Happy Caturday - "Unorthodox " Behaviour 🐾♥️🐾

The theme for Happy Caturday - "Unorthodox " Behaviour 🐾♥️🐾

Creme de Meow tastes so much better in vintage crystal. Bat and Maggie adore drinking out of these glasses. When the glasses come out, they know they are getting their special drink, Creme de Meow ( milk).

Photo by M

Inheritance

There's a house in Kemptville which has a fireplace under the stairs.
I fell in love and, I saved the realtor's brochure in my book box of art I someday would like to paint. 

Summer came and went in a flash. My mood was in a shadow and, then, Autumn arrived and October. The chill in the air, the trees turning beautiful yellows, oranges, and reds, the beautiful moon at night all filled my senses. It's the month of October that always stirs my spirit, of course, our cats as well. "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."If only more months would do the same for my mood as October does.

It's almost four years now, on October 27th, 2017, when Bat and Maggie, our two little rescues, showed up at our back door on M's birthday and Black Cat Appreciation Day in the UK. Bat is a black cat, well, a brown-black Nordic cat; imagine the coincidence. Magical! Because of them, our days are busy with photoshoots, paintings and, stories. M loves doing the photoshoots and, I love painting the two little Gremlins.

"Inheritance"- my latest painting, began with the Fireplace Under The Stairs and Halloween. I can't help it. I'm bewitched by October.
Bats, cats, pumpkins and, ghosts are purrfect for a Halloween Night in Uncle Herman's old cottage. Oh, did I tell you? I almost forgot to mention Bat and Maggie inherited Uncle Herman's estate, " Bat Cottage ".

The Little Prince 💜

Our little garden pet, Prince💜


“Always throw spilt salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Plant lavender for good luck. And fall in love whenever you can. 

Happiness is not about getting what we want.

It’s about appreciating what we have.”
Meet our little garden pet, Prince💜
Photo by@murtagh13@ghostales1957

A PUMPKIN FAIRYTALE 🎃

A PUMPKIN FAIRYTALE

"Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold."
~ John Greenleaf Whittier

When pumpkins give you Fairytales: The quiet garden, still and fragrant after the rain and then I spot from afar little orange golden suns. Its the Pumpkin Patch once again! The pumpkin flowers and the little pumpkins are reaching out coming towards our house: I think they are trying to tell us a fairytale. 


PUMPKIN CAT AND PUMPKIN BAT

A PUMPKIN FAIRYTALE

"Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold."
~ John Greenleaf Whittier

When pumpkins give you Fairytales: The quiet garden, still and fragrant after the rain and then I spot from afar little orange golden suns. Its the Pumpkin Patch once again! The pumpkin flowers and the little pumpkins are reaching out coming towards our house: I think they are trying to tell us a fairytale. 


PUMPKIN CAT AND PUMPKIN BAT

Pumpkin fairies and pumpkin pie, jack o' lanterns of pumpkin cats and pumpkin bats under the light of the silvery moon, oh so many ways the pumpkin patch gives to our imagination. I can't wait for the great pumpkin but, I don't think we have the time for one, not much summer left.

I love rain and so do pumpkins. After last night's rainfall, the garden grew and bloomed some more, and the fairytale pumpkin's bloom was the fairest of them all until this silly girl tried to kill the cucumber bug sitting in the center of the flower. I caught the bug: but I got the flower too. Delicate is the flower of the pumpkin so, beware, look, but don't touch. 

The quiet garden, still and fragrant after the rain and then I spot from afar little orange golden suns.

I think I'm in love with Pumpkin Flowers 🧡🧡🧡🧡🎃



 

And the little bug I guess did less harm than me. Don't touch the Pumpkin Flowers!

Have you noticed all the flowers look like stars? Magical!.

No matter in whose garden this little vine grows, and grows and grows and blooms and blooms and blooms

A whimsical garden another name for a messy garden. 

Nicotiana is one of my favorite, white, fragrant, and starry. A must-have in my garden.

I may never stop dreaming of a cottage by the sea or in the wood, and the stories my garden tells keeps me happy where I am, for now.

The Secret of the Old Book 📖

The smell of old books. There's a word for that, Catsbibliosmia, 😹 but seriously, it's called Bibliosmia. I love the smell of old books and  Maggie loves it too. 

I love collecting old books, not because of their distinctive odor although it is one of their capturing attributes but because I love the stories, the illustrations and of course their covers that draw me into their worlds. 

The smell of old books derives from the Lignin content, the fibers, and chemicals used in the bookmaking of that particular book. Through time, the Lignin content breaks down to form compounds like vanillin and furfural, which are the elements that produce a smell much like vanilla and almond. Combine these scents with their environment they originated from, maybe from a house whose occupant loved coffee, loved plants and flowers, cats and dogs, all these components' odors play a part inoculating the book with its own beautiful and rare perfume.

So, I love sweets, especially ones made with vanilla, and almond and because I'm a diabetic the next best thing to the real sugar is the scent of an old book.

To be surrounded by volumes of old books, all keeping secrets. What a wonderful obsession!

Have you come to the scary part of Nancy Drew's The Secret Of The Old Clock, Mags? 😂

Here's a link to an oldie ~ Nancy Drew ... Reporter ( 1939 ) comedy/crime

PHOTOS BY M 

NINE LIVES 🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

*** My latest painting *** "Nine Lives " ***

Bat and "Nine Lives", sure hope this little fella will live all 9! 🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈
I must confess, I do have a favorite pet, Bat! Why, well because his story is so special but that's for another post.

I've become the crazy cat lady in my senior years but I do love them a bunch, all three of them, Bat, Maggie, and Karson! Still, I miss our Grace but for the time being, will wait a bit longer before we get another dog, life is too busy at the moment.

Under the willow, the cat's tomb sunk a little further into the old tree. Only, in the ghostly glow of the moonflowers, could one see the tombstone dimly appear from the dark crevices of the ancient monolithic trunk. 

So, I paint and listen to my music and the words in a song, in a man paint a picture in my head. 

 *********

"So long ago, I don't remember when

That's when they say I lost my only friend

Well, they said she died easy of a broken heart disease.

As I listened through the cemetery trees."

My art is inspired by Living Life and Art.

 Movies, Books, spoken words and Music 

Art imitates Life, Life imitates Art.

The song "One Headlight", The Wallflowers ~ written by Jakob Dylan, was discovered one night when I heard it played in a movie starring Alicia Silverstone and Benicio Del Toro in "Excess Baggage "... Thanks, M for getting me to watch this movie, loved it! Of course, Bat kept me company while I painted. I think he was a painter in another life.

I think I like "Nine Lives " better in black and white. I believe my favorite color is black.

Deceased cat to her paramour: 

"Nine lives lived...

" I know that the ones who love us will miss us". 
I miss you too, my sweetie". 

    

Hubby gave me the title "Nine Lives " when I asked him what he thought of the title I had "Miss You". Then, later I read an article in The New Yorker on Keanu Reeves and his thoughts on death. I'm sure our furry friends feel much the same and so I used Reeves words for the kitty cat. 

Once in a while, a star really shines brighter. Keanu Reeves is one of our very, favorites, especially so for my aunt, Anna in Italy. 

p.s. Anna, 

I thought you might like this bit of information on Keanu Reeves : )

Ghost cats and Bastet,  guardians of Willows Cemetery.

Original in color

Enlarge the image and you'll discover there is more to see besides Bat : ) Hint: look at the trees, sky, and moon and maybe a tombstone, too : )

Hope you like "Nine Lives" and Bat, well I think most do.

Grace and Karson

                    Grace

July 1st, 2005 ~ Feb 27th, 2019

              

Grace and Karson photographed by M

“And it is exceedingly short, his galloping life. Dogs die so soon. I have my stories of that grief, no doubt many of you do also. It is almost a failure of will, a failure of love, to let them grow old—or so it feels. We would do anything to keep them with us, and to keep them young. The one gift we cannot give. •”


Mary Oliver, Dog Songs

 

Above photos by M

BETWEEN THE PAGES OF A BOOK

BETWEEN THE PAGES OF A BOOK

Books, inside them we find stories and sometimes more than one.By now, if you read some of my posts you know I love to collect old things and books are one. I love to read a good novel, in particular, a ghostly tale that has me bewitched by its captivating story.
But I also love the oldies for their wonderful original tales, their gorgeous book covers and old illustrations.These books are an inspiration to me as an artist and it's no secret they are to many other artists out there. The past keeps many treasures and I love haunting for them.

I remember a quote of E.B. WHITE'S “Always be on the Lookout for the Presence of Wonder.”

This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find yet another hidden treasure inside the pages of the antique Medical Book. Last summer, I bought 2 antique Medical Volumes, used them in photoshoots and decorating my mantle but never opened their pages until this morning. Instead of picking up a volume of “Journeys Through Book land” I picked up one of the 2 Medical volumes, Volume #2~ Health Knowledge , The Most Essential Thing In Life. Flipping through it's pages I found an old polaroid of a man next to his vintage car on page # 1117, on the opposite page was the subtitle “Retinitis” not the same health issue my husband has with his retina, he's had retina detachment in the past but all the same it was curiously interesting finding the picture there because I also found further in the book 2 pink bills with their date and place, 1956; my husband's birth year.

Always look for wonder, for really it's never that far away.

NOTE BENE


The fella next to the car, I believe could be the owner of the Medical Books and if anyone recognizes the picture they can direct message me if they would like to have it back. You just need to tell me your name ( the name written on the 2 bills) which I think will confirm ownership of the polaroid. : ) I'm sure the picture is a keepsake and memory you would like back.