Wordless Wednesday: A Perfect Oval

Tiger, Then. . . and Now

Well -- finally! We have high-speed internet service once again. Amazing how cut off you feel, especially if you have blog friends you want to keep up with!

It rained and rained all Saturday, but I did manage to get out and cut some roses. I planted two hybrid teas in April: one called "Mr. Lincoln" and one called "Tiffany." The ones pictured are Tiffany roses. Aren't they stunning? They smell lovely too! The vase is a Victorian silver bud vase, a family piece, but it leaks so I just put them in for the picture. I'm keen to plant more roses!



Baby Bean spent some time over the weekend looking through boxes of old pictures and she found these of Baby Tiger, who came to live here almost 5 years ago. Look how big his ears look! Now his ears look small; Jocebeane thinks he looks like batman. Tiger came from a local cat rescue group. The top picture is recent.

Still SLOW....Baby Pictures!

I'm still fighting with our internet provider -- not only did they NOT fix my problem, they managed to get my printer off line whilst here. Another technician is meant to come out in the next 24 hours...sigh... In the meantime, our internet keeps going down and is dreadfully slow. I'm still not able to easily download sites, so sorry I'm so behind on my visits. I appreciate everyone who visits here!!

I came across some photos from late September 2001 that show Alice and Baby Bean in their babyhood -- so sweet! Baby Bean used to like to share her pacifier with Alice!! I'm sure this is why BB is so healthy today -- nothing like building up some strong antibodies!




Keep your paws crossed that we are up and running in cyberspace SOON!

Internet Difficulties

We are having Technical Difficulties at the Rose Jugglers. It's been going on for weeks, but it has recently been worse, so I finally called to complain. Apparently we have a faulty line, so a technician is coming out to repair it Tuesday. I'm having a hard time downloading anyone's site much less posting to my own! Hopefully we will be back in business soon!

Art work courtesy of Baby Bean.

Sneaky Friday

As you see, Alice has a perfectly nice place on the sofa for lounging. So why does she always try to sneak up to the pillows?! Alice knows she's not really supposed to be on them. Alice migrates from her blanket to the pillows when she thinks no one is looking, then you can see she hopes no one will notice and make her move!


GK and Tiger generally like to join Alice in a snoozesta after Alice's morning walk.


My mermaid roses love all the rain; they smell very beautiful and the bees love them!



Happy Friday!

Beanes with Strange Hobbies

Last fall, my husband asked Jocebeane if she knew what to call people who study mushrooms -- she replied, without hesitation, "Strange." (the real answer is mycologist!)
Well, the Beane family is indeed strange because we are fascinated by these crazy fungi. We had a particularly wet summer in 2007 and by the fall all sorts of mushrooms were springing up in everyone's yards. Baby Bean and I rushed to the bookstore to get some field guides and began trying to identify them. Some people get interested in mushrooms because they want to find wild edible sorts, and many of the guides are geared toward this. We NEVER eat mushrooms we find, as they are notoriously hard to identify with certainty, and many poisonous kinds look much like edible kinds. Mushroom study is kind of a frontier science, as many are still unidentifed, and scientists still don't understand mushrooms completely. Much information is still collected by amateur scientists and some of the best guide books are written by amateur experts. (by amateur, I simply mean non-professional).

We have had wet, cool weather for weeks, so mushrooms have been springing up everywhere! Here are some from our yard:


The only way you can make a certain identification of a mushroom is by taking a spore print of the cap. You remove the cap of the mushroom and place it on white or black paper (depending on what color spore you think you may get), then cover it with more paper and weight it down for about 12 or so hours. Here is a spore print of the mushroom above; it is not an accurate spore print, as I made it about 12 hours after the mushroom was picked, but it is interesting:


Doesn't the print look like a pressed pansy? And look how dark the cap has turned! Weird!

I think Alice thinks the whole thing is kind of weird!!

Tiger's Secret Ambition; Awards!

Tiger wants Chilli at Cat with a Garden to know that he has had a secret wish to become a member of her Slender & Silky Crew (I think he may have a crush on her!) Gold Kitty has urged him to post pictures of himself in hopes that it might impress Chilli! (GK is not very slender or silky but he is such a sweet guy and is supporting Tiger in his quest).

Congratulations to the Crew's new members: Maggie May of The Creek Cats and Alfie at The Cat's Meow!]


******************
We want to pass along two awards we have won. Some time ago, Cat with a Garden gave us our first ever award: the "Bubbling Over" award. It was so thrilling -- I didn't even know that bloggers passed these around & I think it is such a fun thing! At the time, I didn't really know any of the blogs very well, but now feel ready to pass it along.

We would like to award the "Bubbling Over" award to our friends at Grrretta and to our friends at Mishcat. This award is meant to be given to a site that seems to have a little bit of magic. We love visiting their sites!




Last week, our friends The Dughallmor Beagles gave us this sweet award, and we would like to pass it along to Fin at Housecat Confidential and to all our friends at The Creek Cats. Thank all of you for your sweet comments!


Happy Friday Everyone!!