Cats and Car Show and Garage Sales

Ziggy went to the groomer at his Vet because he got very matted and hates being brushed. This was actually taken on the way home from the vet, but he still looks scared and unhappy.

His head and paws were not matted, so the groomer was able to give him a lion cut. The good part was that she was able to do this without sedation. She mentioned before that she might try muzzling him, but I didn't ask for details after it was done. It looks like he'd be creepy to touch, but he's actually very very soft.

The Amtrak going by the Niles Depot. The hills are turning brown.Today was the Niles car show. In past years it's been hot for this show, but today I was wearing a fleece, a scarf and at one point I was wearing knitted fingerless mitts. Brrrrrr.

One of the cars in the show was an Edsel.

Here's the interior of the Edsel.


Can you see the cows lined up along the ridge to the right of the Niles sign? I also like how you can also see the sign for the Niles train depot along the roof of the building.

We're both wearing socks knitted by me!

I was invited to a preview of an estate sale on Thursday evening. I bought a fruit picker, a CD of Judy Garland music, a cushy pillow (that is actually purple and not blue like it looks here), and a funky illuminating magnifier.
I thought this prescription bottle was interesting because it matches our green bathroom, and it is from a pharmacy in Fremont. It's not THAT old (Dec 1974) although I guess that was awhile ago, but it's not quite antique!!

The ball field at Niles Elementary where I was watching really dark clouds. Is this really May?

We went to a neighborhood garage sale where we could park and walk, then to Ohlone Flea Market and then to the car show. I found this crinkly blouse for $1.
This tablecloth was 50 cents. Our former neighbor bought us one in greens and blues. I saw it at an art fair and it was very expensive. We finally got to use it in this house with our avocado green stove. I found a round one just like this blue and yellow one at a garage sale a few years ago, but this huge rectangle blue and yellow tablecloth will work really well when the table is extended.

Garden/yard, the neighborhood, and cats, of course!

GARDENING/YARD: My lavender plants are amazing. Some would say "out of control". I planted three different kinds when I saw how well the one planted by the previous owner was thriving. She kept it well trimmed. I let it go crazy! Actually, I let all of them grow like crazy. The bees love the lavender plants. Lately I've even seen big black bumble bees on them. I've even seen hummingbirds on the one out front.

The lavender plant below is the same plant as the close-up picture above. Notice my blue 55 gallon water container. We save rain water in buckets that comes off the roof when it rains, transfer the water from the buckets to this container, and then I use the water in the container to water individual plants when we're not doing a big whole-yard water. The fig tree in front of the lavender plant was given away by someone on Fremont Freecycle last year. It had no leaves, and I'm not sure why he gave it away, but so far it seems to like my yard. I may have to transplant it into the ground at some point.

Last year was the first year for this small raised bed. I'm not convinced it gets enough continuous sunlight due to the tall trees around it, so next year I may move it. This year I'm growing lemon balm (top left), tomatoes (top right), yellow squash (because they didn't have zucchini when I was shopping) (bottom right) and cucumber (bottom left). I forgot that last year the cucumber died about 15 minutes after I planted it. This year it is growing, but I'm not sure it will actually grow any cucumbers. Something else next year!

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: We try to walk at least 5 times a week for as close to 1/2 hour as we can. It's probably not enough, but it's better than not walking at all. We walk all different routes - around the neighborhood, downtown, along the quarry lakes path. This is Second Street between two large plants looking down the old, tree-lined sidewalk.While at the Niles Plaza concert on Sunday I took this picture of the socks I was wearing. I knitted these with Deborah Norville yarn. The yarn was a surprise - it was really nice to work with, and I love the way they fit. I bought more of this yarn to knit a gift pair of socks.

We drive under this train trestle as we go out of town, and I've always just missed capturing this shot of the train overhead. Timing is everything!

These beautiful irises were at a house in the neighborhood.

CATS: Mowry was on my lap while I was watching TV and knitting. His expression cracks me up. It didn't photograph well so I cropped it, but his long tail was wrapped around me and was even funnier than his expression.

Does this cat look like he could let out a mean hiss? Will was trying to brush Alex so he wouldn't end up matted like Ziggy, and while I wasn't there, the report said he hissed at Will. Will is his absolute favorite human and frankly, Alex wouldn't care if Will was the only human he ever saw in his entire life ever (except maybe when he climbs on me purring, and then he leans on me in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping), but even his favorite human got hissed at - how dare Will try to brush Alex!

Alex is BIG. He weights about 22 lbs (weigh yourself with the cat, weigh yourself without the cat) and we both did it for confirmation. He's tall, wide, long and just Maine Coon. If not purebred than mix, but true to the MC breed. The windowsill, on the other hand, is rather narrow. Mowry goes up there all the time, but then Mowry weighs about 13 lbs (which isn't SMALL for a cat, but compare....) and he's narrow. Imagine sitting on the loveseat, as I was, and watching my BIG BOY try to climb onto the windowsill, which he actually did. He usually goes behind the TV to do this, which could be worse, but Will has the TV secured down for just the reason (and earthquakes, of course). The silly part is that Alex walks across the windowsill to the other side of the window, then climbs onto the 2nd level of his cat tree, then on to the bookshelf, and then up to the top of the cat tree. There must be an easier way!

Taken another time, here is Alex walking across the window ON the windowsill.

Final destination - top of the cat tree!