05/31/2024 – Good bye May

Too sunny for Quint © Colehauscats.com
Too sunny for Quint © Colehauscats.com

It’s too bright in here, Dad. Where was all this sunshine last month when it was raining every day? I don’t think I like this.

It’s spring, Quint. And you’ll have to get used to it because there’s a whole lot more sunshine on the way. June starts tomorrow and we’re in for at least four or five months of bright sun. Time for a summer of living in your dark blanket fort, right?

Good bye May. You were a pretty good month. Only one hot week and a good amount of rain. Tell June to take it easy on us this year, okay?

~ ~ ~ ~

Where's Mr G today? © Colehauscats.com
Where’s Mr. G today? © Colehauscats.com

~ ~ ~ ~

A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2023Bonkers
2022 – No post
2021 – No post
2020 – No post
2019 – No post
2018 – No post
2017Black and White Wednesday
2016 – No post
2015 – No post
2014 – No post
2013That Girl!
2012 – No post

Posted in Outside Cats, Quint, Visitors | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

05/29/2024 – Complaints

Pia lodges a complaint © Colehauscats.com
Pia lodges a complaint © Colehauscats.com

Mom, I wouldn’t go into the kitchen if I were you if you value your ears. I’m not tattling exactly, but someone’s doing something they’re not supposed to do. Someone else has a problem with that and they’re really loud with their complaint.

Now what? Just tell us who and what’s going on.

Pia leaves the scene © Colehauscats.com
Pia leaves the scene © Colehauscats.com

I’m not sticking around. You’re going to have to find out for yourself. Just follow your ears, Mom.

Hey you! You can't do that! © Colehauscats.com
Hey you! You can’t do that! © Colehauscats.com
Mom, she's being a bad influence! © Colehauscats.com
Mom, she’s being a bad influence! © Colehauscats.com

Tell her she can’t do that, Mom! She’d being a bad cat and a bad influence on us good cats who would never do such a thing. Everyone knows not to do that and there she is. Don’t let her get away with it, Mom. Tell her she’s a bad cat!

All right, Tessa, what are you doing now?

Bad cat Tessa laying on the stove top © Colehauscats.com
Bad cat Tessa laying on the stove top © Colehauscats.com

Mom, tell everyone to get a grip.

TESSA, GET OFF THAT STOVE TOP THIS VERY INSTANT!

The rule from forever ago is that no cat is allowed on the stove top. Ever. Everyone knows this. Tessa knows this and yet, after 12 years of living here and abiding by the rule, here we are. You supposed Tessa just woke up this morning and thought, “Today, I’m going to lay on the stove top.”?

~ ~ ~ ~

Where's Mr. G today? © Colehauscats.com
Where’s Mr. G today? © Colehauscats.com

~ ~ ~ ~

A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2023 – No post
2022 – No post
2021 – No post
2020 – No post
2019Wordless Wednesday
2018 – No post
2017 – No post
2016 – No post
2015Nap Tips with Miss Newton
2014 – No post
2013One Word Wednesday – Three
2012 – No post

Posted in Outside Cats, Pia, Tessa, Viola, Visitors | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

05/27/2024 – Around Colehaus

Flowers galore, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Flowers galore, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com

Flowers around Colehaus this month worked overtime to come into bloom. So much bloomed at the same time in May, we might have a boring June ahead of us. That wasn’t how Mom planned and planted but there it is regardless. Here’s some of this month’s flowering highlights:

Azalea, variety Exbury, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Azalea, variety Exbury, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Azalea, variety Exbury Orange variant, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Azalea, variety Exbury Orange variant, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Dianthus and Dusty Miller, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Dianthus and Dusty Miller, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Trillium and Blue Hosta, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Trillium and Blue Hosta, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Columbine and Bumblebee, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Columbine and Bumblebee, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com

We’ve always had Columbine in our backyard. Mom loves them but can’t seem to grow the yellow and red variety. Lucky for us, the purple/blue reseed themselves every year.

Two years ago, Mom found a double white Columbine and she saved and replanted the seeds last year. She also sprinkled some of the seed over where the purple/blue variety comes up, thinking white and purple would be pretty growing together. Well, no white ones came up, but . . .

White-tipped Columbine, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
White-tipped Columbine, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com

. . . a white-tipped purple version came up! Surely, the seed would remain true? Or did some bumblebee help?

Pale pink Columbine, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Pale pink Columbine, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com

And then, behind the white-tipped one, a pale pink version came up! You better believe Mom’s going to save the seeds from this one!

Blooming chives with Bumblebee friends, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Blooming chives with Bumblebee friends, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
v
Jacks and Mr. G, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com

Garden supervisors Mr. G and his brother think we should stop with the flowers and give them pettings and catnip treats, which leads us to some news.

First, Mr. G’s brother’s name is Jacks which is nowhere close to “Bunny” that Mom was calling him (though he came running to the name Bunny, too).

Second, Mom talked to Mr. G and Jacks’ parents and they are wildly happy that Mr. G has become friendly since, apparently, he hid all the time since his family moved here from Idaho two years ago. Mr. G was adopted out as the only survivor from a barn cat litter and was a sickly kitten for nearly a year. You might recall it took five months before Mr. G trusted Mom. After that, Mom’s never known Mr. G to be anything but friendly, so to hear that he once wasn’t sounded odd.

Sadly, Mr. G’s family is preparing to move back to Idaho sometime in June. They assured Mom they are taking Mr. G, Jacks, and another kitty brother with them. We’d be lying if we said we one hundred percent believed this. What we are one hundred percent certain of is we cannot take in another cat, so we’re just going to have to have faith that Mr. G will go forward having a wonderful life in Idaho with his brothers, and any memory of sitting on Mom’s lap while being brushed will fade as good new memories are created.

We’ll continue to post photos of “Where’s Mr. G today?” for as long as he visits, until the day comes when he no longer comes running when he hears us in the morning, when Mom no longer sees him relaxing, waiting for attention somewhere in the backyard, and we discover he and his family have gone.

Mr. G, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Mr. G, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Old Arborvitae flower bed, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Old Arborvitae flower bed, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com

The flower bed we created after the loss of our big golden Arborvitae in December 2022, is starting to fill in and flower up. Mom’s vision was of a dedicated pollinator bed and we just might have nailed it. We should have flowers on and off up until frost.

Purple Rhododendron, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Purple Rhododendron, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Salvia, variety Hot Lips, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Salvia, variety Hot Lips, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Coreopsis from seed, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Coreopsis from seed, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Pink creeping Phlox, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Pink creeping Phlox, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Neighboring Clematis and red maple, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com
Neighboring Clematis and red maple, May 2024 © Colehauscats.com

Lastly, it doesn’t have to be about the flowers in your own yard. You can always enjoy borrowed beauty from other yards. Our neighbor grew this pretty white clematis on an oversized, old painter’s ladder which works beautiful together, but paired with their red maple and a hint of green from a small cedar as a backdrop (as is our view from our kitchen window), the image was just too gorgeous to not photograph.

Thanks for visiting us!

~ ~ ~ ~

Where's Mr. G today? © Colehauscats.com
Where’s Mr. G today? © Colehauscats.com

There he is, guarding the new flowers like the good gardening cat he is. We almost didn’t see him!

~ ~ ~ ~

A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2023 – No post
2022This and That
2021 – No post
2020 – No post
2019 – No post
2018 – No post
2017 – No post
2016Around Colehaus
2015Efficiency, Tessa Style
2014 – No post
2013ManCat Monday
2012 – No post

Posted in At Colehaus, Outside Cats, Visitors, Yard and Garden | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments