Late Summer

It's hot today. It was even hotter yesterday. This is Ace's first heat wave. He doesn't know how to handle it. He's been crashing out on his back in different locations, trying to stay cool.

Last night it was so hot that we had to open the door to the kitty cat "forbidden zone,"otherwise known as the bedroom, to get some air circulation. Ace wasted no time in checking it all out, including diving right under the covers.

Of course, he had to check out both ends of the situation.

The garden is soaking up the sun's rays while the daylight is still lingering into evening. The scarlet runner beans are getting some beautiful red flowers, despite the entire pot having been blown over completely upside down by the wind a couple of weeks ago.

The crops have grown so much I can hardly believe it. I hope I can get to the carrots before the gophers find them.

The Santa Barbara daisies are flourishing. Cabbage moths were chasing each other this afternoon. I seem to have a lot of dragonflies and bees too.

The bees really like this flower, appropriately named Bee Balm. The hummingbirds are going after it too.

This week we introduced Ace to the shed, which has a shelf with a kitty perch with a great view of the bird baths. Ace has been enjoying the birdy circus, although he tries to lunge at the towhees who hop too close to his screen window.

Another new thing for Ace this week is combing. Unlike any other cat we've had, Ace enjoys having his tummy combed. He's purring away here.

Miraloma Ranch

This land used to be a ranch long ago, according to the historians. Having given up on trying to grow tomatoes in the fog, and tiring of battling the kikuyu grass, I have decided to stick to cool season vegetables only and garden in containers. This is the first time I have gotten scarlet runner beans (above) to grow in my yard.

Here's the raised bed, planted with baby beets, 4 different types of carrots (including purple ones and red ones and white ones,) Merveille de Quatre Saisons lettuce, and Bright Lights chard. I am using floating row cover, which is making a huge difference in the growth rate of the plants. It keeps the moisture and warmth in and the critters out. For the time being anyhow, knock wood.

I have at least 4 different kinds of thyme growing in this pot. I have finally found the right combo of sunlight and water, as much as I can manage to give them.

The other night I thinned the beets and lettuce and I made myself a nice beet salad with feta cheese and toasted walnuts and I had steamed beet greens on the side. Mmmmmm.

We've been invaded by pocket gophers for the first time in 26 years here. They dig and mound up the dirt and wreck your lawn and whatever else they can get their grubby paws on. I have only a tiny lawn in the back and they are ruining it. They are actually sorta cute. If you click on the link you can see a photo of one. There are tons of them in Golden Gate Park.

We tried Molemax, which Steve got from Orchard Supply Hardware. The guy at the store said to Steve, "You can buy these things...none of them work..." It's supposed to make the soil smell bad to gophers. Another non-lethal method I'm trying this week is pictured above. It's a stake that you put three batteries in and stick in the ground and it makes a sound that's supposed to drive the gophers away. My neighbor told me, "They don't work." The jury's out on this one. I've yet to resort to plastic explosives, a la Carl Spackler of Caddyshack fame.

Let's forget about the #$&*%ing gophers and concentrate on how sweet Ace is. You can feast your eyes on more pictures of Ace by clicking here.

What's New with Ace?

Ace had a visit from his cousin Christina from San Diego. It's hard to say which one of them enjoyed it more. They both had a blast. They would have played together all day, if we let them.


Keeping Ace out of trouble is almost a full-time job. He has discovered that there are lots of yummy wires hidden behind the computer. This is a very good place to lie down, stick your paws out from under the monitor and bat at mom's fingers on the keyboard. Cool things happen when you walk across the keyboard too.


Sometimes a wild jungle beast appears hidden in the leaves of the Schleffera. He's just waiting for an opportunity to pounce. I'm scared, aren't you?


Another cool pastime is trying out various sleeping poses. This is a cute one curled up in his bed with Kitty. When we brought Ace home, Kitty was bigger than he was. You can see that the tables have turned.


Here's a less dignified on the couch pose. Growing so fast requires putting in a lot of nap time. Ace is no slouch in this department.


A few of Ace's loyal subjects like to keep watch over him while he sleeps. When they are not keeping watch, they spend time migrating to inaccessible spots, such as way, way under the couch.

Steve says we now have taken over 500 photos of Ace. He is 4 months old today.

Ace is getting bigger

Ace has added a few new fans to his fan club lately. Here he is posing with his new members Linda and Janet in the bathroom, which is his favorite room.

Ace likes to get on the toilet so he can check himself out in the mirror on the back of the door. Sometimes this leads to accidental closing of the door. Oops. He's looking quite handsome here.

One of Ace's new tricks is deposing stuffed kitty from the top of the scratching post. He does not like having her up there, or catnip mouse either.


After knocking her off, he gives her a good thrashing. (This is an "action shot" which is why it appears blurry.)

Ace assumes his rightful position of King Kitty.

But sometimes Ace is in a more contemplative mood, quietly gazing out the window at the neighborhood doings.

And sometimes he just likes to sleep on his favorite pillow.

Mom's Birthday

One nice thing about being back east in May for Surtex is getting to celebrate Mom's birthday in person afterwards. We had a cookout and birthday cake in my sister Nancy's backyard.



Here's Nancy in her sunroom/music room, where she gives piano lessons.

Here's a nice shot of Nancy's husband John and his gorgeous daughter, my step niece Katlyn.

We took a drive with Mom up to Farnham's in Essex.

There's a beautiful view of the salt marsh from the restaurant. We saw an Eastern Kingbird and a Snowy Egret from the window.

After lunch we took a dive around Rocky Neck, Gloucester. We felt compelled to turn around and take a drive-by photo of the "No Photographing" sign here.

Mom enjoyed her little outing.

Not getting anything done

I am getting nothing done this week, except if you count opening cans of Purina One Ocean Fish and Tuna Kitten. Ace has some on his little nose.

We also play tickle tummy.

Looking out the window at the big outdoors is ok, but somewhat overwhelming.

Looking cute for the camera is good.

It's all so tiring...think it's time for a nap again.

Meet the new Boss

We picked out a new kitten from the SPCA yesterday. He's SO tiny, only weighs one pound. He purrs right away when you pick him up. He's just too cute for words.