Happy Anniversary Goldie!

Happy One Year Anniversary to my Goldie!

One year ago this very tiny, very cute and very pregnant cat walked into our lives. I named her 'Goldie' because of her lovely golden eyes!



Within two days, Goldie had two kittens. She kept them hidden for the first several weeks. After she let us near the kittens, it was great fun watching them grow and explore. They look so much like Goldie!





When they were nine weeks old, the two adorable kittens were adopted by a young couple who post pictures of the kittens on Facebook. The two kittens are now full grown cats named Avocado and Twilight.

After her kittens were adopted, I decided to keep Goldie; she is the sweetest most gentle cat I've even met! I gradually trained her to be an indoor cat. When the mobile-cat-spay-clinic came through town, I had to cancel her appointment as she was vomiting. Little did I know it was 'cat morning sickness' (my silly joke). Goldie was getting a bit heavier but I thought it was due to the change of being indoor. I did not know she had been out with a local tom cat until it was too late.


Here is Goldie in my garden before she became an indoor cat.


When I moved at the end of last July, it was a hectic time. After getting resettled I realized that miss plump Goldie was actually very pregnant! Here she is looking like a balloon with fur.




During the early morning hours of August 13th, Goldie had FIVE kittens in one of my drawers.














My grandkids named them:Daisy, Sally, Sammy, Sunny, Tomas (prior to knowing what sex the kittens were).


Yellow tabby, Sunny, was adopted first. The adopting family renamed him Tiger as he was male. Oh, I cried after he left with his new family. Then Sammy, Sunny and Tomas (the three dark tabby striped kittens) were adopted out. And I cried after they were gone! Since it was October, everyone said NOT to adopt out Sally the black cat. So Sally remained with me. (Synchronicity at work.) Soon it was obvious that Sally was a male and I promptly renamed him Max in honor of the "Where the Wild Things Are" movie.

During October Max worked his way into my heart and I decided to keep Max, the last of Goldie's kittens. He is so sweet and such a clown! Here is Max as a tiny kitten.





Group photo of dog.Zorra, Goldie and Max last October.


Max and Zorra napping together.


And here is a photo of Max now. Max is about three times the size of his mom, Goldie, who has remained very petite.


Goldie being a love bug on my lap, interfering with work of course.


Here she is, my beautiful sweet Goldie!


I am so very happy that Goldie and her son Max are part of the family!

Until next time, enjoy springtime!

Another Spring Day

Saturday was such a beautiful sunny spring day. I was fortunate to spend another day with my older daughter and my grandkids. We started with my Special-made-to-order-by-shape Pancakes. As mentioned in previous stories, Thalia loves to play restaurant and writes up the orders; this time she attached the written orders onto the fan hood over the stove with a Hello Kitty magnet.

Aiden ordered Eight Heart-shaped pancakes, "Because," he said, "I love you sooo much, Grammy." How special is that! He also ordered One Egg-shaped and Two-Mermaid shaped pancakes. Thalia ordered Four Book-shaped, One Circle-shaped and Three Elpint-shaped (Elephants) pancakes. We have so much fun with our Special Pancake routine!











Out into the garden where we pulled weeds forever- where do they come from! So much work to get the dirt tilled.





My daughter and I continued to work in the dirt but the grandkids played in the little pools as the temperature warmed up.





My dog.Zorra has to be in the middle of the play, she loves to get wet. As far as dog.Zorra is concerned, the grandkids are 'her' babies!




This Spring continues to provide us with amazing weather, perfect for being outside playing and gardening!

Until next time, Live~Laugh~Love!

What I Did on Spring Break

I have to laugh, it was not intentional, taking a Spring Break, it just happened and what could be better than that!

You may think that spending days in my own garden would be enough, but no, I also spent time in my Mom's garden and in the gardens of both of my daughters! And then helped my sister and brother-in-law work on their chicken coop.

For my Mom I planted Impatiens in containers to decorate around the benches in the front and back yards and in a decorative container on her screened porch, trimmed shrubbery and cleaned up her flower garden. She bought a yellow jasmine on trellis for a spot in her front yard. With the daffodils in bloom, green leaves sprouting all about, her house looked lovely for Easter! I forgot to take photos, but here is a photo of an area in her back yard from last year with iris that I planted.


My younger daughter and I went shopping at the Growers Outlet; it was almost overwhelming, too many plants to choose from! I bought several items for their wedding anniversary gift and she bought some items for herself. (Oh and I bought more herbs and veggies for my garden.) The loveliest in the gift group was the 'plum delight loropetalum' which are awesome this year. Maybe it was the influence of the extremely cold winter, I have never seen these shrubs look more beautiful. We planted azaleas, herbs, hostas and more. My daughter made a lovely design with hostas and caladium in the shade of their magical oak tree. She is really developing her green thumb! I love the days we share in her garden! (Once again I forgot to take photos, but will do so on my next visit.)
Plum Delight Loropetalum


My older daughter, my two grandkids and I had marvelous time in their yard. We dug up one garden area and planted seeds: asparagus beans, carrots, cilantro, cucumbers, eggplant, genovese basil, green peas, thyme and Black Prince Heirloom Tomatoes. This was about half of the gardening, a good start! It was such a beautiful warm day, we hooked up a sprinkler for the grandkids to play in.












Almost forgot, for breakfast I made my special pancakes for the grandkids, made to order in Shapes! This is a tradition we started long ago; at one time in the past they made a 'menu' with all their favorite shapes. My granddaughter plays waitress and writes up the orders. Most requested this weekend were bunnies, egg shapes, candy heart shapes, oh, and spiders.

Here is the order written by my granddaughter. (She really cracks me up- she put check-marks as we completed the shapes!)












My sister and brother-in-law recently purchased six chickens and a rooster. The chicken coup is coming along slowly, the chickens are still young enough to be in the large boxes but they are growing fast. We got the roof on -- hurray! Still more work to be done, but nearly completed. Here is The Chicken Coup:




Finally here are some photos of new additions to my container garden:

Red Maple


Kale (one of many)


Pineapple Sage


Tiny Yellow Marigolds in My Dragonfly Stakes


Fragrant Herb Mix


Tomatoes


Little View of Lush Green Garden


Another Little View


Another View



So much fun sharing love, laughter and activities with family on my unplanned Spring Break Week. (I should do this more often.)

Until next time, share your smile!