Crow, cat; a quick post

They're both black.

Crow on a windy beach. All black, even the "whites" of his eyes.

Same crow, waiting for a handout.

And Chia the cat. The "white" of her eyes is yellow.

Tomorrow, a caterpillar bed, I think.

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Un cuervo, y la gatita, "Chia"; en la categoría de "Cosas negras".

Cozy

Another rainy, windy, cold day. A good day to stay in the warm. With company.

Corsa, half asleep in her chair.

She's not my cat, but she comes by every day. And when it's cold outside, she curls up in her favourite chair and takes a long nap.

She knows she's gorgeous.

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Otro dia de lluvia y viento, muy frio. Un buen dia para quedarse tranquilamente en casa. Y tuve visita.

Se llama Corsa. No es mi gata, pero pasa todos los dias a saludarnos. Y cuando hace frio, se acurruca en su silla favorita y se dispone a dormir.

Sabe por cierto que es bella.

Staying dry

Another normal slow BC day. Dawn was beautiful, with an orange sky and then warm sunshine. I was just getting ready to go out when it started to rain. I waited, and it rained harder. Then the wind picked up and blew the rain sideways. I stayed home and sorted old photos.

Corsa, my landlords' cat, sleeping on my chair in the warm. Last January.

According to the weather people, this time it will stop raining in the morning. Do I believe them? Should I?

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Otro dia lento, lluvioso. Lo acostumbrado para este clima y esta temporada. En la madrugada, el cielo se pintaba de un color anaranjado vibrante; luego el sol impartía un poco de calor. Me estaba cambiando para salir cuando empezó a llover. Esperé un rato, y la lluvia se hizo fuerte. Se levantó un viento fuerte que empujó la lluvia horizontalmente. Me quedé en casa otra vez, revisando fotos viejas.

Esta es la gata de los dueños de mi casa, en enero de este año, aprovechándose de mi silla acojinada, en lo seco.

Según dicen los meteorológicos esta vez, dejará de llover en la mañana. No sé si les creo o no.

What's for dinner?

She's not even my cat; just comes in to visit. But she likes my Mexican rice pot.

Thanks! Just my size! she says.

Little Miss Mischief

I'm babysitting again. A handful of kitten.

"Costa"

Within fifteen minutes of arriving, she had eaten Chia's food, found the basket of toys and chosen one, and discovered Chia's basket. A few minutes later, she was killing Chia's sock full of catnip. Now she sleeps in Chia's bed.

Chia is not happy.

Short nap on the bookcase before she thinks of more mischief.

She has spent the evening trying to reprogram my computer. Managed to change the screen saver and call up an accessory I've never even seen.

Genius! Evil genius, that is.

And she looks so innocent!

In a supervisory capacity

She takes her work extremely seriously.

Chia, keeping me on my toes.

Cat in a rainy window

And she is not happy with me.

"Ok, that's enough water; turn it off now!"

Photobomb

Because my priorities are sadly askew.

"Hey, who's important around here, limpets, or ME?"

Perfect fit

(Catblogging interlude)

Cats always know how to make themselves comfortable.

Chia in her favourite spot.

After the kitten dumped three breakable ornaments off the table, I gave up and put an old basket there. She adopted it right away.

The pink "blanket" is a sweater that I foolishly left draped over a chair back. Chia dragged it up to line her bed.

I had forgotten what it's like to live with a kitten. My last cat adopted me when he was already middle-aged, and lived a good, long life. A good, long, peaceful life. Chia is only peaceful when she's sleeping.

But she's good company when she's awake; we have interesting conversations. For example:

Me: Why are there shreds of something pink all over the carpet I just vacuumed?

Chia: Mrrrow?

Me: Good question, eh? Do you know anything about this?

Chia: Yawns, stretches, wanders off to the next room. Comes back dragging the remains of a sock.

Me: Oh. Good thing I found the other slipper, then, isn't it.

Chia: Mmmmmm. Drags the sock into a safe corner under a chair, shakes it a bit - just a warning to behave - then rushes out to attack the vicious monster lurking behind the mirror. I am well protected.

The dog ate my homework.

Or the cat-minder's equivalent: the kitten walked on my keyboard and scrambled the commands for my photo-processing program.  It took her a couple of seconds, and me a couple of hours to fix it.

So, no worms tonight. Well, maybe one.

Flatworm on a rock, with eggs.

More worms tomorrow, kitten permitting.

Golden

I went for a walk at sunset to catch the warm light on neighbourhood flowers, and found a cat who carries the glow in her face, even with her back to the sun.

Marmalade eyes.

And a selfie.

Flowers at sunset, tomorrow.

The watchers

Watching me watching them at Cougar Creek.

Canada goose, with the sky through the trees in his eye. (Click to zoom in,)

Yellow-eyed cat, soaking up sunshine.

Mother and ducklings. "Mommy!" says the little one on the left, "There's someone in our creek!"

Which there was, since I'd already fallen through a hole and was up to my knees in mud. A bit more would never hurt.

All the colours of the rainbow

It stopped raining. The sun showed up to work. While I went out and tidied the garden, Laurie took my pocket camera and went for a walk. He found a yard full of crocuses, purple, yellow, and deep, deep blue.

About time!

A hermit crab went out, too. Outside the tank, at least.

"Can't eat this green stuff. Put me back!"

And the cat stayed home and did what cats do.

Antique Japanese ceramic cat. Sleeps 24/7/365.

(I was trying out a new lens, 85 mm. Good for sneaking up on bugs without scaring them off.)

Strathcona wildlife

They promised us rain all week, but sunshine for the weekend. What we got was sunshine all week, but Saturday it alternately snowed, hailed, rained, and threatened more of the same, or worse. Neither of us felt like going beachcombing, as we had hoped.

A good day to stay home and get some more work done. Laurie cooked; I sorted and cleaned out half a year's worth of photos. In the last two days, I've managed to delete almost 10 Gigabytes of duplicates, copies of duplicates, copies of copies ... It feels good.

In the evening, when my eyes were burning, and my stick-to-it-iveness was just about dead, I ran across a folder labelled "Strathcona wildlife". It made me laugh, and gave me energy for another hour of work. So I'm passing it on.

These are from street scenes, walking around Strathcona when I was housesitting there.

Have to start with a cat.

Driveway guardian

Tree snake

Lost in a gravel wasteland. And so hard on her tender toesies!

In a window, with reflections. Deer and lizards. (Well, the remains of deer.)

Maybe the sun will shine tomorrow. I can always hope.

Backyard cat

I love those eyes!

Beach Grove watch cat.

Foot-washing team

These little ones have been coming for a drink just before dawn recently.

7:23 AM.

Even when there are no clear photos, I know they've been here, because they always wash their muddy feet in the drinking water. Which may account for the disgusted look on the orange cat's face.

7:34 AM, same day. Wet raccoon footprints lead off to the left.

Choice location

Nothing better than a sunny car roof on a cold day.

Cat with yellow-green eyes, Beach Grove

Sometimes I wonder what they're thinking.

From my store of forgotten photos. October, 2009

Warm and dry ...

... and thinking of people on the East coast.

Stay safe, everyone!

Beware of The Cat!

Another midnight visitor, captured with the BirdCam; a cat with laser eyes.

Chasing a moth, maybe?

Greendale afternoon

We were in Greendale for a family wedding at my daughter's wedding chapel. I kept myself busy between events, taking photos of the kids. Laurie wandered about, checking out the garden, watching the sun set. These are a few of his photos.

Crocosomia, shedding petals

A tangle of daisies

Hydrangea and rail fence

Busy napping

Sparrow on a wire

Light fading on the neighbour's farmhouse, pink on the clouds and mountain peaks.

More warm light

Mountains southeast of Chilliwack

Darkening clouds over the chapel bell tower.

And one of mine:

Cousins, collecting tiny flowers to refill the flower girl's basket. (After the ceremony.)

The bride was beautiful, the groom beaming, the parents proud. The weather behaved itself; not too hot, not too damp, not raining; we were able to eat dinner in the chapel gardens. But the mosquitoes -- ahh! the mosquitoes! -- they were plentiful, and bloodthirsty! It's been a bad year for them at that end of the Fraser Valley. And by the time I found the Off, both bottles were empty.