Feast of St. Catherine of Siena

The wisteria is out of control and very beautiful, and it will probably wrap around our house by early next week at the rate it is growing. These days alternate between sun and clouds. The keeper was gone most of the day and part of the evening, so I guarded the house from the creeping wisteria. It just made me sneeze. The keeper got a package delivered with a Rashguard shirt in it and some pink water shoes. It is red and she says it is too small. It says LIFEGUARD on it. She is sending it back. I asked her what kind of rash it guarded her from. She said it was to protect her from some of the tropical sun when she does all kinds of outdoors things with her siblings. Her family, whom I have never met, are outdoor enthusiasts. I am not sure how much she is going to need that shirt if she is reading all day at the pool with a drink with a little umbrella in it. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile the keeper tried to celebrate St. Catherine's feast today. Catherine was a doctor of the church and advised the pope. From my feline perspective, I wonder how Catherine would fare today in the Vatican.

The keeper is also organizing folks to go to the big march on Saturday. I don't think she will need a Rashguard shirt there. It is supposed to be partly cloudy, with chance of showers.

Gardening and Birding

The keeper spent most of her Tuesday off working in the yard. She doesn't care if it is raining or not, now. She is driven! It is coming along, thanks to the nicest neighbor who mows the grass. The keeper has been at work mixing compost and other soil amendments and weeding and stirring all the new stuff into the old soil. She comes in smelling like a barn. I have been busy terrorizing squirrels and bird, and sneezing. My allergies are quite nasty. So I come inside before she does.

Today she went off to work all day, so there was no gardening.

Good Shepherd Monday

This is the keeper's mother's birthday. She is no longer living on this side of the heavenly curtain. But we still celebrate her life here. We spent the afternoon working in the garden even after it started raining, and it was so warm that the keeper just stayed out there, pulling weeds, mixing dirt, surrounded by the damp fragrance of the wisteria which is growing like crazy. I came in and took up a more civilized perch from the bedroom, but the keeper came in soaking wet much later, a little muddy, but very happy. She thinks that the new tulips in the front garden have finally given it a sense of wildness. And the rain made it even more dramatic.

We are finishing up the last episodes of Mad Men. The keeper says it is one of the best series ever. Deep. And as we listened to the commentaries, it was shocking that the majority of the directors were not alive during the early sixties, and so they had to really research the historical context, but they nailed it!

Good Shepherd Sunday

This is Good Shepherd Sunday! It is one of the keeper's favorite Sundays of the year. She has shepherd pictures and figures all over the house. Today was a day in which she gave pitches for funding and used the Good Shepherd image to promote it. She says they turned in lots of envelopes. She drove over 100 miles today between three parishes, and at one of them, she had to lead part of the service because the usual presider was very late. So, by the time she got home it was dark and I couldn't go out. My allergies are really bad and they don't make feline benedryl. I don't like the way the keeper tries to mix some benedryl with my food. She can not fool me. I just don't eat my food.

The keeper brought home a set of gorgeous photos of the spring all over the eastside. She said that there were mountains in the distance with a little snow on them, and the greens of the trees were tumbling into each other in every shade, and drawing drivers off to the road to gawk. And the full moon rose high over the mountain tops.

We are hoping to get outside tomorrow --the keeper wants to work in the garden and I just want to play and prowl.

Blue Jay Hunting

The keeper finally came home after being out everywhere for the last two days.

Meetings, Confirmation, Appointments. From the car's smell I know that she had been everywhere, in the country, in the city, in the rain, but she wasn't here. I was so excited when she came home tonight that she let me out and I went after the blue jay that seems to be taking over my territory. It is a really noisy bird, and the keeper caught me growling and hissing at it and it kept leaping from tree branch to post. The keeper finally caught a photo of it. And then it flew away. I know it will come back. I hope it does.

The chives are flowering and we need to harvest them.

Happy Earth Day!

The keeper brought home a cone-thing today. It looked like the tower of punishment for cats who stray from the yard. I was concerned. It looks like a laundry basket topped with a two layer cone. The keeper said she had gotten it from the city and it is called a food composter. You wrap the laundry basket in wire mesh to make it rodent proof, and you sink the laundry basket into the dirt in a sunny place. Then you take the food scraps which are not meat or dairy or fish or foul out of the white little holding basket, and put them in the cone. After 6 months you get great compost for the garden. Worms are supposed to really like it. We shall see. I am not sure what's in it for me, except that I am relieved it is not a tower of feline terror. However, I might have more birds at my disposal as they look for the worms.

Working Out

Both of us worked out tonight. The keeper huffed and puffed on her elliptical trainer for almost an hour and I chased the bird on the stick for quite some time until I couldn't breathe. I think I worked out harder than the keeper. I can leap three feet now! I am not sure she can do that.

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Translation: The keeper is always putting words in my mouth. I did this one myself. It works best if you run across the laptop several times.

Wisteria Wednesday

The wisteria has begun its sudden blossoming. Several days ago, all we had were tightly curled buds, today it is a purple fragrant mess. Sigh! Even in the misty rain!

Gift From the Sky

Here is the golf ball that fell out of the sky and bounced off the keeper's hard head!

SO far, no bird or squirrel has run off with it.

But the birds are starting to scratch and get at the suet!

Paying Our Respects

Yesterday the keeper and a friend headed down to Pioneer Square to walk and talk. They landed at FX McCory's for lunch. But, they had to pay their respects to the shell of a favorite haunt. The block looks forlorn without them, although the restaurant is still downstairs.

Exquisitude and Allergies

The flowers are exquisite, even though the gardens need work---weeding, tilling, tending. And the keeper is starting to crave garden soil. This is good. The pollen counts have been very high, and both of us are fighting our allergies.

Blue Jays Return for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

They are back! A pair of small blue jays showed up in the trees in the backyard this afternoon. They are brightest cobalt blue. But when the keeper tried to photograph them they quickly flew off. They had a lot to say, and I am wondering if they had anything to do with the keeper being hit in the head with a golf ball (no kidding) that apparently dropped out of the sky or one of the big pine trees. When she came home from St. L's she decided to finish tearing up the old big garden spot and was furiously pulling out years of dry pine needles, roots, and sticks, when the dimpled little white ball gentle plopped on her head and bounced right off of it. The golf courses are miles away and the neighbors are not golfers...so we think it is the jays. Squirrels don't play golf either.

That reminds me of the movie we saw last eve--Up. We really liked the ADHD Dog, Doug, and the prehistoric female bird, Kevin. We also liked the dogs' references to the Junior Explorer as the "little mailman." It was mostly a good movie. It could have been shorter.

Today the Church prayed one of the keeper's favorite Gospel stories--John 21- instructions on how to fish and live out of a new dimension--the other side; one question with three deepening answers---which lead to the other side...out of emptiness, abundance, out of failure, forgiveness, out of death, life. And then Fr. R gave an incredibly courageous and spot on homily about the Church and how we respond to the question "Do you love me?" and how we follow. The keeper is going to put the link here to it when it comes on line. Even this cat will read it.

Saturday Eve in the Yard

At long last she came home and I went out to make sure the rest of the neighborhood knew I was still alive. The keeper's car smelled like all kinds of roads and strange places which I will never visit. It also smelled like rain and freeway. While she worked out I did my own circuit routine, around the yard and that of the neighbors.

We are a little frustrated because the birds don't seem to like the plain suet. They want the kind with the dead insects and nuts in it. But the plain is good for them and the squirrels won't eat it. So, we will wait till the birds have their moment of insight. Meanwhile I will wait for them on the railing. The apple tree is blossoming and the pink is alluring.

"That's Amore"

Tonight after a long day inside while the sun shone and the birds and squirrels romped outside, I hoped that the keeper would let me go out and we could stay home and enjoy the evening together. But, silly me! Tonight was the " That's Amore" fundraising dinner for Cabrini Ministry Training. I was not invited. So, I stayed in and she went out again, carrying a hazelnut fudge torte. However, she did leave me a lovely bowl of bonito and tuna again, and I didn't even notice when she left.

However, when she came home, I cried until she brought out the "bird on the string and stick" and I kept leaping and twirling and catching it until I had an asthma attack and had to stop.

I am fine now.

Maybe tomorrow I can go out. Then I can sit with my catnip plants that are growing like Texas weeds and smell great! That's amore for me!

Fireball

After attending a community seminar on cultural cues which the keeper thought she could have given better than the presenters, although she liked their stories, she came home in time to catch the sun heading rather dramatically into the west. It reminded her of summer mornings as a very nearsighted child without her glasses. She named the rising fireball "God".

An Hour with Sr. Helen

Because she did some fundraising in the Latino community for CCS, they invited the keeper to a special presentation this afternoon with Sr. Helen Prejean, and for an hour or so, the keeper sat at the feet of one of the unlikely prophets of the day. She had listened to Sr. Helen before, but always in a crowd of hundreds if not thousands. Sr. Helen described her descent into her prophetic calling and the group rode the bumpy road with her into insights, regrets, and her flaming passion to abolish the death penalty. The keeper said that she should make this line a mantra to grow into: " When you get involved with the poor, controversy follows you like a hungry dog."

Veriditas Abundant

The keeper is back into the Rhineland mystical school---she tells me that the mystics talked about grace as veriditas, green and ever returning like spring. She says that when she is driving around for her work she always wants to stop the car and smell the spring and gaze at the shades of green that roll like delicious sheer waves inviting her in. I asked her if she has been into the catnip stash. Then she started reciting poetry from Gerard Manley Hopkins:

Nothing is so beautiful as spring--

When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;

Thrush's eggs look little low heavens. . .

The glassy pear tree leaves and blooms,

. . .

What is all this juice and all this joy?

A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning

In Eden garden . . .

She actually came home from the office yesterday and started turning the soil in the garden which hasn't been used for a while. The western half gets the afternoon sun, so she will plant some vegetables and other flowers in it. She got a third of it done, and knows she is a little late in her garden chores. She had to stop because I crept through the fence to the neighbor's and was surprised by a black long haired cat. We howled and hissed it up and the keeper climbed over the fence in her gardening boots and scared the cat out of its own yard. I was mortified. I had been doing quite well on my own. She did give me new designer food though. What's a bonito? It smells like fish. It was mixed with tuna.

It's Not All Play for the Cat

I know you saw the picture of me sleeping, but I want to keep the record clear, that unlike those whippets, I actually work--I have a blog to publish and I am faithful to it. If you look close, you can see my message in the photo. The keeper erased it because I think she found objectionable content. I tried to figure out how to un-delete it, but she made me get down off the desk.

Pets at Rest

The keeper had dinner with her friend Steve at his house tonight. Scout and Sunny rested through the dinner. Meanwhile, at home, Lady Alice did the same. The keeper commented that these pets all live a very privileged life. Perhaps she is correct.

Monday at Home and not in the Garden

The day was overcast, and not really cold. The flowers were hoping that the keeper would plant them, but she chose not to until tomorrow. The very wonderful neighbor, Tyler, came over to mow the lawn and add some fertilizer to it. It looks so rich now. And the smell of cut grass takes the keeper back to summer in her long ago childhood and at her high school where the smell of newly mown grass would waft through the open windows all spring. We watched The Diary of Anne Frank last eve on PBS and liked it, although the cat did run away.

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Low Sunday in the Garden

The rewards of fall planting.

Second Sunday of Eastertime--Low Sunday

Here I am, celebrating Sabbath while the keeper is rushing off to work. Since it is Low Sunday, I headed to the floor. I found that I can sleep in the woven basket and can hide behind the curtain. It was wonderful this morning because the sun was falling in and warming the basket.

Saturday of Easter Week--Barrio

The keeper finally got home about 12 hours after she left. She and her friend F went out to celebrate the end of the retreat they worked on through March and he introduced her to a great new hot spot on 12th Ave.--Barrio. Pacific NW fusion Mexican food...

They had chilaquiles and pollo adobo with mole and she had the biggest jar of agua fresca with melon, cucumber and poblano chile, and of course there were choorros and Mexican chocolate fondue for dessert! Not a lot of money either! The place was packed and the ambience was incredible. A wall of lit candles, in fact, candles everywhere! A find!

Saturday of Easter Week--Immigration Rally

Well, the keeper finally got down to the rally and said it was bitterly cold. They were hoping for 10,000 people, and maybe several thousand showed up, but it was hard to count, and people were still coming when they left at 2:30. But the Bishop E spoke and she ran into lots of friends, but very few people from the eastside. St. James had the best representation of all the Catholic groups, that was for sure. She meet some lovely Lutherans from Skagit. The downside: a woman who was a co-presider of the rally who had the most grating voice ever, and just listening to her gave the keeper a sore throat, and now she is hoarse.

Saturday of Easter Week

She left me this morning to get down to St. James to make signs for the Immigration Rally. She burnt the toast, gave me food I didn't like, and forgot her big sign and backpack on the dining room table. Perhaps she really is losing it. But she really liked the sign which this friend designed: Bring people Out of the Shadows. He even shaded the shadows. Way to go, Jose!

Friday of Easter Week

It snowed this morning at our house. Can you believe it? Obviously, the keeper wouldn't let me out. But it went away eventually and it didn't stick. The keeper was out all day--downtown at the chancery and then at her office and then home. She found the little slip from the mail person which said that she couldn't leave the Amazon box without a signature. So she raced to the post office to pick it up before it closed! She made it and brought home the box with her new Kindle,cradling it like a baby. But somewhere in the mix she lost her Blackberry and she went crazy. She cleaned the car, her purse, drove back to the post office and banged on the locked doors, hoping someone would notice. But alas, no! She was going to go back to the office to see if she left it there or dropped it in the parking lot, but stopped home to feed me, and decided to set up her laptop before she left. She opened up her bag, and, voila! guess what fell out of the little bag which stores her wireless mouse? The red phone! How did it get there? Is she losing it?

I don't think so. I think she was just excited to be leaving the office! Maybe she was excited to see me. She was very excited to see the phone. Maybe even more excited than she was to see me.

Anyway...we have a new member of the household. A Kindle...The keeper has been wanting one for over a year and saved her money to get one. It's here. Tonight we will spend time setting it up. I hopes she still pays attention to me.

Thursday of Easter Week

The keeper left for most of the day. She went all over the place and missed the traffic going and coming. That was good. She heard all about the coming frost and possible snow. So she moved all of the flowers and vegie starts she had been holding into the garage to protect them just in case. We hope it warms up soon. I can not find warm spots on the top of the hot tub or on the deck, and I am spending way too much time on my fleecy window seat.

Wednesday of Easter Week

What an Easter week! The keeper and I slept in late today and she finally got up and fed me. Lucky I didn't pass out from hunger. It's raining again. Very gray, damp, inside of vacuum cleaner bag sky. The keeper thought she was going to go out and work in the yard. But it didn't happen. She went to the nursery instead and bought fertilizer and compost, along with some vegies and flowers. She will plant them later, when it is nicer. (Hopefully, before summer is over).

She brought home these little pieces of cloth that she said is a bathing suit. She says it is for Hawaii. She says she wears a bigger size than she used to and although it's two pieces, they cover a whole lot more than they used to. She is getting ready to go to Hawaii later this spring. I wonder if I get to go. I bet not. I wonder who will take care of me. I am sure it will be someone good who will brush me and give me treats. She also told me that I could have a kitten or a new friend because she realizes I am getting lonely. I bet I will have to wait till she gets back from her trip, whenever that will be.

During this little break we watched two wonderful videos: Elsa and Fred--a Spanish-Argentinian film about a widow and widower who fall in love and come alive. Then we watched The Red Violin, an incredible film about a red violin which is 350 years old and it tells the story of those who at one time loved it--from Italy to Vienna to England to China to Montreal. Beautiful, powerful story!

We were also in the middle of conversations about the new Archbishop-elect of Los Angeles and what this appointment portends for the west coast. I don't think it will affect felines much, though.