I’m trying to hold on to a minimum of one post per month, so here’s May, before the month ends.
Last weekend I spent a good chunk of it outside. I had my veggie cooperative gardening in the morning and took home a bounty of early spring harvest. I got to harvest the spinach and took home a head of lettuce, green onion, radishes and Jerusalem artichoke (native veggie). I’m so glad I stumbled upon this gardening group. They are a great group of people and although I may feel physically tired after three hours in the garden, I’m replenished in other ways. In the afternoon, I started chipping away at the two cubic yards of mulch I had delivered, trying to tame my garden.
Sunday I made it out to Amherst for an orienteering event. And I wasn’t the only one who made it out – the mosquitos apparently just hatched and before I was even on the course, my legs were swarming with mosquitos. Luckily they had bug spray but even so, that night, I stopped counting how many bites I had – all over my legs only. As I started the course I made a comment that “at least I’ll probably run more, to escape the mosquitos”. Except I didn’t run as much as I thought I would. It wasn’t until half way through that I realized why – the humidity. It always sneaks up on me, especially when it’s only in the late 70s/80s. The bummer is though, the next day, I was checking the final results and found that I had come in second – not too bad. My goal is to place in single digits (coming in 9th or less). And usually I’m happy with my spot, but that’s usually because those who got done before me, did so in a fraction of my time. Except, this time, I came in second, only 80 seconds behind the first person (with a total time of about 75 minutes). So if only I had picked up my pace a little – ugh. Not a bad place to be in though – seeing my improvement of the years. I did realize that this season I will be attending my 50th orienteering event I think.
On my way back to Boston, I swung by and had a nice visit with my old neighbors who are doing well. And on Monday, I enjoyed Memorial day with a bit of recovery from all the physical activity, more work in the garden, and an addition. I picked up two concrete bird baths from craigslist. I put one in the middle of the rhododendron bush in the front yard and still need to move the other one to the back yard. By the time I cleaned out the one in the front yard and filled it up with fresh water, I was done for the day. Wallis and I hung out in the living room watching out the front window to see if the birds liked the new addition. No luck. Apparently it takes a few days for them to find it and start using it. Hopefully they will.
What was crazy, was that by Monday evening, I should have been exhausted, and crashing early, but instead, found I was carrying on my new habit of trying to get ahead of things. I was ticking through my chore list to a point I had to say enough, I need to go to bed. It was great though – I woke up Monday and had a clean house and everything in order as if I was having company over or going on vacation.
Speaking of vacation, I’m looking forward to my upcoming trip to Sweden this summer and visiting up north, past the arctic circle, to the land of the midnight sun. I’ve already started figuring out what to pack (which is half the fun). My big quandary was on the cat front. Having lost Webster suddenly last month (hidden heart condition), Wallis and I have been adjusting to life without him. I think for both of us, we really have been enjoying our snuggles with each other, but there is still a hole. Not to say I want to replace Webster, but both Wallis and I miss having another cat around. I’m a bit worried about leaving her on her own (with a cat sitter of course) and her feeling lonely, less secure and maybe abandoned. I started looking into adopting a buddy. And through my research and reaching out to friends, talking to my vet, etc. I’ve landed on the best option – two new kittens. The reasoning is that it’s easier to introduce a kitten to an adult cat (not all adult cats get along together) but that a kitten has a different level of energy than the cat and this can cause issues, so best to get two kittens that can keep each other entertained when Wallis has had enough.
It's basically what I did with Winston, adopted Wallis and Webster as kittens and everyone got along great. So fingers crossed the same happens this time round. I do feel like Wallis is really bored and even though I will play with her, it’s not exactly what she is looking for and she wants more. I reached out to my friend who hooked me up with Wallis and Webster who were a little of a boot-leg acquisition and she connected me with a rescue organization she volunteers. There is a litter of kittens I have been patiently waiting for them to be big enough to adopt and just got word Monday night that I’ll be able to visit them Sunday 6/9 and if all goes well, take them home that day. I chose the two black boys since they are bonded together so it’s nice to keep them adopted together, black kittens are harder to place, and boy kittens are easier to introduce to a girl cat. They are currently named Goober and Milk Dud (their mother is Jellybean and they have two sisters: Jujube and Raisinette) but I have a list of potential “W” names, keeping with tradition, to consider as I get to know their personalities. Needless to say, I can’t wait but am also anxious it all goes well. Before, I didn’t have any time to think – I arrived at my god-son’s graduation, wallis and webster needed homes, I was just starting to think about adopting another cat, and I took them home that night. No time to worry it would go well.
This weekend, more gardening, mulching and enjoying our last weekend together, just the two of us, with Wallis.
