Spring Blessings

If you are a purist about quilting blogs, then skip off to the next blog on your list, for here there is very little quilty today.
It was the penultimate late spring day full of all the blessings of the season. I wish we had smell-o-vision for you to sit on the deck as the mild tempered breezes waft their scent towards you from a wall of climbing roses.

To give you a sense of how tall these common climbers have grown, here is a reference shot of an peach tree  beside them.

 

This is the back yard, fenced for Raven's safety against the traffic on Route 140. Raven has had a great deal of unfettered curiosity about these kitties! When she must pass through the garage to use the dogyard, there are high tensions on both sides of the canine-to-feline worlds.

This evening at dusk, the kittens had decided to explore a bit of the great big world of outdoors when Raven came bumbling through and was startled to see them in the tall grass. The kittens squeaked and practically jumped out of their furry little skins they were so afraid. They ran at top speed back into the garage to the safety of the dark caverns of underneath the old stored furniture there. Whew! 

I stopped Raven from chasing them, but she would have gone as fast as her old arthritic bones might allow. 

Earlier in the day, I snapped some snack and nap times.

This group photo lasted a nano-second, but it shows all four babies. If the sex-linked tricolor rule is applied, there are three girls and one boy (on the far right, he is all tiger stripes with no white).

I had quite a surprise when Spooky deliberately rubbed her head against my wrist as I was putting out food and milk today and yesterday. I gave her a polite but cautious response of a very brief rub of where she had touched me.

I want to thank my dear blogger friend, Nann, for helping me to identify Spooky and her litter as Abyssinian cats as per PetMD's website.
The only way that I can tell the kittens apart is to look carefully at their noses. In the shot above, from left to right, is Spooky, the mother cat, then Tiger, who has no white on him at all, then Blossom (or Pinkie), then Tipper (with the tiny spot of black on the tip of her nose), and last is Tanner, who has a tan nose but has a white bib. My anti-cat husband groaned to hear me name them all, LOL!

Most of these cats run and scatter when they hear me coming. I've learned that it helps calm them for me to hum little old lullabyes and talk out loud soothingly. Spooky's favorite sound is me unscrewing the plastic cap from the milk jug.

My clematis needs retying onto the trellis, and the field daisies that I stole from the highway slopes are a joy to view!

But if you'd really like to lower your blood pressure, just gaze at this image of a quintessential cat nap, compliments of Tipper.

Happy sewing!