Shaman Rules

He is a tiny kitten, although twice the size as when we got him 4 weeks ago today.  Tiny but fearless and all over the place.  Schwartzie defers to him when he isn’t playing with him or protecting him – not that he seems to need any protection, except from us when he tries to get into the dishwasher.  We have to watch him carefully when we open anything, like a closet, a drawer.  But he is learning the meaning of NO shouted loudly. 

Schwartzie need not get between Shaman and Willow any longer.  Willow puts up with Shaman’s advances now.  He is obsessed with her, a big mostly white female.  He is, by the way, friendly to most visitors.  He got in Gigi’s lap, rubbed all over Indira, played with Stephen and allowed him to be picked up, followed Scott all around the house. This morning, I was awakened @ 6 by Shaman purring in my ear and kissing my face. Not a bad way to be wakened.  It isn’t because he wants to be fed, as I never feed him in the morning. That’s Woody’s job.

I made seven containers of pesto this week and froze them. One more session in a couple of weeks and we should have enough for the winter.  I already made some June pesto – made with garlic scopes instead of basil.  Tonight Woody is making supper, making a pasta salad and grilling a small steak.  I don’t eat a lot of meat, but I do enjoy what we have. Last night, cod. corn, amd zucchini simply sauteed with red onions, garlic and parmesan cheese at the end.  n

I am reading Le Carre’s last novel and also Marilyn Kallet’s recent book of poems.  I finished the last article in World Archeology last night in bed before I slept.  I subscribe to an American Archeology magazine and a British one.  I love to read about archeology.  I find it fascinating, for the most part.

We are getting eggplants, peppers now and one lonely cucumber.  The vines are healthy, but to make fruit, they need far more water than we can give them in a drought.  The Oriental eggplants, the long skinny ones, are what we’ve getting plentifully; we’re getting both bell and frying peppers.  The zucchini and pattypans are still coming and we ate the first beans last night. We only grow pole beans.  You have to wait for them, but they continue till frost and keep bearing and bearing. The pumpkins look good so far.  The winter squash plants have many blossoms, but no tiny fruit so far.

My pollinator garden is working well.  We have many bees visiting every day.  We need them to pollinate our vegetables, and they’re doing so assiduously, both honey bees and bumble bees.  I’m hoping for a better pumpkin and better winter squash harvest this year, after not much last year.. We’ll see.  So far, no borers, but again, it’s not over till it’s over. 

So hot I can seldom endure being outside. Even early in the morning when we waken, hot already, hot still.  No sleeping without air conditioning.