ruby crowned kinglette

it turns out, cats are not so horrible....

ok, so did i mention that i am kitty cat sitting? i am. i am also a dog person; heart and soul.  but this is what i learned in the last few days...

cats aren't half bad.

and this one?  she is almost care free.  if i let her out before work, she will hunt birds and mice {ok, rats} and i end up not having to worry about putting any food out for her at all.  and then, because she is out, i don't have to worry about the cat box either. totally taken care of.  she has a little fountain of water, but i have a bird bath outside and that seems to have kept her pretty busy and quenched, so i am good there too.

i have had to lock her inside overnight though, the first night with all the kitty screams from the alley i had a terrible night's sleep, so she is in for evenings...  that big tom cat she met the first night will just have to come around during the daylight hours... and, soon enough he can come by to visit his offspring - because it turns out - this little kitty is a bit of a slut.

she looks so unassuming, doesn't she?

or does she?

she did tell me that issaquah is a kind of quite and, while she can, she would like to see a bit of the big city.... who am i to deny her that?

summer has arrived in the pacific northwest.... finally

and it took it's sweet time too... it still isn't summery warm yet, but the sun has shown for more than two hours at a time and i am happy to report that there is blue sky above us - a fact that i wasn't so certain of a week or so ago. 

in my zeal for summer, i did what i have needed to do for a year or so..... i weeded and got my back yard/patio area ready to go, you know.... for summer.

i cleaned the water fountain of all it's slimy grime and it was bubbling away attracting little birdies within about 5 minutes.... i gotta say, just that alone made the effort worthwhile.

i weeded the side area and pulled down just about all of the just-now-flowering clematis.  it had to be done. it was one big hump of growth, not doing at all what i wanted it to do, so... i am starting over with it.  while back there it was hard to ignore the light shining through the vine maple... lovely isn't it?

i didn't go berserk and pull all the new garden plants. plants planted by the odd ant or bird or wind gust.  this fern - probably a huge sword fern - is so pretty right now.  i am sure one day i will regret not pulling it, but until then i am going to enjoy it's new green growth and the lovely shadows it cast.

i also went to work bright and early - before we opened - and bought myself 4 chairs for the back and have already used them to hold me up while a friend and i had a dinner of swiss chard omelet and a green salad with a nice red wine. and, then, the next morning while i ate breakfast. 

i am filled with summer-is-finally-here joy. now, i hope it doesn't get too hot, i hate the heat....

i am not doing nothing....

over here i have a couple things....  and lots of things in my head, always lots of things in my head....

she said to make a lot...., so i did

 

she didn’t say to eat cheese from the floor, but i did that too.

oh, yes i did.

it was a big, beautiful cube of buffalo milk mozzarella, and in my haste to transfer those cubes from the cutting board to the baking dish one slipped away.  i wish i had mopped the floor like i had meant to this morning… but, i did sweep. in that fraction of a second as the cheese dropped to the floor i gasped, cursed and began my count to five. it hit with a splat of moist, creamy goodness, and this is what i thought... ‘at least i am not tossing it back into the baking dish'...  a moment later it was gone.

it was delicious.

molly, at orangette, posted about baked pasta today and today baked pasta sounded really, really good. it is a cold and blustery day here.  it has been cold and blustery for a few days now. it hasn't been warm here for very many days now. i am willing to bet that we did not crest above 60 degrees today and it rained like crazy, too.  i am willing to bet {again} that the rain was in fact the tears of more than two million western washingtonians weeping because although the calendar says june, it really feels like march. and has felt like march since.... MARCH!

i didn't have basil, so i used some baby spinach i bought at the farmer's market last week.  it was tiny, tender and delightful.  and, i think i could have used quite a bit more... but what i did use tasted wonderful.

so then, i am going to go now. the lights are flickering and i am a little bit nervous... i have lost connection to the internets twice causing my first draft of this to disappear. i can't risk that again, because... well, i might go berserk.  so, some housework, maybe some needlework by a fire and quite possibly a little snow shoveling in the early morning.  that last part? that better be an exaggeration.

it was june first yesterday

and june first is the first day of 'a collaboration'.

alice and i received our first word yesterday.  we also developed a web site for the whole shootin' match. well, really alice did all the work while i just kept needling her with suggestions. we will continue our conversation about the project over there.  just like you could do last week, you will be able to see for yourselves how many expletives creep into my communications, how many errors in grammar go undetected and how funny we can be... hopefully.  oh, and you will be able to see our work as it progresses through the year as well.

i hope you will all enjoy this little adventure as much as we already have.