Yesterday was a much-needed quiet day at home! I did laundry, I read blogs and I made substantial headway in "Flashlight," which I am enjoying a lot. I know nothing about Korea and Japan and the relations between the two, especially as they affected families living there (and immigrant families in the USA), so it's opening a window on an experience that I have never really imagined.
I pass this tree on my walks home from work. I took the picture above on my phone, and it's OK, but I'd hoped to get one with my good camera. But on Thursday, when I took my camera to work, the house had all its rubbish bins stacked in front and more rubbish on the front walkway. I had a crazy moment when I considered moving their bins aside to take the picture, but then I caught myself. I do not need to be moving other people's garbage cans. In the USA you'd get shot for that. (And a lot less!)
I pass this tree on my walks home from work. I took the picture above on my phone, and it's OK, but I'd hoped to get one with my good camera. But on Thursday, when I took my camera to work, the house had all its rubbish bins stacked in front and more rubbish on the front walkway. I had a crazy moment when I considered moving their bins aside to take the picture, but then I caught myself. I do not need to be moving other people's garbage cans. In the USA you'd get shot for that. (And a lot less!)
Here's an unfortunate gardening situation that I had to rectify. You know I hate killing anything, but in this case it was necessary. There are three burdock plants in this photo, including the uprooted one in the center. Burdock plants get huge, and right in the middle of this trio is a hollyhock. I knew three burdocks would totally overwhelm the hollyhock, so I pulled up the one that was in front -- which was growing in the lawn, anyway, and I wasn't thrilled about that. I've left the other two for now and I think if I keep the leaves trimmed I can let them survive while still keeping the hollyhock alive.
In the afternoon I went to have a massage, which I haven't done in a long, long time. (Not since Tenerife last November, I think.) It was fabulous, of course, and then look who I ran into on my rubbery-legged walk home:
It's Pale Cat! He was perched on this column next to someone's front garden on the next block. I wonder if that's his house? If so, he has quite a wide territory to wander, because we're not only one more street over, but we're a long block north of where he was in this photo -- and as you know from my wildlife videos, he's always showing up in our back garden. (I'm saying "he" because I've pretty much decided he's a male, though I could still be wrong.)
Anyway, it's the first time I've seen him not in our garden, so that was kind of funny. It's like running into your barber at the grocery store, or your doctor at the wine shop -- you can't help but do a double-take because the person (or cat, in this case) is out of context!
To determine whether or not Pale Cat is male or female you should check its genitals. I find that this works every time. As someone famous once said, all you have to do is grab the pussy.
ReplyDeleteEasier said than done!
DeleteThere is something enchanting about coming upon Pale Cat so far from your back garden. I have never had a massage.
ReplyDeleteYou should get one, just for the experience!
DeleteHe is nice and attractive cat and looks ever so relaxed.
ReplyDeleteHe does seem very chill. He wouldn't really look at me, though.
DeleteI think I would quite like a massage right now, even if it results in rubbery legs ...
ReplyDeleteI recommend them wholeheartedly!
DeleteI read in a newspaper article quite some time ago, about how far cats actually roam at night. People think "Oh my cat just roams my yard and maybe next door" but cats can roam as much as five kilometers away from home at night and it had been proven by putting a tracker on several cats. I was as surprised as anybody else I showed the article to. That was about the time the new ruling came in that cats must be confined to your own property or must live inside. I still see a lot of cats roaming anyway.
ReplyDeleteyes, I've seen it as 2 miles radius from base..I think that is about the same? for Toms not Queens.
DeleteYes, about that distance and Queens do tend to stay closer to home.
DeleteTwo miles?! Wow. I never imagined it would be that far. I wonder if it's less in a city? Seems like there would be a lot of dangerous barriers (like roads) to wandering such distances.
DeleteI wonder if pale cat's family have any idea how far he goes. They probably see him sleeping all day and wonder.
ReplyDeleteThey think he's so lazy!
DeleteGoing further back, I read that the home of ceramics was Korea and it spread from there to Japan and China.
ReplyDeleteI must look further into that. I wonder if the Ainu people of northern Japan have links in the distant past to Korea?
A massage..bliss!
Linda Sue Park wrote a children's book called "A Single Shard" about an apprentice potter in medieval Korea. It taught me a lot about that time and place!
DeleteClever of Pale Cat to choose a perch that complimented his coloration.
ReplyDeleteHe's very style-conscious.
DeletePale Cat gets around!
ReplyDeleteHe has to keep an eye on things!
DeleteI love that tree! The setting is lovely too - all that brick & stone & the iron gate.
ReplyDeleteYou would have been horrified at our house yesterday as I ruthlessly cut down maple tree sprouts & rogue morning glory vines.
Well, sometimes you just have to do those sorts of things. I do them here too, though I don't like to.
DeleteTrip Out On That Tree There Brother Reed - Its Those Simple Moments In Time I Tell Ya
ReplyDeleteStay Groovy ,
Cheers
I love seasonal beauty. You have to capture it while you can!
DeleteIt's surprising to see people with whom we are familiar in unfamiliar surroundings. I include cats and dogs in that!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! It's like, "Oh, you have a life too!"
DeleteAs you might expect, growing up on a farm we considered burdock an invasive weed. One plant can spread something like 15,000 seeds on the fur of wildlife. I think in the Japanese and perhaps other cultures they eat the stuff but I haven't had the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI have seen farm cats roam over a mile away from farmsteads so they can have big ranges. But a city cat would have plenty to explore before coming anywhere near a mile.
I've heard of harvesting burdock root, but I've never done it. I think it's used medicinally, isn't it? Yeah, my hunch is that city cats don't travel as far.
DeleteYou described the meeting of Pale Cat so far from your back garden perfectly- like running into someone completely out of context. Remember how odd it was to see a teacher at the grocery store when we were young? What? You have a life outside our second grade classroom? Or in this case- a life outside of your back garden. It takes a second of adjustment of the narration we have inside our heads.
ReplyDeleteI remember once running into one of my brother's elementary school teachers at a restaurant in South Carolina, when we were driving north to DC to visit my grandmother. Now THAT was weird.
DeleteAre you sure it's the same cat? I ran into our investment broker at the grocery story and it was so out of context that I couldn't remember his name until after our brief encounter which is really weird because I really like him and he's done well for us.
ReplyDeleteThe tree is gorgeous and the iPhone pic is good. I have just not been inspired to get out in the yard and do stuff that needs doing but isn't essential.
Yes, I compared the markings. Definitely the same cat! It can be hard to motivate to do yard work -- I get it. You're usually so industrious!
DeleteI'm surprised the cats seem to have freedom to roam around.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there are no rules about it. In fact, some people in the UK are quite insistent that cats should have the right to roam -- more so than in the states, I think.
DeletePale cat looks like it could use a bath! If you could pet it, you might be able to figure out what gender that cat really is!
ReplyDeleteThe tree shot is quite good ... blossoms galore!
He was sitting a bit too high up for me to pet, even if I'd mustered the courage!
DeleteCats do have huge ranges! I know what you mean about people (and animals) out of context. It's hard for me to place others if I can't associate them with where I know them from. (awkward sentence there) Keeping up with weeds is a lot of work, especially in spring. They grow so well in all conditions!
ReplyDeleteIt's the time of year for things to sprout, after all!
DeleteIt's like when you see a co-worker someplace other than work, in street clothes. Cats do get around.
ReplyDeleteYeah, exactly! It's a surprise!
DeleteA long time ago I "shared" a cat with my sister, who lived over a mile from me. Technically the cat (female) was mine, but she would go back and forth between our homes. Fortunately it was a quiet area with no major roads. She lived to be 20.
ReplyDeleteWow! I'm impressed the cat did that routinely.
DeleteThat tree photo is great!
ReplyDeleteIt's a beautiful little tree! The ivy climbing the trunk somehow adds to it.
DeleteThat is a beautiful tree and the photo looks good to me. There are quite a lot of vines growing up the tree trunk.
ReplyDeletePale cat looks very serene up on that high perch.
Yeah, the vines are ivy. (Of course!)
DeleteHow fun to see Pale Cat somewhere other than in your back garden! Now you need to track down where the beautiful black one and the grey one with the gorgeous swirl markings live.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Bell the Bengal in a while -- since last fall, I think. But Blackie still comes around.
DeleteCats are so much fun.
ReplyDeleteThey rule the roost!
DeletePale Cat! My guy! (And a guy, most likely -- 80 percent of orange/white cats are male.) That tree is gorgeous. Of course, I had to google the corner. Not that far from where we stayed. I get that burdick (now I have a name for it) and it is a nemesis. Never grows where you want it to and it crowds out everything! You do what you have to do -- the hollyhock will thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe burdock plants are impressive because they're so large, but yeah, they're not great for surrounding growth.
DeleteThat is too funny about pale cat. It reminds me of the time I picked up my cats poor dead body from the road in front of the house, and I bawled my eyes out digging a nice hole in the back yard and tenderly wrapped him in a baby blanket and carried him out to bury and met my own cat licking his bottom in front of the door.
ReplyDeleteThis is a true story, btw.
Wow! Did you ever figure out whose cat you buried?!
DeleteSteve, I walked up my entire road, knocking on doors, describing that cat. Unexpectedly, there were a lot more people who owned black cats than I would have expected. Every person said that it was not their cat. So...I came home. I had a hole in the yard and a dead cat in the garage. So...I buried it. About 9pm, a woman came to the house to tell me it had been her cat after all.I was standing in my back yard with a shovel as a sobbing lady held the flash light, digging the cat up. It was raining like crazy.
DeleteLove the blossom on that tree...
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
They are pretty!
DeleteCats do like to roam. They even adopt new families sometimes. A friend that owns 8 cats says a cat often picks his/her favorite person.
ReplyDeleteI hope your hollyhock flourishes and multiplies. They are lovely.
I'll settle for flourishing. Hollyhocks never do all that well for us. Multiplying might be too much to hope for!
DeletePale cat does get around, that's a great photo of him sitting on that column, he looks better than he does on the wildlife cam.
ReplyDeleteHe looks a bit grubby, though. Obviously he's been out having adventures!
DeleteThe 1st and the last Photo are EVERYTHING.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful tree and a beautiful cat!
Delete