She's Back!

Look how the cat dragged in! She's back!

She came mewing at the front door about an hour ago. Rick heard her. Hungry and home. Thanks for all the comments on THIS POST. I'm graateful for your ideas, good thoughts, and prayers. Thank you, thank you.

 

 

 

Lizzie Is Missing

A quick post to alert you to something very sad that has happened -- and right before we leave on Wednesday for England.

My sweet Lizzie has disappeared. Vanished. Put on the cloak of invisibility. And I am frantic and bereft.

We had a work day at the lake Saturday -- lots of cleaning, scrubbing, vacuuming. It's a rough day for her and she hid under the biggest and heaviest bed in the cottage. I finally got her out and into her cage for about an hour or so before we left. 

The trip home -- with some necessary stops -- took longer than usual. When we got home I fed her right away, which she gobbled, and used her litterbox. I settled down to check email and watch a little TV for about 45 minutes before bed.

She always looks forward to bed, often getting there before me, because she gets treats. This time she didn't come, which is unusual but since her eating schedule was off (she was fed about 9:30) I only worried a bit when I couldn't find her. 

But after a sleepless night with multiple searches and no morning action on food or litter or puppy pads, I became very worried. I searched everything. Rick searched everything. Friend Kate and her husband came and searched every embarrassing nook and cranny, along with the exterior of the house. 

I drove around the neighborhood looking for accidents and asked walkers and neighbors to keep and eye out, and have posted on pet finding and neighborhood sites.

Now all I can do is hope and pray that she is all right. I don't know what else I can do.

We don't know if she had a stroke or aneurysm and found a place to die (and if she did and it's inside, she's better than us because we've been everywhere). Or, if she got out when I got the mail (highly unlikely but possible. She's never shown much interest in getting out.) 

We do have a bit of a plan if she isn't back, but I don't even want to think about that. So please send up prayers, good juju or all the best thoughts you can before Wednesday (and after, if she isn't back by then. We need all the help we can get. She's my sweet, funny, sassy little girl and I need to know what has happened to her.

You Asked, I Answer!

Sometimes blog friends ask questions -- and I try to respond personally if I have an email for them, but otherwise, they sometimes end up in the ether! And lately, I've been negligent in responding to anyone (that will only get worse in October when I'll be on blog break!)

So, I thought I'd answer a few of them!

About the Cottage 

Erin said, "Wow, I didn't realize that your family actually lived there."  I probably wasn't clear. We never lived at the lake full time -- only in the summers. From the time my mom was a kid, and through my teen/college years, we would spend summers there. But didn't live there full time.

Beach time with the cousins, c. 1978

Erin also asked, "Do you ever stay up there for fall?" We sure do! It's nippy at times -- we have a fireplace and space heaters and that's it! But it's gorgeous. You can see a couple of posts with images from up north in the fall here and here.

"I wonder why you only stay here in the summer. It's such a beautiful place...I think I'd live there all year long," Deb of Readerbuzz said. Beautiful, yes. But it would drive me nuts. The town doesn't have much to offer in terms of culture and the arts and I'm definitely not a winter person or into winter spots. Also, the community is extremely conservative. I fear I would go politically insane! (And, as I mentioned above, we don't have heat!) So fall is as far as I go!

 

Other Things!

What kind of bird is Harry? asked Judy (but no blog listed!) Harry is a Great Blue Heron. He hangs out at our neighborhood pond (called The Ditch) from spring until fall. Last year I saw him well into November. Harry North (and his partner) are also great blue herons but are seen up north at the cottage.

Carola asked: how do you use a fork when working with watercolor? And the answer is: Very badly. Part of the challenge I was doing was to use tools you never used for art before. (Examples, bubble wrap for texture). I used a make-up sponge, a straw and a fork. The fork was least successful. I thought it might make for nice snow dots but they were all too "in a row." I tried scraping some texture in but watercolor is so transparent, that wasn't very effective either. Finally, I just globbed on some gouache and made snow on the branches. I don't recommend it!

Jean from Misadventures in Widowhood wrote: "I also notice you had a straw with your paints? One of the ladies here was experiencing with putting paint on the end of a straw and blowing it around the paper. Didn't turn out very well, in my opinion, but she kept trying to prefect the process."

The straw was also part of that class challenge with three or more "new" items. It actually worked pretty well for adding snow to branches and small line details.

Carola also asked: When are you leaving for England and how long will you stay? Will you be staying in Bath the entire time?

 We leave for England on October 2 and will return on the 24th. We'll be in Bath for a week (doing side trips as well as enjoying the city).

The Roman Baths

We're especially excited to be staying in a lovely house a few miles out of the city. We stayed here before and it will be a wonderful and relaxing way to begin our trip.

Morgan's Forge

Then it's on to London for the remainder of the trip, with a road trip in that time! 

Steve from Shadows and Light asked: I wonder what Viola means about paying for "3 or 4 slats in the Venetian blinds"? Is she trying to say it was expensive or cheap?

This refers to the vintage postcards from the lake on this post. Viola wrote a note on her postcard about paying for slats in the Venetian blinds and was not at all impressed on the restaurant. I tried to find prices of Venetian blinds in the 1940s online with no luck. But my guess is she was saying it was expensive. Anyone have an idea?

Thanks to many of you who weighed in on the "bald" cardinal from this post. The general consensus seems to be that he is moulting. Makes sense to me!

Finally, I will be off blog for our trip and sadly, not visiting you. I doubt I will post we're gone but will look forward to catching up with you when you return and have all sorts of fun photos to share! I hope I don't miss TOO much here! Thank you again for all your comments. Hopefully after we settle back, I'll be able to get more in my practice of replying more directly to your comments.

Have a lovely fall and I'll see you next month!

Here and There

The time leading up to our departure has been hectic. Loads of doc appointments, trips to the lake, time with family and friends. Here's a brief update.

My friend Lin came to visit from Columbus. She was my teacher in high school (theatre) and very influential in guiding me in terms of university and major. She's not that much older than I, so she is more like a big sister! 

We visited some of her old haunts -- places she'd lived and also the high school where she taught and where we met. (We tried to get in but with no appointment, security was having none of it!) Still, a good visit. Then a bit of shopping in Old Town and a lovely dinner with Rick and another friend. All good.

Then it was up to the lake to bring things back home. It was just Lizzie and me this time, as Rick was tied up with his landlord activities. The best part was spending time with my cousin Mutty and her husband Howard. I hadn't seen Mutty in more than a year, since we were at a wedding together, so it was a very good time with lots of laughs and good food!

I also took some walks -- the weather was unseasonably warm and just gorgeous. Even got in a dip in the lake!  I don't have a photo of Harry North, but we had a remarkable sighting. He has a lady friend! More than once we saw the two streak across the sky together and it was a magnificent sight. Photograph of the Heart and Memory. But yes, colors are coming in -- slow, but sure.

I hit the farm market and bought a half-bushel of tomatoes, so in the time between the minute I stuck them in the car and when we leave I have to make pasta sauce. I realized my freezer at home is too big to store them all till I return. It might be a good time to clean the freezer. 

The little market was humming and boy, did that produce look good. I got some apples and peppers, too. And contemplated squash, but I'll never get it used before we go.

Rick and I went to a volleyball tournament in which his cousin's daughter was playing. I'd never been to a volleyball game before and it was fun. Here was Kate's Fan Club!

And, I took a brief trip to London, Ontario, to see my friend Suzanne and go to Stratford, where we saw the musical "Something's Rotten."

The productions are always terrific and this did not disappoint. Equally fun was walking around the town of Stratford.

It used to have loads of swans but it seems the Canada geese have taken over. There are tons of them, everywhere, by the river, and they cause their own traffic jams.

A walk by the river, nice dinner out and some shopping (we scored big at the used book store) -- it all makes for a great two days.

Best of all is hanging with a friend you've known for more than 50 years! 

In between other things (like figuring out how to live from a carry-on bag for three weeks and hitting more doc appointments than a woman should have), I've been trying to get a handle on the mess called the front yard. As I was clipping and raking I discovered this fellow.

Great eyes! I don't have an ID but I'm wondering if it's in the Praying Mantis family. Here's a longer view of his body.

Any ideas?

A bit of a crazy week coming up. More appointments and Rick and I will head to the lake for a final closing. Always hard.

Boy, time moves fast!

Oops. Deleted Comments!

Oops. 

I accidentally deleted all my comments from September 1 on when I was deleting a bunch of spam messages (I'm hurrying too fast.) Sorry about that! They won't be reinstated (I have no idea how to find deleted comments) but they are appreciated and each was read!

UGH. I've got to slow down.  (My post on "Surprises at the Ditch" is below -- or next! Deer and egrets and herons -- oh my!)

Back Home -- Surprises at the Ditch

A gorgeous September day. Not too hot, not too cold. Goldilocks would love it. And, it was a perfect day to visit the ditch.

 

I didn't know what to expect but I was certainly surprised at seeing a pair of deer -- I think mother and young'un, in the distance. I never see deer during the day there, or very rarely. 

The Books of August

I was hoping to read a bit more in August but it just wasn't happening! Add to it that one book was close to 600 pages and I've come to the conclusion I shouldn't beat myself up about that! This month's books included a two historic fiction books (one based in biography, the other loosely on a factual incident) and a mystery by an author who surprised me.

 

Postcards from the Lake: Road Trip to Petoskey

Labor Day -- our last full day up north before we returned home for a bit. We started the day with a walk down to the public beach.

On the way back, Rick joined up with the fellows who own Bennethum's, the restaurant where we had enjoyed our birthday happy hour the night before. Of course, they talked wine!

Postcards From the Lake -- Hello, September

So, here we are. Early September. Time to start packing up. Summer is over, and though we will return to the cottage two or three more times, we have to admit, summer is over.