Is this a catbird?

I've taken in and fed stray cats for years. It's so sad that people just abandon them. The cat in the picture is one of the 5 or more strays I currently feed. She has water dishes on the ground and deck but this seems to be the one she prefers. No, she's never chased the birds.

Last summer a neighbor moved abandoning 10 cats, none of which was spayed or neutered. I don't know if the one in the photo was one of theirs or one someone else abandoned. She arrived at my house one day, scrawny, tiny, matted, and pregnant. I've got her tame enough to let me pet her. As soon as I can find her kittens, I'll capture them and they'll take a trip to the vet for spaying, neutering and hopefully I can find a home for some of them. I'll keep the mother. My cats tolerate her quite well and hopefully I can find someone to take her kittens.

New Neighbors

We have noisy new neighbors but you've gotta love them. I've heard them for a couple of months, banging on my trees and earlier this week I saw them flying in and out of that hole. The photo with just the head showing is one of the young ones.

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to photograph a woodpecker going into it's nest? Of course part of the problem might have been that my cat was hanging around to see what I was doing.

Retail therapy on a budget

Today I finished an order and took my daily walk. A friend who sells antiques and collectibles in several antique "malls" was having a garage sale. I got some picture frames (for some stitcheries), a very old grubby flour sifter (to turn into a lamp), a large round enamel wash basin with handles (to plant marigolds in), a very old, slightly rusty potato masher (to use as a base for a make do), an old cream colored cream pitcher (just because I like old cream colored vases and pitchers) and a truly unusual cast iron cook book stand (you set it up like an easel and put the book on it and there's a cast iron cocktail fork that folds down over the page to hold your place) and 3 wooden picture frames for stitcheries.

I got home and decided I wanted some time off and some more vintage things to "play" with. My husband and I got in the car and went to a thrift shop about 18 miles away.

Along the way, we spotted a garage sale where I scooped up 3 pair of shoes to recycle on my dolls for a total of $1.75.

At the thrift store, I got 2 men's shirts and 2 suit coats--1 was wool__to cut the buttons from (each shirt has at least 8 buttons, the suit coats had 2 large and 4 1/2" buttons on one and 2 large and 6 - 1/2" buttons on the other. The wool coat will also make scarfs for snowmen and the other coat and the shirts can be used as rag stuffing. I paid less for the clothing than I would have had to pay for a card of 4 buttons in the store. The wool coat was $2 but there were the 2 large buttons, 6 - 1/2" buttons and all that wool so it was a great bargain. I also purchased a hand embroidered dresser scarf that I can cut in half and make 2 aprons from.

From there, we went to several antique malls but I didn't find anything exciting that was also affordable. On the way home, We did stop at another thrift shop where I got a huge polyfil stuffed pillow for 50 cents and another nice wooden frame for 25 cents.