Cat-in-a-box

Pye has developed an obsession with boxes. He was always keen, but the addiction is escalating. There are now (hmmm, counting...) six cardboard boxes around the house for the cat to play with. There's three in the living room, one in the sun room, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom. This is the kitchen one. If he wants attention, he runs to the nearest box, though sometimes he goes to his favourite in the sun room, even if it's further away. The favourite hardly deserves the title of "box" - it's barely two inches high, more a cardboard tray than a box! Once ensconced in the current box, he expects to be patted and skritched under the chin. I can pat the box and the cat comes running for his fix. Sometimes he even tries to sit in the flat of tinned tomatoes underneath the kitchen cupboards, only because it has a cardboard tray underneath. Perhaps he's trying to tell me to save that one for him, too.

Who's in charge of this house, anyway? (don't answer that)

In-a-box

"Hmm. This is new. Dunno about new."

 "I suppose new is okay."

 "Let me try this new on for size."

"It fits! Or I fit. Whatevs."

"Aaaaaah. I like it. Cat Seal of Approval granted. Now get away from my new."

Oi, I'm trying to sleep!

"Oi, I'm trying to sleep here!"

Note that Bel chooses to sleep on the colour that best sets off her beautiful jet black coat. That's a lime green sari I'm refashioning into a tunic. She likes to curl up on the end of it while I'm actually putting it through the sewing machine.

"Perhaps if I ignore her, she'll go away."

"Perhaps if I wash the vulgar bits, THEN she'll go away."

"I shall kill you in your sleep. And eat your liver."

"Right, that's it, I'm outta here."

Random

I suspect I've posted this photo before, but my brain isn't functioning at the moment: I've been sick for almost a week, surviving on toast and cups of tea. Isn't Pye cute, though, even if it is a repeat? Bel dislikes the camera intensely (I'm sure she thinks "Why are you staring at me? Hmm. I think I will be...elsewhere", and pulls her disappearing act). So there are few snaps of the very photogenic little black girl in existence.

I've been steadily adding items to my Etsy shop again, wearables so far. I plan to put some art up shortly. Check it out, if you're so inclined, by clicking on the link at the top left of the blog.

Blogging as usual will resume once I've shaken whatever crud is afflicting me.

Outsmarted

How can a little black cat, who weighs barely 2.5kg and has a brain about the size of a golfball, outwit me every time I try to catch her? I got the cat carriers out a couple of days before the planned capture, as the sound of the cages rattling send both cats scurrying for cover. Pye is easy to catch, he just scrunches down in the hope I can't see him and goes into the cage with a minimum of fuss. Bel does a disappearing act each and every time I so much as think about trapping her, no matter what precautions I attempt. I thought I'd sussed out all her hidey holes, but there's a new one and she planted herself in it the other morning, nowhere to be found.

Until, about an hour after her brother had been ignominously carried off to the vets, she thought the threat was over and made the mistake of reappearing. I pinned her to the ground, scooped her up and she was in the carrier before she could squeak (though there was plenty of squeaking during the journey).

Perhaps she opens an interdimensional portal and simply sidesteps off this plane of existence for a while. Since I looked EVERYWHERE, that's the explanation I'm going with...

Sleeping beauty

You'd think Pye could find a far more comfortable spot to snooze in the sun, but no, his current favourite spot is on the hard ridged back of the cane couch. I love the way he kind of ooooozes either side as he relaxes. My cats have always been skittish, but Pye is turning into a bit of a softy (though he pretends otherwise) in his old age; my two will be ten this year. He permits me to pick him up now, protesting as I do so, but the purring and the settling into my arms gives him away.

Drawing 349

Drawing 350

Still obsessed with the scales. I have an idea to make something like this into a sculpture to sit on the floor, with the central oval a mirror with an eye drawn on it and the tentacles three dimensional.

Drawing 351

PS. The Bloke managed to get the pickled onion jar open after an epic struggle, during which pickle juice threatened to erupt all over the kitchen. Victory is ours! Mmmmm, pickled onions...

Cat TV

A couple of days ago, Bel interrupted my breakfast with a peremptory "rrowwrrr!" and indicated that there was a matter of importance requiring my attendance (also known as, "follow me, right NOW!"). She led me to the windows along the back of the house, which are floor to almost-ceiling, and her brother, Pye, frantically pawing at the glass and fluffed up to twice his usual size. On the other side of the glass was a completely unfazed rodent, peering in at all of us fearlessly. Hmm, big mousie, thinks I, squinting - nope, on closer inspection, little rat. I rapped on the window but he didn't even flinch, just sat up jauntily on his back paws and washed his face. I suspect he may have been an escaped pet, being a pretty grey with a snowy white belly and obviously not unfamiliar with people and cats. I went outside to investigate further before a cat or two got so enthused they pursued their new friend right through the glass, but he was wily enough to make himself scarce. In the past, I've considered a pet rat - they are cute and intelligent - but this one might have found himself on the feline menu had he joined the family. I hope he survives in the great outdoors.

Drawing 305

Drawing 306

To bee, or not to bee

Drawing 254

Drawing 255

Drawing 256

Drawing 257

This morning both my cats were conspicuous by their absence. Anyone familiar with cats will know that a conspicuous absence generally bodes ill. After a short search, I discovered both felines in the bedroom, staring fixedly at the north wall. More specifically, staring at the air vent on the north wall.

Hmmm, thinks I, I hear...buzzing. Droning. LOUD. And the ping of little winged bodies against the plaster. Uh-oh. This is probably not good.

An investigation outside revealed a horde of busy little bees industriously invading the air vents on the exterior wall. The Bloke had, earlier in the morning, reported half a dozen bees investigating the compost bin, which, though unusual, hadn't more than raised my eyebrow. Now all was revealed: the little buggers were staging an invasion and setting up house in the wall cavity.

A quick phonecall to my landlord set the pest exterminators onto the job. Since there was no way of accessing the forming hive to remove it (short of knocking down the wall to my house), to my regret the only thing to do was puff in pyrethrum (sp?) dust to exterminate them. The buzzing has now ceased.

Poor little bees, just when they thought they'd found a nice new home :(

The exterminator guy told me he is severely allergic to bees and wasps. Helluva occupational hazard!

Oh, and their job of alerting me to the invasion accomplished, the cats promptly gave up staring at the wall and went back to their real job of snoozing in the sun.

Chair update

Drawing 167

Drawing 168

Update on the green chair battle: I dozed off in the recliner (it's a trap, I tell you!) yesterday
afternoon and had a horrible dream about being eaten alive. I woke up to find Bel sitting on the back of the chair CHEWING MY HAIR. From now on, I'm wearing a hat when I feel the slightest bit drowsy whilst occupying the bone of contention. Clearly, that cat's not content with passive aggressive and has moved onto the offensive. Could world domination be next?

World War 3

Drawing 164

Drawing 165

Drawing 166

The Bloke brought me a green velvet recliner from the op shop and it's prompted something
approaching WW3. The cats think it belongs to them. They are sadly mistaken. Whenever I get up, there's a bitch fight as the felines battle for possession of the vacated territory. If I'm in residence there's a black cat perched on the right armrest while the grey cat perches on the left armrest, waiting like vultures for the opportunity to occupy my (prewarmed) spot.

It IS a very comfy chair, and there's a danger that I will just sink into it and be planted for the duration (especially with the recliner feature engaged - good for napping!) with my knitting, book and the tv remote in easy reach. I have some sewing to do, but I hear the green velvet siren calling me...

Mythology

Drawing 162

Drawing 163

I've been perusing the book of South American mythology I bought the other day and the
images are seeping into my drawing.

Had a productive day today: finished sewing up a cute vest in gecko fabric (bar buttonholes and buttons - I tend to stockpile items needing buttonholes because it's a pain to change the foot on the sewing machine. Easier to do a batch than change the foot every time), cut out and got about halfway through sewing a skirt, read (Ben Elton's "Blind Faith"), took a walk to the post office to send a parcel - bit windy out but a pleasant day for walking and I like having a peak at others' gardens, cleaned all the lint out of the washing machine filter because last time I used it there was a minor flood (gerk! Yucky job but removing the lint seems to have fixed it), and then washed two loads of laundry and hung it all on the clothesline.

I also took Pye cat for a 'walk' in the back yard - more of a graze, really, he seems to think he's some sort of cow and must munch up all the grass in sight. My cats are indoors only, except for on the lead. Bel won't tolerate the lead, she either flops down limp and pretends she's dead, or does her Freddie Krueger impression and attempts to claw me to death, but Pye actually half
co-operates in having the lead put on and gets excited about a walk. I'm trying to teach him to associate the word "walkies" with going outside so he'll come when called, but he gets so worked up that I don't think the word registers. Usually he stays out about ten or fifteen minutes, then asks to go inside, but sometimes (today) he wants to stay out when I've had enough - he had a cat tantrum, full on with hissing and growling and bushed out tail. I think laughing at him made him even crosser with me :)

Quick, look! There's a cat!

Drawing day eighty-three

Busy, busy, busy. (deploying diversionary tactic 1) Ooh, look at that cat!

Pye does love a box

Huh?

Drawing day twenty-eight

Drawing day twenty-eight

Didn't do two drawings today, maybe tomorrow! It was a busy day again today, grocery shopping in the morning, a social catchup with some fellow students this afternoon - it was great to see them! I'm looking forward to classes starting on Tuesday, then finished the fourth of five skirts for pick-up in the evening. Almost didn't make the deadline, but my customer got delayed en route so I had a little extra time and finished sewing before she arrived. She's decided on one more, but I don't need to have that one done for a couple of weeks. We're both pleased with the way they've turned out, so much so in my case that I may need to make a similar one for
myself :) Perhaps in some of my collection of cat fabrics with a different fabric in each panel...

Long weekend

Drawing day twenty-three

Australia Day holiday today (even though the actual day was Saturday, the 26th), though as I'm already on holiday it hasn't made any difference to me! But the street has been very quiet, which is nice; for a suburban street, this one seems to get more than it's fair share of traffic hooning down the slope, despite the multiple speed bumps. I don't mind the traffic so much, but the cars with the super-loud doof-doof music broadcasting in the small hours get a bit wearing.

Spent an hour or so this afternoon doing some more cleaning up in the studio/spare room. Much better, though there is still a nasty corner of boxes lurking (lurking for so long I've forgotten what's in them). Probably mostly stuff heading for ebay at some point when I get my act together and photograph it. I still have to tackle the ginormous pile of drawings from last year's classes. I'm torn about tossing any of it. Well, some of the one and two minute life drawings can be recycled into something else (quite happily!), but I'll either need to find a way of storing the rest or throw some out. Most of the drawings are A1 size, so HUGE. I thought about under the bed, but I suspect a cat or two would have heap big fun with that - Bel adores paper, when she was a kitten every piece of paper or cardboard in the house had perforated corners from sharp little teeth.

Three week milestone!

Drawing day twenty-one

"I'm so cuuuuuute"

"What? Is there tuna?"

Cut 'n' paste

Drawing day eleven

Spent an hour or so this afternoon collaging some magazine pictures and book pages onto drawing paper to work over in ink and pencil, once the glue dries (probably tomorrow). It's fun doing a little cut and paste, like being back in kindergarten :)

I also made a couple of skirts to list on ebay. I'm on a fabric diet, ie. no buying more fabric until I use most of my stash. I have bought little new since going back to school last February - two or three quarter metres of stuff I couldn't resist (skulls! in pink and red and multi! Or cats, black on pink! Mine! Mine!) - yet the towering pile of yardage in the "studio" is still threatening to topple over at regular intervals. I do have lots of scraps now, though - I plan to make tiered skirts, or sew some of the scraps into patchy yardage and work with that in either skirts or shirts. Fun!

Gratuitous cat photos:

Bel in the box: "Now you see me, now you don't..."

Bel in the hammock (a hotly contested position, one that can change ownership at the hint of a hiss or the slash of a wicked paw. Often the paw is black)

Help meeee, I'm meltingggg...

Drawing day five

Another hot one here in Melbourne - 41 degrees Celsius and a predicted overnight low of a tropical 30 degrees. My subconscious will be working overtime tonight at those temperatures. Mental note to self: put the dreamcatcher back on the bedpost (had to remove it the last warm night as it was clacking in the breeze from the fan and I had repeated dreams of killer emus tapping on the window).

Worked on my linocut and made my drawing-a-day this morning before it got too, too hot, though the temps climbed pretty rapidly. I used a silver highlight on the drawing to bring out the central "flower" as it was rather disappearing into the other blooms.

It got too warm after that to concentrate, so I made a trip to a local clearance grocery store that's closing this week and stocked up: four packed plastic bags for $26, not bad value! I do love a bargain. Most items were two for one, including a cereal I really like but at $5-6 a box don't often eat - four boxes for $4 was a coup. The past year on a student allowance has taught me to stretch a buck a looooooong way :)

Bel cat spent an hour this afternoon trying to inveigle me into letting her snooze under the polar fleece blanket that lives on the back of the armchair over summer and on my lap during winter. Since it was stinking hot, I refused to cooperate, but she tried very hard: walking over my shoulders and bust repeatedly, nudging my hands, mewing piteously, headbutting the blankie and mewing even more pathetically. To no avail. She had to be content with toasting her little black self in the sun coming through the window till she just about baked her brain and had to stagger back into the shade, puffing like a steam train. Pye spent the day stretched full length on successive patches of carpet, gettin up at intervals to totter a few steps to a slightly cooler patch and grumbling at me. They like warm, but today was way beyond optimum cat weather.