backbone showing. Her fur is thicker. She tells me when the food dish is empty. And she is very sweet.
Although on the recent hot (high 90s) days, she did not want to come in from the balcony, even when the sun was starting to shine on her in the afternoon. I had to go fetch her in.

I Have Seen Her Ghost a Couple of Times

Rexie is Wild - playing with a toy on the bed - a year old

Written Friday, Aug.18, 2023. Backdated

Well, not that kind of ghost. But something that has never happened to me before.

I have very poor visualization ability, except in dreams, and half asleep. 

You would think that that is a difficulty for a visual artist/designer. But since the days when my designs were colored pencil on graph paper, cross-stitch or quilt or jewelry designs, or costume drawings, the finished project, (however imperfect it was), always looked MUCH better than my imagination could picture.

And now, designs on the computer already look much better than my imagination.

That is different from what I have seen from writers, who say that their finished projects don't match their imaginations.

Another advantage to not having clear visual imagination, is that potentially traumatic events which are processed as stories rather than pictures, are much less likely to produce PTSD. (Temple Grandin)

But, Rexie's ghost?

Well, lying-sitting-up on the bed, half asleep, maybe with my eyes closed, I have seen a Rexie-shape walking up the bed beside me, just like she used to do...

A Word Has Gone Out of the World - Goodby Rexie my darling - Dec. 2022

Tiny Little Kitten, when he was being fed. Soon to be Rex.

After they knocked down their kitten-gate, and escaped. When I came in, early morning, the others were still close by, exploring. But this Little Kitten had crossed 2 rooms, climbed up into the feeding chair, and burrowed into this warm blanket.

Little Lion Rex, fully recovered from not getting enough to eat as a tiny kitten. Before they got sick.

One page in a school assignment. I thought Rexie looked like he was dreaming of being out in the grass, like Bob in the illustration.

Rexie stops to smell the roses, the year she decided the balcony was hers, and wouldn't let the others out there, where I was for hours every morning, taking rose pictures. She kept bumping me, insisting I
Pay Attention To The Cat.

Her hiding place, behind the door, on top of the cabinet. Scary noises.

In the chair with Grey Mouse, originally her friend. Now my only cat.

Is that a bird out there? Feb.2011 - 6months old. Rexie's first time in the bedroom in the daytime with curtains and the windows open to the screens. Warm sunny days in Feb, chilly nights.

First appearance. Looking at me.

Looking up at Mama. She had hidden her kittens in the drawer.

Rexie is the darker one in back. He/she has caught up in size.

Kitten soccer. Rexie is the smaller darker kitten, just peering out in the back left corner.

When Rexie invented a word to tell me when she/he wanted his/her forehead rubbed.

 First written Aug 15, 2023. Backdated.

As usual I didn't notice her symptoms early. Of course, they were different than anyone else's had been. 

I did notice when she became chubby enough to wobble. Only a few days later she was enormous.

Vets have become much more expensive since the last time I had much to do with them, and my old vet has closed.

By the time I could get her in somewhere, the week before christmas, it was a drop-off appointment. No money for more tests, or palliative care. They wanted to put her down.

But she was not dehydrated. and not in pain.

We had almost a week, sitting together on the bed, at first on my lap or chest as usual, then beside me on her pillow. Once she took a flying leap off my stomach on top of the tall bed, and belly-flopped on the floor, to go to the catbox.

At the end, she had a few moments of panic, climbing the pillows, trying to breathe. Then she became unconscious, nestling down into her pillow.

That's a lot better than the usual way...

I have seen her ghost a couple of times.

This is What Trolls Look Like - Aug 2020 - Nevada City Cakifornia

https://www.theunion.com/news/nevada-city-opens-investigation-into-outrageous-actions-during-march/fbclid=IwAR32GkwAf5fKzxAcJIMfh6Sic9BT1AMotAARoDOXKdE5MFDQRKPd__0D8wM

THIS IS WHAT TROLLS LOOK LIKE !

A few (15-20) violent right-wing so-called 'Blue Lives' counter-protestors attack around 100 PEACEFUL Black Lives Matter protestors, many young people, kids, and moms, (and including one Council member who was knocked off her bike, face down onto the pavement) in Nevada City, California, with no intervention by local police. Some refused to intervene, blaming the peaceful original protestors for being there. Some of the police who were there can be seen on video walking and chatting with the perpetrators, and a sheriff's deputy refusing and going away when asked to intervene, making shooing gestures. Police told protestors to file a complaint later, instead of protecting them from violent harassment at the time.

The trolls used their flagpoles to attack people. Stole phones and threw them in the sewer. They had told the police ahead of time that they would be there.  Believed that law enforcement was on their side. On the day, they were right, whatever the chief of police and sheriff say now. Police are not accepting any complaints which people try to file.

No one has been charged or arrested yet.

The worst guy was one in a black trump-cult t-shirt.

Well, things have been happening in Portland and everywhere

I love, love, love this image.

It is not mine, but a screenshot from FB, with attribution to where it came from, and who made it.

dt sent mercenary stormtroopers to Portland Oregon, to attack and get rid of PEACEFUL Black Lives Matter protestors. They did attack, with many injuries. They committed the war crime of destroying medical supplies. They had no insignia, no identification. They kidnapped people in unmarked vans and disappeared them overnight. Veterans came out to protect the protestors. Dads came out with leaf-blowers. A Wall of Moms came out to protect the protestors. They got tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed, shot with rubber bullets.

Meanwhile, dt said he was sending more 'feds' to other Democratic cities. These weren't 'feds', they were private mercenaries run by betsy devos' brother. (The education secretary who wants all the kids back in school, so they and their families can catch the virus and die. Well over 200 kids 12 and over, and staff have tested positive for the virus from a Georgia summer camp at which all the participants were pre-tested, but kids weren't masked.)

The GDP is down 33%. In the 'great depression' it was only down 15%. 150,000 have died in the US, but that is an undercount. The numbers are still going up, because of states re-opening too soon, and trump-cultists and other idiots who have been holding mass events, unmasked. Even here, after being in Sacramento first. And some few restaurants here refuse to distance, clean, or wear masks. Their operating permits have been revoked. 

dt says he wants to delay the election. He cannot do that legally. He is trying to destroy the Post Office to prevent Voting by Mail, since as he said right out, with higher turnout from easy voting, repubs would never win again. He has filed a suit to eliminate ballot drop-boxes, so everyone would have to vote in person, in long lines. And risk getting the virus and dying.

Black Lives Matter protestors have thought their cause was enough to knowingly risk their lives, not just to the virus, but to police and other murderers. 

dt supporters, on the other hand, have been stupid enough to attend his rallies in crowded indoor locations, since they had drunk the dt koolaid and didn't believe the virus was that bad. Now many are sick from the rally in Tulsa Oklahoma, and at least one has died, dt's most prominent black supporter.

If the dt supporters, including our local anti-vaccers / anti-maskers /and extreme right-wingers were only going to kill themselves, I'd say "Great. Nominate them for a Darwin Award." (given for being stupid enough to wipe out the winner and all his potential/actual progeny). But of course they won't just be killing themselves and their families, but innocent neighbors, bystanders, grocery clerks.

So, the first question is, if dt tries to illegally delay the election and declare martial law, or if he loses the election and refuses to leave office, claiming fraud, will the real military support him? Maybe not; they swear to defend the Constitution.

And will the rest of the reality-based community be as brave and together as Portland has been.

The mercenary storm troopers have left. The nightly protests are completely peaceful again.

If Tina were still alive, I think she would have been out on those streets.

Remember when . . .

This great picture was posted by Cara Wasilewski on FB page Indivisible Women of Nevada County

Well, here we are. Dying.

Because, first of all, because dt had disbanded the Obama-era task force on preparing the US for a potential pandemic virus. And got rid of the stockpiles of equipment. And removed the observers who were in China watching for such a thing. (Although that is not the only place to watch; swine flu started here.) And then his administration did nothing when warned in January about the virus.

And thanks to the stupidity, greed, and incompetence of dt and his many repub enablers, and his trump-cultist followers, many of whom are still with him. They have drunk the KoolAid.

If only they weren't taking so many of the rest of us with them into oblivion. (Over 150,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 by Aug 1, 2020)

And it is not just in the Midwest or the South, or Michigan, that there are armed trump-cultists trying to impose their stupidity on the rest of us. Without, let it be noted, any attempt at federal intervention against actual threats against the governor, by armed thugs, like in Michigan. No, the only 'federal' response is anonymous thugs in Portland OR, beating up, tear gassing, pepper-spraying, shooting, peaceful protestors who made dt look bad. And dt threatening to send them against other Democratic cities.

But locally here too, on Saturday, a large maskless protest in Sacramento, with local idiots as well as out of state agitators. Then they moved up here for a large maskless protest in downtown Grass Valley. What are they protesting? The withdrawal of operating permits for several restaurants who had refused, (despite long attempts to help them), to follow any re-opening guidelines for masking, distancing, cleaning.

I don't think those out of town agitators, and the local anti-vaccers/anti-maskers/exteme-right-wingers, would be able to keep those restaurants in business all by themselves anyway, since all the reality-based community is saying that they will never eat there again. As several said, if they are refusing to follow cleaning guidelines now, what do you suppose their kitchens are like normally?

The ones I saw in Safeway a few weeks ago without masks were old white guys, and the store was doing nothing about them. Luckily there are a few other groceries who are better. And it isn't only old white men who are so stupid/uncaring of others' safety. They are just some of the most arrogant.

Wearing a mask or not is an IQ test, not a political statement. And besides, the government's facial recognition surveillance can't tell who you are in a mask...

I don't have an illustration for this

There are local demonstrations; I am joining them.

If you are not, you are part of the problem.

If you push back against the phrase "Black Lives Matter", you are part of the problem.

We have all seen this too often.
And no one is held responsible. The killers are usually not even charged. If charged, not convicted.

My heart still hurts for Trayvon Martin. And I am still outraged that his stalker and killer wasn't charged for months, and was acquitted by a racist jury.

 While under the same racist prosecutor,  an abused woman who fired a warning shot into the wall,  to discourage her pursuer, was sent to jail for 30 years.

And Tamir Rice. 12 years old. Holding a TOY gun. In an OPEN CARRY state - in which it is perfectly legal to be showing a real gun. Shot to death within a few seconds of when the cops arrived. And his sister tackled and not allowed to go to him as he lay dying. And no medical assistance called or given. The first call his policeman-murderer made was to his union, to get their help in covering his ass. No punishment.

Hundreds have been murdered since then, mostly by cops. And now Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.

Some of the instigators of violence in the demonstrations, and those burning down black-owned businesses, are white supremacists.

If you are only seeing/hearing mainstream media, you are missing important things. If you are only watching/reading/listening to sources from one point of view, you are missing half your mind, like a Trump-cultist.

Statistically, probably not all white cops are racist scum murderers. But too many who may not think of themselves that way are protecting those who are. And their unions are fighting reforms.

This quote from historian Bruce Catton's speech, "The Meaning of the Civil War", given in 1961 near an anniversary of the war, should have been given more publicity, and taught in every school, since then.

"The Civil War was about something. It was fought for something. And— let us never for a moment forget it—it won something. 

Under everything else, the war was about Negro slavery. 

It was fought for freedom—and if ever anything was worth fighting a war for, freedom was and is the cause. The war won freedom—for the slaves, and for the people who owned the slaves, for all of the people in both sections who in one way or another had consented to slavery.

... The Civil War turned the Negro from a chattel slave into an American citizen, and it left us with the eternal and completely inescapable obligation to see to it that the citizenship is made good. There could be no greater absurdity than an attempt to commemorate any Civil War anniversary on a basis which would deprive Negro citizens of the right to attend. 

Unless the Negro can join freely and fully in all national centennial ceremonies, the ceremonies are not worth ten minutes of anybody’s time. 

And that is why the Civil War is worth remembering. 

It gave us a broader freedom, and it laid upon us the obligation to live up to that freedom and to make it unlimited, for everybody. Freedom is indivisible.

Winning it for the Negro, we won it also for all of the people who then were or ever would become Americans—for the man who has fled from oppression, misery and discrimination overseas as well as for the fugitive from the American slave pen and auction block. We can never have, permanently, a second-class citizenship in this country; because of the Civil War, we are no longer that kind of country.

We might just as well stop trying to find a comfortable middle ground between the ideas of Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler. There simply isn’t any such place."

Bruce Catton in The Meaning of the Civil War


The modern appearance of white supremacists, KKK, and swastika-bearing real neo-nazis, crawling out of hiding like cockroaches, emboldened, aided and encouraged by trump, is an embrace of the ideas of Hitler.

As is out-of-control police violence against peaceful protestors and reporters. And attacks on reporters by "police-associated white supremacists". (Fairdotorg June 9 2020) 

Definitely time to sew again...

Empire-style dress design drawn for a costume history class in 2016

But not with a patterned fabric used like this batik-style one, although I just made over 2 dozen versions of this design in colorful new incarnations.

I have been falling for wonderful linen fabrics, which come also in the soft greyed colors which are my favorites, as well as brighter colors. And some of my favorite fabric designs go with some of those linen colors.

So, the parts of this picture with the patterns will be solid colors of linen, with a pattern on the front of the bodice.


Maybe one of those 2-Sprig colorings I just made. This version of the design fits more closely together, and has some interesting layouts.

You can see that these textured designs look like embroidery.  So for me, they seem more appropriate for smaller areas like a bodice front.


Time to start making something...

When I was in school the first time, 50 years ago, I used to draw the costume I was going to make during vacation, and prop it up on my desk to look at while I studied for finals. I find this drawing has the same effect. I keep looking at it.
 

Between Every Two Pines

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.  John Muir

I found this wonderful quote by John Muir for the booklet I did for Mom's memorial service. It's something like the way I always felt, thinking about going back into the woods on my own, when I was a kid.

I took the picture in a graveyard up near North San Juan, after another funeral; I was looking for two pines.

Now I have made it a transparent picture for dark t-shirts, and like this for cards and journals. (Photoshop online made available by the college, whose students can't come to campus to the library now.)

Maybe with the quote below it instead of interrupting the sky...

Pacific Coast Iris hybrids 2010, 2020

Hybrid Pacific Coast Iris, growing among hardy geraniums

Picture from May 16, 2010.

I'm mourning that I haven't seen any of these beautiful small irises around the house this year; there used to be several of them. And a particular loss, the beautiful white one with lavender and blue lines, that Cyndi gave me decades ago, from a Native Plant Society sale, is all gone. An idiot tenant had dug all of it's offspring out years ago, but there was one survivor - finally choked out by blackberries and neglect. The beautiful ground cover hardy geranium visible in this photo is almost gone too. It's shade tree had died, then they were dug out by the friend of a tenant, who thought he was weeding. They haven't recovered, not helped by being taken over by blackberries (mostly cut back now).

The tall purple iris just started blooming a few days ago, and the little white-with-blue-lines wild iris started blooming last week in the woods down the hill.

And the old-fashioned almost-wild roses down the hill by the highway just started blooming this week. They are always the earliest. And the lilacs. And I heard the first (Mountain?) chickadee song yesterday. 

May 1, 2020 There were lots of flowers on the tall dark red-violet iris in this area; last year's clearing was good for it. And the more sun from losing so many tall trees. There are still a few small plants of this beautiful small iris that should be in big clumps. And a few buds. One beautiful survivor is the small lavender-color ground cover Veronica Waterperry. The incomplete but careful hand clearing I did around and among it helped. Time to do it again this year, and really dig out the returning blackberries...

Time to Sew Again 2020

My 2-sprig textile design

from part of a copper batik stamp

I am cleaning up my sewing room, and organizing the fabrics I have on hand for the top 20 or so projects I have in mind. (Of which if I get 2 or 3 made, I'll be very happy.) I want to alter/make a couple of patterns, for a linen tank top to replace the one I used for sleeping for many years. And a linen princess-line tunic to go with my favorite multi-color long skirt, which I plan to embellish with card-weaving (time to get back to doing that too) along the seams. And from that a pattern for linen tunics/dresses with a bodice panel from one of my textile design fabrics. Maybe a Viking costume with card-weaving. . .

I have plenty of fabric on hand, linen and my (and Amy Vail's) textiles, a few pre-washed, for the first few projects. Time to get a washing machine again, once it is possible. Linens are beautiful, soft and strong, but definitely need to be pre-washed several times.

Here's another of the Empire/Regency inspired clothing designs I did several years ago for a Costume History/Fashion History class, using textile designs I did for the project.

Empire-inspired dress design
using my textile designs

It will be fun to get back to doing one of my favorite things. Maybe roses next. . .

Social Distance / Physical Distance 2020

Birds on water, Camano Island, 2009 or 2010

They're calling it Stay-at-Home, Shelter-in-Place, Social Distancing, but what we really want is Physical Distancing -- and to keep as close with our friends (social contacts) as we can, by phone and internet. And the interesting phenomenon, in Italy and New York, of neighborhoods on their balconies and roofs singing or making noise together. (In New York it is noise at 7pm to express appreciation of medical / health workers.  New Yorker Radio Hour 4/11/2020)

Here in California, and from the CDC, we are asked to wear masks in public, to protect others in case we are infected but asymptomatic. But masks are hard to get. (Although a local group has started sewing masks for hospitals, 100s of masks, well-washed. It has spread to other places, but it started here.) It is possible to trade off on masks. The virus remains viable longer on hard, cold surfaces, and becomes inactive sooner on soft, warm surfaces. So waiting several days between wearing a mask will "disinfect" it.

Listen to On The Media from 4/12/2020 about supplies, government stealing orders of masks, ventilators,  from orders by governors, and sending them to other states more politically important to the administration.  (500 ventilators the Colorado governor had ordered, intercepted by government, 100 'given back' at request of republican congressman / while Florida gets anything it wants.)


Take care everyone - and keep in touch.

Keep In Touch 2020

Fallen mailbox  March 19, 2011

Grandpa's large old mailbox was knocked down in a fast snowstorm, maybe by the mailman or a snowplow, maybe by a neighbor with a tractor -- tracks were visible under the top several inches after they melted. I left it out there since at least it was a marker for the address -- I was using a post office box at the time. And after a month, someone took it, before I could put it up again.

I have a new, small mailbox now. I am emailing with a family member, and went back on Facebook to get back in touch with a couple of friends. (And started again looking at a couple of groups as inspiration for starting some projects, which I have already collected fabric for.) And this is definitely an opportunity to clean the house. . .

And the OLLI adult education, which cancelled its classes, all on campus, first thing for this semester, has developed an entirely new Zoom schedule of classes for this semester, and is planning for summer. 

Old friends have moved away.

4/24/2020 And I had lost touch recently with a close friend, but it was just a misunderstanding. We are talking on the phone again.

Campus Is Closed 2020

Library, Sierra College, Nevada County Campus

This picture of the library on campus from across the pond is from several years ago, maybe 2013. It was the semester we lost 3 Thursdays to snow vacation. The picture was taken on Friday, the day after it started snowing quickly during class and campus was closed.

I walked home; it's only 2 miles on the wooded trail, a little farther the way I went along the roads. At class next week, we discovered I had reached home before the professor had gotten out of the parking lot with everyone trying to leave at once.

Last October, we didn't have any storms, no rain although some wind. But we had SIX power outages from PGE, the first one over 3 days. No wind here when the power was off. Supposedly only 10 days total. Everyone, including grocery stores, lost freezers full of food. Yes, some of them had backup generators; it wasn't enough.

Now, with the Corona virus pandemic, and shelter-in-place/social-distance, almost everything except grocery stores is shut down. Government offices and some businesses/restaurants are curbside pickup. I was glad to hear hardware stores are open, in case of a stopped-up drain. And I need batteries and light bulbs.

Our wonderful local independent radio station is unusually running many already recorded programs, but still keeping us updated on what is happening. And YubaNet, which we usually depend on for weather, fire, election and meetings information, is moderating regular virtual town meetings.

But schools are coping. They are shut, but at least most California districts are trying to get school lunches to kids. And some online, I don't know details. But I know at least 2 community college students who have been homeless, and certainly many more can't do online courses without the library. Over the last few years, this campus has lost the majority of its on-campus courses to online ones, and the computer lab closed several years ago.

The exception was the adult ed OLLI short courses, all I have taken for the last year, which were all in person. But since they were for older students, they were cancelled first thing. And now they are back! The 2 I had wanted to take are not, but a bunch of interesting things are available this semester on Zoom. They put that together in a month...

Old dogs are learning new tricks.

PS. Minimally Photoshopped -- I took out a garbage can.

Goodby Spot March 25, 2020

Spot on heater March 12, 2011 - 6 months old

The kittens were born in September 2010. Since Lassie died, the remaining three have been healthy and happy, going out on the balcony/low roofs when the weather was nice (which it was all February 2020). They often slept on the bed with me, or near/on a heater. They had a newly cleared table in a sunny window in the bedroom. But this morning, Spot is gone.

Yesterday aft and eve, not eating, crying out from time to time in that deep voice as if to be sick, but not being sick. Sleeping on foot of bed, alone. ( Usually her friend/sister Grey Mouse would have been with her, licking her head and ears. But it was chilly; Grey Mouse was sitting on the radiator heater. ) Then late eve down off bed, curled up there at foot, and after a while, sick. Then she felt better, tried to get up on bed by me (Rexie was sleeping under the cover -  they would have fought). I thought she was OK. This morning when I woke, she was dead. By 10am already stiff. I think she must have eaten something bad while their food and water dishes were empty yesterday morning.

Back at the beginning of the year Spot had a respiratory thing, and was having trouble breathing. I put her in/under a blanket with a bowl of steaming water. An old-fashioned remedy which helped a lot, and warmed her up too. Also, she wasn't eating, so giving her some of the smallest jars of meat-based baby food worked well. She was very hungry, and gobbled it instantly. She had lost a lot of weight, and didn't have any to loose, a small light little cat. She had, I think, by 2 days ago, fully recovered, always eager to eat and drink.

Spot was the friendliest as a kitten, when they had visitors a few times. She and Grey Mouse were friends now, most of the time, sleeping curled up together, or half on top of each other. Occasionally Rexie would tolerate being on the bed at the same time as the pair of them. (And not even sitting on the top of my head growling, as he did as a kitten twice when Buddy came into the bedroom.)

Since January, I have been noticing especially how pretty her eyes and Grey Mouse' eyes were; their eye colors have gone quite grey, very pretty with their cool grey coats. I meant to take pictures...


Goodby Spot. I love you.  I.miss you.

I was probably listening to Bach online - Bach's birthday program in the middle of the night when she died near the foot of my bed. The music was on only softly, so I should have heard her, and didn't hear anything. My favorite composer will never seem quite the same to me, perhaps...

Irrationality? Floating rocks? Rockbergs! Feb 14, 2018

Floating ice and floating rocks, small pond on campus, March 7, 2016

Time to reread one of my favorite books, Irrationality, by Stuart Sutherland. An excuse for a few quotes. He's funny; you have to watch for it.

"What constitutes a rational decision depends upon one's knowledge. There is a rider to this. If one has reason to believe one's knowledge is insufficient, then it is rational, particularly in the case of important decisions, to seek out more evidence: unfortunately, as we will see, when people do so, they usually act in a wholly irrational way, since they only seek evidence that will support their existing beliefs." (p. 5)

"The effects of conformity on beliefs and attitudes are the more injurious because people tend to associate with others who have similar beliefs to themselves. ... the only way to substantiate a belief is to try to disprove it. But because like mixes with like, people are rarely exposed to counter-arguments to their more deeply held convictions, let alone to counter-evidence. Their beliefs conform to those of their associates: hence, there is little possibility of eliminating persistent errors. "(p. 41)

"Everyone is irrational some of the time and in particular everyone is susceptible to the availability error. I give a final striking example ... In 1969, Jerzy Kosinsky's novel Steps won the American National Book Award for fiction. Eight years later some joker had it retyped and sent the manuscript with no title and under a false name to fourteen major publishers and thirteen literary agents in the US, including ... the firm that had originally published it. Of the twenty-seven people to whom it was submitted, not one recognised that it had already been published. Moreover, all twenty-seven rejected it. All it lacked was Jerzy Kosinsky's name to create the halo effect: without the name, it was seen as an indifferent book." (pp. 28-29)

"People have an amazing capacity to remember pictures. After being shown 10,000 photographs just once they can correctly recognize almost all of them a week later. This is in marked contrast to the very poor memory for isolated words."(p. 19)

"The term 'love' was defined in an authoritative dictionary of psychology as 'a form of mental illness not yet recognised in the standard diagnostic manuals'. (p. 115) [The authoritative dictionary was written by S. Sutherland...]

Now, about those floating rocks. I have seen that pond drained. It is about knee-deep, and there are no rocks sticking up in it. What happens is that when the pond freezes over, students throw rocks out onto the ice, trying to break it. At first this doesn't succeed, and in the freeze-thaw cycles, some of the rocks get frozen to the ice. When they finally break it [that's why there are those entirely unnatural sharp edges to the ice], some of those rocks are attached to large enough pieces of ice to support them, mostly invisible under the water, and the rocks go floating around the pond. Rockbergs.

Re-examine what you see. Go over the evidence. There are floating rocks, and underground jumping rocks. More things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies.

But real. With rational explanations.


He gives citations for almost everything, but not for the Jerzy Kosinsky story. I have to wonder who that 'joker' was who re-submitted the story...

OK Kelvin, if these aren't interference patterns, what are they? Republished 2/6/2018

Photo taken in February. First published for Feb 28, 2009

My brother is a physics professor, who teaches optics. He said years ago that I couldn't be seeing interference patterns on a macroscopic scale, from light coming through a narrow crack in a door hinge.

Here, the light is coming sideways through a narrow gap between a curtain and window frame. The bands certainly look like interference patterns to me. (When I was an oceanography student, I used to watch the waves reflecting off the sides of the ship canal as I walked to school. They made interference patterns as they crossed. I also knew all the types of wave patterns I could get in a coffee cup from my hand shaking as I walked across the cafeteria.)

This is a South-facing window, and the photo was taken on 2-28-2007. It has been photoshopped only to bring out the best in the image. I think that if the light is coming sideways to the opening, you can get the effect of a very narrow slit.

Or, if these aren't interference patterns, what are they?


The vertical lines are possibly from the vertical bars on the porch railings. Although the railings are less than waist-high; the early morning sun would have to be very low down to cast light through them up to this ceiling. I don't think the sun through the trees could be that low; maybe a reflection off a pan of water?This is early morning light, by the angle, and it comes through a lot of trees, so it is often a focused beam, coming through a narrow gap between the trees, as can be seen sometimes casting wavery light through the old float glass windows. (Pictures previously published.)

Stay Warm

Lassie on heater, probably spring 2011

Doesn't she look grumpy? And she is looking down. I think someone might have been there to dispute the possession of the heater with her.  She is glaring "Don't you push me off!"

This is probably the kittens' first year, spring or early summer 2011. She doesn't have her adult color green eyes yet. And that year they were kept in the bathroom with a heater, separate from Rex. That was the year that they were all on my lap in the chair, and we were enjoying a fire in the woodstove - on June 2nd!

We had a dry December this year - bad news in case we go back to drought conditions without fully recovering from the last one. We haven't had snow yet here, but back east they are having feet of snow in a winter cyclone, and record low temperatures.

I recently asked myself, "what do you do when the power goes off?"

And the answers I immediately came up with:

What do I do when the power goes out?
I get a fire started in the wood stove, (and if it happened today I’d be cursing myself while I cleared away the clutter in front of the stove) and be sure to cook dinner over the stove before dark. And go bring in more firewood before dark. Before it rains. Or snows.
Or dye some fabric, or take a bath, or wash the dishes with the last warm water in the water heater.
Or put extra blankets on the bed, and curl up in the dark and call my mother, whose phone number was the one I knew in the dark.

Seriously. There are lots of things to do to take advantage of/survive the situation. Those with a live-in lover have another option. Why they have lots of births 9 months later in cities.

Those answers are in reverse order, most recent to oldest, of things I have actually done over the years. It depends a little on what time of year, and time of day it is. But the latest wisdom I learned several years ago, when my power was out for more than 3 days.

[That is common enough here that it is necessary to have another source of heat and cooking, and lights, handy for when it happens. The bus driver, a few blocks away, had his power out for 2 separate weeks that year.]

That time, after a couple of days I had used most of the wood I had inside, and was wading through a foot of snow carrying firewood. And the lights I had were not bright enough to see what I was doing if I had to cook dinner after dark.

I learned to bake bread the summer I turned 16, at the cabin in Northern Idaho. In a woodstove. And the little woodstove heaters don't channel heat to the top the way a cookstove does. Much harder to cook over.


The next time the power went out that year, it came on only a few hours later. But by that time I had started a fire, and heated some leftover soup, and was having dinner.


2020 Last October, 2019, PGE turned the power off 6 times -- more than 10 days off total! We all, including grocery stores, lost freezers-full of food. There wasn't any rain all month, some wind -- not necessarily where the power was off. They were doing planned maintenance.

Tablet-weaving / Card-weaving

One of my first learning projects, showing how you can make many patterns with one warp setup.

A new thing I researched and learned last year, and wrote an illustrated how-to paper on. And I really fell in love with it. The weaving process can be simple and quick (a few hours or days for a band). Or it can be very complex and time-consuming. I might not tackle those - my strength has always been to learn a simple technique, and then design complex patterns for it. And I am already doing that.

The technique is ancient (at least Roman, Viking, Anglo-Saxon, 1500BCE at Hallstatt, 1100BCE in Italy are recent discoveries), and related to weaving on the warp-weighted loom (which is at least neolithic in age). The woven bands can be very strong, "camel straps", or 1 cm wide delicate silk strips used for headbands (fillets), or clothing borders, sometimes woven-in. 

My enthusiasm for this is encouraging me to get involved again with the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), which I have always considered myself part of the community of, and make some clothing. Viking, Anglo-Saxon, 12th century London. . .

But of course, current retro/boho fashions are also the perfect place to wear these decorative bands. Wish I had run across it back in the day.


One of the things I was doing while I wasn't posting. (While I didn't have internet from home)

Partial Solar Eclipse Aug 21, 2017

Partial solar eclipse photo through the bottom of a colander

written and back-posted April 26, 2020

I would have had to drive north to see a total eclipse, it was just partial here, so I used this colander to watch the shadow cross the sun in the round spots of light that came through the round holes.

When I was a kid there was a partial eclipse, and Dad made something like a pinhole camera with a box, and aluminum foil, and a pinhole, for us to watch the spot of light.

Somewhere in the late '70s, there was a total eclipse visible in Washington. I was home at the time, and Mom and I drove halfway across the state looking for a hole in the clouds. We found one near a farm, and pulled up just as the eclipse was starting. As it darkened, Mom said the cows started 'lowing', and they moved towards the farm buildings. I think there were birds calling too, like at dusk.

The eclipse itself was spectacular too.

Totally worth traveling to see.

Lassie Had the Most Beautiful Green Eyes — January 2017

Lassie Reflected Nov 24, 2016
Written4/20/2017. First posted Oct 12, 2017

I had just noticed that again recently, as she came in the window from the balcony.

I don't know what happened to her. She had fallen off the balcony again in the fall. One of the rose pots was 8 feet away, in the bushes. Something scared her ... Maybe the great horned owls. It was still warm enough that I could lock up the other cats, and leave the door open to the top floor porch, and in the morning she had found her way in. I was thinking that next time, she could find her way home easily. ...  She seemed fine.

There were a couple of weeks, twice, when she was being unusually friendly with me. Not pushy, like in the past. Just sitting next to me on the bed, and being happy to be petted. I had to go invite her back, when she went away the first time.

I used to say"Everybody hates Lassie" because there used to be fights, and chasing away. I never knew who started it. But they aren't all friends now, as they were as kittens.

Then one day she climbed the bedspread up onto the bed instead of jumping up.

The first time I really noticed something was wrong, she didn't come running to eat with the others.

There was one last warm day in the middle of January, when I carried her out to be in the sun on the balcony again. Previous pictures out there were from November.

For a couple of days she licked the juice off canned cat food, and drank water and broth. She stayed near the heater, and I put a warm nest for her to sleep in. The last day, she was crying out. She calmed when I petted her very carefully on the back of the head.

She had swallowed a hair; that can be fatal. And then there are the 2 potentially fatal diseases, the one the kittens had, that they wouldn't have gotten if Mom's cats had had their shots, and the one that killed their father a month or so later...

Even waiting as long as possible between rainstorms for the heavy clay ground to dry, it was still very wet and heavy. Luckily a friend finished digging the hole for me, before the next rain. Next to Buddy, and with more rosemary.

Goodby Lassie. I love you.

Rexie has invented a new word in the language between people and cats 12/24/2016

Rexie on the balcony, July 12, 2015
(Written 12/24/2016. First published 2/3/2017.)

Rexie has invented a new word in *the* language between people and cat-people. Of course that language is a large part body-language, and only a little verbal. And it isn't a single language - it is a set of codes for each community of people and cats, just as individual and mutually intelligible as that between each mother and baby. (That is, not perfectly.)

Some is verbal. My cats come running when I call them, either to eat or to go out the window onto the balcony (different directions). (And sometimes to come in, if it's cold out there.) Rexie comes running to my tapping on the other window - he thinks that's his room, no sisters allowed.

But much of the communication between us is body language, stance, touch, movements. Reciprocal communication. When a cat is being petted, he/she may push against a hand, or move under a petting hand. She may tilt her head up or sideways under the hand. Or I may tug on the tip of her tail and she turns around very fast and comes back for more.

What Rexie has been doing, for about a year now, is tilting his/her head sideways, so far his forehead is vertical, sideways, one ear right above the other. It means he wants me to rub his forehead.

He does it when he's sitting so close to me, like on my chest,  that the angles I can reach him with are limited. I didn't know if he liked me to rub his forehead or not. So sometimes I did, sometimes not. And he invented a word to tell me when he wants his forehead rubbed.

Sometimes yes, sometimes not.

Oct 2017 Notice who is training who here... 
Dec 5 2017 Recently saw (online) that people can tell what their cats are saying in a recording — if-and-only-if it's their cat. Like I said, we all have our own unique set of codes. (Haven't tracked down a reference yet...)

My silence is over.

My silence is over.

I never even put up a yard sign, because I didn't want to offend anyone in this formerly(!!) very conservative rural county. We might need something from the supervisors someday. (My mother said that over 30 years ago — her college room-mate always told her not to be a doormat.)

But I will not be complicit, even by silence in the take-over of my country by right-wing haters.


My ⚐America includes everybody. It is fair to everybody.


Have you heard? VP-elect pence's temporary neighbors are putting up Rainbow Flags.

This image is available now on t-shirts, posters, a luggage tag for my back pack, at Cafepress, but also soon as a Creative Commons licensed image for all to use.