Hanging Baskets and Caution Tape

Our numerous hanging baskets are really looking fine these days.

I know from experience that the deer will soon think so too.

A couple of days ago , I caught several juveniles, probably yearlings, eyeing them up from the driveway. We worked too hard and spent too much money for them to become deer food in the night.

I've been putting up various barriers (brooms, chairs, trash cans) at night to discourage investigation, but I knew it was time to take more aggressive measures!

Jerry had some caution tape, so we made our barrier more formidable last night. I will take it down during the day and change the way I hang it a little each night, so they don't get too used to it. I think that's the key with deer. Change things often, because it usually takes them a day or two to relax around something new. Of course, they are pretty comfortable just about everywhere here in SandyLand. They are just not welcome to eat my flowers, thank you very much!

Jerry's got another giant tomato plant growing this year. I think it's even bigger than last year's. It has taken over the deck table so that our woodchuck can't get to it.

Three males showing off for each other this morning.

Rembrandt is begging for watermelon.

And Princess just takes it all in from her throne.

Portrait Of A Princess

"A dog, I have always said, is prose; a cat is a poem." ~ Jean Burden

On Sketching Everyday I post a photo each week as a sketching challenge. This past week it was to draw my cat, Princess. This morning, I decided to do a watercolor portrait of her from my drawings. I used to do a lot of pet portraits and I really enjoyed doing this one. Go to my summer drawing blog to see the photo and sketches of her. Also see several other artist's interpretations of my little Princess here.


"As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat."  ~ Ellen Perry Berkeley


"I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult.  It's not.  Mine had me trained in two days."  ~ Bill Dana

Princess And The Herd

Princess wanted to go on walk-about real bad this morning. It's basically our girl time, where we walk around the property and interact with each other. It just has to be me! She won't go with Jerry. I was busy doing a favor for a friend, so she just had to wait. She kept crying to go out when I got home. Once she was out, she was crying to come in. I tried food, I tried water, I tried treats and brushing. Nothing worked. So finally I said; "Ok, I know what you want, lets go." She sprang to her feet and ran all the way out to the pasture. 

A few members of the herd were out there grazing. It was obvious that she wanted me to be aware of their presence. She kept turning around to make sure I was coming. I recognized Little Guy and Fuzzy Tail, life time regulars here.

She had a plan.

She was going to show off for me and strut her stuff. I guess she's sorta got a big head from the recent turkey incident.

She headed right towards Little Guy in a definite stalking mode.

When Fuzzy Tail came to investigate, I guess Princess sent out her meanest predator vibes because both deer took off in a fast trot. I really didn't see her do any distinct posturing or anything from the back. It looks almost like mind control. She is an unusual little cat with a really big ego and a huge presence when she sets her mind to it. It's fun for me to witness the relationships and the coexistence that our various critters have here with each other. It's not unusual to see our two feral cats playing tag with Chuckie the groundhog. And it's commonplace to see a few deer, turkeys and a raccoon eating sunflower seeds together under the bird feeders. It's just another day in my life here in SandyLand.

To Internet Hell And Back

I've been to internet HELL and back over the past week. To make a long story short, it all started when I went to renew my domain name, SpiritArt.us. It was ten days before it was due to expire. Turns out my domain registrar went out of business. They were resellers, so I had to go to the main registrar to find my data. With the high rate of scamming and manipulation on the web, beware, of even the big guys. I was slammed in the beginning by the company, did meet with some cooperation mid stream, but then ended up short changed in the end. Thank God for my wonderful technical support staff at ViaVerio Web Hosting !! One by one, hour by hour, Jason, Tim, Oscar, Dave, and James all got me through this. Thanks so much guys! I still have some work to do, but now there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel!

Today's InspirationEveryday quote:
"To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist." ~ Gail Sheehy

On a brighter note, I became an exclusive photographer with iStockPhoto yesterday. Now I have a bronze film canister and a gold crown by my name. It looks so much better than that old grey thing. I didn't have a photo of me in a crown, so here's the next best thing. It's a shot of me taken by Robert Genn , the Author of "The Painter's Keys" in September of 2005 aboard the cruise ship "Coral Princess" in Alaska.