Critters, Springtime, a Recipe, A Fine Romance, Musica and YOU. ♥
I have to say, I am madly in love with my computer. It’s such a miracle, that’s James Taylor singing right now! Computers are a magical link to the whole world and the internet just keeps getting better! From my studio, where I need to be to finish my book, I can go anywhere I want. I can dream while watching gondolas gliding 
live in Venice, Italy, or I can go see what Phoebe the hummingbird is up to. I can get a good laugh along with a taste of ranch life with The Pioneer Woman, or I can go get a little smarter with Brain Pickings. I can watch someone amazing paint a portrait, or I can push a button and there’s Miss Austen Regrets playing in the background while I paint, mood music of a sort. ♥ So great! All we used to have was Calgon to take us away — we’re finally out of the bathtub! Big time!
Speaking of the computer, another thing I adore is iPhoto on my Mac. How I ever lived without it, I do not know! I file my photos by subject — they’ve made it so easy — I can click on “Little Vases” and there is every little vase-full-of-flowers I’ve ever taken, or “Family” and all my family photos come up — I have Parties, Friends, Summer Garden, the Train, Beatrix Potter’s House, Old Letters/Books, California, The Walk, Tea, Food, Decorating, just to name a few . . .
Yesterday, I put on my jacket went out back to get a few more photos for my “Spring” file. I laid right on the cold ground to take this … the smell was intoxicating … wet new green spring dirt mixed with ocean! Ahhhhh. They should bottle it!
Up close and personal with the snowdrops, I got muddy knees, but it was worth it . . . the cold air was wonderful. It was so good to be outside — Joe loved it so much he stayed out there for half the day, picking up fallen bits of tree limbs, cleaning up.
I’m being good to limit myself to four of these snowdrop photos, I could easily give you the other fifteen! I will need a new computer soon just to hold my photos! But I do have to say, my very favorite section of my photo collection is called “Critters” . . .
Which is, of course, filled with 90% This.
And This . . .
and This . . .
And This too; some of you might remember my Man Kitty who went missing a few years ago in coyote-infested California. I’m still waiting for him. ♥
But there’s a whole lot more in my Critter Collection than kitties . . .
There’s these guys; they live in the linden tree right outside our upstairs bathroom window — which is where I went to take this picture — they are a riot to watch. Don’t they look healthy? That’s because they eat like royalty!
This baby bird fell out of his nest, in the garden next to the porch of our California house . . . Joe has him in his hand. I think he looks very confident for such a little critter. We put him back in the nest and the momma acted like she never knew!
And one of my favorite photos ever, of this little worried kitty we saw at the animal shelter. It was already spoken for, or it would be MINE right now! Those little eyes! Poor baby!
Speaking of eyes, this beauty is in a meadow at the parent’s house of my friend Rachel in Jolly Old England. I was taking pictures of bluebells and he came running over to see me, right up next to the fence. Adorable. Más Musica.
There’s a pet supply business in a barn on Martha’s Vineyard called Little Leona’s (I’d give you a link, but it looks like they don’t have a website). It’s in Vineyard Haven, you should go there if you come here — my favorite part of it is that they have critters, you can get up close to; this little pony is one of them.
As you know already, my Critters File is full of photos like this female Cardinal — birds in all seasons taken from our kitchen window.
But you never saw this before! We think he’s a baby hawk peregrine falcon (thanks girls!). He came to our California house one spring day, sat up on this roof long enough for me to race in for the camera — he just posed and posed, I’m this close to him, no special lens at all … he’s banded too.
Pretty wonderful.
This is wonderful too — it’s Sugahpus, my girlfriend Annie’s adorable cat with the two tiny white teeth I love, she’s in my Critter section too.
Along with these friendly girls who live next door to my house in California. Every time I go out for a walk they rush up to the fence hoping I will bring them a treat. You can tell I’m pretty dependable that way. They aren’t as bright as they look, and they are capable of a very nasty type of spitting, but if you know them and they trust you, they have a sweet streak a mile long.
Even photos like this are in my Critter file. Just in case you never got one, if you need an Owl Bookmark — here you go! ♥
Three bunnies at Little Leona’s. Want.
Back to Rachel’s parent’s house we go . . . their sweet and I mean SWEET, loveable, and very friendly sheep!
And this little chirper, on the back deck of my California house — had to go get the camera when I saw this cutie!
England was filled with these gorgeous wood pigeons cooing all day long everywhere we went.
Iris, or I-I as we call her . . . she is our neighbor’s dog, whenever she gets loose she hightails it to our house. Me casa es su casa, perrito. ♥
Where else would you keep this photo of a wonderful page from a vintage children’s book besides “Critters.”
This is an osprey. He’s not at his happiest at this moment, if looks could kill. He’s being very gently but firmly held by an osprey handler named Rob we met on the island in a meadow next to the dirt road where we walk — we just happened to run into him when he and his partner were banding this guy with a GPS chip so they can keep track of him. How lucky I had my camera with me that day! Now I get a regular letter from Rob telling me where they are, how far they’ve flown — so interesting.
I adore goats. Love them so much. Even with their scary rectangular pupils, they are the most wonderful critters.
My sister Shelly is a short-dog lover. Four of these dogs are hers, the dachshunds and the Snoopie dog — the two Jack Russells belong to my brother Brad. The little boy is one half of my sister’s precious twin set and possibly part dachshund (waiting for his treat like the others 🙂 ). It’s a wonderful butterball type of pandemonium at her house.
I always love to contribute a very delicious recipe on my blog when I can . . . I do not have first hand taste experience with these, but I know for a fact they are very popular in some circles. And healthy too.
So that’s our little stroll through my Critter File for today … hope you enjoyed it! I am still in the throes of book writing, but the light looms large at the end of the tunnel.
We have A Fine Romance book mockup! This is how fat it will be! Do you know how excited I am? It’s almost twice the thickness of any book I’ve ever done! Yesterday I designed the pages that go just inside the cover — they’re called “end papers” — It’s really difficult not to show you — it would be so easy on the computer! But I want to keep it a surprise — which, for me, takes massive determination! I’m afraid that if I show you too much when you finally get it, possible yawning could take place. I want you to go “OH WOW” . . . so you have to trust me, you will like them! And back to book writing I go …. marching to the end. Happy doing it. Wishing you the same. ♥ Remember to hug a critter today! XOXO
. . . and where we might go in the fall when A Fine Romance gets here! With the way time is flying, it will be September before we know it — so I’m trying to get ready. I thought I’d show you few of my past book signings. I’m the one behind the camera in this first photo, just before giving a talk to the wonderful people at the 
Romance! I could plan it now, far in advance so maybe lots of people could arrange to go . . . it wouldn’t be the only place I’d go, just the first. I was envisioning an English Tea Party on board in the Queen’s Ballroom, with cups and cakes; Fred Astaire could be singing (he sailed on this very ship), and we’d have a Book Talk and Signing! You could bring your books, your mom, your sister, your daughter, and your best friend; we could wear Downton Abbey hats . . . on a September day in California on a beautiful old ship with the Pacific Ocean out our portholes? Could it get any better? A girl can dream and I’m good at that. Because when I called to talk to the nice people at the Queen Mary about my brilliant idea, I found out that although they do have an afternoon tea on board (which I’ll take my mom to when I get out there), they don’t have enough equipment, cake stands, teapots, etc. to do a tea party for more than a hundred. 
“No tea” was a setback, but the price was the problem. For the ballroom alone (beautiful, old, restored to original), not counting any food or drink or waitstaff, just the room (which can hold 200 to 300 people) and chairs lined up in “theater style,” is $7000 to start, for a Sunday from noon to 4pm. And no, they wouldn’t let me just “set up” on the deck … 🙂 So. This is what I call the proverbial arm and a leg. Unless one of you knows the owner of the ship … your dad maybe? I realized, I need to get more creative.
bookstores — I’ll be sure to put a schedule here so you can see what we’ve arranged. But I thought I’d also ask, in case any of you are planning a large event out west durning September or October of this year, (or November and December in the East) — events such as a quilt guild gathering, perhaps something at the Quilt Festival in Houston, or a vintage antique show like Remnants, maybe a charity or church event, a women’s club that needs a speaker, or perhaps you know a teashop that would want to host a booksigning and have lots of people descend on them all at once! Somewhere I could go and meet lots of you at the same time. Those kinds of occassions are always the most fun, but they do require a little space. 
I could give a talk but it could also just be a signing like at Remnants; the best part is, because of the nice people I meet, these get-togethers always feel like a tea party whether there’s tea or not. 
My darling Dad turns an extremely YOUNG 90-years-old this August! So we’re going to his house in Arizona — and from there, out to California — we’ll start our tour after the book arrives in September. Our main problem is we can’t take Jack or Girl Kitty with us! We will have to get our kitty sitter to come back!
Hello. Peek-a-boo.
. . . . we could hear the ice sliding off the roof and watch clumps of it fall past the windows and out of the trees, almost like it was snowing again, so much coming down, We had a major thaw!
. . . and outside with the camera. This is the kind of thing that makes the newspapers on Martha’s Vineyard, the first sightings of snowdrops! For me it’s knowing that in plenty of time for the daffodils, I’ll be finished with the book, and can start playing house again, making 
This boy gets smarter every day. For instance. The pony tail bands be loves me to shoot for him? We have them in all colors and what’s good about them is they don’t roll. So we have to do a lot less crawling around trying to find them like we had to do with the balls. But, for some reason we could not figure out, the rubber bands began to 
disappear. Joe couldn’t find any, and I couldn’t either. We asked Jack. This was the expression on his face. Hmmm.
