Dawn
Killdeer
Sunrise
Spunk’s tail charging
Glends and Spunk
Cat 6
Home late
Killdeer @ Dawn
Category: Cats
Mystery Kitty Says Hi!
Dawn
Can you find the owlette?
Sunrise
Gwendolyn
Glenda
Sliver sleeping
Cat 5
Spunk
Loki
Mystery Kitty
The mystery kitty started hanging around last summer, fighting with our cats through the wire in the catio. You can read more about that at https://wp.me/p1yQyy-cr8. He has always run away from us whenever he sees us, but Laurie noticed he’d been looking thin, so she started leaving food and water out for him. He was meowing at the Sally port door this afternoon, and our cats were not fighting with him through the wire. I walked out the door and he ran. I sat down on the step and called him. He slowly came back, sniffed me, got up on the step next to me, and let me pet him for a few seconds before he ran off again. I went back inside and in a few minutes he was meowing at the door again. I took a can of cat food out and put it in his food bowl, and he really appreciated the canned food. I sat on the step with him eating at my feet and took a few photos. He definitely looks rougher than he did when we first started seeing him last summer.
The humming bird that was buzzing aroung us while the mystery kitty was eating.
If you didn’t find the owlet in the long shot, here’s a closer view.
Sunset
Home At Last
Albuquerque Airport: Passengers walk out of the secure area on their way to the baggage claim.
Crescent moon at midnight after being in airports and on airplanes for 20 hours.
Sunrise
Yucca at sunrise
Sasha helping unpack
Spunk helping unpack
Spunk taking a nap with me this afternoon
“You’re supposed to be napping, not snapping!”
Blooming
Sunset
Loki
Flying
Rainy Dawn
Craig flying between the mustard fields before going into warp speed.
Atlas: “I’m told you’re leaving on a jet plane and won’t be coming back again?”
I’ll come back next year, Altas!
Buzzing for breakfast
Max Headroom
No explanation
“We’ll miss you, pesky Paparazzo!”
I’ll miss you too, Freyja and Atlas!
Sunset
Mostly Odds Some Ends
Dawn
Sunrise
Neighbor chickens
Atlas Kitty enjoying the morning sun
The trees are greening
Built in 1894
Easy Rider in Bruchmühlbach
Lavender Gist
Sunset
Sounion
Flowers on Easter morning
Meow Meow meowed at the door last night. I let him in, and he was wet from the rain. He stayed around for a while comforting me. Then when he was dry, he asked to go back outside.
Sad Day
Sunrise
Laurie called me early this morning because Marble Kitty was having problems breathing. She took her to an emergency vet, and Marble had fluid pressing on her lungs. The vet removed the fluid and Marble had a collpsed lung with a mass in it. A long story short, she didn’t make it. Sadly we lost one of the sweetest kitties.
Between back and forth with Laurie on Marble’s condition, Marina, Socrotis and I went out to buy bread, and then in the afternoon we went to dinner in a restaurant by the sea.
It’s been raining on and off all day, and the area has received “buckets of rain” over the past few months, so the vegetation is green and wildflowers are blooming everywhere.
Dinner
View from the table
Local black cat
Long Legged Buzzard
Assissin Bug
Local frogs
We heard a chirping sound that sounded like a bird, but it was coming from under a concrete slab, and Merlin Bird ID could not identify what it was. Marina looked under the concrete but could see anything. I took photos under the concrete, and after I processed the photo, I found the frog on the right-hand photo with its head sticking up out of the water.
Houses with a great view
Handicap access to the water
This sweet dog came out to greet us
Sunset to the east
Cool lights over the dining room table in the Airbnb I’m staying in down the road from Marina and Socrotis.
Back From Belgium. Gone To The Dogs!
It was raining in Geel this morning
You can’t have my cake or eat it either, Niki!
You can’t eat the Eurasian Magpie, either…
Or the Eurasian Collared-Dove…
Or the Eurasian Jackdaw..
Or the cute Common Chaffinch!
“What? Are you just going to let me starve?”
Herman took me to aother old church this morning.
There were several of these locked, grated grottoes around the outside of the church with lighted votive candles inside them.
A man driving a small utility truck filled with lighted votive candles in the back stopped and said hi to us and explained to Hermin in Flemish that his job was to keep the candles lit. He had done it for ten years and loved the job.
Nike was watching for us to return from his bed in the garage.
I got back in the late after noon, and returned the rental car. Then we went straight from Enterprise car rental to Trivia at the Irish Pub. There were a couple of Golden Retrievers that came to Trivia Night. The white one really like me, and I had to pet it most of the time. It would put it’s head in my lap when I stopped petting it.
Tristan snuck a picture of me petting the dog. We are not supposed to use phones while a trivia round is in play.
Germany To Belgium In A Spanish Car
Hi all! I’m Niki.
I drove from Germany to Belgium this morning to meet Herman and Niki. Herman and I have been following each other since 2013. You can find Herman’s blog at https://hopedog.wordpress.com. Laurie and I were planning on meeting Herman and Bowie in 2020 when we were scheduled to go to Antwerp to give papers at an international linguistics conference, but the conference was cancelled because of COVID. Six years, two cats later (Jimi was in between Mr. Bowie and Niki), I finally met Herman and lovely Niki. Herman is a wonderful and gracious host. We spent the afternoon visiting two abbies, both built in the early 12th centuries, and then we happened upon the War Cemetery (WWII) on the way home. Herman said he’d lived in Geel all his life and had never been to the War Cemetery. Most of the soldiers buried there were in their teens and 20s when they were killed in battle.
Dawn in Germany
Niki is very friendly and inquisitive
Espresso and the best cake in Belgium by popular vote. It was wonderful.
Niki liked il paparazzo’s hair.
Gate the the first abby we visited
The church has a painting of The Last Supper started by Leonardo da Vinci and finished by his students.
A Eurasian Moorhen in the moat around the abbey
The Last Supper
While we were in this building that has a reproduction of The Last Supper at eye level, a couple of women were counting the hands of all the people in the painting and couldn’t get a match. There are 13 people (Christ and 12 disciples) in The Last Supper, but the women were only coming up with 22 hands instead of 26. We all got involved in counting hands, and we were all coming up with different numbers. Then I asked about the feet, but the women were heading to the church.
Display that names Christ and the disciples, and the button turns lights on to illuminate the painting.
White pigeon
The new bridge over the canal that Herman’s great-grandfather helped dig around 1901.
Buildings that are part of the second abby we visited.
The old pipe organ
The new pipe organ with a rearview mirror. Hmmm. What might the organist need a rearview mirror for?
A modern monk
Herman treated me to a tradritional Blegium Fries lunch. It was great.
After we returned from visiting abbies and the war cemetery, Niki was more curious about camera.
I checked into the Corbie Hotel in Geel. I will have this lovely lady watching over me tonight.
Anime
Dawn
Koi in the Japanese Garden in Kaiserslautern
Not coy
Amine in the Japanese Garden in Kaiserslautern
“I’m being coy. Can I have a Koi?”
Common Shelduck
Bar-Headed Geese
Eurasian Moorhen
Last night
The Archer
The underside of a Eurasian Green Woodpecker
“The Woodpecker is way out of my reach!”
Eurasian Blackbird
Portraits of famous dogs in an Italian restaurant in Landstuhl
“Famous dawgs in Landstuhl? Not cool! Fool!”
Moon made an appearance between rain showers this evening.
Off Center & Not Even 