Days Of Our Nine Lives: We've Been Colonized!
Whew! Been a while since I posted; nothing bad, just Life being absorbing. Second Thanksgiving went very well; we had about 12 people attending all total, and I had a pretty successful day of cooking.
The final menu was: homemade bread and herbed butter; mulled apple cider and sparkling blueberry juice (non-alcoholic); pumpkin pie (with and without a crust, to accommodate the gluten-free folks); brined roast turkey with pan gravy; wild rice, sausage and mushroom stuffing (gluten free); sweet'n'savory baked sweet potatoes; and cippolini onions in cream sauce (which sounds like nothing much, but is delish). Other folks brought wine, beer, some veggie platters as appetizers, and a different (but still yummy) version of baked sweet potatoes. Everyone got enough to eat. I think even real hobbits would have been happy. :)
I was pretty proud of myself, in terms of cooking skillz, over managing a successful rice-flour roux for the gravy, and producing home-made creme fraiche for the onions. I wish I could give recipes, but they were gifts from a friend-of-a-friend who produces professional cookbooks, and she's asked that I don't pass along copyrighted material she could end up wanting to publish someday, so . . .
Anyway, moving along to the main topic of the post, more kitty pics, under the cut, with this as a teaser (cue the "Aaaaaaawww!"-ing in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ...):
The outside kitties continue to do well, and I still have no idea what I'm going to do about them. I simply haven't had the time, energy, or resources at the moment to do more than put out food and water on a daily basis, and keep an eye on them all. Clearly, they're thriving. Also, as it turns out, they seem to be part of a colony.
I'd read that in a feral cat colony, queens with kittens would often look after their young'uns cooperatively, and the other morning I was surprised to see the usual three members of the Teeny Brigade arrive with another, unfamiliar kitten and its mother. All of them seemed very happy to be together, so I'm guessing this was an example of kitten daycare.
The new kitten is the second from the right, above, and s/he clearly stands out with a different coat length and marking pattern, though I'm guessing all four kittens are related in some way or another given their similar coloring.
Anyway, this morning it was back to the usual Teenies and their mom, so nothing bad happened to her.
Getting back to the indoor kitties, Dex has finally, over the last couple of weeks, started to come out of his shell (and his hiding place behind the TV), at least a little bit. He now comes out to eat, and will sneak around the edges of things, watching and sometimes playing. However, any sudden movements or too much attention directed at him will still send him running for one of his hidey-holes.
Dex is still considerably larger than Lumen (though her growth's really starting to take off now), but the perspective on the above pic is a bit off, and makes them look about the same size. Also, it shows off the faint tabby-stripes Lumen has on her tail, which I think are adorable.
countessaleska snapped the next pic while she was setting up the Christmas tree (a tabletop artificial jobbie, so we're at least unlikely to have any tree-climbing episodes); notice Dex lurking and watching. It's good that he's getting appropriately feline-curious.
Lumen, meanwhile, is domesticating by leaps and bounds. She's still not great with strangers, especially in large groups (she and Dex both vanished for the duration of Second Thanksgiving dinner), but the rest of the time she's pretty relaxed, especially in her fave spot at the base of the cat tree:
Fry, of course, is still his generally relaxed and fuzzy self, outside of his occasional kitty-diva fits and rough-play moments (which are, thankfully, gettling fewer with time). Here he is looking like a slightly deranged Muppet at the top of the cat tree (taken about 5 seconds after the previous pic of Lumen).
Finally, another countessaleska pic, this time showing Lumen in her role as fuzzy butt-warmer in my computer chair; she generally does this for at least an hour or two whenever I'm online. Clearly, she will make a great little writing buddy. I hate how junky my desk looks in this, but Lumen's so cute, I'm posting anyway. ;)
So, that's the RL update -- been a bit busy for any writing, but I've at least been trying to keep up with reading the f-list and otherwise keeping informed, even if I haven't been talking much. Hope to have more this weekend -- till then, have a good one!
The final menu was: homemade bread and herbed butter; mulled apple cider and sparkling blueberry juice (non-alcoholic); pumpkin pie (with and without a crust, to accommodate the gluten-free folks); brined roast turkey with pan gravy; wild rice, sausage and mushroom stuffing (gluten free); sweet'n'savory baked sweet potatoes; and cippolini onions in cream sauce (which sounds like nothing much, but is delish). Other folks brought wine, beer, some veggie platters as appetizers, and a different (but still yummy) version of baked sweet potatoes. Everyone got enough to eat. I think even real hobbits would have been happy. :)
I was pretty proud of myself, in terms of cooking skillz, over managing a successful rice-flour roux for the gravy, and producing home-made creme fraiche for the onions. I wish I could give recipes, but they were gifts from a friend-of-a-friend who produces professional cookbooks, and she's asked that I don't pass along copyrighted material she could end up wanting to publish someday, so . . .
Anyway, moving along to the main topic of the post, more kitty pics, under the cut, with this as a teaser (cue the "Aaaaaaawww!"-ing in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ...):
The outside kitties continue to do well, and I still have no idea what I'm going to do about them. I simply haven't had the time, energy, or resources at the moment to do more than put out food and water on a daily basis, and keep an eye on them all. Clearly, they're thriving. Also, as it turns out, they seem to be part of a colony.
I'd read that in a feral cat colony, queens with kittens would often look after their young'uns cooperatively, and the other morning I was surprised to see the usual three members of the Teeny Brigade arrive with another, unfamiliar kitten and its mother. All of them seemed very happy to be together, so I'm guessing this was an example of kitten daycare.
The new kitten is the second from the right, above, and s/he clearly stands out with a different coat length and marking pattern, though I'm guessing all four kittens are related in some way or another given their similar coloring.
Anyway, this morning it was back to the usual Teenies and their mom, so nothing bad happened to her.
Getting back to the indoor kitties, Dex has finally, over the last couple of weeks, started to come out of his shell (and his hiding place behind the TV), at least a little bit. He now comes out to eat, and will sneak around the edges of things, watching and sometimes playing. However, any sudden movements or too much attention directed at him will still send him running for one of his hidey-holes.
Dex is still considerably larger than Lumen (though her growth's really starting to take off now), but the perspective on the above pic is a bit off, and makes them look about the same size. Also, it shows off the faint tabby-stripes Lumen has on her tail, which I think are adorable.
countessaleska snapped the next pic while she was setting up the Christmas tree (a tabletop artificial jobbie, so we're at least unlikely to have any tree-climbing episodes); notice Dex lurking and watching. It's good that he's getting appropriately feline-curious.
Lumen, meanwhile, is domesticating by leaps and bounds. She's still not great with strangers, especially in large groups (she and Dex both vanished for the duration of Second Thanksgiving dinner), but the rest of the time she's pretty relaxed, especially in her fave spot at the base of the cat tree:
Fry, of course, is still his generally relaxed and fuzzy self, outside of his occasional kitty-diva fits and rough-play moments (which are, thankfully, gettling fewer with time). Here he is looking like a slightly deranged Muppet at the top of the cat tree (taken about 5 seconds after the previous pic of Lumen).
Finally, another countessaleska pic, this time showing Lumen in her role as fuzzy butt-warmer in my computer chair; she generally does this for at least an hour or two whenever I'm online. Clearly, she will make a great little writing buddy. I hate how junky my desk looks in this, but Lumen's so cute, I'm posting anyway. ;)
So, that's the RL update -- been a bit busy for any writing, but I've at least been trying to keep up with reading the f-list and otherwise keeping informed, even if I haven't been talking much. Hope to have more this weekend -- till then, have a good one!