The Mega Pawsitive Fundraiser

[1CatOverTheLine]

1CatOverTheLine So when are you baking those? You don't have to trouble yourself making crust. I'm just fine with baked, cored and sprinkled with cinnamon *and cloves and allspice, if you want to get fancy about it*

tarasgirl06 - Trust me - you wouldn't want any part of my pie crust. Some people have a knack for making pastry, and I am nothing at all like those people. Baked spiced apples, on the other hand, are simple. Because you didn't suggest adding vast globs of refined sugar to them, I'll save you a place at the table right next to Moo Shu.
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[Furballsmom]

The fruits, by modern standards, are pathetic, but the pies they make are absolutely bursting with flavour.

yummm, heck with the bacon, howEVER, some folks put cheese on their apple pies, and cheese, and bacon...and...

The positive item here is that the garden is composted and ready to be planted - whatever extra food is grown goes to the Rocky Mountain Foodbank

 

[raysmyheart]

@PushPurrCatPaws , I am very sorry for your recent loss.


I was able to get to the bookstore today after work to upload my photos of the swans I saw yesterday and wanted to share them with you all here.

I'm not sure what type of swans we have here in central Massachusetts. The speed at which this swan traversed the pond with a graceful glide was amazing.

I spotted this little guy or gal and because I was in such a hurry to get to my next job, I thought I was snapping a photo of a duck. My co-worker viewed the photo today and said, "Where have you been? That's a goose"! -

Nevertheless, I did say

a fond adieu to both of my new friends.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

yummm, heck with the bacon, howEVER, some folks put cheese on their apple pies, and cheese, and bacon...and...

The positive item here is that the garden is composted and ready to be planted - whatever extra food is grown goes to the Rocky Mountain Foodbank

Furballsmom - Thanks a lot. I weighed about 156 when I started reading this, and I've no doubt gained ten pounds just from the thought of these apple pies.

@PushPurrCatPaws , I am very sorry for your recent loss.


I was able to get to the bookstore today after work to upload my photos of the swans I saw yesterday and wanted to share them with you all here.

View attachment 229161
I'm not sure what type of swans we have here in central Massachusetts. The speed at which this swan traversed the pond with a graceful glide was amazing.
View attachment 229162
I spotted this little guy or gal and because I was in such a hurry to get to my next job, I thought I was snapping a photo of a duck. My co-worker viewed the photo today and said, "Where have you been? That's a goose"! -
View attachment 229163
Nevertheless, I did sayView attachment 229164 a fond adieu to both of my new friends.

R raysmyheart - Absolutely wonderful photos! These are Mute Swans, the same as those here on the river. There's a nice Mute Swan page here:

Mute Swan Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
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[Furballsmom]

tee-hee
So, another positive is that the neighbors have been getting their dandelions taken care of and there will be more rain this coming week, very good things!

 

[Lari]

I don't have pretty pictures of nature to add, but the grass is finally gotten green here, though the trees are still working on leaves.

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but Lelia is such a positive force in my life. I love that she lets me sleep in on weekends. I love that she's so clever - last night when I woke up to go to the bathroom, she was experimenting with a sheet and her turbo scratcher, by pulling the sheet over and seeing how that affected her hitting the ball - but even with her able to entertain herself, she still asks me to play with her. I love that cat so much.

 

[tarasgirl06]

tarasgirl06 - Trust me - you wouldn't want any part of my pie crust. Some people have a knack for making pastry, and I am nothing at all like those people. Baked spiced apples, on the other hand, are simple. Because you didn't suggest adding vast globs of refined sugar to them, I'll save you a place at the table right next to Moo Shu.
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OH, no, no sugar! The apples -- and Moo Shu -- are quite sweet enough and no reason to feel bad about the pastry -- it's very difficult to get it right and I didn't say so, but I was raised to the highest standards although I can't claim to get anywhere near my mom's results myself -- mostly because I've never really done much in the way of baking since becoming an adult. She had me in the kitchen since I could stand, though, and her baked goods were, if not legendary, certainly excellent.

 

[segelkatt]

@AbbysMom - The swans on the river behind the house here seem to have just begun building this morning - doubtless waiting for a little rain as we've had lately, to spur some growth in the reeds and cattails at the shoreline of the island, to better camouflage their nests.

Bald Eagles have been making a strong recovery here as well - thanks in part to the N.Y. State Parks Commission, and the D.E.C. They've restricted access to Strawberry Island in the Upper Niagara as of 2016, and according to our local Field Agent, are working to restrict motorboat traffic on the three Lower branches this Summer, as there are now two nesting pair on the Middle Branch, and three on the Lower, at least one of which is here on the property, about halfway down the high bank, well up in an enormous Pin Oak - a perfect vantage point for watching the salmon below.

We had grey skies and an all-day rain here yesterday - and even a tiny snow flurry very early this morning. Mom used to call these last of the Spring flurries, "God, shaking out the pillowcase."
How interesting. In Germany we had a fairy story called "Frau Holle" and part of it said that when it snowed that Frau Holle was shaking out the feather beds. Two different girls had come to her at different times, one was lazy and did not shake the feather beds well, the other was very conscientious and shook the beds really hard. So even now people will say with a heavy snow fall that the good sister was shaking Frau Holle's beds very well.

Today it's already near fifty here, with temperatures later in the week predicted in the seventies. The lawn has quite nearly greened up completely, the Forsythia are beginning to come into their own, and the cherries are beginning to bud in earnest now. A little late, and perhaps made all the more welcome for that.
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[1CatOverTheLine]

We had grey skies and an all-day rain here yesterday - and even a tiny snow flurry very early this morning. Mom used to call these last of the Spring flurries, "God, shaking out the pillowcase."

How interesting. In Germany we had a fairy story called "Frau Holle" and part of it said that when it snowed that Frau Holle was shaking out the feather beds. Two different girls had come to her at different times, one was lazy and did not shake the feather beds well, the other was very conscientious and shook the beds really hard. So even now people will say with a heavy snow fall that the good sister was shaking Frau Holle's beds very well.

segelkatt - Thank you for this; I've no doubt that this is the basis for my Mother's use of the phrase. There's actually a nice re-telling of the legend online, even mentioning how the tale came down to the Grimm Brothers for publication:

Frau Holle – Wikipedia

 

[Desertmouse]

Alright I got to share this with you guys, it made me giggle(and got the song stuck in my head).

Also another video! This one is all about frolic, the mother cat of the kittens now on the main stream and (I believe) the only foster cat they have that doesn’t currently have an adopter. They adopt to anyone in the 48 states....just saying....

 

[mama africa]

An early walk in the garden after a night of heavy rainfall... the fresh, earthy smell is overwhelming and everything looks so colourful and clean !

 

[foxxycat]

Oh yes, @margd -- agree 100%! I won't let any kind of pesticides or weed poisons be used here, and I guard "my" bees fiercely. What a beautiful pic of the little girl working on the pansies!

I am the same-no chemicals allowed in my gardens either! I try to compost every other year to keep the earth worms supplied=this year even without compost for 3 years I have a large amount of worms in my soil-which is always a good thing!

I loved those photos you all had above!

Saturday and Sunday was a lovely day! Jon helped dig out my old bike that I purchased back in the 1990s-pumped up the tires, the gears all work! No rust anywhere! Gave it some oil and off I went! I just need to buy a different seat and add a kickstand. Saturday was a lovely sunny day!



I rode my bike around my neighborhood then went inside to sleep for a few hours, later woke up and tackled the front left garden before the rains came. Went out back to clear the leaves off the phlox gardens as well.

My daffodils are finally starting to grow. The house across the street are already in bloom but they have morning sun. My location is afternoon sun. They won't bloom until mid May probably or sooner if we have enough sun and water.

I protect my bees as well. I have a huge plot of bee balm to keep them busy all July and August. It sounds like a buzzing saw when I sit on the ground in the 4 foot tall bee balm plants-they are a light lavender color- these spread from just a few plants ten years ago.

The butterfly bush is coming back=some of them are hard to move-I shook the shoots sticking out of the ground-they are rooted in nicely plus I have been dumping a bucket of water on them daily like it said online. So we should have 8 to 10 foot butterfly bush growing back this summer-in front of the 4 foot bee balm makes a lovely english Garden look.

And that's a positive thing to view from the road or out of my front door!

 

[neely]

The weather finally warmed up and it's supposed to be 75 today. I will be going to school to sub so won't be able to enjoy the sun until after work. However, the pawsitive news is that I will get to see many of my favorite students before they graduate and go on to high school. The teacher I am subbing for told me one of the girls keeps asking where I am so I can't wait to see her.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

.
Big moon; big sun. It was clear enough and bright enough with last night's not-quite-full moon to navigate the stairs down to the beach at 3:45 am to watch a pair of raccoons out for a moonlight stroll. Today, the big white ball has been replaced by an orange one, and it's climbing through the sixties today, and into the seventies tomorrow.

Despite four good days of rain, the trees and shrubs seem still ten days to two weeks behind their usual bloom times, thought the coming warmer temperatures might very well hasten the season along just a little. It's a fine day to make a last sweep of the lawn for errant sticks and pine cones, in preparation for my favourite summer job - mowing!
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[ileen]

I'm not a very crafty person. I admire those who are, but due to lack of space and imagination, most of the time I don't craft. There have been a couple of times when my desire has overtaken my lack of talent. Several years ago I made a number of beaded bracelets, and recently I've been doing some crafts with shells. I brought shells back from vacation in the Bahamas & Mexico, and also I collect shells on the beach on Long Island. In my experience, the Mexico shells are the coolest looking. Mexico is also the only place I've found sea urchin skeletons or shells (not sure which is the correct term). Last year I made a single strand mobile out of them, but this year I tripled my find and added them to the light fixture in my apartment, which is my pawsitive for today.

Maybe it's not the prettiest thing, but it makes me happy and most importantly, it's high enough in the air that it's not in danger of Luciano attacking it.

 

[Lari]

We have a butterfly! O the Owl came out this morning.

The students like him a lot better as a butterfly than a caterpillar. Hopefully some of his friends join him soon.

 

[tarasgirl06]

We have a butterfly! O the Owl came out this morning.

View attachment 229308 View attachment 229309

The students like him a lot better as a butterfly than a caterpillar. Hopefully some of his friends join him soon.

That's so exciting, Lari ! I'm just as happy about this as I would have been as a kid. Aren't they beautiful? Hoping all of this butterfly's friends hatch soon and that they all thrive and do their butterfly thing!

 

[Lari]

tarasgirl06 - he's so pretty! Butterflies are such a miracle. I think he was the first to go into chrysalis, so the others should be following, though Daniel Tiger fell down (I think maybe after care knocked into the enclosure) so we'll have to see about him. One of the ones last year fell and still hatched.

Dancing with the stars is back!!! Excited for the all athlete season even if they're crunching it into four weeks.

Sadly, not everyone is as hyped as me.

Silly girl. Went back to her nap as soon as I finished taking the picture.

 

[tarasgirl06]

tarasgirl06 - he's so pretty! Butterflies are such a miracle. I think he was the first to go into chrysalis, so the others should be following, though Daniel Tiger fell down (I think maybe after care knocked into the enclosure) so we'll have to see about him. One of the ones last year fell and still hatched.

Dancing with the stars is back!!! Excited for the all athlete season even if they're crunching it into four weeks.

Sadly, not everyone is as hyped as me.
View attachment 229335

Silly girl. Went back to her nap as soon as I finished taking the picture.

What a gorgeous beauty she is! Maybe she will enjoy watching the show with you.

 

[tinydestroyer]

I had a delicious scrambled egg and bacon sandwich on an English muffin for dinner tonight, with likely the best eggs I've ever eaten in my life. The best part? I didn't have to cook any of it!

ileen crafting is always fun, especially when you're happy with your project. I think your shell mobile looks cool!