It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

While I pot some paper whites for gifts

Matteo has visions of birds dancing in his head.

The Week in Instagram

a glimpse of my week

The Week in Instagram

 Our weather has been incredible.

This view took my breath away

after a deluge of rain and a battering of hail.

 This is my last bouquet of the season...

Dahlias, the three incredibly scented roses,

basil and a sunflower.

Alas I will miss them.

The sunflowers are still out and about.

But the deer climbed into the raised vegetable bed and knocked over this guy.

And I discovered this little fellow chomping away 

at the Dahlia Bush.

He had climbed four feet off the ground to get to this tasty leaf 

so

I let him enjoy his feast.

And Salmon Days came along with more people than fish.

 We were gifted with the biggest apples I have ever seen.

But finally the rain hit,

But at least one creature is happy about it.

Hope your week has been blessed.

this week in instagram

Beautiful sunlight poured in the windows this week.

Hopefully you smiled with this one.

the Christmas fur balls

I love these guys...

they never cease to make me smile.

arty or artsy

arty or artsy...

Matteo says arty and who am I to disagree?

Well anyways have a very creative weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from Matteo and me!

'tis the season

Zoe finally got all 30+ stitches out,

the cone of shame off,

and promptly disguised herself as a bunny 

so we would not recognize her.

Matteo joined in the fun 

and quickly realized it was a mistake.

Any easter bunnies hopping your way?

34 degrees and rising...

I so want to visit Anthropologie to see their new windows...

but must patiently wait for the snow and ice 

and extra layer of snow on top to melt.

Maybe tomorrow I will get to see the glorious color in these displays

instead of all this whiteness...

 7 inches of snow, then 1 inch of ice and then more snow -

never seen anything like it.

And of course no power too,

 but thankfully it came back on in the night.

 Two poor trees couldn't handle the ice...

You wouldn't believe how loud it is listening to the ice come off these trees -

it thunders and tinkles and just sounds so odd.

And I hope he hasn't cracked in the snow and ice.

I should have been a good mom and brought him inside.

Hope you are somewhere warm and sunny 

or staying cuddled up inside

just like this guy...

for some odd reason he hates the vacuum

when it is running,

but adores curling up on it to sleep.

outside, inside?

the grass is always greener...

or should I say 'the snow is always whiter?'

random behavior

hmmm...

came home to find the closet open with this note.

 that would be pretty random 

because our cat, Matteo,

really likes to sleep in his cozy chair.

He is there literally 95% of the time -

a cat who likes routine and a fine chair

which does not smell too much like dog.

the other habit we can count on with him

is that he will come and greet us whenever we come home.

Zoe taught him this -

and she taught him that this behavior is done without exception

every time the masters return.

most often he is sitting with Zoe at the garage door

with half open eyes and a yawn on his lips 

as he greets us and saunters back off to his chair.

but lately he has been an explorer...

 case in point - 

see this pine dresser above which holds our linens

in the kitchen.

well a couple of weeks ago he disappeared for 3 whole hours.

we called outside and swept the neighborhood 

as we were sure he had gotten out when the garbage was taken out.

needless to say we were wrecks 

as our neighborhood is frequented by coyotes and such.

but twice I heard scratching and all 3 of us 

(that would be our dog Zoe as the third detective)

went looking.  

I was sure he was in the wall...

could not tell where the noise was coming from.

 but eventually we narrowed it down to this bottom drawer.

I opened it and out he jumped.

sheesh...

he has never done anything like that before.

he jumped into the bottom drawer

 while my husband was fixing a knob on the third drawer down.

and Doug put the drawer back without seeing him...

and he stayed there three hours without letting us know.

now today he hid out in the closet 

and I just got home and he did not greet me.  

instead I found him sleeping under the table peering out at me...

do I sense a mutiny in the works?

 naw, it must be the wind and rain howling outside.

smart cat - maybe I should join him.

Let's Mingle - the winner is...

some heavy duty sleeping going on over here

 as they're waiting with baited breath 

 for the big giveaway.

 yep Matteo wants to know if he gets to choose

 and Zoe knows he doesn't 

 so she is just chillin'

and I mean really chilling.
they've been by my side this past week

because I have had a migraine and a UTI again....
so no wonderful doggy birthday shots to show you

although I did wrap this rawhide for Zoe 

 and I warned her about the perils of partying too much.

alas Matteo just thought it was all rather dull.


drum roll please!

 the names were written

 the judge was booted outside and
the names were lined up with a doggie treat by each name.

the door was opened 

and she chose to go down the line of treats and names

from left to right  - very systematic...

and the winner is

congrats to Carlanda, and thanks to everyone for the great entertaining ideas!