Thursday 13: Cats, Chickens, Flowers, Freezers, and Work

 It has been insanely busy at work this week, so I wasn’t sure I’d have 13 things for Thursday 13, but I do. 

1.    Part of why work has been so busy is that there have been some changes.  I’m working with some people I haven’t worked with before.  I’m an assistant, so I’m always working with someone else on almost everything I do.  So, I was a little nervous about working with different people. 

When you’re an assistant, the people you assist can be the difference between loving your job or hating your job.

I had a meeting with my boss and one of the people I’ll be working with now, and I think we’ll work well together.  I had a one-on-one meeting with another person I’ll be working with now, and I’m pretty excited about some of the projects I’ll get to work on with them.  I think we’ll work well together. 

The rest of the year is likely to be super busy, but knowing that I’ll work well with at least some of the people is a huge relief. 

2.    Mortimer was not the least bit concerned about my job stress.  Doesn’t he look so relaxed?

3.    The free-range chickens have still been coming over for their snacks. 

4.    The chickens next door arrived in two batches.  The original chickens have been there almost a year and the new chickens have only been there a few months.  The original chickens are the ones who run up to meet me for food.   The new chickens are starting to do that, too.  All of the gray chickens, except the front right one, are the new chickens.  It looks like they’ve caught on that I’m the snack lady. 

5.    The smallest of the new chickens still hangs back some, but I’m determined to win her over. 

6.    Feeding time is always a little bit chaotic in our house.  Most of the cats are on different foods.  ALL of the cats are positive that the other cats get better food, so there’s a lot of trying to eat each other’s food.  Charlie and Howard took it to a new level this week.

I’m not sure if Howard went under Charlie, if Charlie went over Howard, or if it was a joint effort.  I feel like they deserve major points for their efforts to eat each other’s food here. 

7.    We’ve had some slightly cooler weather this week; 70s and 80s, which has been a welcome change, but not cold enough to hurt the plants.  I don’t know what these pink flowers are (GrandDaddy (Nick’s grandfather) gave them to me for Mother’s Day), but I think they’re pretty, and I’m happy they’re still doing well.   

8.    The hydrangea is still doing well. 

9.    The roses aren’t in full bloom anymore, but we still have some roses to enjoy. 

10. The marigold is still doing well.

11. I’ve realized that it’s time to work on getting the freezers at least a little bit cleaned out.  Thanksgiving isn’t that far away, and we’ll need the freezer space for when turkeys go on sale. 

12. Right now, both freezers are pretty jam-packed, and I’m not entirely sure what’s in them. 

13. I thought taking and sharing pictures of them might help hold me accountable and get me to focus on working through what’s in there. 

So, here they are in their horribly unorganized state.  (I promise we don’t actually live entirely on junk food/convenience food; it just seems like those things work their way to the top whenever we dig something else out). 

Hopefully, there will be a future Thursday 13 about the progress I’ve made in cleaning out the freezers.

How has your week been? 

Thursday 13: Cats & Chickens

When I looked through the pictures on my phone from the past week, almost all of them were cats or chickens.  So, that’s my theme for this week’s Thursday 13.  Don’t worry, the cats and chickens are safely apart.

1.    Let’s start off with a picture of Howard and Frankie cuddled together.  These two are such great friends. 

2.    Two different neighbors have chickens.  There are the free-range chickens I’ve mentioned before (who live across the street) and the next-door neighbors also have chickens.  That’s why there are chickens on both sides of the fence in this picture. 

3.    The chickens next door have a pen that’s right up against our yard, so it’s impossible to go in or out of our house without walking past them.  I have permission to feed them as well, and they definitely associate me with food.  They all run up to the corner of their pen closest to our house whenever I walk by. 

4.    I’m pretty sure that chickens never forget a food source.  The free-range chickens know my voice and come running when I call them.  Here’s one coming through to our yard for her snack.

5.    I’m fairly convinced that the answer to “Why did the chicken cross the road” is to get a treat/snack. 

6.    Mortimer is not at all concerned with why chickens cross the road.

7.    Neither is Charlie. 

8.    I had no idea how entertaining chickens could be until our neighbors got them.  They all seem to have such different personalities and they do a lot of cute things.

9.    Some of them like to perch on top of things.

10. Some of them like to sit under things.

11. The free-range chickens like to hang out under the azalea bushes after they’ve had their snack.

12. They seem to always hope for more snacks.  This one followed me back to the door after I gave them their treats, just in case I was going to get more.

13. I think they have an adorable little walk.

How has your week been? 

Thursday, Not Quite 13

It has been a fairly busy week at work, and I’ve had an extra office day this week, so I don’t have 13 interesting things I can share, but here are a few highlights.

Howard seems to be feeling pretty good this week.  He just seems perkier and was very excited about his breakfast this morning.

I ended up working pretty late yesterday, so I only had one chicken visitor when I came home from work.  She seemed pretty happy not having to share her treats with her sisters.

It has been hot and rainy here, which the marigold has loved.  Look how much bigger it is this week.

One lone pansy has perked back up.  I think the rain helped, but it has been too hot for the pansies.

How has your week been?  

A Crocheted Sunflower

One of the fun things about learning to crochet is that your family and friends can ask you to make things for them.  Sometimes it’s something you wouldn’t have thought of making on your own.  That’s how I ended up making the cat couch for my sister.

Last year, Nick’s mom, Susan sent me this link and asked if it was something I could make.  This one is knitted, but fortunately, there are lots of crochet sunflower patterns out there.  Unfortunately, most of them start with a magic ring, which I cannot seem to master.  I think it must actually involve magic, and I’m not magical.  On a side note, if you’re a crocheter, and you have any tips for mastering the magic ring, please share them.  

I finally found this one, that had a left-handed tutorial and didn’t start with a magic ring.  I modified it a little bit by shortening the stem and doing a chain to hang it from the rearview mirror.  I don’t remember how many I chained for the hanger.  I just took it out to the car to finish it and quit when it would go over the rearview mirror, but not hang down too far.  Yes, I did sit out in the car in the rain and crochet.

The flower was curling a little bit when I finished it, so I decided it needed some flattening.  I read a little bit about blocking for granny squares and decided to improvise a flower flattening method.  I lightly sprayed it with water and then set some heavy cans on top of it to flatten it.  It seems to have worked. 

 

It’s not perfect, but overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, and Susan was very happy with it.  

Thursday 13: Here’s What’s Going on In the Yard

1.    We have a few lilac blooms.

2.    The hydrangea bush is in full bloom.

3.    Here’s a close-up picture.

4.    We have one marigold going strong.

5.    There are a few straggler blackberries.

6.    The clearance rosebush is still doing well.

7.    It has gotten very tall.

8.    Here’s a close-up of some of the roses.

9.    And there are some buds that haven’t opened yet.

10. The white rose of Sharon is blooming.

11. The purple rose of Sharon is also blooming.

12.  Our neighbor’s free-range chickens came over for a visit.

13. I feed them treats, with our neighbor’s permission, so they come over almost every day.  They wait right outside the door for me to bring their treats out.

 

What’s going on in your yard today?