New Kit on the Block

Meet Pocket, the newest member of our household. We adopted her last Sunday at the Humane Society. She is almost nine months old and is a real purrer. I put her on my lap and she purred up a storm. That pretty much sealed the deal - that and the fact that she appears to be well-kept and in good health.

We were concerned how our older cat - aka Miss Grouch - would react when we brought home a much younger cat. There was hissing and even growling, of course. The next day, the hissing receded and I haven't observed any lately. In other words, our cats are settling in. Pocket is a very quiet cat. She never hisses or meows. We're still getting to know each other and I'm trying to keep her off our kitchen counter without giving her a complex. My biggest challenge right now is that Miss Grouch is on a diet and is taking advantage of the fact that Pocket's food is here for the taking, if Pocket doesn't get to it first. Oh well, what would life be without a challenge?

Weather Woes

There are three things for certain in life: death, taxes, and weather. And we sure have had some strange weather this year. Back in February, when we (ok, my husband) were digging out from two blizzards we were looking forward to spending the summer in our backyard. But so far, I haven't had much to enjoy. First we had a cool, windy, and rainy May, which prevented me from photographing birds. And then the temperatures shot up to the mid-eighties in no time. So far, it has been such a rainy and muggy early summer that I find myself spending more time in our dark and air-conditioned house than outside. This isn't fair! I have spent enough hours in the house this year. I want to take my home office outside and watch the birds and butterflies while I am editing my writing. Some days I can't even grill dinner for ten minutes because another thunderstorm is rolling through our town. Whatever happened to spring?

Photography Close to Home

Bird photography is a lot like going to an amusement park. You wait and wait, and then the thrill is over in a few seconds. It helps, therefore, when I can photograph an exciting subject in our backyard. Right now, I have my camera ready to shoot at all times because our serviceberry has ripe berries. These berries are irresistible to all sorts of birds and I am ready to shoot when they land in our shrub.
The other day everything came together perfectly, even though I broke a rule. You're not supposed to photograph in mid-day because the lighting tends to be flat. But it was a bright overcast day and I sat waiting in my blind. And then I fired nonstop while the waxwings snatched one berry after another. You may see one of the results of my efforts on my other blog, http://birdswithpersonality.blogspot.com/.