Cats, Life, Photography

Valentine’s Kitties, Grandmother’s Champagne Glasses, Rainy California, Paper Whites and Orchids, a Peter’s Canyon Hike, and the Garden in the Sky

A few weeks in photos

I’ll begin with the end of the last few weeks, since my Uma Zooma Angelwings makes such a lovely Valentine’s Day photo. I will surely “be hers” forever. Could you ever deny a kitty with that expression on her face of anything she asks for? Treats? Extra Wild Salmon Florentine? Pets? Snuggles? Nope. She has me wrapped around her little paw.

As does her brother, Bisou, who thoroughly enjoyed his “Love Pawtion” and his sister, Freyja, who just couldn’t get enough of her “Dom Purrignon”….

And the humans had a nice Valentine’s Day too. We used my grandmother’s old champagne glasses for our celebration. I always love pulling these out because it makes me think of her and how much I loved her.

She was such a special and talented lady — a graphic artist for Pillsbury in the days when women didn’t have a lot of these sorts of careers. She helped create the Pillsbury Dough Boy (and the lesser known Pillsbury Dough Girl).

I guess you know you are of a certain age when a new set of (yellow!) pots and pans is a terribly exciting Valentine’s Day gift to each other.

I will admit that we love these so much that we went online after imbibing in a little wine the other night and ordered several pieces of matching bakeware! Oooh lah lah! I am already picturing those blueberry muffins I will make.

Uma got into the unpacking of cookware festivities too.

And one of my sweet little friends made me a very sparkly card.

I’ve been a bit remiss in putting together a “week in photos” since we got back from Romania last month because I kept telling myself that I needed to get my “Week in Romania” piece done first. But, alas, I am still editing photos. So, all is coming….

Anyways, we returned to LAX in the midst of an epic rainstorm. It has been so dry here, in Southern California, that we were just elated to keep hearing about the rain here. However, it wasn’t so pretty showing up at midnight with our bags and slogging through the rain to these umbrellas where the Ubers and Lyfts pick you up. Let’s just say that we got a little wet and that these umbrella stands were made more for sun protection than for thunderstorms.

We got home and (since we were still on a totally different time zone) opened up a bottle of wine and enjoyed some much-anticipated kitty time. This is the view of our wet street from the balcony. And I thought that the beets that showed up from our CSA (community-supported agriculture group) looked quite pretty on the Cook’s Illustrated that was waiting for us.

My paper whites had already peaked, but they were still quite lovely. And my orchids are, miraculously, re-blooming. Any of you who grow orchids know what I mean. They can be so tricky!

Just a few days after we got home, our dear friend, Steve, who moved to Greece last year, arrived in Southern California. He stayed with us for a few days while he was cleaning out the last of the things in his storage shed. He had just been in Greece and Romania with us and the rest of the group of friends we had been traveling with. We enjoyed having some time with him after not seeing him for the better part of a year.

We all went for a hike in our local Peter’s Canyon and ooohed and aaahed at the abundance of water and greenery after the rains. This little reservoir got a much-needed refill.

From the top of “Big Red” — well that’s what we call this trail — we could see the snow on the mountains in one direction and all the way out to Catalina Island in the other.

The trail had seriously rutted out in places because of the rains.

I’ve had more requests for photos lately, and am in printing mode. These are a few of my favorites from the last year or so.

I’ve been “decorating” the Garden in the Sky a bit. We put up this netting to make it a “kitty safe” balcony. While I’ve been sitting outside in the garden with them for about an hour at lunchtime lately, this is their catio, where they can hang out during the day.

The netting is very effective at keeping them in, but it is not the prettiest, so I have been hanging bits of colored glass out there to catch the sunlight.

We have had a couple of nights of power outages, due to the rains and to tree roots which moved. I didn’t really mind too much. They were sort of romantic evenings.

I’ll end with a few more kitty pics — they’re the best photos, anyways! Freyja has been enjoying the daffodils. Bisou just loves the sun on his sweet little face. And Uma likes to watch over everything from just inside the french doors.

And, just because he is so cute, I will share this photo of the view I wake up to most mornings. Bisou loves his snuggle time!

I hope you have all had lovely weeks!

If you enjoyed this, you might like checking out some of the other “Week in Photos Tribe” from around the world. I so enjoy reading about people’s lives and seeing what is happening in other parts of the world in real-time each week. Dennett started this a couple of years ago, and it has really been fun to keep up with.

Dennett /Anne Bonfert /Eileen Vorbach /Lisa Bolin /Tracy Aston /David Wade Chambers/Kim Zuch /Barbara Radisavljevic /LensAfield /Barbara Dalton /Sasha Meyer /Susan Alison /Diana Lotti /Barbara Dalton /K. Barrett /June Nguyen /Juan O. Aguilera /Ellie Jacobson /Shruthi Sundaram/ Pene Hodge /Tracy Aston/ Sandra Barrett/Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages /Shell Parsons/Ivy Shepherd/Mia Verita/ Lynne Nardizzi/ Ken Martin

(I know some new folks have joined in, so if I’ve missed any of the “week in photos” tribe, please let me know!)

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.