Turkey Leftovers and a Surprise!

I haven't managed to post for a while due to a nasty cold which zapped all my energy (but I'm better now), and then Thanksgiving preparations kept me busy.

We had a wonderful day with most of the family here.

I hope all our American friends had a blessed Thanksgiving Day too.

This is 'Riley' gnawing on the turkey carcass after the meat had been taken off and stored in the refridgerator for those lovely leftovers. (Don't you love turkey and stuffing sandwiches with mayo!?) The carcass did eventually make it to the barn for the rest of the kitties to share, but 'Riley' had first dibs. I'm not sure where Jasmine was while this was taking place!!

Yes, this kitty has become a house cat, and there's an amusing story to tell about that :)

************

Our oldest daughter, Kylie and husband, Ko have moved to NY City, and they decided their kitty, Ilsa needed a companion to keep her company now that she's living in a 14th floor highrise apartment.

Riley became the chosen cat, being the bigger twin, and a bit more robust than his brother, Max.

we agreed to have him neutered, vaccinated, defleaed, etc. and get him used to being in the house. With this intention we took him to our local vet on the Monday before Thanksgiving. During the pre-op check the vet checked the...er...gender, paused a moment, then looking up with a small smile on her face, she announced, "This is a little girl!"

Oh dear!

The kids had wanted a male....

Well, not to worry, there was still Max at home, and we could bring him back the same day they said.

So....we had "Ms." Riley medicated and vaccinated, since she was there, and made plans to check Max's gender as soon as we arrived home.

You can probably guess what's coming, right?....

Yep, Max turned out to be a girl too!

They had a good chuckle at the vet's when I called to tell them :)

But now I had to break the news to Kylie......

She laughed uproariously when I told her the story and assured me that Riley being a girl would be just fine with them. Whew!

She'll have her 'op' in a couple of weeks and we'll take her to them at Christmas time.

They're still trying to decide on a name, and meanwhile we call her Ginger...or Miss Kitty, or Little One, or whatever comes to mind :)

I'm happy to report that Jasmine seems very happy to have a playmate.

After she's finished roughing 'her kitten' up.....

She gives her a wash......

And then they take a nap.

Jazzy even shares 'her' chair with Ginger (not so much her food!). She'll miss her when she's gone and so will we!

We may have to bring "Maxine" into the house!

You can imagine how much the little grandsons enjoyed having another kitty to play with. Here she was batting the ball back and forth with 'K', whilst being rough-housed by Jazz. She's a very patient girl :)

I hope you're all having a great week!

We have a very cold wind and snow here tonight!!

Time to hibernate....

Birthday Fun!

It's hard to believe our oldest grandson is 6 years old today!

His party was on Saturday so we went out for the weekend.

He chose a 'cookie cake' with a Transformer theme this year. It was a huge chocolate chip cookie, which was very good. A nice change from a traditional cake.

Those 2 little boys sure were excited about opening the presents.

Their dad's favorite toys as a child were Legos..........

......so you can guess who had the most fun with this set :)

These roller blades will be an adventure in learning coordination!! The first effort wasn't very graceful....but we laughed a lot :) Luckily he's well padded!

Happy birthday dear Grandson!

The Frost is on the Pumpkin!

Just over a week ago we had our second hard frost which finished off most of the flowers in the gardens.

October 29th: Second hard frost

My hubby's pumpkin/squash/gourd patch yielded a wonderful harvest and gave us lots of colorful decorations for Halloween and the Harvest Supper at church.

You can see that most of the leaves have fallen, due to some very windy, wet weather over that weekend (Oct. 27th).

Hubby got creative and did the fall decorating in the front yard.

He found an old wheelbarrow that had been his mom's, and filled it with pumpkins, squash and gourds. I was really impressed with the result. He has hidden talents that I'm only just discovering! (I wonder if I can interest him in cooking........ ;)

I wonder where he's off to now.... ?

I planted those nasturtiums late, and thanks to our warm fall they gave us some lovely late color. For those who asked, the white pumpkins are called Lumina. We used them for decoration only, but I assume they're edible. The catalogue doesn't say they're good for pies, which leads me to believe they may not be the most flavorful. But I'm just guessing.

Early in August we extended the fence garden a little (one of several we made a bit bigger this summer), and I planted a few flowers that I'd started from seed. Not really expecting much in the way of blooms because of the late start, I was pleasantly surprised when they gave us a lovely show, which lasted until just about a week ago.

Calendulars are hardier than some plants. They managed to survive a couple of frosts, and were a lovely bright spot in the yard with their cheery faces of bright yellow..........

..........and orange.

There are a few zinnias and some 4 O'Clocks mixed in, as well as those delicate little pink flowers....

......which are Baby Snapdragons (Toadflax). They were a nice surprise in a seed mix I started.

The calendulars made a sunny bouquet for church.

This was the view looking up the hill from our farm just 2 and a half weeks ago.

And I caught Pete sitting on a post the same day.

Looking south

There were still a few lovely colors left after the storm on the 27th. This was taken driving home from school on Oct. 29th.

It was a bright sunny afternoon after that very frosty morning.

The geese have flown south.

I miss hearing their honking down on the river, and seeing their v-formation as they fly overhead.

The outdoor wood furnace is keeping us warm and cozy inside.

We saw our first snow today!! It was just a few light showers and didn't stick, but seeing those snowflakes and feeling the chill certainly made it feel like Old Man Winter had arrived! That's just a little more of Hubby's pumpkin and squash harvest.

But there's more!

We've been freezing some squash and have had plenty to share.

And the gourds make pretty decorations.

The white marigolds from Anita in Germany bloomed beautifully, and so did Marion's 4 O'Clocks from Wales, again thanks to our 'extended summer' temperatures.

Aren't they pretty?

I was afraid the frost would kill them too early, but we were lucky to enjoy plenty of lovely blooms!

However, this is how they looked on that frosty morning of Oct. 29th. The Alyssum is still going strong (that "Sweet Alice" is tough stuff!), and the red Diascia is still putting out a few blooms.

I've been working on emptying all the containers while Jasmine has been chasing leaves. Next year I vow to restrain myself and plant fewer containers!

As I picked up this fuchsia to bring it inside I saw this Monarch butterfly sitting on a stem. It apparently wasn't in good enough shape to migrate, so I just left it on the plant to be sheltered from the cold wind on the enclosed porch.

Some of the flowers in the containers are still looking good. This Marguerite, with the Persian Shield is certainly too pretty to throw away so I'll save it on the side porch for a while. It'll be sheltered until the temperatures get really cold.

We discovered that Jasmine likes to eat the stems of summer squash! She doesn't like the green zucchini so much, but she ate the whole stem of the one she's munching on here. What a crazy cat :)
I hope to have a little more time to visit my blog friends soon. Working at school is keeping me a little too busy, and tired at the end of the day. I find myself nodding off at the computer so I can't seem to fit in more than a few visits before I have to trot off to bed.

I hope you're all enjoying November. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!