daily delight - february 27

you might think that the molly dolly in the sunshine is today's delight. and she does delight me daily. but today's delight was something unexpected and hard to photograph. it was a phone call. i'm not normally that thrilled by phone calls, but this one was very nice. it was a great opportunity to talk through the recent strife in our little creative group and i felt immeasurably better afterwards. she managed to put things in perspective for me and i understood what happened a whole lot better. 

these are such strange times. we're all more vulnerable and fragile than usual. we take things harder and more personally. or at least i did this week. it was a stressful week. very intense. things moved quickly and i worked some really long days. it was both exhilarating and exhausting. energy-giving and energy-draining. things can be two things at once, even seemingly opposite things. we can be happy and sad. we can be disappointed and surprised. we can be curious and unable to understand. and people usually reveal themselves in so many ways and yet we can still be blind to them. we all both hide and give away more than we imagine. and it's human. and as bewildering as it may sometimes be, it's also delightful.

daily delights - february 11

molly, true to her minnesota roots, loves the snow. she's playful and energetic when it's snowy out, but she does also want to come inside and get warmed up and she's been spending the afternoons asleep on a fleece on a chair in the kitchen. she's still my best and favorite cat, even if she mostly wants to be outside. i think i love her most because she's so much her own - a little independent spirit - compact, fuzzy and perfect. and definitely not only today's delight. 

the view from sunday night

did you know that until this week, i'd never been to brussels? since i've started my new job, i've added two countries i'd not visited before - poland and belgium. i do hope things continue along those lines.

it's very exciting and wonderful to travel, but i miss writing on a daily basis like in the old days (read: five years ago). i find i get a congested feeling, not processing all of these experiences through my fingers and onto the page. i definitely need to find my way back to that. it feels like time has accelerated and i just don't have the same time to sit down and write that i once did. and i miss it a great deal.

but today, with glorious sunshine at last, i didn't manage it either (until now), despite my head spilling over with words that want to find their way out my fingers, thoughts that need to be processed. instead, i used my fingers to plant tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in the greenhouse, as well as starting broad beans, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes and kale. may 1 sounds late to start things, but it's been such a cold spring, they'd never have survived before this, not even in the greenhouse. but planting feels important as well and it's time i get with my precious molly, who is a garden kitty. she loves when i'm working in the garden, it's the one thing that visibly makes her happy.

i guess one of the reasons i've been writing less is that i'm working more on getting in touch with my body. my autumn back problems were a real wake-up call. i feel like it happened because i'd neglected the physical side of my being for years. i'm not sure i've ever actually been in touch with my body or really listened to how it's doing. when i'm in copenhagen, i go to yoga nearly every evening, so i'm working very diligently on getting in touch with my body. and trying to learn to listen to it. and it's not easy. while i'm holding a yoga position and i'm supposed to be concentrating on it, i find it hard to keep my mind from wandering off to lists of things to do, emails to write, photos to upload. but i love the feeling that my body is getting stronger and more reliable and i'm learning, slowly but surely, to listen to it and let it be the boss once in awhile, rather than living entirely in my head. it's about finding a balance. i'm not there yet, but i'm practicing.

the past week has been full of wonderful experiences and conversations. getting to know one of my new colleagues, who i really click with, and laughing a lot and buying plenty of belgian chocolate with her. getting together with an old friend and having a wonderful catch-up and deep philosophical discussion over good food. that evening made husband and i think about the way our relationship works and gave both of us a genuine (and thankfully positive) experience of seeing ourselves through someone else's eyes and coming to new appreciation for our relationship. then, a party full of music, dancing and good food in the heart of copenhagen. and today, seeing husband taking his first steps as a politician and candidate for the city council and then enjoying some hours of sunshine in the garden, preparing to grow food to nourish our bodies in the months ahead.

i just have a rich sense that it's all interconnected. i need both mind and body and awareness of both. i need travel to inspire me. i need deep conversations, wine and good food. and i need physical time with the soil and the cats and some sunshine and podcasts in my ears. put it all together, add a little time to write about it and i am filled up and ready for the week ahead. it holds a workshop and meeting a lot of new people. and they promise sunshine. what more can one ask? a couple of days off at the end of the week? go on then, i'll take those too.

enjoy the week ahead, one and all. you never know what's in store!

wordless wednesday :: moody miss molly

100 happy days :: day 96

sunshine at last.

man, have i missed it.

100 happy days :: day 31

we woke up to snow on the last day of march. almost more snow than we had all winter. i'm not sure molly liked it, but it was (mostly because it melted quickly) quite welcome, since we didn't really have much all winter. a blanket of snow does have a way of making the world look clean and fresh. and tomorrow? a bit of shopping in hamburg to look forward to.

100 happy days :: day 9

finally. a day of sunshine and no wind. a real spring day. husband had a day off and we finally moved that row of asparagus that was way too close to the rhubarb. these are asparagus roots that we started from seed our second year here. how they're 4 years old and very substantial. we hope moving them won't have traumatized them too much and that they'll have a good season. dad had loads of asparagus in his garden and he was known for it all over town, so having a long row of healthy asparagus roots makes me feel very happy. i know that if he was able to see our project today, he was smiling.

the bees were very happy as well and the air was alive with their buzzing. there are plenty of crocus up and they were feeding greedily and cleaning out their hives. great to see that all four hives were buzzing (literally) with activity. we had a mild winter, so we expected them to be just fine, but it's nice to know it for sure.

molly loved that we were in the garden and obviously also loved the sunshine. she snoozed on a warm roof tile (it's part of a cover we put over our artichokes to keep them from being killed by the hard frosts. it was a perfect spot to relax in the sun.

today's happinesses. very simple, but somehow profound. spring is wonderful.

everything is awesome

it was a beautiful weekend.
it surely helped that it started already on thursday evening.
we had time with friends.
fun at lego world.
time spent with sabin (eating sushi and wandering a bit in copenhagen).
a family saturday night of dinner out and the lego movie.
sunday at home making soup and baking paleo "bread" and photographing cats.

everything is awesome.
(that's a quote from the lego movie, by the way.)
and surely also holds portents of the week ahead.

* * *

are cats better at predicting the weather than weathermen?

* * *

it seems as baby boomers get older, it gets easier to talk about sex.

and also to have some. 

i find that encouraging.

sex after seventy.

cats in scarves

oh the indignity.

i put the cats through today.

for my own amusement.

don't they look wonderful?

kittens four

i can't resist showing the progress of the kittens after all we've been through. they're nearly 3 weeks old. this is frieda. we may not be able to part with her. she's a little molly. strong, independent, curious, already her own little cat.

this is eleanor. she's enjoying a bath from her mama. that's her mama's tail there in the middle. and a bit of her collar of shame, which is still keeping her from licking her mastitis wound. which is healing at an amazing rate, thanks to fabulous honey-based medicine. i love that it's 100% natural. we need more medicines like that.

and this is perrie - she's the biggest, chubbiest kitten. which is exactly how a kitten should be. she is also best at holding still for her photograph.

this is danielle. she has an uncanny ability to convince me that she has died in her sleep. however, she's just really, really good at sleeping. she's the most outgoing of the kittens. don't let her plain black coat fool you, she's a real little spark.

and those of you with 'tweens in the house know that three of the kittens take their names from the girlfriends of three members of one direction. that's just how we roll.

precious molly

my beloved molly dolly. she had her kittens on may 22 - four perfect little girls. she took to motherhood immediately. but motherhood didn't take to her and last week, she developed mastitis. it came on really quickly - she was fine at midnight the night before and when we woke up on monday morning, she was clearly very unwell. i took her immediately to the vet, where they diagnosed the mastitis and gave her both a shot of painkillers and antibiotics. she's been on a course of both since - and i'm getting downright good at popping those pills down her throat. i was worried about her for the first couple of days - she wasn't eating or drinking anything, but by the end of the week, she was eating again. the whole time, she has cared for her kittens, tho' i have been supplementing them with special kitten milk replacer from a bottle, as her milk production was down.

now their eyes are open and they are strong and feisty (this one's hissing at me, which isn't very nice in light of the fact that i'm feeding her milk). on sunday, i noticed that the teat with the worst infection had burst and she had hole in her belly. i called the weekend vet immediately and he asked me how she was doing. other than the alarming hole in her belly, she was actually good - she chased a frog across the lawn as i was speaking to him and she was both eating and drinking and acting much more like herself. so he advised me to wait 'til today and take her in to be seen (kindly saving me the extra charge). when i took her in today, the vet was rather alarmed and said she wanted to put her under and see what could be done. it turned out not to be possible to sew it up, so she's still got an alarming gaping hole, but now it's clean and all of the dead tissue has been taken away. she's back home, a bit woozy, but eating and drinking and caring for her babies. i protect the wound with a clean washcloth while they're nursing, but they're actually pretty good about avoiding it. it's quite astonishing how nature works.

while i was waiting to hear from the vet that she could be picked up, i found this 4-leaf clover. i just looked down and saw it, i didn't even have to search for it. surely it's a sign that molly will be just fine - luck just must be on her side. this evening, she's seeking me out, sitting on my lap as i type this, even tho' it's me who put the collar of shame on her (we've got to keep her from licking that wound). she's got an appointment with the vet every day this week and the vet ordered some salve that contains honey that we'll put on it, to help it heal more quickly. i like that idea.

this little cat has become very important to me, ever since the first time i saw her and i realized today at one point that i had some of the feeling that i had when sabin was born 10 weeks early and we had to feed her by putting a tube down her nose into her stomach. a helplessness and a panicky feeling that i wasn't up to the task. but i was then and i will be now. we're going to get our molly dolly through this one. even the vet says so. but sending some good vibes her way wouldn't hurt.

spring is full of baby animals

little snowy white bunny

our old pony pinky has a fine little filly

mama mira had 6 babies this time - here are three of them.

salt & pepper

our precious molly's precious babies - 4 girls in one batch!

pepper had only 2 this time - little striper looks like the papa kitty that was hanging around.

sabin has named them harry & louis after her favorite members of 1D.

hen & chicks

we had a trip to the vet today with our beloved molly cat. she was obviously not feeling well this morning, so i called the vet as soon as they opened. they saw her immediately and diagnosed mastitis. she got a shot of antibiotics and painkiller and i brought home pills for the next ten days as well. her temperature was 41°C (normal is 39°C and while that doesn't sound like much difference, it's a LOT for a cat). the vet assures me she'll be fine and that what's best for her is to keep nursing her kittens. she's not sure she agrees, but she's doing so for now. i bought a bottle and milk replacer, just in case. i don't want to lose any of them.

tiny kitten perfection

our beloved molly dolly, the kitten we got last summer in minnesota, had her very own kittens today. she was a little confused at first, wondering what it was all about, but she soon caught on and promises to be a good mother. there are four perfect little kittens - one black, one striped, one black tortoiseshell and one stripy tortoiseshell - so two girls and two boys. the perfect first batch.

where did they go?

they were here.

they drove me up a tree.

but now where have they gone?

they didn't really drive me up a tree, it just seemed like that's what molly was thinking. my family has continued on to london, stonehenge, omaha beach and paris and their stay here is over. it flew by and it wasn't long enough at all. i'm feeling a little lost this afternoon, amidst the quiet that has descended over the house. i'm very glad they came, even if the visit was far too short.

our little molly is growing up

molly apparently missed the "no cats on the table" memo.

* * *

the n boards on pinterest: no boring chairs. no boring lamps.

shhh

molly is trying to sleep.

a tale of an irresistible kitty

i already mentioned that we fell in love with a kitten early on in our trip. she was born and raised here at the wonderful farm on st. mathias. when we asked if she was available, the owner said, "have you touched the kitten?" feeling suddenly slightly guilty, we admitted we had. he smiled and said, "then she's yours." and we haven't really looked back.

if i'd known how many cats my mom has at her house (don't ask), i'd probably not have taken her, but she's so delightful that i don't really have any regrets. look at that little face - who could resist her? she has turned out to have the most personality of any kitty we've ever had (and we've had many over the years) - she's packed with it.

it seemed on several occasions that the odds were against us being able to bring her home. i went straight to united's website, as we were flying with them (and swissair) home. their site directed me to petsafe, which was apparently continental's pet handling arm. i filed the request form there on their site and waited for a response. it didn't go through the first time, so i had to do it again (grr to adobe). finally, a reservation came through - to the tune of $413!! dang!  i had taken my two cats - simon & abercrombie - back to denmark in 1999 and it cost only $75, so tho' i had anticipated that the price would have gone up, i didn't think it would be THAT much. it seemed cost prohibitive for a little barn kitty, so i decided to leave the cat with my dad, who had taken a liking to her.

then i noticed that tho' the reservation form had asked for my flight details and i had clearly stated that i wanted to fly with the kitten (preferably in-cabin), they had sent her on completely different flights (we were to fly minneapolis-chicago-zurich-copenhagen and they sent her minneapolis-newark-copenhagen). so i wrote back and asked why, as well as asking about the high price. it was only when they answered that i realized they were sending her as cargo and not in-cabin, as i had requested.

this time, i got on the phone with petsafe, where once i finally got through, i learned that they handle only pets as cargo and not in-cabin pets, so i needed to contact regular reservations (this is NOT at all clear on their petsafe form). i asked them to transfer me, which they did (a bit to my surprise). then, after waiting 30-some minutes on hold,  i talked to a wonderful, service-minded woman who helped me arrange to take molly (that's the name she finally approved) in-cabin on both our united and swissair flights - for only $125, instead of $413. who wouldn't want to do that?

with reservations in place, i now turned to the vaccination requirements. another stumbling block, as a rabies shot is required and our kitten was only going to be 10 weeks old at the time of our travel and vets require them to be 12 weeks old to vaccinate for rabies. additionally, the rabies vaccination had to be 21 days old to count, so again it looked like there was no way to fulfill these requirements with such a young kitten.

however, on a long shot, i called the danish consulate in chicago and asked if there was any way to import a kitten that was younger than 12 weeks. a VERY helpful woman, who had clearly been in the US long enough to be service-minded, looked into it and even called me back(!) to tell me that it was possible to get a dispensation and even directed me to the link where i could find the necessary forms. so i filed two more forms (thank odin for electronic forms) with the danish veterinary authority, requesting the dispensation.

nearly immediately, i got an answer, informing me that a kitten could not be taken from its mother before it was 12 weeks old, so there was no way i could travel with the kitten (between the lines was a disapproval and possibly a few dark thoughts of me as an animal abuser). quick thinking caused me to respond that the kitten had lost her mother (technically not a lie, as she didn't have her mother anymore) and would they please reconsider. which they did! and the next day i had the dispensation. after investing another $100+ in divesting the kitten of ear mites (which may be why she was shaking her head at all those names we suggested) and getting her micro-chipped and vaccinated for distemper and treated for ticks and fleas (tho' there was no evidence of either), she was ready to come with us.

so on tuesday, we carried her onto our first flight in a little duffle bag-style carrier. we had food and water with us and offered it to her at regular intervals throughout the long day of flights. she handled it like an absolute trooper - as if she'd been traveling across the atlantic her entire life. she did sleep quite a lot today, so it was a tiring journey for a little kitten. but we're glad she made it. and she's already thoroughly charmed husband (who was skeptical at a distance), tho' lila, our elderly and slightly grumpy indoor cat is less charmed. we think she was definitely worth all of the effort. the best souvenir we could have brought home.