Summer is rapidly approaching ….
”Feeding the fish”
Flag Iris and koi.
Kittens, Little One and Little Two. Sisters that have recently adopted us.
The Garden Orb spider that moved into the lavender at the back is still with us. By all accounts she is fat and healthy but no sign of a mate yet.
Various seeds & seedlings including, chillies, orange and lemon trees, rosemary & basil,
Mist enshrouded valley this morning.
Young Catherine popped by last week, planted a few tomato seeds, and asked to have a ”stick” so she could write her name to remember which seeds were hers. I duly obliged. Someone will be surprised when they next visit.
Some of the potatoes that are coming along nicely.
”Lavender blue … etc etc”
”Lettuce pray?” Ready for salad!
Grown from seed that was gathered from last year’s lettuce crop.
Ark.
A Tale Unfolds 
I have never had lettuce go to seed here.. Guess there is none left when we get through making salads.
Do you swim in the pool or is it just for the fish?
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The lettuce bolts ,much like a cabbage and the seeds are in tiny fluffy white ‘pods’ on the tip.
I don’t swim, but my son does when the weather warms up.
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These are wonderfulphotos, Ark, just as we are heading into mid-autumn, you’re on the other side of all of that. Just curious: it does seem that every time you take cat photos there are one or two that I don’t remember…how many do you have, now?
and that garden is amazing. I miss mine, but at some point the body says, “don’t even THINK about it…”
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With the recent addition of the kittens I think we are up to 11. Let me quickly go ask the proper authorities.
No, according to my wife and daughter it is 12. I must have miscounted.
Cue Argus who will give us all a lesson on a Baker’s Dozen and the reason why we must get one more!
🙂
The kittens arrived next door, as pets for the little boy. They are rescue cats from Jo’bug zoo, I understand, where the boy’s mother works. However, she will not allow animals inside the house and we heard from the little boy – who likes to get a box to stand on and poke his head over the wall and chat from time to time – that the cats eat dog food as his dad will not buy cat food.
Kids! Got to love them. God forbid you have any ”secrets” you don’t want the neighbours to know, right?
Anyhow, Emily went a bit spare on hearing this as dog food can cause serious organ problems for cats.
However, upset as she was she bit her lip, as did we all.
Then one day, a short while after the kittens had arrived, I was feeding the koi when I noticed this tiny little thing crouching by the pot that holds the Christimas tree.
I called and it immediately came to me.
I have the ”power”, you see?
She allowed me to pick her up and immediately raked her claws down my arm. Emily appeared on the stoep, obviously alerted to several choice expletives from moi.
”Look who came for a visit,” says I.
I handed the kitten over and Emily freaked at how thin and emaciated she was.
A bowl was fetched pronto, filled with food and placed on the table on the stoep.
The kitten wolfed it down.
It wasn’t too long before her sister hopped over the wall and joined in.
A short while later, when the litle boy began calling for the kittens we told him they were here, handed them back and said he should suggest his dad or mum feed them proper cat food because it could eventually make the kittens sick.
Well, if he did, it fell on deaf ears as later that evening they were back.
We’d left more food in bowls on the table and when Emily saw these two little things through the glass of the front door mewing pathetically in the cold, she opened the door and they bolted inside, hopped on my desk and curled up next to my cameras!
So when I say they adopted us I mean it!
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That pond is simply lovely! Do you get frogs making their homes in it, too?
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We had a couple last year, or the year before?
Nothing so far this year. But summer proper is not yet in full swing, so we’ll see.
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At my Mum’s former ranchita home she had a pond—much smaller than yours Ark—with a very nice meandering, gentle waterfall into and some springs/summers we’d get several bull frogs and leopard frogs. She also had a tabby cat (Foster) for most all its life. He too adopted her/us. We worried that Foster would play with, injure and kill the frogs so we did our best to protect the lil hoppers. Little did we know…
After 1-2 springs/summers Foster was no longer the threat to our frog population was was reaching (had reached?) the “Critically endangered” level. Do you remember the frog’s biggest predators?
Red-shouldered hawks (by dawn/day/evening) and raccoons by night. After a few years Mum’s koi fish were soon at the Critically Endangered level (around our pond) because the hawks soon figured out they could perch up atop the roof then swoop down and snatch the koi right out! 😲 Oh the carnage I witnessed Ark!
Do you not have the same problems there with so many kitties and a hawk or two?
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No. In fact we have lost only one goldfish to a cat – a youngster – many years ago.
We get occasonal visits from a Heron to two and have lost a couple of large goldfish, but no koi.
However …. one time a Reed Cormorant paid a visit and cleaned out every small koi – at that stage about 15-20 fish.
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So then Ark… your reply should have begun with: “YES. In fact…” because according to your Ledger-Records of Zoological Carnage at Ark’s Zoo… you do indeed have a predator problem, similar I’d say to Witch Hunts or Atheist’s Hunts. 😉 😛
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Pedantic semantics just ain’t my thang,
I write wot I write , even if I hang.
If you fancy being my editor then please, be my guest,
But if you expect to be paid, well …. surely you jest?
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😄 Guilty as charged. Nonetheless, these are all very intriguing images of your farm, garden, and animal updates minus Em’s latest cake masterpiece. 😉
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Cats know stuff. And a rescue like that, only to abuse the cats (“well they can always catch mice…” ) that way is actionable. I’ve rescued at least two from that kind of thinking, and probably every cat who planted themselves on my porch step was in the same boat. Good on you. And I envy you your 12.
The word is out, you know.
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