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Uh Oh!
2008-02-18 11:37:00
This is what my garden looked like early this morning. We had night frost of about - 6 C (21 F) last night and this is the result.Gaaaaaaaa, just look at my poor greenpointed snowdrops, they looked like this (below), before the frost and how sad they look now, prostrate on the earth.The fennel in my potager is feeling decidedly very sorry for itself too,and so is the Bergenia.The Periwinkle has folded up its flower leaves,and my poor daisies are not feeling like happy bunnies right now! BrrrrrrrMy poor Hellebore is doing the droopy thing too.This is always a worry when you get such mild temperatures in January and early February and the garden wakes up. Many a bloom or bud is tender and visits from the Ice Queen during the day and/or night are still very common in the early months of the year and can do a lot of damage in the garden. It is usually around half May that the danger of (light) night frost is gone in my part of the Netherlands.Fortunately, a lot of the bulbs can stand a ...

February Blooms for GBBD
2008-02-15 09:21:00
When I announced that the GBBD post (an idea of Carol of May Dreams Gardens) of last January would be my last one, it seemed to disappoint so many garden bloggers, that I've decided to do a few more. Yes, I'm a great big softy but you knew that, right? But I won't do another whole year, as the GBBD posts from May til October take me about 4 hours to make. And 4 hours per post is a bit much, don't you think?It takes me that long because I have so many blooms during those months that all have to be photographed, their names written down on long lists, then I have to look up their common name in English as I'm Dutch and therefore I am more familiar with the common names for plants in Dutch, not English. Because I've watched the British gardening programme Gardener's World, I am familiar with quite a few common plant names in English, but that is British English, not American or Canadian or Australian English. During last year I've found that the common names for plants are no...
More About: February

A Winter Walk That Felt Like Spring
2008-02-11 09:10:00
Last January has been, with an average temperature of 6,5 C (42,8 F), the warmest but one since we, the Dutch, started recording these things in 1706. The warmest ever was January 2007, with a record breaking average temperature of 7,1 C (44,8 F). I wonder what February has in store for us.The weather has been very good since last Thursday with lots of sunshine and hardly any wind at all, which makes a nice change from all the rain and winterstorms we had before. Last weekend was particularly good with maximum temperatures around 15 C (59 F). The average maximum temperature for February is 5,6 C (42 F), to give you some idea. But we have had days of 20 C (68 F) in February before, so 15 C (59 F) is not all that much out of the ordinary. But ordinary or not, I'm enjoying the lovely weather and am, just like all the members of the Bliss team, basking in the sun. There's no better warmth than that of our friend the sun.Yesterday my garden club and I went to the Arboretum Trompenburg ...
More About: Winter , Spring , Felt , Walk

Lucky Seven
2008-02-08 10:04:00
Yesterday, the 7th of February, was a very special and blissful day for me. For starters it was my darling boy Merlin's birthday. He's my youngest Russian Blue and I thought he would be the last addition to our family for many years to come. But I had not reckoned with the fact that I would get a Small Present and a Surprise as well.And here's a pic of the birthday boy, 5 years old today. Merlin, wake up!Ah, that's better!Happy birthday darling boy!And here he is in the kitchen headrubbing and headbutting away with Willow. This is something that they do every morning and it is such an adorable sight to see, although very difficult to take a pic of.After kissing and hugging and petting Merlin and telling him he's the bestest Russian Blue kittycat ever, I had to go to the dentist. Just a check up and it went well, no problems with my teeth. Phew, what a relief. Shortly after I had arrived home again the doorbell rang. It was a delivery man with a parcel for me. I thought it was ...
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The Potager in Early February
2008-02-06 10:43:00
Summer 2007The challenge, when you have a potager or ornamental kitchen garden, is to make the garden look attractive all year round.April 2006Many gardeners think, just because you grow mainly veggies and fruit, your kitchen garden looks horribly dull for most of the year, especially in winter. But that is not the case at all.February 2008Here's one of my beds, right next to the Victorian greenhouse and as you can see there's a lot going on there, even though it is still only early february. In the background you see the gorgeous leaves of the artichoke on the right and in front there's box on each corner, adding a bit of all year round interest. Smack in the middle of the bed is a gooseberry bush on a standard.Here's another bed that I have just cleared the weeds from. There are some primula's in flower here and it won't be long before the daffodils begin to flower too. See?My strawberry bed is more or less green all year round. I have to clear this bed up soon; it looks a ...
More About: Early

A Good Deal
2008-02-04 10:00:00
I found this in the mailbox the other day. This is from a shop that sells stuff for the garden and pets, so that's a double whammy as far as I'm concerned. I started leafing through it, to see what they got on offer as they sometimes have very good deals on plants and other stuff for the garden. And they got some nice stuff for pets too which is of the utmost interest to the Bliss team.Ohhhhh look, a pretty kitty relaxing in a radiator 'hanging basket'. The Bliss team got several of those and they love them, especially in winter, no surprise there. If you have a kittycat or two, these 'hanging baskets' come highly recommended by the entire Bliss team!Lookee here, another pretty kitty with a very nice climbing tree. The Bliss team got two indoor climbing trees already so we don't need another one. But if you have an indoor kitty then this is a very good thing to buy. Your cat will love it and will use it as a scratching post too which is good news for your furniture. Now, let...
More About: Deal , Good

Happy Birthday to ........
2008-02-01 10:46:00
Me, is it me? No Delia, your birthday is in July. Oh but I want it to be my birthday so I can be hugged and kissed. It doesn't have to be your birthday Delia for you to be hugged and kissed. Merlin is having a 24/7 job of it allready. See?Errrrr, Merlin, wake up!Oh, is it hugging and petting time again? Oh goody, I love it!We don't need no birthday, we have something much better and we have it every day of the year!Is it my birthday Mum? No Pippa, yours is in June. Oh, does that mean that I won't get anything extra specially nice to eat? Like a saucer of cream or something? Pippa, you're on a diet! Bummer!I know who it is, it's me!!! No Vita, your birthday is in November. Oh but that was ages ago, please let me have it again today. Aren't I cute, come on, let it be me? Yes, you are very cute but today it is somebody elses birthday. But whose is it then?Is it Mac's? No, I haven't got a clue when Macavity's birthday is, as he is a stray cat.Surprise's? No she is a foundling ...
More About: Happy , Birthday , Happy Birthday

The Hedge, the Table and the Redhead
2008-01-30 08:46:00
My garden has conifer hedges on 2 sides, one on the side of the conservatory (see pic above) and the other one alongside the kitchen garden.A conifer hedge is not the most exiting thing to have in a garden, but as it affords me lots of privacy I'm not complaining, well, not much anyway. Let's take a closer look at the kitchen garden hedge, in fact let's take it a step further and look inside that hedge. Come on, I'll hold your hand so nothing bad can happen. You know it's no more scary than stepping inside a wardrobe, right? Even though you'll never know what you may find or where you'd end up.Watch out, there's some barbed wire. Be careful, I don't want you to hurt yourself.And look what I found here, it's the under-gardener! What on earth is he doing inside that hedge (never mind that we are there too) and why is he moving about so, that way I'll never be able to take a decent pic of him.Hmmm, let's get out of that hedge, shall we, as it's getting rather crowded in ...
More About: Table , Redhead , Hedge

The Awakening
2008-01-27 10:36:00
Slowly but surely my garden is waking up. The snowdrops are chiming their little white bells: wake up, wake up, Spring is coming! And many of my plants and bulbs have woken up, there was even one early bird who got up before the snowdrops did.The winter aconite.But other sleepy heads are rubbing their eyes and are waking up too, such as Hellebores, roses,tulips,Verbena bonariensis,Grape hyacinths,my daffodowndillies,Bergenia, that caught the sunshine in its leaves,the fennel in the kitchen garden,but also Geranium,Crocuses,Clematis andLady's mantle and many, many more. I find it a bit scary that so many of my plants have already woken up as it is only January and there is still plenty of opportunity for the Ice Queen to wreak havoc in my garden with her icy fingers and cold, cold breath. If you want to hear what destruction the Ice Queen is capable of, scroll up to the pic of the Verbena bonariensis, look to the right and click on the second ( the best version) or the third pictur...
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Indoor Gardening for the Climatically Challenged
2008-01-23 08:58:00
If your garden is covered in several feet of snow right now, you can still do some gardening, but indoors instead of out. How about a spot of Internet gardening? Surf on the net and see what's there to thaw your frozen gardener's heart. Go visit the blogs of the garden bloggers in Austin who are able to garden all year round, or visit Green Thumb in India or Nicole in Trinidad for some (semi-) tropical delight or even her from Bliss who has been outdoor gardening several times already this month. Annoying, isn't it, when you're still cooped up inside? But never fear, if you want to get your hands, or paws, dirty - and who wouldn't - you can!Here's Kadootje helping me out with a spot of indoor sowing. Get your paws out of that seed tray Kadootje, I want to get cracking with sowing some lovely blue trailing Lobelia.You can never have enough Lobelia, it's such a wonderful plant for pots and hanging baskets. Prices for bedding plants have gone up rather steeply these last few yea...
More About: Gardening

The Kitchen Garden in January
2008-01-21 09:25:00
This is what my ornamental kitchen garden looks like this month. I took this pic yesterday as I was working in the kitchen garden. Last December we had some frost and even some frozen fog and the kitchen garden looked like this:The windows on my Victorian greenhouse were all covered with frost flowers but not anymore. Last week was very mild, temperatures ranging from 8 to 13 C while the average temperature for January is only 5 C. I took advantage of the mild weather and got some work done in the gardens and my kitchen garden. I didn't have to wear a winter coat, just a thick cardigan to keep me nice and warm. (Thanks to my dear friend Kylee of Our Little Acre I now know that I garden in zone 8, thanks for the link Kylee!) But before I went to work I went on a little tour to see what was happening in the veggie garden.I found the Christmas tree there, newly planted in its pot, so that it won't grow too fast, and I hope to use it again this year for Christmas too. And then, to m...
More About: Garden , Kitchen

Very Unusual Birds
2008-01-18 09:36:00
these are not. They are my friends the turtle doves that wait for me to feed them every morning. They're quite cheeky; when I'm late they come and get me by landing on the windowsill outside my living room window and peering inside: where on earth is she, she's late and we're hungry!This is a more unusual bird but NIMG (not in my garden).But, not to worry, I do have some very extraordinary birds in my garden and here they are.What's so unusual about them? Have a look for yourself.They turn from white into blue at the flick of a switch. ;-) They give enough light to read a book by, so they're very handy as well. And they don't make a mess on the decking., also a bonus!I have quite a few indoor birds too and fortunately they are not in any danger from the Bliss team. Here are some of them:But what I'd really like to show you is a very special bird indeed; it's called the Warning Bird and here he is.Handsome fellow, don't you think? What's so special about him, you ask? Well...
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January Blooms at Bliss
2008-01-15 09:51:00
It's the 15th of the month and once again time for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. I joined GBBD in February of last year when Carol of May Dreams Gardens started it, so we have come full circle. One of the reasons for GBBD was to answer the burning question : is it possible to have outdoor blooms all year round? For the Bliss garden the answer is YES. This will be my last entry for GBBD, after this post I'll have shown you all the blooms in my garden and home all year round. I don't want to repeat myself (boring!) so this is it. Enjoy!Outdoor blooms:Rosa Moonlight, this little trooper has been flowering non stop from April of last year. So all in all she has presented me with blooms for 10 months of the year so far. Isn't that just simply marvellous?My runner up for longest flowering rose is rosa Guirlande d'Amour that has been flowering from last May until now. But I think that this is it for this rose. Moonlight still has a few buds but Guirlande d'Amour is down to its last flo...
More About: January

OUR Winter Garden
2008-01-10 15:41:00
If you've read the previous post then you know that somebody was hissing down the wrong tree. What did YE mean by "my" winter garden. It's not hers, it's ours. We mean, really, our PA should know her place by now, we call the shots around here, not her. Pshaw and humph!As we find this typing malarkey a far too boring and humble a task for cats like us, we let the pics do the talking. As we all know, one pic says more than a thousand miaows! See the irrefutable evidence below of why the conservatory is OURS!It's where we have lunchand hang out.Where we train to become Olympic couch potato champions,have a tummy rubor a wash.It's where we nibble grass,watch the world go byand chat up pretty girls.It's the best place for being naughtya bit of a handful, in fact.It's where we explore thingsand discover big hairy, scary monsters.See what we mean? ;-)It's our favourite place to eatand say (cottage) cheese!It's the place to be for a spot of social climbing!It's our favourite wat...
More About: Garden , Winter

My Winter Garden
2008-01-08 09:58:00
or conservatory is a nice place to be for most of the year. It's the lightest room of the house and even on a dull and gloomy day as today, it's light and airy. I love being in my conservatory and so do all the members of the Bliss team. Not forgetting all the plants that grow in the winter garden of course, they love it there too.Some plants love it so much that they are slowly taken over the conservatory. Here's my passionflower climbing up the chandelier.My conservatory is L-shaped and it is double glazed and has 8 top to bottom windows, two sets of glass sliding doors, central heating and hardly any stone walls.So I have to make good use of what little wall space there is. My orchids love this shelve as they do very well there. I also have a few climbers on this shelve, a Jasmin and a blue Plumbago. It's simply wonderful when the Jasmin is in flower and its fragrance fills the conservatory.As I said it's a great place to be for most of the year, but not all of it, unfortuna...
More About: Garden , Winter

Pruning Apple Trees
2008-01-04 11:06:00
Many people think that in winter the gardener has nothing else to do but sit and snore by the fire. Well, there's not as much to do now as during the rest of the year, but there are a still a few jobs that need to be done. Here is a job I did during the holiday season, but it can also be done this month, so don't despair. ;-)Pruning the apple tree. In my back garden I have a nice little apple tree ( only three years old) that needed to be pruned. See all that crisscross of branches? That won't do at all. A healthy apple tree needs light and lots of air circulating around its branches.So I removed many branches and shortened quite a few others as well, and here is the end result. This is most of what I cut offand this is what remained on the tree.A big difference, don't you think? This time of year is a good time to prune your apple trees and you can prune them even when it's freezing. Apple trees, like roses, need lots of light and air so the rule of thumb is: prune enough bran...
More About: Trees

Old and New
2008-01-01 19:01:00
The old year has gone,been chased away with fireworks.The new year has arrived,been welcomed with champagne,and appelflappen (a Dutch delicacy only eaten on New Year's Eve).It's 2008 now and I wish all my visitors a very Happy New Year!!!After eating all those appelflappen, oliebollen and other stuff on New Year's Eve, I needed to work it all off a bit, so we went for a nice stroll on the beach near Zierikzee in Zeeland (Sea land).Here we are on top of a dune, looking over the sea. It's rather choppy as there is a stiff breeze today.The sea is foaming at the mouth err along the water's edge.But even though it's not all that warm, we're not the only ones on the beach.There are even two black labs playing in the water, brrrrrr better them than me.I think it's time we call it a day, let's go somewhere else where it isn't so windy. So up those steep stairs again.Ahhhh, that's better. Look at that gorgeous view, very Dutch those red tiled roofs.Let's go a bit further and have...

A Blissful Christmas!
2007-12-25 10:16:00
A very blissful Christmas to all the visitors of this blog. I hope that all of you who celebrate Christmas will have a wonderful time in the company of those who are near and dear to you. It's been great fun to receive you all and to read all the wonderful and kind comments you left behind on my blog. I've made quite a few new friends from all over the world, for which I'm grateful. Garden (and occasionally cat) blogging has been a very positive experience for me I started blogging last February and have had over 25,000 visitors so far, which is quite amazing.This year it's not a white Christmas in the Netherlands; we very seldom have them. The last white Christmas I had was in 2001 when it snowed on the Second Christmas day (Boxing day). The sparkling white wonderland we had last weekend is gone alas and nature is wearing her grey frock again.But I'm glad I enjoyed the winter wonderland while it lasted as it was so beautiful to see the whole world turned into a sparkling white...

Walking in a Winter Wonderland
2007-12-23 11:08:00
Come, it's time for a walk. It's been awhile and we're getting lazy. Wrap up nice and warm though, it's minus 5 degrees C. It's still freezing, but fortunately that cold north-easterly wind has gone and the sun is shining.But before we go for a walk, let's go into the garden first, shall we? See what happens when you don't winter clean the garden?Beautiful isn't it? No, it hasn't snowed, what you're seeing is the wonderful result of 3 consecutive foggy evenings followed by 3 nights of frost. Yes, that's right, it's frozen mist that has turned the dull and grey outside into this sparkling, magical faeryland. Let's look a bit closer, shall we?It really is magical, don't you think? Don't you just love the "ferns" of ice on one of the windows of the Victorian greenhouse? It's truly breath taking what a bit of ice and frozen mist can do.Come, let's go. Have you got everything? Don't forget your gloves, it really is cold.This is the house of one of my neighbours, just t...
More About: Winter , Walking

An Act of Kindness
2007-12-17 10:06:00
Today thousands of bloggers are posting about acts of kindness that they have performed and that's great! I heartily applaud the sentiment and although I've decided to join this event I'm not going to blog about my own act(s) of kindness as that would be totally cringe worthy for me. Instead I've opted to write about a wonderful act of kindness that I've witnessed at close quarters.A few years ago my darling Russian Blue girl Pippa was pregnant for the first time and we were all very pleased about that. The pregnancy went well but unfortunately when the time came for the babies to be born things went rather down hill fast. Although Pippa had had contractions for hours, no babies came. In the end she had to have a Cesarean at the vet's.I was there during the operation to assist the vet and noticed that he had a hard time anaesthetising Pippa and had to give her more and more before she finally went under. The op went smoothly and soon 2 Russian Blue babies were born, one boy, ...
More About: Kindness

Hunting For December Blooms on Bliss
2007-12-13 10:11:00
At this time of year there's not all that much in bloom in the garden if you garden in a temperate or, worse, a cold climate. This seems to be a worry for many a garden blogger who has joined Garden Bloggers Blooms Day, a fun idea that sprouted (grin) from Carol's (of May Dreams Gardens ) brain. But it doesn't worry me though, because at this time of year I love to hunt for the odd bloom here and there and I was pleasantly surprised a couple of times by unexpected blooms. And, as there's not all that much in bloom outside, we're allowed to show off our indoor blooms as well. So fellow garden bloggers, don't worry, be happy! ;-)First I want to show you the usual suspects that flower outside at this time of year: pansies!They flower for such a long time and in so many different colours too: blue, yellow, white, burgundy and pink.I use the little darlings where ever I can find a spot for them; in window boxes, hanging baskets and pots. Pansies and violets cheer up my garden in ev...
More About: Hunting , December

Year Round Gardening
2007-12-10 11:01:00
Sunrise in DecemberGardening all year long is something that I like doing. I garden in a temperate climate and that means that outside gardening is not always possible. Right now the days are very short as it gets light around 8 o'clock in the morning and dark around 4.30 in the afternoon, so that leaves very little time for outside gardening during weekdays.People over here who work outside their homes leave in darkness in the morning and return home in darkness again at night. It's small wonder that there are many people suffering from the winter blues. The only daylight they get to see and enjoy is during the weekend. I'm fortunate in that I work from home and can work at any time during the day or night, as long as I meet my deadlines/targets.This season so far we have had some light night frost, but not really all that much to write home about. The temperature is on average between 5 and 12 degrees C during the day, but it feels a bit colder when there's a nasty wind blowin...
More About: Round , Year

Birdwatching
2007-12-04 14:20:00
is something that I like to indulge in, especially during wintertime and I'm not the only one, the Bliss team loves live bird TV too. A few years ago the under-gardener made king size windowsills so that all the cats can safely sit or sleep on the windowsill without the fear falling off or cramping their style in any way. In summertime they love to sit and do a spot of sunbathing and during winter they love lying there, basking in the heat from the radiator beneath the windowsill. I usually sit near the window so that I have a lovely view from my garden and when the cats are not on the king size windowsill, they are on the footstool in front of my chair. I've placed a big garden table in front of my living room windows with a nice display to cheer us up during these dark and gloomy days before Christmas. There should always be something of interest in your garden, whatever the season. And this way I can look at it and enjoy it from the comfort of my own chair, without getting co...

I Did It!
2007-11-29 08:48:00
In February of this year I started blogging to, among other things, get into the swing of writing again. I had been writing for many, many years about cats, cat breeding, genetics, cattery management etc and my articles have been published in many countries all over the world. I also wrote a book about the Russian Blue cats: The Russian Blue (sold out). But then my back trouble started and I was unable to write for a long time until February of this year when I started to blog about my garden and, not surprisingly, about my cats too.August checking out the reading material after his basket inspection.Shortly after I started blogging, I began writing articles again but this time not about cats but gardening. Writing has always been something that I enjoyed doing and I needed a new career now that my bad back did not allow me to continue with my previous one. So why not try to make money with writing articles?I send my articles to several magazines and heard zip back from them. Bummer...

Fascinating Stuff
2007-11-26 08:55:00
Well, not really. I've been tagged, again! The Bliss Team has been tagged too by Birgit of Day after Day, That's Life! and that will probably be a more interesting read. ;-). I have been tagged by Lisa of Greenbow to reveal 8 random facts about myself.Right, let's not prolong the agony and get cracking:Here are the rules:When tagged you must link to the person who tagged you.Then post rules before you list and list eight random things about yourself.At the end of the post, you must tag and link to eight other people.1) my birthday is on the 25th of November (yes indeed, that was yesterday but I didn't have time to blog then) and I share my birthday with Kadootje whom I found on my birthday in my garden 2 years ago when she was a little kitten. Read all about that here. As I didn't know exactly how old Kadootje (=Present) really was, and my finding her was a sort of re-birth for her (from miserable stray to beloved pet), we both celebrate our special day on the 25th. Here's a p...
More About: Stuff

Look Out, There's a Dinosaur In the Garden!
2007-11-22 10:06:00
also known as the Monkey Puzzle tree. But what's it doing in the garden? Do some of us have a fondness of prehistoric monsters? Are we nuts about ugly things? Don't tell me there are people out there who actually like this tree, because what's to like? The razor sharp, needle like leafs that coat both the trunk and all the branches from top to bottom? The fact that it grows to a 60 to 70 ft height or even a whopping 150 ft in favourable circumstances? And you do know it is going to be about 30 tot 35 ft wide? Do we really have that much space to waste on this worst of all Stephen King's nightmares come true?And it really is a dinosaur. Apparently it was already visually obnoxious about a cool 60 million years ago. And it is still here today. Why?Well, we got some Brit to thank for that: Archibald Menzies (naval surgeon and botanist) who attended a state dinner in Chile late in the 18th century. And there he was served some seeds from the Araucaria araucana tree (yes, the officia...
More About: Garden , In The Garden , The G , Arden , Garde

A Beautiful Garden All Year Round
2007-11-19 15:42:00
is something that most gardeners hope for. Although it is possible to have flowers for most ( if not all) months of the year, it is not the flowers alone that make a garden beautiful and interesting. On the contrary, many things are far more important than mere flowers in the garden. Don't get me wrong, I love flowers like the next person, probably more so, but there's more to making a garden look good than flowers alone.If you live in a temperate climate zone like me, you can have flowers in abundance for 6 months of the year. The rest of the year the garden is either growing (spring) or in decline (autumn) and both seasons can give you quite a few blooms too. That leaves us with 2 months where not a lot seems to be happening in the garden (December and January) and most shrubs, plants and trees look about as interesting as paint drying. It's in those months that the garden is stripped back to its bare bones and beauty, true beauty is all about bone structure (same as with huma...
More About: Garden , Beautiful , Round , Year , Arden

November Blooms
2007-11-15 08:44:00
Yes, it is the 15th of November so time for Garden Bloggers Blooms Day which originated with Carol of May Dreams Gardens. Although many bloggers have participated for many months and enjoyed it, November Blooms has been dreaded by many. What to show when your garden is covered in snow or it's too cold for anything to bloom? Well, you are allowed to show what's in bloom indoors too, which must come as a big relief to quite a few participants.Here at Bliss we still have blooms outside, not the plethora like we had for such a long time, but still enough for a show and tell. And at this time of year I enjoy hunting for blooms in my garden as you are bound to find at least one or two surprise blooms which is such fun.In bloom in the kitchen garden:Even though I chucked them on my compost bin weeks ago, the nasturtiums are still flowering. There's not a lot in flower in my kitchen garden anymore but a few herbs are still going strong:- basil- fennel- borageAlso still in flower are:- Ce...

La Vita e Bella!
2007-11-13 15:38:00
Is a fantastic movie, but that is not what I want to write about today. Nope, today I want to write about my own sweet Vita who's named after the well known British aristocratic gardener/writer/poet Vita Sackville-West (can we spell Sissinghurst?). My Vita lives up to her name as she is just as aristocratic and ladylike as her namesake, from the tip of her upturned nose right up to the tip of her very luxurious and fashionable tail. Vita's nickname is (among others) Miss Lola With Her Feathered Boa (Miss Lola met haar stola) as she manipulates her scrumptious tail just as seductively as those gorgeous courtesans in bygone ages with their feathered boa's or beautiful fans.Little boy Volodja already falling victim to Vita's gorgeous tail.And Vita seduced quite a few males of the feline persuasion in her time. Her first red hot lover was Gizmo, a bit of a toyboy as he was younger than Vita. Well, as a fashionable Maine Coon you have to keep up with the times, don't you?Vita and G...
More About: Bella

A November Harvest
2007-11-05 11:04:00
It's November and I'm amazed by what bounty I still reap from my kitchen garden. Today I harvested the last pumpkins. They are not very big but that's okay, you can bake a decent pumpkin pie with 2 or 3 smaller pumpkins too. Before I use my pumpkins in the kitchen I like to distribute them all over my house and enjoy their beauty. Nothing says Autumn so much as pumpkins do. These 3 are now in my hallway where it's cooler and they will keep well there. In the background you see a cat ABC embroidered by me, fun isn't it? It took me about a year to finish it.I also harvested another red cabbage today and in my Victorian greenhouse I found more things to harvest such as the very last tomatoes. For weeks I've been thinking: right that's it, those are the last tomatoes of this year but no, the next time I go looking for something to harvest I find more tomatoes. Great isn't it?And my greenhouse had more to offer, there is still loads of basil (more pesto to make) and parsley too. ...
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