Tuning in to As the Whisker Twitches

Pretty morning light; nothing to do with the rest of this post

I was going to title this episode "It's a Start!" But after tonight, it has turned into "The Cliffhanger." 😟

Last night when I did my evening chores, Chuckie was frisky. Brian has been teasing him with twine, dragging it around to entice him to chase and pounce like Oreo was fond of doing. So after we had a snuggle session, he moved down a hay bale so he could play with the used twine in the feed sack.

When Brian went to the barn to do his chores a bit later, Chuckie had killed a big, fat MOUSE! Yay, Chuckie! (I'll spare you the gory photo; its mutilated remains were still in the barn this morning.)

Speaking of this morning, when Chuckie and I were in the barn doing chores, a ground squirrel ran from an interior corner towards the open barn door – then took a hard right and ran into the gap between the exterior barn wall and the haystack. Chuckie saw the movement and ran to investigate, but missed the last-second maneuver. I wonder if he's hunter enough to take down ground squirrels; some of them get pretty big!

Tonight we did chores later than usual after going to the Blazers Fan Fest with friends. Although I called and called, Chuckie never appeared. That's a first, and now I'm worried. Hopefully he was just hunting out of earshot; he's rubbed his way into our hearts!

Here are a couple scenes from inside the house this morning. Four of the six buds on my orchid are now open, and my beautiful best buddy still enjoys lap time. 😊

That's it for now from . . .

The Chuckie Channel

As in "All Chuckie, All the Time." Well, not all the time, but he is a compelling little subject. ;-)

This morning I was laying in bed after the alarm went off when I heard a tiny sound. I raised up, looked out the window and queried "Chuckie?" Sure enough, there he was on the steps down below that lead up to the garage door, looking for some way to get to me. By the time I got dressed and went to the great room he was waiting on the deck, so I joined him in the early morning light for some lovin'.

Later, I called his name as I headed to the barn and he came running down the driveway after me.

While I carried food and water to the various dependents, Chuckie sharpened his claws and checked out the (stinky!) fly trap. I checked on Madam Spider, whose web has changed significantly in one day.

Yesterday

Today

After chores I sat down on the back of our "firewood trailer," which Rick currently has parked on the driveway to the barn. This signals snuggle time to Chuckie, who jumps in my lap to rub and purr.

But he is still a kitten, so before long he gets the itch to be ornery.

I declined to be disemboweled and set him on the ground, so he promptly attacked my leg!

With that I bid him adieu and headed for the house. He stopped me by jumping up on the railing and looking adorable, natch.

Tune in next time for "As the Whisker Twitches."

That's it for tonight from The Chuckie Channel, er, uh . . .

Hump day

Yesterday I watered the garden to keep things going through this warm spell. The hose leaks a bit at the connection to the spigot, which waters the New York asters.

Last night there was no color to speak of on the western horizon, but the eastern sky looked like a subtle sunrise.

Today I picked a bucket of apples and made another batch of applesauce.

While I was working, I heard some sort of engine noise getting closer and louder – alarmingly so. We are getting more and more air traffic over our hill so I moved towards a window to see what might be flying so low, and a truck roared by in a cloud of lime! I slammed windows shut before I grabbed my phone; he was moving so fast that he was already at the bottom of the lot next to us by the time I snapped the first photo. But that was just the first pass, so I got several opportunities. 😣

Good thing there was some serenity INside the house!

That's it for now from . . .

The old guard and the new

We're headed into the 80s today and the next several days, but that's okay because the nights are deliciously cool and more rain and 70s are in the seven-day forecast. With that promising scenario I will take my cue from the dogs and enjoy the sun.

Chuckie isn't into laying around; he's an active teenager with the same long, lean build as my DS's. Boulderneigh is his jungle gym, and we are his staff. Last night he followed me up the the garage after chores, where Rick was working on the manure spreader. This morning he met Brian at the garage door when he went out to do chores. I'm pretty sure he thinks he should have full access to the house as part of his new domain. No chance of that, Mr. What'sALitterBox! This morning I moved his food and water out of the tack room (we've been leaving the door open since that was familiar space), cleaned out some of his mess, and shut the door.

I almost forgot to share this photo of my repotted orchids. Incahoots did a beautiful job and charged me a pittance; when my blooming beauty needs a fresh start it will go in for the same treatment!

This morning I harvested a zucchini and some tomatoes from the garden; I'll go up later for basil and parsley to make 'Green Goddess Pasta' for supper. On Friday I'll harvest rhubarb. This coming Saturday evening we are having our annual "Apple Crisp" musical vespers at church (musical selections from members followed by a dessert potluck); I always bring rhubarb crisp as I find many apple crisp recipes cloyingly sweet – and variety adds spice to life!

That's it for now from . . .

Humble pie

My recent success with the hummingbird photos was offset by my abject failure in capturing good pictures of Chuckie today or the beautiful moon tonight. But that's okay; I enjoyed the moon (hope you got to as well!) and was just happy that Chuckie stuck around. When I went down to the barn this evening I called and called with no response, the first time that's happened. I was almost done with chores before he rocketed off the hay stack. Not sure that's where he had been the whole time; he acted more like he had come bounding in from elsewhere. I spent plenty of time letting him know how glad I was to see him.

So no photos to share from today, but I do have several from Friday that got shoved aside over the excitement of Chuckie's release. That was the last morning with an interesting, if subtle, sunrise:

There was also a spectacular spider and web down at the shed:

The sheepy girls got to sample the newly greening grass:

And I skirted a fleece:

Wait – what? A fleece? Yep, I found one in a bin in the barn. At first I couldn't figure out whose it was, but after getting the hefty thing on the skirting table, it was clear that it came from Bart. This is his last fleece, from 2016. Wow; I just searched through my blog to confirm when we lost him and was reminded how bad 2016 and 2017 were for this shepherd. Seems like it's been a lot longer since those five sheep were part of my little flock; time does march on and life crowds more stuff in.

Anyway, if you're interested in Bart's fleece, email me using the link at right. If there's no response here, I'll post it on Ravelry.

Good night from . . .