When my eldest and I built the catio, we put shelves and a bed on the outside for the outside cats. They are never used.
So, to make more spaces to perch inside the catio, I moved the shelves inside.
The shorter jumps also help the kitten get around the catio, since he isn’t strong enough for the big jumps yet.
I can see Thor the kitten go from wiggly, wobbly, kitten to strong athletic cat. He isn’t there yet, but it is getting easier to see the potential. He is allowed on the chairs, but not on the table (at least while we are in the room). He is smart enough to figure out the parenthetical part too. He isn’t quite comfortable balancing on the back of the chair, but he gave it a go anyway.
I took a needle felting class! So cool, and much easier than I imagined. The instructor, Joyce Hazlerig, is phenomenal, and I came away with pockets overflowing with tips and tricks. In class we made cute little bearded gnomes.
The neatest thing about needle felting is that it combines with all my other fiber crafts. I can add needle felted embellishments to anything felt-able. (Insert maniacal mad inventor laugh here. Do picture both hands raised in triumph as well.)
Having a kitten in the house, I have to check for him before closing doors. All doors. Cupboard doors, pantry doors, even the dishwasher door. He is fast and curious.
A friend invited us over to pick peaches! So many peaches! It was our first time picking straight from the trees. The air was full of butterflies. There was even a butterfly ball; a ripe peach completely covered with hungry butterflies. iNaturalist identifies the species as hackberry emperor butterflies, at least the one I took a picture of, separate from its kaleidoscope.
After picking the peaches, we brought them home, gave them a wash, and laid them out on paper towels on the counter to dry and finish ripening. To keep the flies off (there always seem to be two in the house), I laid some nylon netting loosely over the top.
As they ripened, we tried blanching to remove the skins. We weren’t successful with a quick blanch, so kept increasing the boil time. We ended up with cooked peaches, but the skin came off well. We made peach puree by adding lemon juice and sugar and blending it all together. From that we have made peach ice cream and peach smoothies! Yum.
