Sarris

1994 - May 5, 2015

Sarris was the second cat we ever adopted.  We had put our first cat, Rajah, down less than a month before and we had just moved into our newly rented duplex.  As soon as the movers left, we sat down and felt how empty the house was without any pets.  My mother had given me a coupon for money off a pet adoption at one of the Pittsburgh animal shelters, so we hopped up off the couch and went looking.  Our first two stops yielded nothing exciting.  The cats were all sleeping and didn't seem very promising.  At our third stop, we saw a kitty named Peaches.  He was awake and seemed interested in us.  Eric went off to get a shelter worker.  I leaned in and started talking to the kitty.  He stretched his paw through the cage and patted me on the nose.  I was SOLD!

Peaches was not a suitable name for this kitty.  He needed a name that was more befitting his personality.  Sarris is named after a local chocolate candy company.  We were struggling, as we always do, to pick a name for this sweet kitty.  Standing in front of the candy counter at Kaufmann's one of us suggested Godiva as a joke.  That name was just too grand for this timid little guy.  The logical next step was a less grand, but equally sweet chocolate name, Sarris.  

Shy, sweet, devoted, timid, athletic and affectionate.  Sarris was MY cat when Eric was travelling, but he quickly attached himself to Eric when Eric came off the road.  For over 20 years, we have slept with Sarris between us.

For the last several years, Sarris has been very slowly declining.  He was nothing more than skin and bones, but he still seemed to enjoy life and he continued to eat well.  He required fluids every night to help out his ailing kidneys and we offered him food every chance we got.  He slept a lot!  But he kept on going.

The night before we had him put down, he was very weak and didn't seem to have his normal interest in life.  I always thought that it would be crystal clear when it was his time, but the signs were subtle.  However, you can't spend so many years with a pet and not see the signs.

Despite the fact that Baxter and Sarris were the quietest, least active members of our household, our house feels so much quieter without them.

Baxter

Late Summer 1995 - April 22, 2015

Baxter was born to a feral mom and dad cat in Charlottesville, VA.  Eric's cousin had been feeding the family and when Baxter decided that he wanted to come inside, she obliged.  But she couldn't keep him as a house cat.  She offered him to us and we eagerly accepted.  For almost twenty years, Baxter was a (mostly) quiet, charming, and sometimes playful constant in our lives.

A week before we had Baxter euthanized, the vet told us that Baxter had a mass in his abdomen that would most likely (and quickly) become a problem.  Then I discovered that he had a mass on his skull that was pressing on his eye.  He had been acting uncomfortable for several days and when I found the lump on his head I knew it couldn't be good.  The vet was so kind and offered to put Baxter on medication to give him some relief from pain and give us some time.  But I just didn't think it made sense to prolong the inevitable.

I'll always remember Baxter as a playful kitten and as a self-elected greeter of guests in our powder room.

Architecture

Architecture theme photograph for my camera club's May meeting...

Daffodil Gardens

After I spent an exhausting morning lugging camera equipment around and crawling around on the ground taking pictures of wildflowers with my camera club, Eric and I went with a friend to see Joe Hamm's daffodil gardens this past Saturday afternoon. 

Joe's daffodil gardens

Joe Hamm is a daffodil grower in Hopewell Township, Washington County.  He is a member of the American Daffodil Society and grows over 1,500 varieties of daffodils on his farm.  Also at Joe's place this Saturday was an American Daffodil Society show and flower arrangements by a local garden club. The gardens are free and open to the public during the month of April.  

From the Miniatures category

For me, the afternoon in the daffodil garden meant more crawling around on my knees taking photos.  Fortunately, the weather was cool and cloudy, so I didn't have to deal with heat and sun.  

One of the volunteers explained to us that daffodil bloom times are divided into 6 overlapping periods.  Because it was late April by the time we got to the gardens, we saw the late blooming daffodils.  Many of the varieties were past their prime or were already done blooming.

I regret that we came so late in the display and that we didn't take more notes of variety names.  If we go again another year, I would like to go earlier and I would like to plan to pay more attention to variety names.  As it was, Eric and I got a good idea of what we like to see in a daffodil and what we want to look for when we buy bulbs for our own yard.

A Trip to Cedar Creek Park

My camera club took a field trip to Cedar Creek Park in Belle Vernon this past Saturday.  Every year we try to get there around the same time.  This year the weather was cool and cloudy, but we were fortunate that the rain held off the entire morning.

It seems that the wildflowers we went to see were not as far along as in previous years, but there was still plenty to see if you took the time to look.  Two prime examples were the jack-in-the-pulpit and the trout lily.   I knew they would both be in bloom (or at least they had been the last two years we went), but they are not brightly colored or particularly showy.  Many of my fellow club members walked right past them without seeing them.  When I pointed them out, the other photographers were happy to take photos, but would never have noticed them on their own.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Because the jack-in-the-pulpit is mostly green with some brown, it is hard to see.  Also, the jack-in-the-pulpit does not colonize an area quite the way some other wildflowers do.

trout lily

The trout lily flower is yellow with brown on the outside of the petals.  In cool, cloudy weather it tends to keep its pretty little face turned down, so it can be hard to see.  But it does form colonies of thick, fleshy, mottled, almond-shaped leaves.  The patch of leaves is pretty easy to spot, but without showy, colorful flowers, it doesn't attract immediate attention.  Unlike trillium, woodland phlox and Virginia bluebells.

red trillium

white trillium

woodland phlox

Me in action
(taken by another club member)

By the end of the morning, I was sore and exhausted from climbing up and down the paths, getting up and down from my knees and lugging my camera equipment around.  But this was just the first half of my day...

Here's a link to part 2 of last Saturday.

Hellebores

The Hellebores in my garden are blooming.  These sweet, delicate-looking flowers belong to some seriously tough perennials.  

They do well in the dry shade under our giant oak trees, they are deer resistant, flower prolifically, and (best of all) flower early.  In my garden here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, I have seen them sending up flower stalks as early as New Year's Day.    

In addition to these two unknown varieties, I have an Ivory Prince and another unknown variety that blooms in a deep mauve shade.

Spring

Spring theme photograph for my camera club's April meeting...

These beauties are Pulmonaria, commonly called lungwort.  I don't know the variety name of this one.  Pulmonaria are one of the first flowers to bloom in my garden here in Southwestern Pennsylvania and they bloom for a long time.  The flowers start out pink and change to blue as they age.  The plants self-seed readily in my garden and have spread throughout the garden.