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Bounty Hunter Seeds Tomato Seeds.
02 November 2024
Thank you for taking the time to share such valuable insights! This post is packed with helpful info...
Miriam Griffiths Blog Pause...
01 November 2024
Hope you have a most wonderful time! One day, I really should get organised and join you.
Katrin Cardboard Churches!
18 October 2024
I didn't know there's foldable models - I will have a look into that, thank you!
Katrin Cardboard Churches!
18 October 2024
I'm very happy that you enjoyed it, and hope you will have lots of fun with the models! Hanging them...
Natalie Ferguson Cardboard Churches!
17 October 2024
Isn't this the happiest thing I've met today! You may guess that one or two will be winging their wa...
cat stuff
SEP
16
0

That's It With The Plan.

cat stuff health

My plan was to finish some sewing project today - but it has been thwarted... well, I could technically do it, but I'm choosing to let my thumb marinate as recommended instead.

If you're now wondering what I mean... my left thumb currently looks like this: 

It looks much worse than it actually is. That is a moist cover to keep a small, slightly infected wound open and able to ooze out anything that will ooze out. I tried to get a (rather large) pill into a poor sick cat yesterday evening, and that was only partly successful as in part of the chewed-up capsule landed inside the cat (good), and part of the cat's teeth landed temporarily in my thumb (not so good). (The cat is not to blame, by the way, as he was not trying to bite me - he had only two wishes: To close his mouth again, preferably with the pill outside of it, and to get away from this horrible situation. My thumb just happened to be in the way of achieving wish number one.)

Because cat bites are notorious for getting infected, and I need my hands in good working order, I did the very sane and grown-up thing and went to the doc this morning. So now I'm getting antibiotics for a few days and the (tiny little) wound gets a spa treatment. It's not hurting much or really heating up, but there are signs of infection, and since the fascia in the fingers are plentisome and those are not agreeing at all with infections, better to act quickly and hit the bugs with antibiotics than get real issues later on.

Bonus, though: I got reminded of the fact that one of my basic vaccinations needs a refresher, and got the shot while at the doc's today.

So. Lessons to learn from this? If you need to pill a cat, consider wearing (thin leather) gloves right from the start. (Thick gloves will not work, you can't put pressure on the small spots at the jaw joint then.) 

Most importantly: Don't get bitten. If you do, it's a good idea to go to the doc straightaway, as soon as there are the first signs of any infection. Don't wait around, cat saliva is evil stuff.

(Bonus tip: Go check your vaccinations and see if they are all up to date. Second bonus tip: If you're getting antibiotics for any reason, get yourself something to build up a healthy gut biome again while you're in the pharmacy anyways. These meds kill bugs first and never ask, and that includes the ones that are supposed to live happily in your gut.)

The irony of the whole thing, by the way? The pill for the cat was antibiotics...

0
MAR
14
0

Argh.

cat stuff

Today started off okay, and then it somehow deteriorated quickly - as in I found out that some of the stuff I had written and finished has magically disappeared (so I have to write it again), and then something similar happened with new writings. And that all while I felt behind already.

The cat "helped" by hanging out on my desk and giving me a microneedle treatment, insisting that the best place for her claws was the back of my right hand. Sigh.

At least it looks like I found out what was the reason for the issues, and they are hopefully resolved.

Also, there will be cake now. And you get a cat picture, because, well, Internet and cats...

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FEB
14
0

Today: Spinning.

cat stuff
Today was mostly spent spinning - the Egtved blouse yarns want to be finished. I had, as was fitting, "help" from the little cat, who snuggled herself behind my back and snoozed.



That was comfy, and nice, and the only downside was that I had to get another sweater out of the closet afterwards, as the one I had planned to put on again was now lying underneath the cat... and no, I did not want to wake her by pulling the sweater out from under her furry butt.
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FEB
02
0

Some Things Never Change.

cat stuff
Some things, it seems, never change. Such as the fascination of cats with turning spindles. Or, indeed, many other textile implements that move. That can make work quite, ah, let's call it "interesting"...

I'm rather fortunate in that our little-not-so-little cat is quite uninterested in textile works, usually. She will sit down on fabrics laid out on the floor, and on my note papers and scale printouts, but she is rarely trying to catch or eat or mangle the textiles themselves or the tools I use. (She will, however, try to bite the end of a pen when I am trying to write something while she hangs out on my desk. That, I can say, is also rather annoying and not helpful at all. It's even worse than her walking across the keyboard, which is over soon, or putting her paw onto the touchpad, which can be remedied by a slightly awkward but sustainable different position of my arms.)

Anyway - the fascination of cats with moving textile tools, and especially spindles, can also be seen captured in a manuscript dating to 1310-1320. A marginalia shows St. Gertrude of Nivelles, dressed as a nun, and spinning. With a companion cat. A very helpful one. The manuscript, Stowe 17, is in the possession of the British Library, and you can see the digitised image here. (I'm not placing it on the blog here due to copyright restrictions, though I'd have very much liked to adorn this post with the kitty directly.)
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MAY
11
2

Your Yearly Tick Announcement.

things going on in the world cat stuff
It's time again - for tick season! I just took care of one crawling on my foot after being in the garden for a short spell, and the cat has had a few already.

So here's your yearly reminder: If you are living in, or planning to travel to, a tick-infested region, go check if your vaccination against tick-borne meningoencephalitis is still up to date, and get it refreshed if it isn't.

Typical recommendations to avoid tick bites are to wear long trousers when outside in taller grasses or the forest, and check your body afterwards for any unwanted, unpaying temporary eight-legged appendages. Remove them with tweezers, or a special removal tool. We've tried a number of different tools over the years, and the best we've found is a tick removal lasso. Ours are from a Swedish company and called 3iX; they work much better than normal tweezers or even the special tick-removal tweezers. Sometimes you also find cards with slits sold as tick removal tools; I never got those to work on human skin, much less on cats with all the fur in the way. The lasso tool (Zeckenschlinge, for the German speakers here) does an equally good job on humans and animals, and works for all sizes of ticks, even the really tiny ones.

If you want to make sure the tick goes dead, you will need to squash it, cut it apart, pour boiling water over it, or burn it. It will happily survive being washed down the drain. (I wrote more about that here.)

I hope you'll have a good season with no tick bites!
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APR
14
2

The penny has landed.

cat stuff
This photo shows a happily sleeping cat:



While that may be no big new thing, the fact that the slow-motion-penny has finally reached its groundfloor destination might be. Today was the first time the little cat used her stairway-board to get up onto her cat bed without getting a reminder first that yes, this thing exists and yes, it's possible to use it, no necessity to try and jump up if you don't feel like it, little cat.

Yesterday, she still waited for such a reminder from me as she was considering how to get up onto my desk. This morning, after having polished off some food, she strolled into the office, went to the cat stairs, walked up and lay down for a nap, witnessed by the Most Patient Husband of Them All. So yay! It only took, what, about two months? We installed the thing around February 15 or so - proving that it does take an old cat some time to learn a new trick, but it's not impossible at all.
0
MAR
16
0

I think she got it.

cat stuff
I was sort of more or less planning to write another ranty post today, because of all the Corona-related stupidity happening here in Germany right now, but I'll postpone it. Because guess who used the cat stairs today, with only minimal prompting?

Madam obviously wanted to hop up onto the desk, but she's having a non-jump day. So she only suggested a slight hop (not like yesterday, when she tried to jump but didn't get high enough, so she dropped down from having her front paws on the desk, but not more). So I petted her and tapped my finger on the stairs to get her to look at them, and maybe consider using them in her little cat brain... and she actually did look at them. And used them.

Minimal prompting, I'd say. Quite possibly next time, she'll need no prompting at all anymore! Of course she was properly praised and petted upon arrival here upstairs, and after some cuddling on my arm, she's now happily installed on her office cat bed, snoozing peacefully.

 
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