Fall is upon us!

Picture by Mikey

The hardest part about going for a walk at lunchtime on a lovely day is coming back inside. We have been having wonderful weather for the past week, so I have restarted my lunchtime walks on the days that I have to stay late. At the moment, the rose beds around the capitol are blooming, the sun is shining - but not too strongly - and there is a lovely breeze. Ah...

I am sure I will be doing more yard work this weekend, and I will be baking sourdough bread (just getting a new starter going, let's hope it tastes good), and maybe even making applesauce. It was cold enough last night to put an extra blanket on the bed, and I could see my breath this morning when I took Miikka out to go potty. No frost yet - we are too far south for it to happen this early, I think - but cooler weather is just fine by me.

I love fall.

Weekend of Chores

I spent all day on Friday racking my brains trying to come up with something fun and exciting to do this weekend, but got nowhere. As it turned out, I needn't have bothered. It was a pretty good weekend, even without excitement. The weather was gorgeous, so I spent a couple of hours each day out in the yard, doing homeowner yard work. The back yard seems spacious, but doesn't really seem that big, until it is time to rake the leaves. That took 2 hours, and since I was foolish enough to do it in shorts, gave me a whole lot of spider bites.

On Sunday, I had to get out the ladder and get on the roof. Well, sort of. It was time to trim the crepe myrtles on the side of the garage, and the only way to see which branches needed to be trimmed was to get on the roof. Once the branches were cut down, I had to trim them all into small pieces to fit into the regulation yard waste bags. One of the last baseball games of the season was on the radio (via the handy laptop), so I had something to keep me occupied. I sort of felt like my dad - since that is a common weekend activity for him. All that was missing was the beard and baseball hat.

I also had time to do some cooking (hummus, quiche, ratatouille), shopping (nothing too exciting - groceries, pet supplies), and playing with the puppy (who, by the way, is doing nicely after his "little surgery" last week). Whew.

Still on the lookout for fun and exciting for next weekend though!

Cat holiday

The cats are enjoying a short holiday from the monster, aka Miikka. He went to the vet yesterday for his "little surgery," as the vet put it. They kept him overnight for observation, so the house has been puppy-free. Oliver and Creamsicle are currently rampaging throughout the living room. They go in there anyway, but they don't really have freedom of movement, because Miikka usually ends up chasing them around the couch. Cleo never comes into that end of the house, but we managed to get her out for a couple of minutes last night while we were watching TV. (OK, I carried her out, and she ran back into the bedroom as soon as Creamsicle approached, but still, she was out there).

Miikka gets attacked by the evil blue donut

Well, their holiday ends this afternoon, when Miikka returns. Unless he is still all dopey, I am sure he will be hyper and ready to chase some cats.