HAPPY PETS & CRUMPET RINGS

Marcia and I went garaging this morning in a lovely neighborhood of classy houses built from the Twenties through the Fifties. We spent all morning admiring various houses and enjoying the wonderful mature landscaping. One house had some cool weeping trees in front (cedars maybe?) and while we shopped at the yard sale across the street, Marcia asked the young husband if he happened to know what kind of trees they were. He said no, his mom would probably know but she wasn’t there, but we could knock on their door because they are nice. We declined to wake strangers at 7 am on Saturday to inquire about their trees. Then, when I was looking at some fabric square he was selling, he mentioned that his mom had made them. “So she knows fabric and trees, huh,” I commented.

“Yeah,” he replied. “She’s old school.”

Marcia and I both laughed at this. “Your mom is probably our age,” I told him. “You better watch it!”

We chatted for a while with a lady who works with feral cats. She said this guy comes over to her house to sneer at her crew.His name is Hitler—or maybe she just calls him that because of the mustache and his tendency to take over territory that doesn’t belong to him. He was awfully nice about posing for his picture though.

She was quite a talker. We heard about several cats she takes care of, and how one of them decided to move into the house, and how this cat talks all the time. I’m not sure myself how the cat would get a word in edgewise. I can just imagine the two of them in spirited conversation.

A nice lady named Jane made me very happy. She’s an antique dealer and we talked for a while—and she ended up buying my book! That always makes my day. I hope she enjoys it, especially since one of the main characters is an antique dealer.

Remember last week I mentioned that we’re opting out of Christmas this year, and not decorating? Evidently our dog Lizzie decided to get into the spirit with us…and chewed up the little brush squirrel I bought last week!By the time we noticed what she was doing down there by our feet, the squirrel had no more face or feet and she was removing more bristles. Fortunately she didn’t seem to be eating the stuff (couldn’t be good for her insides). So no more cute squirrel. Now you know why I don’t like to pay more than fifty cents for these things!

In spite of this transgression, I bought her a present this morning. She’s getting rather elderly (will be thirteen in a couple of months) and has been a little under the weather (better now though). So I brought home her own stuffed toy to take apart.Toys rarely last more than an hour with her. She chews off things like ears, then carefully opens a seam and flings stuffing all over. But she’s my baby and I knew this would make her happy, and it has. So far she’s just hanging out with it. I’ll be interested to see how long it lasts.No, Edward did not get a toy. Even if I had bought one for him, it would also have belonged to Lizzie—at least in Lizzie’s opinion. And Lizzie’s opinion counts for a lot. With both of them. So Edward just has to look on. But he got into Lizzie’s favorite chair to do so.  Noll found something he likes among today’s finds too. It’s a brand new cushion for the chaise out by the pool. Unless it becomes a cat bed instead.

I spent $9.75 this morning. Besides the items above, I scored 2 nice glass jars with airtight lids. I’m trying to decide what to decant into them. Maybe oatmeal in the larger one and baking soda in the smaller? Also scored something I’ve wanted for years. A set of egg rings, or crumpet rings if you’re me and make crumpets every once in a while. These are really good ones, and turns out they are from Williams Sonoma. Where they did not cost fifty cents.I’m kicking myself over this buy. I need some suspender clips for a project—and when I got home I discovered one of this set is missing. Dang. Oh well, at least I now have a lifetime supply of rainbow colored elastic.

I feel much better about my dollar bag of Meyer lemons, fresh picked from a back yard tree. They have the most amazing fragrance, lemon with a floral note. If you don’t live in California you may not have encountered them because they don’t ship well. Meyers are something I will miss when we move to Oregon.

I also scored some sticky stuff for hanging things on the wall (or anchoring things to shelves so they don’t crash in an earthquake) and some inexpensive entertainment (the CD just left with my husband for a drive to LA)and some toys for my library that’s doing a project with babies and toddlers.The phone isn’t vintage, it’s fairly new, but this is probably the only way today’s kids will know that phones used to have a circular dial!