I’m on vacation this week and part of next. I’ve prewritten and scheduled posts for this week and next, so y’all won’t have to go without.
I’ll be posting on Instagram while I’m gone (which automatically posts to the Love & Hisses Facebook page as well as Tumblr). If you’re not on Instagram, Facebook or Tumblr, no worries – I’ll do a massive roundup post once I’m home from vacation, so you won’t miss anything.
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Crooked Acres Friday.
To round out this week of Crooked Acres-ness, I have pictures of stuff growing around the property. We didn’t plant a garden this year, not because of the weather or anything, just because we didn’t want to. We’re getting our produce at a local farmer’s market this summer. But there’s still plenty of stuff growing around Crooked Acres!
Blueberry bushes in the back yard. I actually got enough blueberries this summer to make a batch of muffins. The blueberry bushes were SUPER happy, at least until we had a couple of weeks of super dry weather. Now they’re less happy, but I expect they’ll bounce back okay.
Blueberries. YUM.
Teeny tiny muscadines (wild grapes) in the back yard.
The muscadine plant (which is growing up the fence) really took off this year. I don’t expect we’ll get too many muscadines this year, but hopefully next year we’ll get a bumper crop.
Baby lemon on the Meyer lemon tree. It’s a potted tree, and we move it into the garage in the winter, then outside in the summer. Sometime around Christmas, we’ll get three or four lemons.
That mess right there is our compost heap. You probably can’t tell from this picture, but it’s covered in tomato plants. You can hardly go two feet in any direction on this property without running into a volunteer tomato plant.
The Hydrangeas in the front flower bed have been particularly happy (and pretty!) this year.
We have mimosa trees growing around the edge of the property. I think they are SO pretty, but according to Fred they make a big mess when they drop their flowers.
Mimosa flowers, up close.
Pears. We have quite an abundance of apples, pears, and nectarines right now. Whether or not we’ll actually get to harvest any of it, I don’t know, but so far, so good.
Persimmons. This is the first year the persimmon tree has produced any fruit.
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I put the game cam out because Fred is pretty certain we’ve got a southern flying squirrel living in that tree, and we hoped to catch it on camera. No luck so far, but we did catch the very rare Southern Climbing Archie, so it was worth having the camera out there.
(The look on his face cracks me UP.)
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Previously
2015: Roundup: Belushi
2014: On Tuesday, we leap.
2013: He’s kneady, I guess you could say.
2012: No entry.
2011: If only Ciara could make herself comfortable.
2010: Could we fit any more cats in one picture?
2009: No entry.
2008: “Rowr. Rowr, I say.”
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Thank you for setting up posts for while you were away. L&H and Crooked Acres are my happy place, and a glimpse of baby fruit and Archie’s delightfully grumpy face are exactly what I needed to see today.
Yet again, Archie proves he’s the Most Interesting Cat in the South, er World. Thank goodness that boy fetched up at Crooked Acres.
LOL!
The rare Southern Climbing Archie looks like a bartender passing you another shot.
He is…the Most Interesting Cat in the World.
Agreed. Keep climbing my friend.
Kudos — and thanks for the chortle!
Great thread! Bartender Archie, I’ll have another, please!
LOL.. Elaine for the win
Hahahahaha!!! My Sabrina sits in that same pose all the time and I call her “The World’s Most interesting Kitten” when she does it. Kitten may be a stretch since she’s 4, but still, she’s da baybeeee of the family!
Nice series of pics Robyn. I wish I could get flowers on my hydrangea. I get pretty good growth but not blooms. I don’t even care about the color. I would just like to have some flowers. Love the Archie pic. I was expecting another plant photo and then that pic came up. For just a millisecond I thought what plant is that and then “wait a second” popped into my head.
Archie: the least feminine pussywillow ever! Hee!
Bwahahahahaha!
I love that photo of Archie and all the comments above about him being the Most Interesting Cat in the World, lol. He certainly is a character.
That fence post is popular, isn’t it? I seem to recall another great photo … maybe Newtleberry? sitting atop it and looking all regal.
“Thank you for coming today. I would first like to address the issue of kittens, and why we seem to have so very very many…”
Perfect caption!
Archie looks like he was Photoshopped into this picture.
I second the thanks for pre-posting while you were gone. I know it’s a lot of work and I really appreciate getting my L&H fix every day!
Archie – “Climbin’ yer fence and bombin’ yer photo.” 😀
bwah ha ha.. “The Archster.. climbin’ yer fence and bombin’ yer photo” hehe
I have a question about getting the kittens spayed and neutered. I just had a puppy spayed and the vet required she wear an E-collar. It got me thinking that your babies never have to do that. The puppy has six small staples on her belly. Does your vet do internal stitches? Or do the kittens, or Momma cat, not bother with the stitches or staples. Inquiring minds want to know!!
P.S. That is an awesome/framable picture of Archie!!
I don’t know about Robyn’s vet, but around here they use ‘super glue’ and glue the incision back together so there aren’t stitches. Sometimes they’ll use dissolvable sutures internally if they need it
even with mother cats I’ve seen done they glue it back together. incisions are so small it works.
Archie seems to be saying something like, “Even here? Even here, I get photographed? There aren’t even any peoples around.”
If you DID have a flying squirrel, Archie, the most interesting cat in the world, took care of it for you. You’re welcome.
That is what I was thinking… Archie looks to say “There WAS a flying squirrel, he didn’t really have a southern accent or flavor though, hmmmm.”
The first time this city-bred reader heard the term “volunteer tomato plants” was on your site, Robyn….and to this day, I can’t help the image coming to mind of a tomato plant raising its branch and volunteering to you to go on the compost pile. Sorry – I just can’t help it.
Me, too. And I also picture some tomatoes being more enthusiastic than others when called to service. The latter engage in a lot of furtive glances to see how the alphas are responding. There’s also a hierarchy; the heirlooms naturally being at the top (and when you get to the jockeying for power among the heirlooms…).
I’m picturing more wise tomato plants taking one step backwards, leaving the less wise to ‘volunteer’. hehe
Mimosas are fragrant at night. When I would come on from work at 11PM, my front yard, where the tree was, was enveloped by this delightful perfume.
The mimosa tree is SO PRETTY! Wish we had those around here. ( Southern Ontario) Also the Mayer lemon tree is cool did you plant it from a seed? Mayer Lemmon is my daughter’s favourite kind of tea. Love Archie’s expression. But then I find everything about cats wonderful.