Don, good to see you, and good seeing you have now settled in and making new friendships, you do look well at home....Oh the baby of the group, how does that feel?  how does it feel associating - fraternising with your elders?

You're looking good, Don, and it's nice to see a new picture of you. 

Mary Ann

You're looking good, Don.

Some years ago there was some sort of special event at our local mall.  There were 5 or 6 live mannequins.  Amazing how people can train themselves to stay so still.  Just thinking about it makes me feel itchy.

My daughter has a beautiful white azalea.  But, unfortunately, they don't stay pretty very long.

Jean, as long as the azaleas look good long enough for you to use a camera or phone, that way they can last forever.  I think a neighbor had a yellow azalea but it bit the dust.  Your white one is beautiful.

Mary Ann

Wonderful to see you Don. I hope you will be able to drop in more often now.


I used to have a backyard that was bordered at the bottom with a hedgerow of forsythias What a spectacular sight in the early spring. I rarely trimmed them.

There are more than a few homes in the area that have apricot colored azaleas. They are just gorgeous.

Lookin' good, Don! Your one friend doesn't seem too sure about having his picture taken, did you tell him about us?     Maybe you can get them to join us. I thought you were younger than I am... but I am 84 +3 months. (Jan.'35).

Gorgeous azalea, Jean. Cas loved them so much we dragged 5 or more pots of them back from the Walmart in Kingsport, TN, (never see them for sale here). Now we know why, they didn't make it through the first winter.  My high school friend that lived in Anderson, SC, had a huge yard full of azaleas. Their house backed up to a large lake. Beautiful big trees, everything that yards in KS can't be!

FlaJean...
...so pure, so fresh, so white, sadly not too many pretty flowers flower for long periods but, at least they do get another stab at life same time next year...Isn't nature just wonderful?

Good to sign in and see both the photos  of Don and  June.  Don looking so content now.

June will be missed. Such  cheerful person to the end. Maybe don can sign up his 2 new friends. Be nice to read about the them. All..

Can still remember my mum and I visiting ma'am Tissards (wrong spelling) in London and caught her asking a model of a person aquestion thinking it was a live person.

Finely got my new car. Has not stopped raining since and now snowing.  So much on it ,can't figure the gadgets out. I need to be in it with the Manuel.

Jeanne P...
...I dont think your mother would have been the first and only person to have spoken to a model at Madame Tussauds...

JeanneP,  I notice some of our birds have gone north.  You should be getting spring weather before long.

Fla Jean, I've been waiting for a flock of robins from down your way.  So far, only one or 2 loners!
They must know something we don't!

SCFSue in Auburn

Sue, we lived in Ocala for 28 years and every year we had a big flock of robins come thru for a couple of days.  Ocala is in the middle of the state but here on the Gulf we only saw a few robins last year and none so far this year.  I guess we just aren't on their flight plan. 😊

I have a yard full of hungry robins, they go up & down the driveway in search of bugs. They toss leaves out of the edge, the driveway looks so messy, but they won't eat seed. In the fall they used to strip the pyracantha bush in days as waves of them would migrate south. Surprising how different colors some bands are. The last to come through are grayer than all the others, and a tad larger. We are on the migration route for lots of birds. I used to get up early to take photos, but too lazy now.

DON, how delightful to see you and two of your friends .  You look great and so do those old guy with you! 

JEAN, your Azaleas are BEAUTIFUL......thank you for sharing them.  I miss not seeing so many of the beautiful flowers that grow down south.  The last two winters I have brought two of my hibiscus plants inside and put them at a Southern exposure window and they just bloom like crazy.  It is quite a treat to see all winter long.

SHIRLEY, we had a big ol Robin outside a couple of days ago and he looked rather lost!  I hope more of his friends show up soon.  Your daffodils and other yellow flowers in your yard sure look pretty. 

Always enjoy the pretties in here....but I really miss all of JACKWV's special ones😢😢

Jenny...
...yes, I totally agree, this room is not the same without our Jackwv...although he does tell me, he still does looks in...

Farrah, my six year old cat, has been feeling, dare I say frisky, after her dental appt. You are probably all aware that a dog or cat will only bare their belly if they feel safe and secure? Farrah has taken it to a new level in that she lays on her back to play.  Just a couple of years ago, as an abused cat, she spent May thru November under the bed only to come out at night.

Such sweet pictures, Patricia.  You've done wonders with Farrah since you've had her.

Patricia, Farrah is a sweet-looking cat.  I expect Kendrick trusts me because he does roll over on his back and he loves having his back rubbed.  Farrah is a pretty cat (you can say that about a female cat) and I'm glad she is finally losing some of her feralness (is there such a word?).  I've always been a "dog" person, but after having a cat for several years, I can say I care for both. 

Mary Ann

Patricia, I can't get over how much she looks like my Tiger!  Even to that tender look on her face. Really true, y'all, they can have a special "I understand & love you" look. Tom will rub my legs & "hum" (as Cas called his loud purring), but he looks embarrassed when I talk to him serious right in his face. Callie does not understand what I expect of her but does notice she is not treated equal. She isn't allowed in the basement or run of the house because she can't be trusted not to "mark her spot".... She dances around my feet & will reach up to beg to be petted... I feel so bad that I can't trust her inside unless I am watching every movement, but this last "mark" is pretty expensive & not just my labor cleaning up!  They are ferals and will die ferals, can't change them. Thanks for the pics of Farrah.

What lovely photos, Patricia. She does look happy.

Thanks everyone but it's not so much what I've done but what I haven't. She was originally found on a gravel bar in the middle of a glacial river 27 miles from the nearest town. Now the Tanana River is a silted glacial river with lots of mud, (silt); and rapids as well as multiple sweepers.

The latter are trees and other items carried along with the current just under the river surface. The cat did not "swim" from the far bank to the gravel bar. As to my part, what I did was basically let her alone until she felt safe to come out and then secure to come within five feet of my hands. When they brought her to me, she would cringe and make herself as small as possible in self-defense, and if you still came at her, she would attack which is how she came here instead of to a foster with multiple animals. I had Sarah for similar reasons; I'm a permanent foster.

Shirley thanks, but I have to disagree. Now it is commonly known that the best way to socialize a feral is to begin before four weeks of age. However, it is different with every cat, and though they retain different behaviors than a well-loved from a birth, cat or kitten who has never known hardship, they do lose that sense of wildness as you've shown with Tom and Callie.

Both Sarah and Farrah are and were strictly house only cats, and neither started out that way. I have worked with Pet Pride a national feline rescue most of my adult life and seemed to have fallen in as a permanent foster to those who cannot go to a regular home for whatever reason. There are two men on the web and YouTube that deal with socializing ferals and many women. You might enjoy their videos. One is Chris and his wife who are famous for two of their cats, Cole and Marmalade;  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cole+and+marmalade

And Foster Father John, (FDJ);  who runs The Critter Room. His girlfriend Jessica Dwyer also has a YouTube feline rescue. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEmawBJsPLgttggzm4Z45Mw     

They deal with cats, kittens, TNR and cat colonies. And then there is Sarah and her Tiny Kittens from British Columbia, Canada. https://www.youtube.com/user/tinykittenshq

PATRICIA, your Farrah is such a pretty girl.  I am so happy that she has continued to trust you more and more and has become comfortable enough to roll over and ask for your attention and a nice belly rub.

We have had Our Smokey coming two years this month, and he has only recently started to really show signs of total trust.  He used to run and hide if anyone came in our home, and now he just checks them out and normally decides they are OK and he will stay around.  We had a new lady come in to do some heavy cleaning for us today and he was not one bit afraid of her.  Sadly, he came from an abusive home, so we knew we had to work with him to gain his trust.     

Jenny, I'm so glad you have Smokey and he is so relaxed in your loving home! The rescue mantra is "Adopt, don't shop!" and so many need homes. Only a little about 14% of ferals survive kittenhood so adopting, socializing and TNR are so important!

I have a new desktop and a 21" monitor so I'm going to post a few of the YouTube screenshots I printed and shown on my monitor. These are clipped in half just to show the ships. The broken ice in this one looks like a puddle instead of a portion of Lake Superior!

Nice screen shots, Patricia.  I enjoy that Duluth web cam but have to admit my patience is limited in waiting for the ships as the schedules aren't always accurate.  But when I do catch one of the ships coming in or going out I enjoy watching.