Outside bits and pieces

Since we are EXTREMELY late posting today, we decided to just put up some bits and pieces of outside things. Forgive us for being so late, but we've had visitors AND plumbing problems....NOT a nice combination!! Thankfully, us cats (and dawgz) don't suffer too much when the dishes can't be washed in the kitchen sink, but I think Mom is nearly crazy from it...thankfully, a plumber came today and made a big hole in the wall, found the blocked pipe and replaced it!! Woo hoo! (or so says Mom...we could really care less!)

Can you believe that our sunflowers have grown to 4 meters (approx. 12 ft) high?? The tallest ones are now in bloom (this picture is a few days old).

Me, hanging out in the shade of a squash leave. They make really good parasols!!

Ginger hanging out in the squash patch...no, I was NOT there at the same time.

Ginger, on a walk in the forest.

Ginger and a couple of her new friends.

Ginger is not as big as she thinks she is.

Ellwood and Ginger visiting Barsik's swimming pool.

OK, despite the fact that Mom has been putting out hundreds of seeds DAILY, would you believe NOTHING is growing in our garden! And the seeds are disappearing at an alarming rate....just look and see why...

Yep, we have tons of snow (and now ice, too) AND lots and lots of birds. So much for doing any gardening! Oh, well, these are pictures of our garden so we're going to post them anyway for Jonesie's Gardening Thursday (SOFG). Did you recognise the curly end of Rusty's tail in the foreground of the first picture?

(FYI, that is a Nuthatch (EN)/Gros bec (F)/Dlast (CZ) in the feeder in the second picture as well as a black bird/merle/kos. In the First picture there are several kinds of tits/mesanges/sykorky, goldfinches/tarin des aulnes/cizek and, of course, the ever territorial black birds again.)

Runnin' Late Cuz We've Been Runnin' After a String!

We are late in posting today because we were out in the garden this morning enjoying the warm sun and being with Mom and Dad while they had their breakfast. After breakfast, Mom started dragging a string around the garden and, well, WE LOVE CHASING STRINGS! You would never know that I (Lautrec) am 11 years old and that Tiny is 15 years old!! We are still very young at heart!! Especially when it comes to chasing strings...in the garden...under the sun!! Yay!!

NOTE: Blogger is being a real b*gger today and uploading pictures has been a painful process...therefore I am limiting my pictures to just a couple...the string chasing pictures will have to come tomorrow because at the rate pictures are uploading right now, I will never get this posted today.

Lolo Monday/Lolo Lundi

Hello and Happy Monday! We had really nice weather over the weekend and FINALLY, Tiny and I were able to go out and just do what we love to do in our garden: nothing; anything; nothing; snooping; sleeping; nothing; hunting; more nothing; chasing a fly; looking beautiful; and finally, nothing!! But I take time to do three things I really love - 1) visit the fish; 2) have a cool drink of water from the pond; and 3) as a extra treat, have a nice breath of flower air..mmmmm! I love smelling the flowers!! (Yes, I guess you could say I am a closet romantic!)

In the Garden

OK, so these are pictures that are from last year...from our 'archives'...but they were taken at exactly this time last year so I figured we could put them here because this is probably where we are (or nearly) today, as you read this. In the garden!! Since I am writing this they day before (because Mom said she won't take her 'puter' with us for the weekend), I can only hope that the weather is nice like it was the day these two pictures were taken....ahhh...sunshine, fresh grass, good smells, birds singing...we do like an occasional nap in the garden! Come on over and join us if you want...we have lots of cool places to sleep, play and hide!!

A Visit to Ficelle's Garden

Bonjour tout le monde! So, in keeping with the promise I made to you a few days ago, today I will show you my garden. Here is one of my favourite benches that I like to sit on when the sun is shining warm...it also doubles as a nice place to sharpen my claws.

scratch, scratch, scratch

Here are some more pictures.

My Mom's planting shed

The house, the shed and part of the garden...you see me there on my bench??

And just because there are so many of them, I have to share with you some of the many wildflowers (violets, primroses and other small flowers) that are growing in another part of my garden. It is SO great being a cat because cats are so close to the ground...you humans can't imagine how nice it is to run through a patch of violets and have them brush against your tummy! When I come back in the house my paws and tummy smell so good MY Mom just can't help but give me lots of kisses. I like to have Mom's kisses. (No, L&T's Mom does not have tummy-kissing privileges yet.)

P.S. I have more photos from Lautrec. I'll show them to you tomorrow.

Spring in the City & the Country

Yesterday, I went out on our city terrace (ok, our balcony!!) for the first time this year!! We've had such cold weather until now that we didn't even want to put our noses outside...but today I managed to put my whole self outside long enough to take a peak and a big sniff of Spring. I didn't stay long out there because Mom told me I had to come in because it was time to go the country house. As always, we both hated the 1 hour ride in the car, but when we got here we realised it was soo worth it because the weather was great! In fact, it was so nice we spent at least an hour outside just checking our favourite areas of the garden, eating grass and soaking up the sun.

That's me there in the lower-right of this pic and if you look closely, you can see Tiny there in the upper left. Tiny blends in really well doesn't she? I say she is catouflaged. After all that fresh air, snoopin' around and eating grass (even if it was sad, old, dry last year's grass it still tasted good!) we were thoroughly exhausted and slept like dogs!! Now we are ready for more of the same today!! Woooo hooo!