Gift from My Father

My dad died in 2004, a fact I still have trouble coming to terms with sometimes. I miss him so much, particularly around the holidays. We occasionally wonder what life would have been like if he had lived; we might not even be in the Box House, who knows. My parents' plan was to retire somewhere warmer. But things happen, and now it's sometimes hard to remember a time when the three of us--me, Ted, my mom--weren't living in this drafty old two-flat.

Thinking of Dad and the holidays tonight leads me to thinking of his best friend, Jack, and some pictures I had wanted to post a few months ago after a visit to see him and his wife, Alba. We had spent nearly every Christmas Eve and Three Kings Day with Jack's family. I don't have a childhood holiday memory that doesn't include them. They're more like kinfolk than friends, and I had grown up thinking of their kids as my cousins. We haven't seen much of each other in recent years, unfortunately, but we've been working to remedy that.

Anyway, I was at Jack and Alba's house not long ago, right around the time they were cleaning out their century-old farmhouse of the stuff they had accumulated over the thirty years they had lived there, as well as items from previous owners that had been left in the basement.

And among the many treasures down there--including a set of Amelia Earhart bookends and a 1920s stove--was a homemade, Pepto-Bismo pink dollhouse. Jack asked me if I wanted to take it home with me. My heart almost stopped at the sight of it. It's a dollhouse that my dad had made when Alison, Jack's daughter, and I were kids--I think I was seven or so, she was four.

I hadn't even remembered that this dollhouse ever existed.

But when I saw it, it all came rushing back. I remember playing with that dollhouse for hours; I remember the texture of the carpet on the floors, the patterns on the wallpaper, and the furniture made by one of my great-great uncles. And I actually remembered my dad building the house.

Dad wasn't always the handiest of craftsman, I think it's okay to admit that, and I don't have anything that he built with his own two hands because there simply wasn't anything left over the years. So when I saw this dollhouse, I just teared up. My "Uncle" Jack had given me a gift more precious than he could have imagined -- a gift from my father, and a forgotten memory of him revealed.

The Very, Very Last Plant of 2010. I Mean It This Time.

It's nearly December, and I'm still puttering in the garden. I went to Home Depot yesterday to get lawn bags, as the last leaf pickup is this week. I swear, that's all I intended to get. The garden center is filled with Christmas trees and holiday greenery, but in one sad little corner was a pile of shrubs at super markdown prices. And for two dollars, I picked up an Amethyst coral berry.

It has white flowers at midsummer, and pretty hot pink fruit in late summer.

At least the ground's not frozen yet, and I was able to get it planted. But that's it, I promise. No more plant purchases for the year. I even disconnected the garden hoses today, too, to prove it.

Introducing Sebastian Blue, Our New Maine Coon

We brought our new cat home on Saturday. He's a 16-month-old Maine Coon we've named Sebastian Blue. (And if anyone out there notices that our cats' names are now Bella and Sebastian, it was not inspired by indie Scottish band Belle and Sebastian, although we do like their music). He does remind me some of his brother, Seamus, but his face looks more feral. I hope to get a good picture of him this week.

I forgot how stressful it is (for me) to introduce a new critter into the house. I worry about the fact that he's been hiding for most of the last two days, has barely eaten, and seems really scared. Even though these are all normal symptoms for a cat in transition, I worry that he'll always be nervous.

We've set up the bedroom off the kitchen and the kitchen itself as "his" area, and put up a fence to keep Bella and the dog out. Sebastian spent most of Saturday under the bed, but sometime Saturday during the night decided to do a bit of exploring. We found him under the ice box in the morning. He didn't want us to scritch or pet him, it made him really nervous, so we pretty much left him there on Sunday, although I did set up the laptop in the bedroom and read to him out loud from the book I was reading so he could get used to my voice.

Sebastian under the ice box.

Later on Sunday he was back under the bed, still wanting to be left alone, although he did poke his head into the kitchen at one point when he heard Bella chirping. However, he was a little surprised to also see Maggie, his first dog, on the other side of the fence.

Sebastian sees Maggie for the first time.

Maggie and Bella, for their part, have not been happy with being left out.

Bella and Maggie look at me with disapproval.

Bella eventually said the heck with this fence nonsense, and came to see what the fuss was about. She jumped to the top of the refrigerator so she could watch Sebastian, who was in the doorway to the bedroom. The cats have been curious about each other, but aside from a little bit of growling in the first few minutes, have just been staring at each other. Last night, they had a fifteen-minute staring contest. I'm not sure who won.

Bella is up and over the fence in no time.

Bella, watching from the top of the fridge, wonders who the new stranger is.

 
Sebastian eventually went to the top of the refrigerator himself after having seen Bella do it, and from there, somehow managed to cram himself into the narrow space about the cabinet. At this point, I think he became overwhelmed, because we were all in there cooking dinner and Bella was hanging out. From what we can tell, he didn't come down at all during the night and didn't want us to go up there.

Sebastian hunkering down so we won't see him hiding on the cabinet.

I was pretty much worried about him all day today, and had placed his food and water dishes up there with him. Still, he hasn't wanted to eat, and I don't want him getting dehydrated. So I went to PetSmart and picked up some Catsip, which every cat I've had in recent years just loves. I also got a tube of GNC Ultra Mega Relax for Cats, which has chamomile and other relaxing herbs in it. I asked the store vet about it, and was told chamomile will work to calm some animals.

It is a gel; you squeeze out a strip up to an inch long and put it on the cat's paw. He'll lick it off. I figured if it didn't calm him, maybe it would at least stimulate his appetite. It tastes like chicken. Sort of.

I then left him alone for a while. When I checked 10 minutes later, it was still on his paw, but after half an hour I could tell he had eaten it. Fifteen minutes after that, I climbed up to the top of the refrigerator myself and sat down on it (we have high ceilings). This time, Sebastian let me reach up and scritch his ears and head, leaning into it. I did that for about 15 minutes, talking softly to him and stroking his head, and then went back to my computer where he could see me. Maybe the stuff does work to calm him. It only took him a few minutes after that to jump down and follow me into the bedroom.

So that's where we're at now. I've decided to cut his two rooms down to this one, until he's more comfortable with me and more confident overall. Perhaps the two rooms, with the view of the rest of the house, was too much for him. As I type this, he is slowly exploring the room, looking back at me to see what I'm up to. He keeps coming by for a finger sniff and a brief scritch, but it's all on his terms. If I approach him, he goes back under the bed, even if just for a minute, before he's off exploring again. He's sniffing at his food, so hopefully he'll eat soon.

I think I'll keep him in here another day or so at least, banning the others so he can chill; thank goodness I get to work from home, and can just drag the laptop around with me.

The stare down.

Early Start on the Spring Garden Plans, and Yes, We're Still Blooming in Chicagoland

Lest you think we're all Maine Coons, all the time around here, rest assured that we have been doing some work around the ol' Box House.

Last week we had some freakishly warm temperatures in Chicagoland and actually still have some things blooming--and green, yes, green! So I took on the challenge of extending the wraparound shrub border from the corner to our front walk. I had killed the grass using Roundup a while back, but didn't plan on doing any digging until March or so. But, since the weather has been sunny and springlike, and shrubs less than $5 at Home Depot, we planted up a storm. Here, I'm standing on the sidewalk that leads up to our door, looking toward the corner. Ninety-percent of what you're looking at went in this week. Some of it is perennial divided from other sections of the yard; most of it is new shrubs of the four-to-six-foot when full grown variety. What you don't see are the 100+ spring bulbs.
Let's hope the squirrels don't see them, either.

I've taken three steps closer to the public sidewalk for this pic. The dead grass at the sidewalk's edge will remain until next spring when I edge it properly. For now, it's to hold the dirt back over the course of the winter.

This picture was taken about halfway to the corner. Note the Weeping Norway Spruce at right -- my $5 Home Depot bargain. (It was originally $49.)

When full grown, it will only be 8-10 feet, and look something like this (I hope):

Looking back; there is an 8x10 foot unplanted section in the bulge. Next year, I'll plant my herb garden there and, hopefully, the neighborhood dogs won't pee on it.

View from the corner. What is hard to see unless you enlarge the pic is all the ground cover plants I added along the sidewalk; it's a mixture of ajuga, moss, and creeping myrtle meant to hold back the dirt and keep down the weeds.

In fact, it will look like this section that was planted in August. Enlarge this one and you'll see the creeping myrtle is blooming again, for the third time this year.

All in all, it's a delight to be able to actively garden in November! And because I have a few things growing, I can't believe I actually have a November submission for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.