kittens in crowns!

it's that time again! time for kittens in crowns! our little mazikeen made some poor life choices and had five kittens! for a little half-kitten herself, she's doing a remarkable job and they are fast approaching peak cute. i'm enjoying them immensely, but will definitely find homes for them and then mazi's getting fixed. 

kittens = happiness

it may be slightly irresponsible of me not to have fixed our two mama kitties. what stops me is that they are molly's daughters, so if i fix them, there is no more of molly's line on this side of the atlantic. plus, we live on 7 hectares and we need cats around here. i also thoroughly enjoy them - taming them, making them into good pets for their eventual forever homes, photographing the hell out of them. after a long, stressful week, coming home to them brings me back to center and makes me happy. i'm a cat person, what can i say? this time, i am thinking it's time to fix freya, six kittens is a lot for one batch, even tho' it's a bit of shame since she has finally become a good mama. but, i think i will keep one of the creamy ones, just to have a little piece of molly to carry on the line.

sugar kittens

they say it's going to be a white christmas in the black hills, with snow beginning mid-afternoon on christmas eve and continuing on to christmas day. so, i leave you with visions of sugar plum snow white kittens, dancing in your heads. merry christmas, one and all.

kitten spam

kittens are like whole miniature cats!

the view (of kittens) from sunday night

my new job is just great - friendly colleagues, a good atmosphere and exciting tasks - really it's everything i could ask for. but, is it terrible that what i miss most about being away from home during the week is the cats? especially these adorable kittens. i spent my whole morning with them. they will never be cuter than they are right now, so i'm trying to enjoy every second of it.

of course, i also miss husband, but him, i can talk to and i do, sometimes even more than once a day. usually, to try to make sure he listens to the podcast of the day's korte radioavis, which is radio's answer to the daily show - current events satire at its finest. we have to discuss it every day.

i've tried to make husband put the cats on, so we can chat, but it just doesn't work. even tho' scout is a talker and i'm sure he'd talk to me if husband would just put him on. meanwhile, the kittens are growing up so fast and i'm missing it. i wonder if someone is making a smart phone for pets?

one nice thing about being away is that mail accumulates and there were a couple of packages waiting for me - my latest cathy cullis brooch and the scarf i ordered from skinny la minx months and months ago. i wonder where it was hanging out all this time? if only packages could talk.

i don't yet have a laptop, but as soon as it arrives, i will do a proper catch-up here. but now, it's time to pack for the journey back to copenhagen early tomorrow morning (thank odin for the time change). it's so good to be over there again.

* * *

what is up with all of the talk of finding your passion today and what if it's crap?

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south dakota is better than you think.

lost dream tacos

their eyes are open now. for the most part. the little white one with an orange dot on his head is a bit behind, but he's ahead of the others size-wise, so he's clearly been spending his efforts in other ways. i pinched a nerve or got something out of place in my lower back yesterday, carrying our old B&O stereo. it's very painful and i couldn't get in to see the doctor today (it's the autumn holiday and they're short-staffed), but i can get in tomorrow. so today i've been resting and trying not to do too much bending or twisting or driving, since pushing in the clutch is especially painful. i had a dream that husband tried to drive across a wide body of water where there was no bridge, expecting his car to float. it made it most of the way and only began to sink at the end. then we scrambled ashore and lo and behold, there was this guy there making the most awesome mexican food ever. i was just eating the most delicious chicken taco with charred peppers on top when scout meowed outside the window and woke me up. i've been sad about it ever since and i just can't shake the taste and smell of that food. such a vivid dream. and what with losing that delicious taco and the pain in my back (it's radiating down my left leg in occasional waves), i'm not in the best mood ever. and it strikes me that if people want to hear from me more often, they could let me hear from them more often and not just lurk on facebook. communication is a two way street. this is disjointed, i realize, but waves of back pain will do that to you. and all the cute kittens in the world don't seem to make that better. especially in the face of lost dream tacos.

charlie's latest masterpieces

our charlie outdid herself this time - having four gorgeous kittens! one looks so much like frieda, only she has white paws, then there's a little frankie tuxedo cat with white paws and lastly, two of her usual - white with spots of color (black and orange) on their heads. so sweet and wonderful! it makes us so happy to have kittens. and charlie's are always easy to find homes for. i'll admit i'm already scheming ways of keeping the little frieda look alike. i do love torties.

100 happy days :: day 93

ginny's eyes are open.

and isn't she just a little lump of pure happiness?

100 happy days :: day 84

teeny tiny kitten.
eyes almost open.
so much happy.

100 happy days :: day 78

charlie had two perfect little kittens last evening - one boy and one girl, just like last year. 

she's so proud of them!

the view from sunday night

these two precious kittens went to their new home earlier in the week. both the people in this house and their mother have missed them quite a lot. loke (now luke) and lucy - they are special cats, but they will be loved in their new home. and sometimes you just have to let go.

we have chicken weirdness at our house. ever since the fox came into our henhouse earlier in the summer, all of the remaining chickens really don't like to be in there. i had these three locked in for several weeks (there is a fenced-in outdoor area as well) and this week we got a new hen with ten half-grown chicks. then, after a day or so, i found three of the chicks pecked to death and i opened the door so everyone could go out, thinking they felt too cramped. and also thinking they would come back in at night. they did not. and they're all back up in the trees at night. we have feral chickens at our house. and husband is talking about tearing down the henhouse and starting over.

happily, we don't have feral cats, as this wild bunch is as tame and sweet as can be. one of them went to his new home as well - he was a special one, with a bit of frankie factor about him. but i also know he'll be loved and cared for very much at his new home. now there's only four to go.

games were played in the waning golden hours of indian summer sunshine. and elderflower champagne was drunk as well. and my child must have inherited her father's strong nails, as those are her real nails and they're all that long and never break. it's infuriating, actually.

i'm doing my best to enjoy the last four kittens while we have them. i haven't actually put an ad up for them yet, as i want to hold onto them for a few more weeks. they're at the cutest and most playful right now. but molly is showing signs of growing weary of them.

maybe it's because when they all want a drink, that's an awful lot of kittens and there's scarcely room for her in the chair!

the weekend also held an evening of drink & draw. we're down to four regulars and we talked about lust as a theme...lust for life, lust for food, lust for well, lust. it was 3:30 a.m. before we even realized it! and that is precisely how a friday night should be.

i found myself partaking of the garden bounty on this sunday, which seemed to stretch to all of the time that was needed...time for a batch of pear-ginger-vanilla jam with the last of the pears that the wind has blown down from the tree. and a batch of fresh raspberry scones with the next-to-last raspberries from the garden. the leaves are falling from the trees and it was a bit blustery today, but overall, it's been a gorgeous indian summery weekend. and i feel fortified for the week ahead.

* * *

does the hyperfragmentation of our lives make us bored?

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the truth about wonder woman.

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ahh...those stormtroopers.

kittens make everything better

there's a lot of crazy out there in the world. some of it is messing about in the ukraine. some of it controls an area of iraq. closer to home, some of it runs the local school. and some of it apparently buys horses for its children in denmark without putting an acceptable amount of investigation and thought into it until it's too late and then they panic and spew all that crazy in your general direction.

we sold sabin's horse matilde several months ago and apparently the new owners didn't get along with her, so they sold her on (that's their prerogative, tho' i'd have preferred to be left out of her madness). i talked to the new owner a couple of weeks ago and answered some questions she had. then today, it became apparent that that new owner didn't really get along with her either, as i was contacted by yet another new owner who apparently passed a whole new level of madness test (seriously, this horse never attracted madness before to our knowledge), tho' i didn't pick up on that at first. for one, i spell way better than she does in danish (which doesn't say all that much for her) and for another, she's a stark raving mad lunatic who, i suspect, is illiterate, because she doesn't seem to have understood a word that i wrote to her. she has morphed a one-time hoof abscess into asthma (really?) and regular massage sessions into undisclosed issues (possibly related to asthma?). unbelievable what desperate, illiterate morons with too much disposable income will get up to. and subject total strangers to.  i can only hope that this too will pass. and that i will learn from it that i should not try to help people, even when they ask for help.

thankfully, i have kittens to play with. because despite what the cat trolls say, it's ok to live in a first world country, have kittens, take good care of them, find good homes for them in the end, but love and photograph them like crazy in the meantime. kittens really can right a whole lot of what's wrong with the world.

the view from sunday night or what a week it's been

it's been a full week. there have been tiara-wearing kittens (that got a whopping 252 likes on flickr, which is the most any of my flickr photos have ever gotten).

there were days of rain, and blustery winds, but also glorious, golden light spilled through in between showers, making it ok that it went from summer to fall overnight.

there were more photo sessions with kittens, where i came to understand why they say you shouldn't try to herd cats. they are at their most lovely and irresistible right now. i'm enjoying every yummy minute of them.

there was a bit of early access to the series 12 minifigures, which won't be in stores until october (hence the blurry photo). i've got 13 of the 16 and can't wait for them to be released so i can get the other 3.

there was teenage mutant ninja turtle homework to do. i do love the kind of homework i'm asked to do at my workplace, even tho' tmnt aren't my favorites. this little spaceship was mostly an upside down build, which was new for me. it's also quite a lot sturdier than it appears, which is cool.

we harvested the last batch of honey - boosting our total harvest for the year up to 90 kilos, a much better harvest than last year. now we just need a big box of new honey jars so we can fill them up and maybe even sell some.

and when we weren't eating shark burgers, the weekend was spent discussing the school options. we visited two schools on friday and both have their own advantages. so much so that we've not had a gut feeling that one is a better choice than the other. that's been a bit difficult for me, as i normally rely on my gut to tell me things and in this case, it's told me that we should definitely find a new school, but it isn't obvious which one is the best choice. the child, on the other hand, is sure which one she wants, so pending a couple of questions tomorrow morning, we are going to go with that one - she is, after all, the one who has to make the switch. it's up to us to make the logistics of it work and to ensure that she keeps her social circle intact, as well as building a new one. that one, we're not really worried about so much. probably, we'll ultimately choose the public school, because we pay an awful lot of taxes and education is something they should just get right. and the new school gives a good impression of getting it right (of course, we're currently easy to impress in light of how bad things are at her current school).

and the weekend ended with a long walk with husband in the forest. the rainy weather has been good for mushrooms, both the edible and the photogenic kinds (these are the latter). a long walk has a way of clearing out any last vestiges of restlessness and discontent. and now i'm ready for the week ahead.

* * *

molly has been on a roll (of awesome posts) lately.

* * *

me, probably not making all that much sense, 

in danish, on the radio last wednesday evening.

talking about what danishness is.

(hint: full calendars, booking people two months ahead,

being able to talk to the boss no matter your level in the org. 

and being afraid of conflict)

* * *

i'm liking stuckinplastic

what's not to like? minifigs. life philosophies. lemonade. gratefulness.

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a heartwarming story of love that finally happened after 60 years.

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has amazon gone to the dark side?