Around OakMeadows

Around Oak Meadows

I am finally over my head cold. It is so nice to get my head out of the Kleenex box and not spend my nights in the recliner. 

There is a feral tabby cat in our neighborhood and on one of the few times my Misty got outside, the tabby must have been lying in wait for her and bit her back left leg. When she fled back inside, she looked ok and we didn't realize she had been injured. Well, the bite formed an abscess and by the
time we noticed, she was one sick little cat.  I took her to the vet who cleaned it out and put in a drain, gave her a long acting antibiotic injection, and 5 oral syringes with analgesics for pain.  $475. I told my daughter that if I had it to do over again, I'd send her to vet school. Anyway, cat is much improved and I hope she has learned her lesson about how going outside is not all it's cracked up to be. 

We are dog sitting our daughter's dog, Daisy, this weekend. So between Daisy's 3 meds and the cat, I am running an animal hospital. 

I am on block #15 of the monster quilt....41 blocks to go....ack!

Spring has arrived around OakMeadows.  The Bridal Wreath bush is blooming.  The Mexican plum tree is blooming. And the azaleas are just beginning to bloom. Lots of bees on the Mexican plum, the salvia, and Mexican heather. The trees are all leafing out and the weeds are taking over the flower beds. The down side to all this Spring beauty is the oak pollen. It is so thick some years that I literally
sweep it into piles. I am not very sensitive to it but a lot of people are. 

I heard Diane Rhem interview Anne Tyler about her new book, A Spool of Blue Thread, and it sounded interesting. So I bought it for my Kindle.  And it is excellent! I'm not finished but so far so good. I am still reading Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith with the GoodReads History Group; just excellent!  And I have started Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.  Yes, I am a biblioholic. 

Lots of good cooking this week too. I baked an Applesauce Raisin Spice a Cake with a vanilla cream cheese frosting. So good. I had some sausage that needed to be used up so I just baked it and made garlic mashed potatoes and green beans to go with it. And I made cutlets and cream gravy with the leftover potatoes and green beans.  Nothing fancy but all good. 

The swallows have returned. We saw the first scout about a week ago but this morning I noticed that
the whole boisterous crowd of them were back.  It looks like about 30 of them made it back.  I
wonder how many baby swallows we will have this year?  Last year we had a record 15 babies survived to fly from the nest.  So far I've only seen one hummingbird. I have the feeder filled and out but so far only one.