Fay, a/k/a Peggy

Well, now that the garden season is over, I am going to post about my involvement in what I call feral cat rescue.  I do not officially "cat rescue", but I've been feeding the feral cats in my neighboorhood for years now.  I have been lucky enough to have socialized a few of these ferals to the point of them being able to be rescued and placed with different rescue organizations around the area.   We have made 3 cat shelters for the cold winters for those cats that are lucky enough to discover them and actually want to live in them.

I am going to write today about our latest cat rescue.  The picture of her is from the end of June when she was first photographer in our yard.  She has been re-named "Fay".  Fay first came to our yard sometime last Spring.  I could tell right away that this was a cat who had been dumped.  She was super friendly and hung real close to our house at all times.  It soon became apparent that she was pregnant.  We were calling her Peggy, short for pregnant and that fact that she was a little pig at the food dish, highly food motivated.  Apparently Peggy was cruising the neighboorhood, and we found out that the little kids across the street were also feeding her from time to time.  She was friendly enough that they were able to pick her up and carry her to my youngest daughter's house and deposited her in the kitchen and said "here, we found you another kitty".  She already had 3.  The kids were told to take the cat back outside, which they did.  So, it was at this point that the thought of finding a rescue to officially take her in, especially since she was pregnant.  We located the Melrose Humane Society and they agreed immediately to take her.  She was too far pregnant for them to spay her so they agreed to take her and spay her after the kittens.  She ended up having 4 kittens, was spayed, vetted and put up for adoption.  Only problem was, she was one of those cats that does not thrive in the shelter invironment.  She became more unhappy and became not so nice with the shelter workers.  She was not friendly to people who came to look at her, and in general, was miserable.  My ex-husband agreed to take her and foster her.  He promptly renamed her Fay and she is now with him.  She came out of the cat carrier purring.  My daughter was able to cut her nails that were dagger long and were getting stuck in the rug as she would extend her nails as she purred, which was all the time.  I was visiting with her at his house and she put her paws up my legs and was purring, her dewclaws (both) became stuck in my jeans and my skin underneath.  OUCH!  She was unable to retract the dewclaw and became really scarred, her eye pupils got very big.  I did not know if she would bite out of fear.  My ex-hubby tried to help her release the dewclaw, with us all saying, watah out, she might bite you, but he did not care (and she did not bite).  What I had to do was drop my jeans (in front of him and my daughter) and take them off in order to let her release that dewclaw!  It worked and she walked away a little scared, but recovered right away.  I rushed to put my jeans back on, heeeeeeeeheeeeeee.  Anyways, my daughter insisted she would put on the vet collar so she would not bite and would have to cut those dagger nails.  The deed was done without any problem.  This is the cat that the shelter said was unadoptable and within hours of being home, all these events took place.  My ex seems to be attached to her so it remains uncertain if she is being fostered to be rehomed or if she has found her forever home.

Patriots come out playing hard

How happy I was to see Welker playing as if nothing ever happened to him last year.  Our new rookie Hernandez looking good.  I could not be happier with what I watched today.  The Bengals are a good team and on any other day, I would be rooting for them.  Not today.

On a side note, not doing so good in my football pool so far, oh well, at least the PATS won.

Football has Begun!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night was pure heaven for me.  The first game of the 2010-2011 football season.  The Saints vs. the Vikings.  I love the Vikings and Brett, but in my football pool I picked the Saints.  What a feeling, rooting for a team you bet against!!!!!!  Can't wait for the weekend.

I have been reading a blog here:http://agape-ranch.com/ranch_2010.html

I got the football cartoon from them.

If you have a lot of time with nothing to do, take a look at their blog.  I love it.  This man is absolutely a gem.  I think he could walk on water.

I do not necessarily share the political views, but I do find humor in all his cartoons.

This is how I feel

Good By Mr. Photogenic (aka "Lucky")

We lost our Lucky yesterday due to old age.  He was pathic looking to the end, but in spite of him being thin, he still enjoyed his life.  His demise came quickly, he refused an evening meal, by the next morning Diane could tell he was in a rapid decline.  Diane called and vet, and together with sister and dad, they took him for his last car ride.  We (and the vet) guessed his age at somewhere in the 18+ years of age.  He came to us back in 2004 off the streets.  Little did we know then how old he really was.  He was loved.  Whoever threw him away missed out on a lot of love.

Just enjoy the pictures, more of the same

Oriential Lilies

The Oriential Lilies are finally blooming.  You can not believe the size of each of these blooms.  I bet they are more than 9" across.  To see these in bloom takes your breath away!

Mr. Lucky daylily

Can you say hello to Mr. Lucky?   Diane bought this variety because she has a cat she rescued off the street about 5 years ago and she called him Lucky.  And lucky he was to find this family.  He has needed to go on thryoid medicine, has had all of his teeth (except for a couple) pulled due to dental disease.  He needs to see the vet every 4 months for regular checkups.  The vet has estimated his age at at least 18 years old.  He is on his last leg of life as of now.  Diane gave him the best life he possibly could have had.  He is pictured below at around the time he was rescued from the street.

Sunflowers blooming

Sunflowers growing in the garden, not mine or Diane's, but  one of the other gardens.  This must be 15 feet tall!  The little birds love the sunflowers.

Hollyhocks!!!!!!!!

This is a nice closeup of the group of pink Hollyhock in bloom.  I did not know the colors when I planted them, all I had was 10 tubers in a package that said mixed colors.  I was hoping for some yellow, but did not get that color in the mix.

There has not been many photos over the past 10 days.  It has been so HOT, too hot to be walking to the garden.  Yes, it has really been that hot, and it is continuing this week.  Lots of rain, so I've not had to do much watering.  The humidity has been really high too.    I am not really a hot, summer type person.  I much prefer the cooler weather of late September and October.

Hollyhocks in bloom

The top phots not only shows the Hollyhock in good bloom, but you can see my white delphinium.  You can see the purple delphinium leaning from all our rain lately.  It got really, really tall.  Did not expect the height from this plant for this year!  I see that I have one Hollyhock plant that is a "single bloom" plant, all the others are what is called "doubles". The Hollyhock are in colors of white, red and pink.

The middle photo shows the pink Hollyhocks and you can see some of my Blazing Star in bloom.

The bottom photo shows the pink single flower Hollyhock.  If you click on the photo, then click on it again, you can get a good close up picture and see all the details of the flowers.

This is a new flower blooming for me.  It is called a Cardinal Flower, never grown it before.  I only bought it for its' name.  You all know how much I love Cardinal birds.  This is just the beginning of this plants blooms. You can see the top of this flower has a LOT of buds yet to open.  The flower buds are very delicate and little, but the plant itself is very hardy.  Loves the water.

Long View of my Garden

This is a long view of the back of my garden.  Can you spot the Hollyhocks at the very back.  The garden with all the sticks belongs to the garden right next to me, that only has veggies.

Cleome are ablooming!

The cleome (spider flowers) are blooming like mad.  This is only 3 plants.  When I planted them in April, I did not realize how big they would get.  This is all without the benefit of any fertilizer or miracle grow.

CSA July 10, 2010

This week the CSA was what I expected for each week.  I had so much I was actually able to share with my youngest daughter.  The bag contained a pint of blueberries, 1/2 pint of raspberries, 8 ears of corn, 2 yellow squash, 2 zuchinni, 2 cukes, 4 pickle cukes, about a pound of green beans,  romaine lettuce, mint, and tons of rhubarb.  CSA produce is picked on Friday afternoons.  I pick up on Sat. mornings. The one thing I don't like is how they bring the bags out from the cold storage on Sat. morning and the bags just sit in the hotness on the floor waiting for the CSA members to pick them up.  Most times the herbs and lettuce are badly wilted and I just end up throwing the lettuce away.  This week was week 4 of my CSA and as I've not been at all happy with past weeks, this week was plentyful.  The picture IS NOT of my CSA, but one from Google Images.

Where I've Been?

No new pictures for a few days.  It has been so hot here for over a week, it has been just too hot to go to the garden.  Temps have been in the 90's with high humidity every single day!  No air conditioning at the house either!!!!!!!!!  So, until this weather breaks, no new pictures.  I do share a picture from a few weeks ago of little miss Ivy that never made it to the blog.  Stay cool whereever you are.

What is this you ask? Click on the picture to get a better view.

This is one of the 6 cardinal flowers I have in my garden.  It is just starting to set up bloom.  I was very surprised to see what the bloom looks like close up.  So click the picture twice and take a look.

Gloria, this post is at your request

Here is the long view of both Diane's garden (left) and my garden (right) this morning. If you click twice on the pictures, you will get a better view of what is actually there.

Not a lot going on today as far as new flowers open, so I thought I would show you some of the other gardens

As you look through the pictures in the previous post, you can see what other gardeners are doing with their gardens.  You can see how big the raised garden beds are getting compared to last time I showed you them (see the June 20th post).

Views of other gardens in our Community Garden

Here are many different gardens today in my community garden.  The top two of of some pretty flowers in one garden, the white one is a gladious and the purple is a Hibiscus.  One garden has a beautiful little rock garden going on, that big purple plant is a purple basil!  The one near the garden hose (without the flowers in front) is what I call the corn field.  Each year, corn is planted, but no one gets ears.  Our summers are just not hot and long enough (even though today you couldn't tell me that as we are in day 3 of a projected 7 day 90+ high humidity heat wave).

Lilac Lady is strutting her blooms

Princeton Silky is sharing all her blooms

This pretty daylily called Princeton Silky has many blooms open at the same time.  This one is so pretty, but then, I think they all are.

FFO for Daylily called Tuscawilla Tigress

Introducing Tuscawilla Tigress.  She is a huge, orange bloom with 7" flowers with gold mid-ribs and darker orange eye.  This one is a real beauty.

Red Daylily Blooms on July 4th

Cherokee Star (bottom) and Red Volunteer (top) open up wide on the 4th of July.  Real fire crackers they are.

More July 3, 2010 Daylily Blooms

This is even more blooms for last Saturday, July 3rd.  Was busy over the 4th, never had a chance to put everything up on the blog.  Why do I keep putting up the same daylily blooms you ask.  WELL, each daylily only last for one day and there are only a few blooms to each daylily.  I like to be able to compare how the bloom improves with each new one being sent out.

Echinacea

(ek-in-AY-shee-a)

The cone flower's botanical name is Echinacea. It is from the Greek word echinos, meaning hedgehog or sea urchin, referring to the spiny seed heads of the flower.

It has long been esteemed for its herbal qualities and was widely used by the Native American Indians and the white settlers, who used it to treat snake bites, rabies, and other wounds.


In the late 1800s, a traveling peddler from Nebraska, one Joseph Meyer, began making a tincture from the root of Echinacea. He touted his tonic as being able to prevent and/or cure poisonous snake bites, giving rise to the pejorative term "snake oil salesman."

Despite its colorful history, Echinacea is one of the most popular herbal remedies used throughout the world today, mainly for warding off colds and flu symptoms.