Quote of the Day: Autumn
Sometimes we find autumn a melancholy season. What we had eagerly anticipated a mere six months before–the first snowdrops, hosts of daffodils, a garden drenched with the scent of roses, the first fresh peas–has passed so quickly. And what lies ahead are shorter days, cold winds, snow and ice, a world bereft of color.
Joe Eck & Wayne Winterrowd (Our Life in Gardens)
I certainly can’t believe it’s late September already. This summer flew by, a whirlwind of packing, remodeling, paperwork, jobs and gardening thrown in during whatever time I could find in between. The reward has arrived, we get to enjoy autumn at our new property in Maine.
Yesterday morning we took a long hike back to the wetlands. It was a misty gray morning, just perfect for viewing fall colors. I always think the colors look so much more saturated and bright when they’re wet.
Often I find myself being sad that the gardening season is over come this time of year, but this year I am not. I’m looking forward to the long restful winter ahead. I look forward to cozying up by the fire with a few of my favorite gardening reads to find inspiration for this new space.
We are thankful that the timing for our move ended up like it did. Moving in autumn at the end of the gardening season was perfect. It’s much easier to close the book on the old when it comes with the natural seasonal cycles. Autumn is a time for slowing down and enjoying the fruits of your labor. We plan to do just that!
Do you find yourself with mixed emotions during the changes of the seasons?
Share this:
Books, Pizza and some ZZZZZ’s
Yesterday we finally made it into Belfast and got a library card! We only get one library card and keep all our books on it because it makes things easier to manage. While there, I got 7 books! It certainly feels good to have lots of reading material on the coffee table. You can see what I got via my “What I’m Reading” in the sidebar (I’m sure you’ve noticed it hasn’t changed much in the last month). We also grabbed some pizza for supper to try out the local pizza shop.
I’m certainly looking forward to evenings of reading. Hopefully I can stay awake, this past week we’ve been getting tired early so we’ve been going to bed early (around 9). We’ve still been waking up at our normal time of 6 a.m. I think we’re just tired from everything that’s been going on over the past couple months. One of these days we can get back to our normal 10:30/11:00 bedtime so I can get some reading in before bed!
What’s your normal time to go to bed & get up in the morning?
Share this:
Travels with Cats
You may remember back when I asked advice on traveling with cats. If you haven’t read the comments on that post you should, many of them are hilarious! The plan was to get a sedative, but then my vet wasn’t keen on it. That left me searching for other options.
Amazingly, the few options I tried worked like a charm. We barely heard a peep out of them for the entire 15 hours of travel. Heather and I were AMAZED and kept commenting on how well the cats were doing. Every now and then Dexter would let me know if I went around a corner too fast or braked too hard, but other than that, they were so quiet. What did I use that worked so well?
Maybelline recommend Thundershirts for Cats, so I ordered one for each cat hoping they would do the trick. At $40 each they were pricey, but I figured I would have spent a pretty penny for sedatives. These would also be able to be used in the future if they worked. If not, they have a money back guarantee. I figured I couldn’t lose.
We got the shirts a week before travel and tried them on Dexter, Samson & Soafie. Dexter took to it the best, he walked over and laid down in his box and slept for a few hours. Samson and Soafie didn’t mind them for a bit, but then they wanted out of them.
Amazingly, on the morning of travel, I even got the feral cat into a thundershirt. She didn’t seem to mind much at all. It’s a good thing she has her mama’s sweet disposition!
I figured I needed something in addition to the shirts, so I purchased some herbal calming cat treats. They were a great addition to the travel regimen. I gave them all a treat every day for a few days before travel. The morning of our trip, they each got two. Then halfway through the long drive they all got another one. I definitely could tell a difference on the days they received the treats. They were especially helpful since we were busy packing and loading the trucks. The cats slept away the days without a care.
Another thing I did to help ease travel stress was to give them each a few milligrams of melatonin before our trip. We had a vet that recommended this once for Dexter when he was dealing with motion sickness. I like to use this naturally derived fermented melatonin.
When we arrived in Maine, the cats were put in one room and kept there for a few days. Then they were moved to the back screened in porch with lots of windows. On Monday, we let them loose in the house (including the feral cat). In a few more days, we might let the feral cat and Dexter outside for small bits of time to let them explore. We haven’t quite decided how to transition them to their outdoor lives again. Dexter is ready to go outside now and is letting us know. He does not like to be cooped up in the house!
All-in-all, we were very happy with the products that we chose to use. I am very pleased with the thundershirts and know they’ll be put to good use from now on when traveling to the vets and other places. Luckily, we don’t plan on taking the cats on a 14-16 hour car trip again. I can barely make it that long in the car and was so happy the cats did so well!
What’s the longest you can spend in a car without going stir crazy?
Share this:
Fall Colors
Mostly what’s on my mind right now are the falls colors. I go around gaping, as if I have never seen anything like it before. Perhaps I haven’t, I’m never quite sure. I could see this display every year and not grow tired of it, like seeing the flight of geese, or hearing the bird songs in spring. I remember, and that might reduce the amazement. But I don’t remember the edge–the vividness of the spectacle.
Bernd Heinrich (A Year In The Maine Woods)
On my way up to Maine I noticed hints of the upcoming leaf change and I can’t wait. It’s a beautiful time of year, just what is needed before the colorless winter. When I read the quote above in the book it rang true for me. Each year I’m taken aback by the beauty of fall as if I have never experienced it before. I can’t wait to be amazed!
What’s your favorite fall foliage tree?
Share this:
The Best Laid Plans
Yesterday, we were all packed up and ready to go and we had one BIG problem – there was no sign of our cat Dexter. We’ve been keeping him inside during the night just so this wouldn’t happen. Yesterday, he spent part of the day inside and then wanted out in the afternoon. He usually doesn’t wander far, so I let him out – BIG mistake. We had dinner with some friends and when we got home he was nowhere to be found.
A friend said she stopped by at 9:15 and he was on the front porch in his kennel sleeping. When we got home at 9:45 we couldn’t find him. Then I started getting nervous that we wouldn’t be able to find him the next morning.
Usually, he’s waiting at the front door with the feral cat when we get up in the morning. He wasn’t there. We waited around for a bit and finally it was decided that Mr Chiots would hit the road in the truck and I’d catch up later if/when Dexter showed up.
My neighbor and I decided that we’d wait until 2 and if he hadn’t showed up by then we’d spend the night here and plan on leaving in the morning. He was a no-show by 2.
So there I sat, in an empty house, with a few other cats in the house, the feral cat yowling while locked in a bedroom, and no sign of Dexter. There has been one other time that Dexter didn’t show up one day, the next day he appears limping from an injury. I’m fully aware of the fact that outdoor cats lead generally short lives and can meet their end. It’s a dangerous world out there, but they also experience life in a way that an indoor cat couldn’t.
We love our Dexter so much, to the point that we tried to make him an exclusively indoor cat for a while and he would have none of it. Dexter was super laid back about everything but spending too much time indoors.
All the neighbors were on lookout, some of them offering to keep him until we could get back to get him (don’t you just love great neighbors?). I went to bed on Wed night with a knot in the pit of my stomach. The feral cat woke me up at 4 am yowling in her room. When I looked outside, there was Dexter on the front porch, just like every other day. Guess he got his dates mixed up and his going away party with his friends went a little long! So my neighbor and I hit the road on Thursday morning, hoping to meet up with Mr Chiots at the new place in Maine. I’m so relieved I have all four cats in tow, guess all the howling won’t be so bad…
