Sun - October 7, 2007

Where's Alice?

It's just our nature.

It was Wonderland.
We went to the park in search of a pumpkin patch but found something very different.
When we went for a walk on the nature trails look who came out of the boardwalk woodwork! By my Alice B. Toklas, a marsh hare!
There, galloomphing beneath the boardwalk, a marsh hare in his old brown coat. It was a Tennessee Williams kind of hot and sultry day and we asked Mr. Hare if he regretted his choice of clothing.
He said he did not, that an old brown overcoat was the perfect way to blend into the marsh scenery. He could always go home and take off his coat and get a cool drink, but if he went outside without it? An owl or coyote might nab him. A little sweat was worth it to him.
Then we walked for a bit and noticed something in the grass along the ravine on what's known as the Primitive Path.


Sam wondered if it was another hare. Or maybe he thought he could find Alice.


Negative on both scores. It was a lizard.
We did see that the elephant ears had taken some quick-growing potion. They were actually larger than the ears of an elephant.


But no pumpkins. Just a hare and a trace of elephants. Not bad for a Saturday morning walk.

Posted at 10:20 AM      

Sun - April 17, 2005

The Visitor

Up pops the ... owl

Photos by Joe the Cat

Our backyard is woodsy.
We've had a flicker box standing out there for years, but we doubt a flicker has ever seen the inside of it.
Rats seem to enjoy it, though. And so almost every week we take a hose and flood it with water, just to see the rats abandoning ship and to keep the inside tidy.
Yesterday we were watering plants and then made our way to the flicker box for the dousing.
We pointed the nozzle at the box's entry and let the water go.
An owl popped up. He looked agitated. It was, after all, 10 a.m. and no self-respecting owl would be up at that time of day.
We were very sorry and immediately shut off the water.
We kept our distance from our visitor for the remainder of the day.
At dusk, we noticed the owl's head popping up. We took a seat in the Terrier Temple and kept an eye on the box ... it would be awfully neat to watch an owl take off on a nightly hunt.
Nightfall was hovering. Finally, a blur ... an owl was just visible sitting on our back fence.
Then, a second blur... there were two owls sitting beside one another on the fence.
Another bout of gray blurs and they were on their hunt.
This morning as we went out to feed the birds and squirrels, we noticed the owl watching us from the box.
We now have guests.
--Gimlet

Posted at 11:05 AM      

Fri - July 9, 2004

HAPPY TRAILS TO WOOOOOOO!!!

LEAVE IT TO POUNCE DE LEON

Photo by obliging squirrel

Gimlet reports:
What are environmental conditions on the Florida nature trails during July?
Expect temperatures to burn into the mid 90s during the day, reaching a low boil of 75 overnight. Add 70 to 100 percent humidity, mosquitoes, wood spiders as big as salad plates and fire ants galore.
This is the Real Florida.

Mr. Gopher Tortoise enoying the sandy part of the hammock.


The Florida landscape, PreBulldozer Era.... otherwise known as "Vanishing Florida."

Posted at 08:41 AM      

Wed - March 10, 2004

Sweet smell of excess

Two little dogs enjoy the halcyon days of a Florida Spring.

Bzzzzzzzz!!!
What was that?
A bee?
Bees!Lots of them! Spiraling, buzzing, twirling in the scented air.
Azaleas, orange blossoms, gardenias, honeysuckle. All there to conspire and whip up an intoxicating brew of the upcoming bunny season.
Bunnies!
They went thataway!


The breezes are cool, the days mild, the skies blue ... we wish it would all linger.
But it won't, so we'll enjoy it now.
Time for a romp in the yard with our squirrel friends.

Posted at 09:34 AM      

Thu - March 4, 2004

Life in the Biscuit Bowl

It's not cherries, but crumbs, that are tossed our way.

Not another one of Gimlet's paper creations, is it? Good grief!

Question: If a biscuit bowl contains no biscuits, is it half empty? or half full?
Answer: We think it is awful!

We are going on an overnight business trip (dog business) to see if dogs can be taught new tricks. Of course, we already know the answer to that, but we're going anyway.
We will travel to Rat City (Orlando to the unawares), and on the way we'll get lost ... this is inevitable.
We will learn a lot, and then we will hightail it home.
Home is where we hang our collars, after all. There's nowhere else like it.
Wooooooo!!!!!

Posted at 08:49 AM      

Sun - February 15, 2004

A ROLLICKING POLLOCKING

Portrait of the artist as dumbfounded.

You know that Gimlet paints. Things besides walls and furniture.
She paints, and she practically rolls in the stuff. Being a wire, her palette is full of wild and savage colors. She is part Fauve, Bloomsbury and Modern.
And after Friday, she has gone postal.
In the mood for a little story?
The neighborhood had a small art exhibit on Friday, and I persuaded Gimlet to enter a few of her pieces. She is inclined to put her tail between her legs about such things. I think her portraits are quite good (she enjoys painting me) and so I wrote an appropriately puffy artist's bio for her and cajoled her.
She took her portfolio with some gouaches, an acrylic and a papier mache over to the cats on the next block who were organizing the show.
Gimlet labeled her four works and the Cat in Charge (don't know her name) wrote them down. Gimlet put her portfolio into a closet in The Cat's garage until the exhibit.
Poor wee Gimlet, whom you may recall is undergoing Canine Behavior Modification at the moment, was unable to attend the exhibit. Busy with her regimen of discipline and crate-incarceration, you know. But several of our dog (Daisy Dukes across the street, for one) and cat friends attended. And of course, some catty cats showed up. You get the picture.
The exhibit was only up in Cat in Charge's garage for a day. Her owners didn't know about it. So Gimlet high-tailed it over there promptly at 5 to pick up her works and portfolio.
Gimlet arrived at the garage and looked. Only a few artists still had their works on the walls.
Her sharp terrier eyes zeroed in on a spot of color on the far right wall.
Her paintings ... and something else.
A red posterboard, covered with splashes and doodles of housepaint. It had been stored in her portfolio and she had kept it there as backing and protection for her paintings.
It had holes in it, because she at one time had used it to cover her collection of Thin Man tapes. She had punched holes in it so she could hang it up on a VCR cart.
Besides holes, it had cello tape stuck to it, because some of the holes had ripped and needed support.
She and another dog friend had taken an ethics class at the local college and had used it as a prop in a lecture/demonstration on Modern Art. Action Painting. Jackson Pollock. Ten minutes in the garage painting the darn thing.
It was not one of her entries!
Gimlet stood on her hind legs and tore her works from the garage walls. She was mortified and amused. Good thing for the Cat in Charge she was already two weeks into her Canine Behavior Modification or there might have been bloodshed.
Of course, any blood would have sprayed onto the "painting" and gone unnoticed.
Gimlet is not too surprised that only a pawful of dogs mentioned the exhibit to her.
Of course, she raced home, her portfolio trailing behind her. Joe the Cat saw her running up the street and darted out of her way.
She was in a state!
She bolted into the house, dove through the dog door and let out huge howls in the backyard.
I can't understand it. What's the big deal?
I mean, I went to the exhibit. Yes, I recognized the posterboard that used to hang on the VCR cart (long since gone to The Trash Bin in the Sky). But I didn't think anything about it. It wasn't that bad.
I told her it put her squarely in the Postmodernist Camp.
What artist wouldn't want to be there?
No one offered to buy the work.
--Nigel

Posted at 10:22 PM      

Sat - January 17, 2004

Saturday in the bark

It's Saturday, Nigel's still on the road.
Gimlet has some declarations.

Photo by an obliging Seattle cat
A dog daycare center nestled on a Seattle side street ... one door down
from a neighborhood coffee hangout We wonder: we need more dog daycare
(if humans foolishly insist upon working away from home), but should
wires be allowed so close to coffee?

Woooo.

Nigel returns home from his travels tonight.
What to do to surprise him?
Flowers? A cake? Should I find him a rat?
I could do that.

And what should I do on my last day of solitude?
Go to the park for a nice long walk? Naturally.
Return home, settle into my favorite chair and fall asleep with a good book?
I think so.
And then perhaps another long walk? Downtown and then the marina, maybe? There's the aroma of the salt water and the fish on the dock.
Maybe Joe would like to come along. He rarely wanders past the end of the street.
Such wonderful things on my plate today.

I hope Nigel has enjoyed his travels as much as I've enjoyed being the dog of the house.
Everyone needs a change now and then. Our wiring calls for it.
This wire calls for it, anyway.

I know what else I will do. I'm going to take a look at the entries for the Fox Terrier Network's 2003 photo contest . Nigel and I make several appearances.
--Gimlet

Posted at 10:51 AM      

Sat - November 1, 2003

AFTERMATH

Post-Halloween jitters

Photo illustration by Joe the Cat (who warmed to his topic)

After the orange ....
And don't forget the black cats ....
The spirits linger.

The scene at our home this morning.
We celebrated Halloween, our favorite day of the year, with black cats, spooks and skeletons.
Joe the Cat enjoyed the limelight and marveled at his likenesses around the house.
Our friend George came over for Greek pizza and to watch a tape of the television series Millennium episode "The Curse of Frank Black."
No better way to celebrate a night of magic.
But this morning ... the aftermath of a night of black cats, spooks and devilry. Not to mention that the software problems with our blog have been resolved. How appropriate that we remedied this on Halloween night, and that the problem was a phantom folder on our computer's desktop. The evil folder was consuming all our blog entries and refusing to publish them.
But ... we're back.
Gimlet wants to go for her first walk of November.
We're off.
Just like magic.

Posted at 11:33 AM      

Thu - October 30, 2003

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewhiskered

Halloween Spooks ...
Jumpin' at your window.
Halloween Spooks ...
Knockin' on your door.

Photo by Joe the Cat
Gimlet and Nigel hunt for the perfect pumpkin.

Ghosts and skeletons are sharing the house with us now. A few witches have been seen flying around, too. We knew it was time to get our Halloween pumpkin, so we headed over to Hammock Park and the church that sits on one of its corners. The church always has a big pumpkin patch and we found ourselves swimming in orange gourds. After some sniffing and discussion, we decided on a large, traditional one. Although we could easily carve into it with our teeth, it looks as though this year's selection is getting a paint job.
Joe the Cat has all the brushes.

Posted at 10:47 PM      

Mon - October 13, 2003

Not a ghost of a chance

A dreary day finds wee Gimlet game for hunting

Our backyard bird feeder, smeared with
peanut butter, has its very own ghost.

There are wet leaves on the garden paths, the sky is a gray blanket just waiting to settle, and there's an occasional chill to a lazy breeze.
Fall may be arriving in Florida and in our backyard.
I have been on patrol already this morning, watching the squirrels eat their peanut butter from our feeders. I've also been dashing in and out of the bromeliads near the base of our key lime tree, because I know rats and mice like to hang out there.
I caught a mouse there yesterday.
It was hard work to carve a path through those bromeliads, because they do have some pickers. Even though my coat is very thick, I could feel some pinches.
But I caught the mouse, and then I worried him until him until he had no more worries.
Where was Joe the Cat, you ask? Joe was watching all this from the roof of the Terrier Temple. Joe has stalked and killed a lot of rats, and he's been mentoring me, helping me perfect my technique.
It's just not easy to catch something small and skittery in our backyard. It's very Great Expectations, all overgrown and jungly. Just too many opportunities for rats and mice to get away.
But I caught one anyway, because I was tenacious.
Joe the Cat wouldn't take a picture of the kill. He said that would be in bad taste.
So here is one of our backyard creatures, the ghost on the bird feeder. You can see he's offering peanut butter to weary travelers and resident flickers. Many times the squirrels climb up there to grab some goodies, but they have their own peanut butter board on the oak tree. They don't need to be greedy.
Joe the Cat often appears at the base of the feeder to remind them of that.
I have more patrol duties in the backyard, so it's time to go.
--Gimlet

Posted at 11:35 AM