StrangeRanger

It's been a minute...

We've had a few busy weeks here at ChezRanger.  Well, a couple were busy and one, at least, was kinda bleh.  We hope we're over the bleh, but busy should be the watchword here during the spring planting season.  We've gotten a large portion of the gardens in but still have a ways to go.  

Our back woodland shade garden has popped up.

The woodland phlox and solomon's seal have put on their usual show, with a special guest appearance by our assortment of violets.

We had an unusual visitor to the yard the other week. (trigger warning to da tabbies:  BIRD)

This guy is a Northern Flicker.  He's a woodpecker!  I've know we have them in the neighborhood.  I've heard them time and again, but I almost never see them.  And here this guy is in my yard!

He's got that bright red patch on the back of his head.  Most striking!  It seems that Flickers are comfortable feeding on the ground as well as headbanging on the trees.

I'm just thrilled that I actually saw a woodpecker.  It was a neat experience.

Daisy was less than impressed.

I. Am. Ignoring. The. Bird.

She may be ignoring the bird, but she is beautiful doing it.

Have a great week ahead, all!

Happy Easter to All!

It's funny, I have Christmas pics and Thanksgiving pics, summer pics and winter pics, trip pics and home pics, but I have very few, if any, Easter pics.  Currently, daisy is enjoying her basement crawl-space so I'm not likely to be able to add an Easter pic today... I do have an Easter flower pic, taken back in 2012.

The yellow flowers in the foreground are Wood Poppies. The heavenly smelling periwinkle cloud in the the background is Woodland Phlox.  We've still got them, too.  They seem happy with our little urban woodland, and we're very happy with them!

It can be a lovely little garden.

Here's a pic from the time around Daisy's first Easter with us.

Okay, I'ma hide under here tonight, and when da bunny comes to drop off the eggs, I'ma leap out and grab him and swat him nom him! hard!!  A lot!!!

Daisy, for all of her dainty good looks, is really just a classic ambush predator.  I wouldn't have her any other way.

We wish you all a very Happy Easter and a great week ahead!

Hoping for a calm, quiet day

We've been busy this week.  Gardening supplies have been purchased and hauled up the front steps.  The garden has been partially put in, some new block and board plant stands have been added to the north 40.  In a new move for us, we've got a small raised bed in the nearby community garden and have put some plants in there.  Got some of the back wildflower shade-garden cleaned up, too, but there is still a long ways to go back there. 

LadyRanger and I have both done harder duties, but it's somewhat tiring.  We're happy about the way it's gone, but it's been tiring.

We're hoping to have a peaceful, calm, restful sort of day before we have to finish setting things up this coming week.

As you may have guessed, peaceful, calm and restful are not adjectives that often apply to our little, gray force of nature.

I haven't knocked priceless stuff off the mantle in months, now....hmmmm......

In truth, sometimes Daisy can be quite relaxed.  

I need a new book.  These were all boring....

I hope you find good books for yourselves!  Have a great week!

Special Guest Creature

I just happened to idly glance out of the kitchen window a few days ago and spotted a visitor to our side yard.

That's right!  100% all-American Bunny!

He hopped around for a bit, eating the seeded tassels from our over-long grass.  He seemed to be very much at his ease as he enjoyed our summer evening.

Daisy's reaction?

Wait...who let him on my yard?

Thumper did not seem to be upset by the predator stalking him...

Go ahead....make my day.

Thumper lingered for a while and ambled out of sight.  It may be a while before he comes back.  Went out and mowed the other day.  Not so many enticing plant parts now.  As long as he stays away from our tomatoes, though, he's welcome back whenever he wants to show up.

I think Daisy was a wee bit jealous of the attention we were giving our bunny.  She decided to do this later on:

You like cute bunnies?  See, I can be cute like a bunny!  I can hop in a hole?  See?

I can even <oof> come out <urg> the other side <enh> of the hole!

Perhaps she's outgrown her kitten-sized S-ramp......

WE did make sure that she knows we love her just the way she is, little non-bunny ears and all.  She's a wonderful little gray cat.

Then why can't I eat your sandwich?

Some things we're still working on....but she is wonderful.
 

Miscellanous

It's been a while since my last posting.  Much has occurred since.  Not cats, but much.

A new furnace (ouch!), possibility of a new roof (oucher!!), general repairs, refits and reconditionings.  Let me say one word as it regards our bank account:  hemorrhage.  Not been a pretty sight, but at least we've had it saved up.  It has been the topic of much grim conversation here at ChezRanger.

Anyways, on to more cheerful subjects.

Cat.

I've introduced you to Puddin' 2.0, and used a picture of the southern end of a northbound cat to do it.  I can now remedy that.

Here she is!  A lovely, talkative sweetie.  The next pic is of poor quality, but it gives you a sense of her face.

Eager and interested in the outside world.  

And now (because it really needs a separate introduction)...the tail:

Is that somethin' or is that somethin'??  That's Ed, her human.  It's quite common to see them out together in the nice weather.  When it's time to go in, Ed scoops her up and carries her like a football back to the house.

It's been spring here for a week or two.

That means our veronica is blooming, along with our dandelions. (note:  I have no idea how this pic will turn out.  It's about my first pic on the new phone and I am ignorant of how best to work it)

And since it's spring, nay...Easter, LadyRanger and I had one of our fave dinners to celebrate: Morroccan Fish Stew with Harissa.

Yummy to the nth degree.  We use ancho chilles in our harissa and it is all about flavor, not heat.  Purists will scoff, but we like it.

We hope you are all doing well.  Happy Easter!

Good, Better, Best

It's been a pretty good week here at ChezRanger.  The good news?

The raised garden, our first attempt at something radical, is going great guns.  The tomatoes are promising to delver a bumper crop and the basil is looking thick and healthy.  Now, if only we could find out what sort of plant would grow fresh buffalo mozzarella we could really make this a caprese garden!

The better news?

 

Our neighbor-cat Matilda, or 'Puddin-cat' as her human calls her, still comes out for salads and takes her ease in the little lawn between our two places.  She's a friendly, smart, personable beast and we're happy she knows us as friends.

The best news?

 

No. I'm not playing until you apologize.  And take this blasted mousie off my head.  Now.

That's right.  We took Maddie to the vet on Thursday for her annual geriatric cat visit.  

Seriously.  I mean it.  As God is my witness.

We'd hoped it would be an easier visit.  We, at the vet's recommendation, had doubled the dose of diazapan (kitty valium) we give her before visits.  Looked to be going well.  Until we put her in the carrier.  Until we got to the vet.

You would not believe the fuss and fight.  You know the old adage about bringing a knife to a gunfight?  Heck, all I need to do is bring this cat and I'm the winner of anything short of global thermonuclear war.  

The vet, the sainted Dr. G., warned by Maddie's explosive hissing from the moment the doc entered the room, suggested that we might want to wait in the lobby, since some difficult cats did better if there humans weren't in the room.  We walked out to the lobby and chatted with a lady whose cat was also in for a visit (and who was meowing loudly in the carrier at her feet).  There were several conversations going on the the lobby as well.  

AND WE COULD STILL HEAR MADDIE YOWLING AND SCREAMING AND SPITTING THROUGH THE CLOSED DOOR.

A wee bit disconcerting.  And we knew the doc was only drawing blood.  The exam took about 4 minutes.  When we were called back in Maddie was in her (closed and secured) carrier and the (shaken, pale) assistants were on their way out.  Dr. G told us there were no obvious problems, although she did not check Maddie's teeth, and when to call for the test results and we beat feet on home.

Turns out that Maddie is a very healthy cat! (this is the "best news" part)  All her blood values are good and she obviously has lots of 'get up and claw'.  We worked on assuaging Maddie's feelings with turkey and Laughing Cow spreadable cheese.  And lots of apologies.  We'd take her to the vet again, though, to get the sort of good results we got this time.  With even more valium.  And maybe some for us.

Egads.

Playful

For all that Maddie is going on 13 years old, she is still quite an energetic cat.  She enjoys a good play.  The big problem is that she gets tired of the toys we have around.  We think that once she beats the game, she wants a new one.  A few toys have kept their lustre, though.  Chief among them is her Nip-a-rang.  Now, she often plays with it on her own, but she seems to have the most fun when one of us plays with her.

Hey!  Hello?  This toy isn't going to shake itself at me, y'know!!

If I've got important human stuff to do, I get this look.

You are *so* slow....

And then the meowing starts.  And the twining about the ankles.  Of course we know why cats walk 'round our ankles, don't we?

Oh good!  Now that you're down here, you can PLAY WITH ME!   And stop whining.  It didn't hurt that much, you big baby.

And then we play.

This being spring, we've a few more animals hanging around the house.  No guest cats yet, though there are a few in the wider neighborhood.  The most notable new critters are these:

We have a family of Robins nesting on our back porch.

We try to give them their space.  And keep Maddie indoors.  Though I'm not sure she'd know what to do with baby birds if she got 'em.  She's kind of a princess that way.

37

To continue my recent string of Number-titled posts:  37.  That's the temperature here.  Coupled with pouring down rain and a stiff breeze.  An ugly, ugly day.  But hey, it's March.  And March in N.C. is unpredictable, at best.  A few days ago, 60 degrees, sunny and lovely.  The spring flowers are coming out, too.

 

This is one of my favorites:  Speedwell.  It's a species of veronica.  

Lovely little flower, isn't it?

Anyways, the weather is NOT like this today.  Grim, chilly and wet.  We've got the fire built in the fire-place and look forward to not going out.  Maddie, though, is having sun-puddle withdrawal.  How does she cope?

That's right.  Sadly, she turns to drink.  Straight moonshine in that glass (I'm sure it would be vodka if she were a Siberian Forest Cat).  We've suggested counselling, but she's having none of it.  She suggests getting the sun turned back on.  When the rain stops and she's napping in the sun, I'm hiding the bottle.

Once again...

...the old Roman recipe for mac and cheese has done me in.

Wow!  It's good. 

Quite restorative after 45 vigorous minutes cleaning up the garden:
note:  old pic.  The garden doesn't look like this yet, but it will in a month.

Maddie, of course, was helpfully supervising.  From a window that doesn't have a view of the back garden.  But supervising nonetheless.  And come dinner time, she was seated and ready to eat!

Oh Boy!! is that TURKEY?!?  No??  rats.

The Advent of Summer

For me, the advent of summer is a precise day.  I'm a teacher, and summer begins when my students leave.  Pretty classic.  I am, sometimes, thought well enough of to receive a parting gift.  Here's Maddie investigating this year's most memorable:

Yep.  A solar powered dancing flower.  Maddie hasn't figured out the solar part.  She in interested by the movement, but then sits blocking the sun so it stops moving.  She's smart, though.  I think she'll get it.

Wait.  What?

Enough of this foolishness.  My sun calls to me!  I shall enjoy it from the back of my couch!

And off she goes.  The advent of summer also brings with it another signal delight.  The garden.  LadyRanger has always led the charge into the backyard, and has always had wonderful results.  We've already harvested our first tomato:

We've enjoyed our lovely hydrangea:

Our Rose of Sharon is lighting up nicely, too.

Got to love the garden.

Of course, with such wild beauty (only 50 yards away from an interstate highway) we do have to be on the lookout for dangerous wild animals.

Even if they are not cougars.  Take a look.  There's a video at the bottom of the story from KVAL in Salem Oregon.  Turns out that it might be one of Maddie's relatives scaring the neighbors.  Not much of a chance of that here....

Oh, go hang...I'm comfortable...

Have a good week everyone.