Birds!

Those birds must be having a convention or a family reunion! They are everywhere, and are now hiding in all the vines, dancing and flitting on top of all the fences, the clothesline, the laurel bushes. Everywhere. I am exhausted. I went into the bushes behind the guardin' angel and fell asleep. Alice kept watching for them. Now they are teasing her. She will sleep tonight. A man came and tuned up the furnace today. Alice tried to get in the crawl space with him. The keeper was excited because the furnace man gave her the name and phone number of his handy man, whatever that is. She has all kinds of projects and things that need fixing she says.

Speaking of fixing, we think the back yard shade garden is almost done. The keeper bought in pea gravel today to make a pathway, but still needs some more. And she wants to put a bench out where the old lilac tree is standing. She also brought river rocks for the other side yard, and now isn't sure if she likes them now that she spread them all out. But she only brought in about 1/5 of what she needs, so it may not be too late to get other rocks. We just want something soft and warm in the mornings.

The keeper also said that 50 years ago on this very day she remembers starting her first official riding lessons on a horse named Rob Roy at a riding club in Portland. She says it was one of the biggest days of her life up to that point. She says the day is still like yesterday, and Rob Roy was 16-17 hands high. A little too tall for us cats.