The Kitties

This is an emotional post for me.  I have become fond of the feral kitties that live on our property, and now we are getting ready to move:

We moved to this house almost ten years ago.  We brought one cat with us, a Maine Coon called Katie.  During our first summer here a couple of little kittens showed up in our yard.  My husband first saw them when he was out back doing yard work.  There is a swale behind our property with trees and shrubbery.  The kitties came out from there and crept cautiously into our yard.

Mike began coaxing them with treats, then we put little bowls food back there for them.  Gradually, they came closer, and finally onto the deck.  Eventually we were able to trap them with a humane trap so we could take them to the vet to be neutered.  They turned out to be friendly so we adopted them and brought them in the house to live with us and Katie.  We named them Tinkerbell and Tiger.

Here they are now, as indoor cats:

The next summer, another feral cat had a litter under our neighbors' porch, three nearly identical black kittens.  We had the mom spayed first, then the kittens when they were old enough.  Fortunately, we found a clinic in Cincinnati that had a program to neuter strays for only $15, thanks to a grant from PetSmart.  That includes a rabies shot.

One of the little black kittens was so friendly that we adopted her and named her Munchkin.  Here is Munchkin now:

Here are her sisters living outside.

Every year, more stray kitties have shown up on our deck, attracted by the food we put out there in the morning.  In the winter I was concerned about them so we put several small, insulated "igloos" on the deck for them to huddle on cold nights.

These three are Little Sister, Mama and Little Blondie.

They all cooperate and get along, like a little family.  They have all been neutered and had their shots.  Here is Little Blondie with Big Blackie:

The three below are Little Blondie, Spot and Little Sister.

We are participating in the "TNR" or "trap, neuter, release" program, meant to keep the feral cat population under control.  Some people don't think it's a good idea but it has worked out well here.  They all get along and don't cause any trouble at all.  They are quiet, healthy and well-behaved.

They have made themselves right at home on our back deck:

Of course it was inevitable that I would became known as a "cat lady".  (My husband likes them too, but no one calls him a "cat man"; I don't know why.)  We have two very kind cat ladies next door, who help us when we are away and also adopted one of the kittens.  Now I have a dilemma; not only are we planning to move, but the ladies next door have decided to move as well.  Who will take care of the kitties?  Will anyone want to buy our house with a cat colony attached?  We initially had a lady who wanted to rent the house and agreed to feed the cats, but she had to drop out.

I have come up with a solution that might work.  I bought a big deck box that we can put bags of cat food in.  It has a latch so raccoons can't get into it.  I also have some feeding troughs that are more stable than little bowls.  We are going to put them on the lower level under the deck and hope that the kitties will adjust to that.  I have a kind neighbor who has agreed to work with this arrangement, and have contacted a pet sitter in case she needs help.  I don't know what else to do.  I wish I could find a fellow cat person to buy our house!  I wonder if I could get a grant from PetSmart to turn my house into a cat sanctuary.

Our New Condo

Cheers!

This is the first glass of wine we poured at our new condo.  We haven't officially moved in yet; we are still at our house in Kentucky getting the house ready to sell.  We have been driving back and forth, taking everything we own one uHaul at a time.  We are living a bit like campers in our house now, using plastic utensils, plastic glasses and paper plates. Everything else is at the condo, including both of our flat screen TVs.  In the meantime we are watching an old 27-inch box.

So here are a few photos of the condo when it was empty:

We chose the condo because it has lots of windows and always seems full of light.  Also, because we can see trees from every window.  Trees are important to me.

Of course I like the kitchen because we were able to choose all the fixtures and finishings.  We still need to put in a backsplash.  It will add some color.  We need to add color to the whole place; painting the walls, hanging pictures, window treatments and everything.  We will do all that after we finally move in.

I like the lighting under the cabinets.  I've always wanted that.

The first thing we did was buy a bed and a fridge, so we could survive there when we came to visit.

We bought a small love seat so we had a place to sit, and we brought a rug from home.

For the bathroom I brought some pictures featuring sea glass.  We will hang these here after the walls have been painted.  I bought these several years ago, knowing I would want to use them some day.

There will be more to come, lots to do.

Moving On… Our New Home in PA

This is the first photo I took in our new condo.  You are looking at all the furniture we had there at that time.  Nevertheless, we were celebrating with our friends, toasting the move we are about to make.

Here they are, welcoming us to the neighborhood on their balcony.  We bought a condo in the same development, so we are going to be neighbors again.

As I have mentioned before, we made a lot of good friends when we lived in Philadelphia.  We have been making trips back and forth, taking a uHaul truck each time (I think we have made four trips now; this was during one of our visits).

We actually bought our new condo last June.  Since then we have been back for a surprise birthday party, a bridal shower, a graduation party, a wedding, a house concert and a bris.  Here is Mike with two friends who also live in the condo development.  We were at a surprise birthday party for another friend.

Here is the birthday girl!

Over the years, we have traveled with all of these friends and more.  I wish I had pictures from all of those trips but I didn't have a digital camera then.

The first trip was in 1995 to Israel.  We went with new acquaintances and came back with many friends.  Since then we have traveled with them to many Caribbean islands, Mexico, Hawaii, France and Italy.  Many happy memories were made.

I took this one in Washington, DC.  I was there, but behind the camera.

Here I am with my friend in Mexico.  We were there with three other couples.

This was a vacation at the Outer Banks.  Once again, I'm behind the camera.

This was when we were in Israel, back in the 1990s.  I didn't have a digital camera but t took a picture of a picture; I need to do that with more of my old photos.

Another older picture from Israel.

More friends on an Israel trip.  This trip also included Greece and Turkey.  I think this was in Greece.

Our most recent trip, a Viking cruise on the Danube in Eastern Europe.  We visited Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Serbia… learned so much about that part of the world.  It was unforgettable.

In Croatia:

In Serbia:

Well, I'm probably getting carried away now.  I have so many pictures and so many memories; I can't begin to show them all.  I don't even have any digital pictures from our barge trip in France or our Italy trip to the Amalfi Coast.  All these trips were with this group of friends, and we look forward to more.  In fact, we have plans to go to Ireland with them later this year, touring with an Irish musical group.

I haven't even shown you our new condo yet, other than that first shot.  It's still in the process.  We have furniture there but need paint, curtains, lamps, pictures and everything else.  But I have shown you many of the reasons we are moving there.  We will continue the life we started when we lived in Philly before.

So, now you have seen some of what I love about being there, and some of what I love about being here.  I've been lucky to have both in my life.

p.s.  I just realized that you can go to my old blog at "www.winsomeaunt.blogspot.com" and see my  older photos (France in 2008, Italy in 2010 and many from Hawaii).

Finding a Home for the Heart

I am full of mixed feelings.  When we first moved from Philadelphia to Kentucky I was grieving.  I missed the house we had lived in for sixteen years.  The first time we drove back to our old neighborhood I cried.  My home was no longer my home.

Our new house was nice enough but it wasn't the same.  I found fault with everything that was different from the house I had loved.  The strange thing is… after nearly ten years I now love this house.  I am finding it hard to let it go.  I have transformed it into what feels like home to me.  Now I am preparing to do the same thing with the new condo in Philadelphia.

My mother once told me that I am highly attuned to my surroundings, and I guess that's true.  I put down roots, deep roots.  I become attached to things that most people hardly notice.  Now that we are preparing to move, I realize I will miss certain everyday things, the post office just down the road, the family farm that has a corn maze every year, even certain trees that I find beautiful.

This is our house on our street:

This is part of the back yard.  I love the trees and the rose bushes and the bench in a sunny spot.

Flowers and lights on the deck:

My favorite reading spot:

My husband has his "man cave" downstairs, where he reads, watches golf and football.  I join him there sometimes to watch a favorite show.  This is the basement we had finished, and i added curtains, quilts and pictures to warm it up a little.

A shadow on the bedroom wall on a sunny morning.  I notice every little thing.

Anyway, you probably get the idea.  I get attached to things and places and people.  Changing to a new environment isn't easy for me.  It's not just the house either.  I have come to appreciate the area where we live… Boone County, Kentucky.

When we first moved here I felt adrift.  I missed the city, the commuter train, my job, and so many friends.  I wrote in my old blog about how much I missed those things.  I described myself as "a blue girl in a red state" because I realized I was fairly liberal in a place that tends to be conservative.  But over time I have submitted to the charms of this part of the country.

I was fascinated by the "road to nowhere" just down the road from our street.  I liked seeing the bales of hay rolled up out in the fields.  There is a quiet, simple peace around here.

There is very little "hassle factor" here.  There is seldom a long line at the post office or the bank.  The DMV is friendly and easy to deal with.  Even the Social Security office is organized and not too fretful.  Things do work here.  I have had good experience getting things done; we have our favorite repairmen and plumbers.  Last winter when a pipe froze and broke and we had a leak in the basement, a pair of plumbers spent four hours repairing it and charged only $80 total.

The area is colorful and interesting too.  We are close to several unique places that are fun to visit.  Perhaps the most well known is Rabbit Hash, KY.  It's a tiny "hamlet" on the Ohio River.  Weekends are busy there, with bikers, bluegrass music, barn dances and BBQ on picnic benches.

It's a short drive from our house, along quiet country roads.

We love making this drive on sunny weekends, in a top-down convertible.

A short drive in the other direction finds us at Jane's Saddlebag.

It's a farm, restaurant, museum, wine festival, bluegrass music venue, and is adjacent to a marina on the Ohio River.  A great place to take the family on the weekend.

So you see, I have found many good things here, just as I did in Philadelphia.  I wish I could meld the two places together so I could have it all at once.  We have a lot to look forward to in our new home but I won't forget our time here.  It's all good!