The Best Weapons

I love seeing little free libraries. 

Do you think there's a selection of scifi in this one?

Heavenly Voices

Have you heard of Eric Whitacre and his music? 

I was first introduced to his music through a TED talk. 

Back when I was in various choirs in high school and college, we sang beautiful, soaring eight part choral numbers by Bach,  F. Melius Christansen, and others similar composers. But a couple of my nieces have sung Whitacre's music during their time in choir. 

Earlier this month, he and the Eric Whitacre Singers were at the Basilica of St. Josaphat in Milwaukee and I was lucky enough to attend, along with my sister, nieces and nephew. 

To hear them...in person...

in a place so beautiful...with such perfect acoustics...is nearly beyond words.

Moving.

Profound.

The Year In Review - 2016, Part II (Or How We Came To Have A Fourth Cat)

The Haus doesn't have air conditioning so in the warm summer months the windows are open much of the time. In the latter part of July, I kept hearing the sound of meowing in the Haus but couldn't tell where it was coming from. I'd check on our three cats...all accounted for and not in distress. Hours later or the next day, same thing; more meowing and checking on our cats.

This went on for a few days until I saw a little animal in our bushes - a kitten. It was skittish when approached. Last July was a month of severe thunderstorms with heavy downpours at least once a week. The kitten took shelter under our back porch and continued to cry outside our windows. I couldn't stand it anymore. I started feeding it and it quickly became less skittish.

DH put his shoe out for it to explore.

It enjoyed attention and petting. It was very young and emaciated. The county we currently live in has no shelter. Shelters in surrounding areas require a pretty high payment for dropping off abandoned animals. So we decided that rather than spend that money on surrendering it, we would take it to a vet in order to see if it was healthy and whether it was safe for our cats to be exposed to it. 

After having it checked out (and confirmed it was a relatively healthy 5-6 week old "she") we took her home, isolated her, and began the long process of introducing her to the other cats. 

She looked a little rough at first.

We named her Coco because of her black and brown coloring.

An integral part of introducing her to the other cats is the shameless use of bribery with soft food (or kitty cocaine as it's referred to in the Haus) as we begin feeding them together. Check out the body language of the others - the patent distrust and simmering resentment towards the newest feline addition is evident. 

But after a couple of months she was fitting in...

even with The Grumpy Old Man of the group. 

I'll Have What She's Having

Menu from the local meat market for this week.

I think 'll pass on today's special. 

Reason Number 239 Why I Love Wollmeise

I knit the Shapely Shawlette out of a deep purple Wollmeise Twin.

Then I blocked it.

This was the warm water after the shawlette was left soaking for 30 minutes.

No color in the water.