And we have kittens!

My camera is teh suck, but I think kitteny cuteness transcends that. I was going to surprise Little Turtle, but I got all excited and spilled the beans last night. She is going to luuuuuuve teh kittens.

Critters that we like

We let our guinea pigs out in the garden recently, at first making sure to keep very close to them in case they decided to make a run for it, but they found the gardeny edibles far to irresistable to do more than waddle into the fairy garden and munch a path through the violets. Here is piggie Tohru modeling the hat designed by Little Turtle. She turned to the other piggie and said, "Do you like my hat?" to which Kisa replied, *nibble nibble* "Why yes, I do like your hat! It is very tasty!" They had a very nice jaunt (well, that is too energetic a word for our fat piggies; ramble would be more appropriate) in the faerie garden and I think they nibbled on several faeries in an attempt to persuade them to move out.

Yuki, the deck cat, has found a new perch in Beaker the Mexican Feather Grass. I'm not sure Beaker likes to be squeezed to the front of his planter. I'm certain Yuki would be perturbed if I decided to water Beaker whilst she was napping there. I hope Beaker can survive the weight of Yuki's butt! (Little Turtle likes to call her 'Tubby Tooks')

In any case, these sorts of critter encounters in the garden are far superior to the damn squirrels.

I'm in UR plantz, makin' silly facez

We do not welcome our Evil Squirrel Overlords

*

Yuki surprised me greatly this morning by catching or at least pouncing on and tormeting some little critter outside the back garden this morning. I didn't see what it was but I heard it making some distressed-little-animal noises out there for quite a while. She came back looking very pleased with herself, indeed. She has become quite the Deck Cat. She likes to sit under the 'karma chair'. ** I like to sit in the karma chair and read which entices Yuki to sit on me and purr, lick me and otherwise seek love and attention. And cover me with cat fur.

I also like to sit in the chair and look at the plants growing on the deck & see how they've grown. I found a tiny tomato the other day! We have a tomato, woot! The beans are starting to flower as well, so we might just get some of those too. Most everything is growing rather well, I must say. I do have some annuals up front that are being stubborn about producing anything resembling a flower, but they aren't turning brown and shriveling up either, so I guess that's something. Not everything needs to be all flowery and stuff.

Here's a before/after look at my beans. Amazing what happens over a few weeks, with some water, TLC & some music (yes, I play music for my plants. Their current favorite is "Here comes the sun").

*I believe this to be footage of the woodchuck/groundhog who may actually be the Head Overlord, but he's letting the squirrels run the show.

** The karma chair was a freecycle find from the Lake Anne area. Karma lives at the Stairs to Nowhere.

Thank you Bean

Two Turtles Garden is a sad place today. Yesterday, our sweet little kitty, Valentina aka Bean went to where cats dream. We got to say goodbye to her and thank her for being part of our family. She has been sick for a while and we were doing all we could to help her get better, but it was not meant to be. A friend told me that sometimes God only gives us a pet for a short while because there are so many others out there who need loving homes.

We will miss your daily morning 'lovies', what a great way to wake up Little Turtle they were. We will miss your lap warming abilities, reading in the evening was so much nicer with a fuzzy, purring companion to stroke. We will miss your bread thieving abilities, never knew kitties would be bread lovers. We will miss your pretty green eyes and making you look like a little alien ("take me to your litter box!")

Dream well, sweet Beana, Bean Bean, Baby Beanz, Tina Beans, Bee-Bean, Valentina. We love you. We will never forget the love you gave us.

Crafty

Here is the result of this past weekend's adventures in craftiness. This was actually the second iteration of the Mosaic House Number Plaque, as the first attempt got stepped on 'accidentally' before it was dry by Little Turtle and it cracked. The original was made with bright primary colored glass chips with a sandy beige grout. I actually prefer the color scheme of the one that survived in relation to our patio theme, plus the first was good practice as I've never done mosaics before. So, Little Turtle did me a favor, ultimately, with her penchant for occasional clumsiness. We also mosaic-ed a terra cotta pot, which I have yet to put the finishing touches on. All of this is gearing up for the big project, the Two Turtles Garden stepping stone, which I have drawn a doodle of, but will defer to Little Turtles vastly superior artistic skills to draw up our final paper version.

I did not see Todius Caesar this morning, but it might have been because I was running around doing the typical morning getting ready things. We did however find evidence of faerie activity in the garden. I'm glad we thought to put a path in for them to use.

Close Encounters of the Toady Kind

As I had expected, Mr. Toad came along this morning on his regular rounds of Two Turtles Garden. Little Turtle eagerly hopped out of bed (amazing!!) when I roused her with the opportunity to kiss a toad. Out she goes into the garden in her nightie and we examined the toad at length. This is what we learned:

• When you touch a toad on the head, he will blink
• Toads are not wet or slimy, they are quite dry, bumpy on top and soft on the sides & belly
• Toads are cute when they walk
• When toads are comfy, they stretch their legs out all aspraddle behind them
• This toad likes the Faery Garden

All of this was observed without any picking up of, squeezing, prodding (well, not too much) or otherwise annoying the toad. At least, he didn't seem to be annoyed; he didn't hop away into the neighbor's yard. I was quite impressed by Little Turtle's restraint. She did finally kiss the toad, which she dubbed 'Toadius Caesar' (I LOL'd) and sang him an impromptu little ditty along the lines of "You are my sunshine". We are going to make him a toad abode out of a terra cotta pot & inscribe his name above the door. Toadius Caesar, indeed.

It was quite the amusing way to start the day.

Critters and Crafts and Electricity, oh my!

A toad, "Toady" has moved into the faerie garden. He's made a little trek from said garden across the moss and into the azaleas next door each morning (coffee time seems like when all the critters are busy) for the last few days. Little Turtle slept in, being a holiday weekend, so she missed seeing him, but her comment was "Aw, I didn't even get to kiss him!" Little Turtle is apparently getting an early start on the old adage that you must kiss alot of toads before you find your prince. They start 'em young these days, *sigh!*

I mentioned the chipmunk vaccuum cleaners earlier. Well, let me tell you, they are making themselves at home. I was regaling my dad with stories of my War with Squirrels and one was busy cleaning up spilled seed, oblivious to me yakking away just feet from it. Next thing I knew it was creeping along the wood border and paused about 6 inches from my foot. All I could think was that old Chip wasn't as cute and benevolent as I had made him out to be, and that he was about to bite me on the ankle in a retaliatory maneuver on behalf of his cousin the squirrel I have been blasting regularly with the jet setting on my hose.

Other than watering and tending to my plantses, no new additions of the floral variety came to Two Turtles Garden this weekend. Instead, time was devoted to projects of crafty and home improvementy natures. I have had a new light fixture for beside my door very helpfully sitting in my hall closet for approximately a year. I decided it was time to actually put it up. After consulting with my handy-dandy brother to confirm that I understood the installation instructions and to ensure I would not electrocute myself or catch my house on fire, I located the circuit breaker, flipped it off and proceeded to set about hanging that baby up. After removing the old fixture, I realized that the new one would not cover the mismatch of paint shades resulting from weathering on the exposed area vs. being covered up by the base of the light.

Out I go to the back shed, drag out the paint, a roller and a brush to touch it up. Then, inspiration struck. If I was going to touch up one spot, I might as well paint the whole thing. The benefit of living in a very small abode is that you can paint the entire front of it in 30 minutes or less, just like Dominoes used to promise. Of course, I lacked the accompanying trim paint, so that looks decidedly more shabby now in comparison to the freshly painted wall. That'll be a project for another weekend, I suppose.

Back to the light-fixture-hanging. It went smoothly, it looks ever so much better than the old one (and surprise, surprise!) it works. Who knew I could mess with electrical thingys?! Now, I want to put some more up, heh.

Lastly, I will leave you with a look at Two Turtles Garden in The Gloaming, my very favorite time of day.