More of my favourite bird pictures taken over the last month

…or cat house.

Like many of you, we are in the middle of a deep freeze. Just as the temps started to drop, Louis left his little cubby and dissapeared. He hasn’t been back to the porch for food or a nap. A neighbour informed us that he’s likely under the house of another neighbour up the street. He feeds the strays an apparently under his house is where quite a few take shelter. It’s probably how Louis has survived all his previous winters.

But still, Dave was upset. He was convinced Louis left because his house wasn’t warm enough. Dave didn’t like that the wind could still blow in the front.

So last weekend, when he made me stop at the hardware store it was to get materials to make Louis a better house.

While I was making Chocolate Chip Cookies, he was sawing and screwing. In the end, it’s the same idea as the first one with insulation and straw..

But it’s double the size, with two rooms (like Furby’s fancy one) so Louis can get tucked away from the wind better. The top also comes off so we can periodically clean out the old straw.

“Mom….. he’s on my side of the bed again….”

A few of you have asked how well Furby is getting along with the rest of the crew. And the truth is… with mixed results. At first, there really were no issues – a little hissing, and then they mostly ignored each other. And we wondered if the stories of him getting kicked out for being mean to his old housemates was even true.

But then… Sir Furbs got… comfortable… and things changed.

It appears he has a bit of a high prey drive. That means, when one of the other cats runs by him, his instincts kick in and he gives chase. With Rupert, this isn’t an issue. Rupert loves to be chased. And Rupert is fast, so he can usually get under something before Furby can catch him.

With Lemmy and Burton, it’s more of an issue. They seem to take offense to it and it’s turned into a few pretty good dust ups. The result is that those two are not terribly fond of Furbycand even some direct eye contact for a second too long can start a scrap.

The fact that it’s cold and snowy also means none of the boys are going out and getting their ya-yas out in the yard (catio for Burton and Lemmy or wider world for Furby), which seems to have made things worse.

It, unfortunately, has also lead to some indoor spraying. We already had a problem with Lemmy, though I had it mostly under control. But now we’ve caught Furby, and surprisingly Burton (who has NEVER sprayed in the house) doing it too.

Last week, I got them all a pheromone collar. It looks like a flea collar but apparently has pheromones that make them calmer and less stressed. Incidents (spraying and fighting) have decreased but not stopped completely.

I’m hoping with a little more time, they all learn to love each other. Or at least… tolerate each other more. Because there are absolutely moments where they do…

The Shrug has not seen as much love as I would like, but there is progress

I have finished the back and joined up for the second sleeve… see…?

In truth, it’s a bit of a pain to work on now because it’s so long, it gets tangled in itself as you go round and round. But I will perervere. Every five rounds it gets a little faster, as I am decreasing.

I’m headed to Mom’s for the weekend (weather permitting) and I was hoping to finish it before then so she could help me take modelled photos, but it’s not to be. I would like it done soon though..

I got these two balls of sock yarn at the thrift store for $2 each! I’m itching to cast one one!

Once the cookies were done, I sat down to finally finish my paint-by-number. As mentioned, all that was left was three colours that were dried up and I needed to mix up on my own.

Happily, I have a large selection of acrylic paints, and a good grasp of colour theory. Of course, it would be easier if I could get as close as possible to the colour straight out of the bottle.

I had several reds to choose from. And in the end, the Cardinal Red ended up being pretty darn close!

I added some coral to get the two lighter colours, and litte Berry Purple for the darkest. It wasn’t exact, but close count in horseshoes, hand grenades and PBN apparently… because….

I got it finished and it doesn’t look too bad! My hands definitely aren’t steady and precise, but thankfully that doesn’t really matter in this style of painting.

I’m hoping I can find a pre-cut matte and frame for it on our next adventure out (either thrifting or at Michaels). Otherwise, I’ll look into custom framing. I bought it because it was a perfect match for our Livingroom colours, so I’d love to get it put up over the couch.

As is now our custom, Sir Furbs and I settled in to work on our witches this weekend. While the first part of the sky went quicky, for some reason, that last little bit was a total slog…

Eventually we got through it, but it took its toll on poor Furby! And after that, we still had to do two solid rows across the top, then some 2 x 2 checkerboard

We almost got the checkerboard done, but not quite! Still, the hardest slog is done. We’ll be onto those letters soon. But not this coming weekend. As long as the weather holds, I’m off to Mom’s to do some quilting! I can’t wait!

This past weekend got a little discombobulated. The plan was the usual – spend on day doing chores half the day, and the second half working on a rage-craft (most likely my PBN). And a second day working in the studio.

But Friday night, I got a message from a neighbour asking me if I could pick her up some cat litter on our Friday night travels. Her car wouldn’t start and she was out. Sadly, I didn’t see the message until we were already on our way home. But I offered to take her out Saturday morning instead.

So Saturday I was up and out the door first thing. We headed to Walmart where she got her litter and other pet supplies. Like most of you, the winter storm was threatening our area so she decided to stock up. Dave tagged along with us and made me stop at the hardware store (more on his project another day).

When we got back, we noticed the furnace was acting up. While it was running, it wouldn’t bring the house up past 65F. It’s a problem we had a few months back, they came and replaced a part and everything seemed fine. Until it wasn’t.

Dave spent a good chunk of the early afternoon on the phone with the company, trying to trouble shoot. There’s a lot more computer stuff involved in these new units. Eventually, they said they’d send out a tech but it would be a couple hours.

I decided it was a good time to get some baking done. The house wasn’t freezing, but a little oven heat wouldn’t hurt. And our convience store lady had broken her ankle the other day, so Dave wanted to take her a little something next time he went in.

Sounds like a call for Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

I don’t bake very often any more because Dave doesn’t eat sugar anymore. If I bake, it means I have to eat all of it myself or find people to share it with. I made a double batch. Enough for me to have a few, a pile to send to the convenience store lady, and enough to fill a bag for the poor furnace guy who had to come out in the snow and cold on a Saturday.

This recipe is one I can make without thinking. When we were little, Mom always involved us in whatever she was doing in the kitchen – and she did a lot of baking.

I think the recipe originally came from the Better Homes and Gardens red plaid cook book. But I have it memorized. (and to be honest, I don’t really measure most of the ingredients.

The BEST chocolate chip cookies

• 1 cp flour
• ½ cp white sugar
• ¼ brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ cp margerine
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• Chocolate chips – measure with your heart (or approx half a cup if you don’t have a heart)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cream margarine, eggs and sugar. Add in flour, soda, powder and vanilla extract. Mix well.
Hand mix in chocolate chips. Scoop on cookie sheet using a spoon. Space out -they will flatten (generally 12 to a sheet). Bake 8-12 minutes depending on oven.

I under-bake mine just a touch (so edges are just starting to get golden) and store in a plastic container as soon as they cool down. This keeps them nice and chewy.

On Sunday mornin,gDave informed me that

a) the furnace was acting up again (they were sending another guy out to look at it)

b) it was also one of our mechanic’s birthday this weekend and he wanted something to take over there on Monday.

I had already given away most of the cookies, but thankfully I had a couple of old bananas…

So banana bread it was! The recipe made eight mini loves – two for the furnace guy, and six for the team to share at the shop on Monday.

This is also Mom’s recipe, though I have no idea where it came from. I don’t have this one memorized, but it’s easy to whip up too.

Mom’s Banana Bread

• 2-3 ripe bananas
• 1/3 cp melted marg
• 1 tsp soda
• Pinch salt
• ¾ cp sugar
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 ½ cp flour

Mash bananas until smooth. Stir in melted butter. Mix in salt and soda. Stir in sugar, egg and vanilla. Mix in flour. (I do this all with a fork – no electric mixer needed)

Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 – 50-60 min (If you’re making mini-loafs – it’s about 20 mins).

I did get some crafting done around all the baking and furnace mayhem – I’ll share that throughout this week. In the meantime – maybe make yourself a batch of cookies! You won’t be dissapointed.

Have I told you about Louis? (Pronounced the French way -” “Loo-ee”)

Louis is a neighbourhood stray we’ve seen around for a long time. He’s very skittish and would normally run as soon as he saw us. But when we started feeding Furby outside (before taking him in), we’d often find Louis at the food dish. So when Furby started coming in for dinner, we decided to keep a bowl of food out for Louis. Over time, we noticed that he usually come not long after we filled the dish up. He figured out our schedule and was making sure he was nearby to get first dibs (Our neighbor’s cat Fryburger, and Orange Boy – another skittish stray who is Lemmy’s doppelganger – were helping themselves too).

Then the last few weeks, Louis was often sitting on the mat at the side door (food dish is on the side porch) waiting for us to come out and feed him. He still won’t let us touch him, but he only moves a few feet away while we fill the dish, and immediately moves back in when we walk away.

Now, Louis has been around for a while, and obviously survived many winter on his own. But Dave worries. He was lamenting the Louis wasn’t using Furby’s heated cat house (neither is Furby… but whatever). Louis knows it’s there – we have camera footage of him poking his head in once. But Louis rarely goes in the backyard. Dave wanted to make something smaller we could have on or near the porch.

I told him (for about the 10th time since BEFORE he got Furby’s house)… cats don’t need anything big. Or heated for that matter. It just needs to be insulated – their body heat in a small insulated space will keep them nice and toasty.

Finally, he listened. he found an old crate that held records, put a final side on it, insulated it, cut an entrance hole and put it on the porch. (He was also very happy it fit perfectly under one of my flower pots, so it wasn’t immediately apparently there was a cat house there.)

Louis ignored it for about a week. Then I said maybe he didn’t like the foil insulation and we should add some straw. It worked like a charm!

Louis is almost always in there in the morning waiting for breakfast. And he spends a good part of the day napping in there too.

Dave can see from the dining room window whether he’s in there or not, so Dave is happy. And Im wondering how long it will be before Louis will let me pet him.

And… if you’re wondering about the name… it’s because he has super light eyes, and it reminded Dave of his favourite vampire. (I’m more of a fan of Lestat.. but Louis is more appropriate)

This is my world right now

Barely a sign of the garden under all that snow.

I’ve only got a few things blooming inside.

My Crown of Thorns has these lovely mottled pink and cream flowers. And as you can see, there are quite a few of them!

My yellow orchid is still blooming, though it’s not looking great. One of the cats knocked it off the shelf, shattered the decorative pot, and knocked around all the medium. I wasn’t around when it happened, so Dave cleaned up… and he threw out the medium instead of putting it back in the pot. So that’s a task for this weekend – get this girl potted properly again.

That’s it for flowers, but…

Isn’t my Monstera Thai Constellation looking beautiful? This is one of those plants that went for crazy prices during the pandemic. But now it’s more readily available and the prices have come down significantly. Do you believe a plant this size would have once sold for over $100? Now I certainly didn’t pay that. I got mine last year at a much more reasonable price of $20. This will get very big just like other Monsteras

And… back in the summer, I bought a Bird of Paradise plant on clearance. I had it in the woodland garden for most of the summer. I didn’t have high hopes for it over winter. It obviously had to come inside, and I haven’t had great luck with plants like that (ie, Hibiscus, Elephant Ears, Banana Plants etc). They usually need too much humidity and light.

But look how amazing it looks??? Dave’s aunt had a huge one. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but it’s certainly doing well. It will go right back outside as soon as it’s warm enough.

Meet Audrey! I found her at the thrift store and I just had to buy, bring her home, and stick her in a plant! If you look closely, you’ll see she’s handmade…

Made from a styrofoam sphere, and what I’m assuming is hot glue. And quite expertly painted! And the teeth!!! Shells! Brilliant!

You’ve got to have a little fun while you wait for the snow to melt!

Houston… we have a problem

You will recall the Hello Kitty Squishmallow bed I got for Rupert. Well I’m happy to say, he still loves it.

And he really does just fit so perfect…

The problem was discovered when we came up to bed the other night….

Turns out someone else loves it too! Someone else who has turned his nose up at pretty much every other cat bed* I’ve brought in the house.

Rupert is going to have something to say about this, I’m sure!!!

*I mean beds actually designed for cats. He of course, has a selection of baskets I’ve brought home for him which he loves – and his bassinet and chaise. But actual cat bed… all unworthy.