weekend hodgepodge

the images from my camera this past weekend are a bit all over the place, but they tell a pretty accurate story of our goings on the last few days.  our 13 year old cat, Ziggy, is experiencing renal failure and has been needing a lot of extra TLC in the form of meds, special food, and, until a couple days ago, subcutaneous fluids (administered here at home to save some $$).  the first day it was pretty simple because he was so tired and listless from not having been eating well.  so he didn't put up much of a fight.  since then, however, giving him liquid meds and pills a couple times a day and jabbing him with a needle to get extra fluids in him has been as enjoyable as one might guess doing such things to a cat would be.

which is to say, it is not enjoyable.  for anyone.  but alas, onward we go.  fingers crossed we can get him over this sizable hump and then maintain his health for a good while longer through some specialized nutrition.  because I'm pretty sure he's got at least a couple years of mousing and purring snuggles (wherein he and I spoon- I'm the big spoon, and it's so nice and warm) in him.

enough about our feline situation though.  there are old linens from my grandmother to be enjoyed, a nubby pink hat finished and being worn (finally she happily wears something I knit for her!), seedlings reaching for the light.  I've been making soups and frittatas and other things that I can easily throw tons of veggies in.  My body is really craving GREEN FOOD these days.  not that it isn't always, and not that I don't eat much green food in the winter, because I certainly do, but it isn't anything like the rest of the year when I can just grab handfuls of greens and other veggies from the yard and munch on them all the time.  this whole having-to-go-to-the-store-to-get-the-veggies thing is tiresome and I don't care for it.  so here I am, stocking up regularly at the store but dreaming of backyard kale and green beans, collards and chard, tomatoes and carrots and peppers, and, and, and…….  soon.

she had ballet, I'm reading a book I probably shouldn't read because it just makes me even more twitchy and anxious about food and water and plastics and exposures to all sorts of things.  and I'm already fairly twitchy and anxious about that stuff.  holy cow, it's a scary world we've created folks.  it's like a perpetual Erin Brokevich out there.  ooph.

the last of the syrup was finished off, bringing us up to a total of about 2.5 gallons this year, down from about 4.5 last year (but having tapped less than half the trees we expected that).  I'm pretty thrilled with that and pleased to know we've made ourselves another year's worth of the sweet stuff to be used in granola and baking and on yogurt and on pancakes and french toast and gosh wherever we want a little splash of sweetness.  we also busted out the extractor we borrowed from a friend and got about 2.25 gallons of honey from the supers off of the two hives we lost this winter (that makes it sound like we have other hives- we don't, that was it).  still leaning towards taking a bee break for the year, but not 100% decided on that.  the happy thing is that we've got all this liquid sweetness filling the pantry now. we could just about call ourselves sugar-self-sufficient if it wasn't for the bit of powdered sugar and granulated sugar we use here and there.

also, kite flying.
rather, attempted kite-flying.  there was a bit of wind, though.  we got it flying around the yard for brief fits and spurts.  mostly it was just crashing immediately into our bare fruit trees and the woodshed.  we'll give it a go in a better location sometime soon.

weekending with Karen