27 posts tagged “altamira”
Last week we had a huge fabulous thunderhead parked over us, a remnant from Tropical Storm Jimena. It's dark underside was pocked with rare with mammatus clouds (so named because they look like breasts):
Well, I just found out this morning that I got the bookkeeping position with the North Peak Mutual Water Company!
It's our local water well system here in Cuyamaca Woods. There
are 90 shareholders with meters, but only 24 of them are actually
drawing water from the system. Some people have their own private
wells, but they're terribly expensive to put in (around $25,000), so
many residents are completely dependent on the water system
functioning. It only amounts to about two 8-hour days a month,
and pays $500 a month, so I'll still be drawing partial
unemployment. The best part is, it's a locally mountain-based
company, and I'll get to work from home, on my own schedule.
I've had several wildlife sightings in the past few days. First,
there was a beautiful fox on Engineers Road. He came out one
side, casually loped up the road for a few seconds, then disappeared
down the opposite embankment. He had gorgeous grey / tan / red
fur.
As promised, here are the African Queen Irises. They bloomed this past week:
Well, it's been pretty nice being up here in the mountains all the time. Rich thinks I'm more relaxed already. We have more time together, even without our commute time. On Tuesday through Thursday, we can sleep in late, make coffee and have breakfast together, and hang out for a couple hours before he leaves for the studio.
On Saturday, we got home in the afternoon, and I noticed Seamus
watching a corner of the room very intently. Cats can be strange
this way, but it occured to me he might have a mouse trapped in that
corner. Sure enough, he did, but not a mouse, it was a tiny
ground squirrel! We moved a bookcase and the chase was on
again. A couple of times, we were sure the poor thing had
expired. After a couple minutes, we were able to catch it with a
towel and release it outside. It was the cutest thing you can
imagine -- looked like this:
Last spring, we had some "African Queen" irises come up. I'm thrilled
to report that more are on the way again this year. Two stalks
have popped up so far. It will be a while longer before they
bloom. I'll post pix when they do. Here's what they looked like last year:
Being a squirmy worm on the couch:
Here's a few new pix of Seamus on our property and climbing trees:
Rich & I adopted Shamus (re-named "Seamus", same pronunciation) on Friday,
March 13th from Friends of Cats, a no-kill shelter in Lakeside, just outside of San Diego. We are so happy with him in our
lives. He is just the sweetest, prettiest, most good-natured and
even-tempered cat we've ever met.
He's around 3 years old. He readily gives up his belly for rubs,
accepts kisses on his nose, and even lets me play with his feet! He
settled in and made himself at home almost immediately. Went all around
the house, looking out the windows, purring to himself. We can't believe
this dollface had to wait nearly 8 months at the shelter before someone took him home!
He must have been waiting for us....
Saturday and Sunday went smoothly, getting used to
routine... Saturday morning, he saw a group of deer outside - probably
the biggest critters he ever saw in his life! My mother came to visit on
Sunday, and he was totally nonplussed with the stranger in the house.
Rich took him outside for a few minutes, and he was ecstatic. On Tuesday, he caught his first mouse - in the house! Killed it by the next day. We praised and petted and praised him up and down for it. He was VERY pleased with himself. Last weekend we let him go outside (with one of us chaperoning him) and explore his new territory. Anytime he wandered close to the edge of the property, we'd call him back, and he'd trot back. He's very smart. Today, he climbed a tree. We're not going to let him go out at night, ever. And not during the day unless we're there - at least for the first few weeks. He's also a good cat to sleep with - curls up quite unobtrusively next to you, not like Kabuki who'd sleep on your face if you let him.
Our cat, Kabuki, disappeared on Sunday morning between 3:00am and 4:45am. We looked all over the property for hours, didn't find any trace of anything. We did find bobcat tracks right next to Kabuki's tracks, so perhaps he was being stalked.
Hung around the house all afternoon, hoping he'd return. He's never, in almost 10 years, kept us worried for more than two hours. So we have to assume he's gone. He had an amazing life, though. For the past 4-1/2 years, he's lived in the country with complete freedom. He climbed trees, maintained his territory, caught and ate mice, rats, lizards and birds. He also had two ready laps and slept on the bed with us, sometimes under the covers. He got hugs and kisses and kibble every day. I would much rather have had a free and happy cat for 4-1/2 years, than have one for 20 years imprisoned in the house.
The camera lens cap was dangling from a cord, and he was just about to whack me!
In the summer, he suffered from the heat -- so we wet a dishtowel and laid it over him. He was so tie-tie he didn't even protest!
Under the trailer with a lizard in his mouth.
Here he is drinking delicious scummy microbe-filled water from a dip in a rock, right by our bench.
Here he is behind the house after a snow.
Sitting with TS Eliot (also lost - 3 years ago) while snowbound. They both just got up on our chairs, with our respective drinks in front.
Both cats live on at Altamira in spirit.
So it was snowing and raining all weekend, but nothing that didn't melt in a few hours. Then, on Monday morning, a veritable blizzard started up just as we were getting ready for work.
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