busy day

Pearl this morning, this chilly wind full morning that demands coat and hat. We put on out coats and mug about, but it is not even sunny yet. Have tea this afternoon to plan for Friends of Library program in October; then to Blacksburg to pick up blue taxi load bound for Ann's.

Pearl visits

Katrina ate the food i left out last night! She is much much better, played with Pearl and was good about returning to house after we let her out. Pearl and I strode out to catch the sun in our rubber boots this morning, dancing in the warm light that takes almost til 10am to reach the purple house. 2 1/2 inches of rain yesterday - today the light so autumn like, brittle. John mows.

Katrina sleeps

Rain could persuade me too toward bed. Tried to coax Katrina to eat some of the vet cat food. She licked, but stopped. I got out the syringe. Messy, but some went in her mouth. Will try again this evening.
I turned on the thermostat today.
Guess the ukuleles are out up in the blue house.
about to put on rubber boots and walk up to get the mail.

Home from Vet

The vet couldn't find a cause for Katrina's fever - but she's now got antibiotics and some high protein can cat food that i can soften and feed her with syringe. She's in the chair with me. The vet also noticed a heart murmur that he thinks is serious enough that we should x-ray. ah, I do wonder at the secret events in her life last weekend; what was the adventure? Baldwin and Mindy and Pearl surprised two black bears yesterday just below the damn - smallish ones (most probably same ones who got into the sunflower seeds this early spring). Baldwin suggested that Katrina may have been treed for a couple of days. I thought at first she'd eaten a frog.

cat again

well, we were in the hot tub, fat from good meal with Baldwin, Mindy and DD; I was calling Katrina to come out and bother me for a head tickle (which she is wont to do when i'm in the tub). Suddenly John says, "she's there in the bush (mock orange)." sure enough, her eyes glowing. I hadn't seen her all day. so after soaking, I crawled into the bush and got her out; she's so weak it was easy. She's not dehydrated and she is drinking from the faucet. But not solid food, nor the broth. I'm keeping her inside tonight as we're due for heavy rain. i but some rescue remedy in her water dish.

Cat Story

From Sunday until Wednesday morning, Katrina (my female grey cat - who is in the snow picture) disappeared. She who is usually my companion at the computer, nudging me to scratch her head, seems to have eaten something which disagreed - i speculate that she finally caught a frog. She's drinking water from the tap and sleeping and eating cat treats (a few). I gave her Arsenicum yesterday and made some beef marrow bone broth.

last afternoon with goats

will miss the meditation that comes with proximity to goat rhythmic chomp
of noticing the small biology of the spot
from my perch on section of old front yard maple's trunk
will miss the day sectioned by duty at the blue house
looking out on the lotus pond back dropped by looming Red Bud
from the porch hammock with Mo and Irie and Alaska cat

dark up at the blue house

Time for me to fold up the computer and head down the road; lollygaging in the quiet - with Mojo and Irie who seem to like the company. Still uncertain what poems I will bring to our meeting end of this month - i like Mindy's idea of making papier-mache masks for each of us...i should begin!

frogs

The road trip to Top Sail was a success, Baldwin phoned from the little purple house on top of a dune looking out at the ocean, DD in her bathing suit ready for a swim! I can almost feel salt air just imagining them on the beach. I'm up at their house waiting for blue Cochin to decide to enter the chicken coop which is full of everyone else: 6 little Dominic's, 6 big ole reds, 7 odd mix except for blue. nice to see more of the sunset which is abbreviated in the hollow.

morning sunshine in grey day

another rainy morning moving into afternoon, lucky for me I had DD to cheer me ! Meeting tonight at Ann's for WEB6 to discuss new production/play - i'll be the blue taxi. I need to dig up my old play on caring for my mother dying from lung cancer - assuming that it is on this computer!Recalling on walk back from the river the event which estranged me from my sister and mom: their mononucleosis and my banishment to Gram's house when I was 8 or 9. No one to find out more details of this time; my Dad doesn't remember - I should ask Ashton if her remembers when I lived across 2nd street from him and we rode the bus to Country Day together and played casnasta with his parents. I can remember the big bedroom that i stayed in with a huge bathroom; toilet with beday. I remember sitting on the toilet with my feet in the beday! Gram, my great grandmother was dying in a room at the end of the hall - it was a bit spooky thinking of her there - and of going into the room where she'd grab my hand so hard. Such a skeletal hand and body and that smell of baby powder on an old body. Netsie and Florence lived in the very back - old servant's quarters attached to the big old victorian house. They fed me and cared for Gram; I remember pancakes with corn syrup, which has forever caused me to hate corn syrup! But I loved the round loaves of bread toasted in Netsie's old slant sided toaster. Netsie was my grandmother and her siblings' German nurse; Florence had been with my grandmother since she was a girl.

my take on a sound flu kit

Swine Flu Remedies 2009


ARSENICUM: Recently used in Mexico. Anxiety (esp about health) and restlessness even with exhaustion – burning pains. Thirsty for small sips of cold water. Moaning, lack of vital heat; worse after midnight (2am to 4 am)

BAPTISIA: This also used in Mexico this summer. Foul odor to discharges, breath,sick room.bruised pains, uncomfortable in any position (bed feels too hard). Difficulty swallowing, gags on solid food; rapid septic state. Feel as if body is separated in pieces.

BRYONIA: Want to be left alone and quiet; aggravated by any motion. May make impossible demands on others, irritable. Great thirst for large quantities of cold water. Vertigo, dry lips, severe head pain (better from pressure), coated tongue. Ache all over especially in joints.Dry painful cough.

EUPATORIUM: Severe flu in which the bones ache as if broken; the muscles and the eyeballs ache. May be restlessness and sleeplessness, thirst for cold water.

GELSEMIUM: Number one 1918 flu remedy; used this year in New York for swine flu. Flu developes slowly. Thirstlessness. A dull ache in the back of the head (stiff neck), dizziness, weakness with chills up and down the spine, muscle aches, heaviness in the body, lethargy, droopy eyelids. This remedy is good also for complaints lingering after the flu.

NUX VOMICA: Used this past summer for swine flu (Herscu's genus epidemicus). Flu with high fever and violent chills and rigors. Worse movement. Thirst for WARM drinks. Head pain that is sensitive to light and noise. Easily irritalbe. Cramping in abdomen, vomiting, diarrhea.

hollow-sphere

John's getting in the hot tub, i'm reluctant to leave Monfils giving Nadal trouble at the US OPEN! First day with Facebook "wall" and overwhelmed at the immediate response having been playing with my blog mostly whispering into the hollar-sphere. Like wondering for the umpteenth time why there are so many loud ignorant voices screeching about Obama health care reform as if it were the plague. If I wonder on Facebook someone will jump back - does encourage intercourse. Though I suddenly feel like i'm part of a town instead of a hollow!

edamame from the garden

delicious steamed edible soy beans from the garden last night! And this morning roaming the world with DD who favors walking out to the drive to play with the gravel and other little tiny things in the path.
an old poem comes to mind:

Bicyclist
round, though very proud carriage, the small town
bicyclist "woo-wooed" through the parking lot
like a Greek enthusiast or toddler on first
red trike
until smiles on all faces of the humdrum
who have stopped
to resuscitate a scene often forgot:
that only a fool can pivot on joy!

Piglet's new pal

Between soccer and drumming on pots and drum, Piglet traveled all about the house and even to swing. Don't you wish you could dress with stripes and swirls - and DD's coat was covered with technicolor mushrooms!

new painting

The white mouse who reminds me of Alice's white rabbit now oversees my dreams under skylights which I've always speculated might summon visitors from other worlds - Baldwin's painting so perfectly fits!

September here

Halcyon day, 49 degrees this morning, dew so heavy splashed from my boots on way to open chicken coop. Warm though on the roof of the studio where i was to paint over rust spots, but I cowered just off the ladder and couldn't stay! Instead, i painted from the ladder. I trimmed the obstreperous trumpet vine from the deck and John filled in the hole he excavated to fix the broken water line this spring. A day to complete work on our duty list.
Cheered by James Blake's 2nd round win at the US Open this evening.
Andi visited yesterday and brought DD an adorable cabbage patch doll - DD seemed absolutely delighted as she hugged the doll to her.