Wednesday, June 25, 2014

hey piper



Me: Hey, Piper, guess what!

Piper: Wha'?

Me: This box that just arrived in the mail? It's the camera!! 
We've finally got the camera back from the Little Shop of Miracles!!!


Piper: um, has the camera been missing? 

Me: What?! It's been gone for weeks!
Weeks and weeks!


Piper: Oh.

Me: Haven't you noticed on our walks by the pond lately,
that I don't stop every few seconds to take a picture?


Piper: Of course I noticed. I was thrilled.
I thought I had finally trained you to Walk Properly.

~~~

Dear Readers, if you are still here...

I will be putting the revitalized camera through it's paces very soon,
and there will be lots of images and updates to come.
But I couldn't wait to share these first snaps,
taken minutes after I brought up the mail and opened the package.
Piper, who declined to accompany me to the letterbox
on the grounds of, "It's too h-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ot....",
 was at first mildly interested in the package.
(Treats often come in packages, you see.)
But you can judge the level of her excitement
when I brought out The Camera.
Me? I felt like jumping up and down in joy!
But Piper had a point:
it truly is Summer now, and it really is hot.
~~~~~

Thursday, June 5, 2014

once I had a camera


and I took pictures.
All the time.
Sometimes for publication, sometimes for galleries.
Sometimes because I had a camera in my hand.

Here's one:

The view from Loro, Lusitano stallion.  Portugal, 2006.

Now, my little camera is in the hands of the Repair Specialists.
They are Assessing the Failure.

At this point, my biggest concern is that they will press the ON button,
and because the camera will fire up, they will say,
"We have fixed this camera! Send it back."
Because by the time I managed to ship it off, it would turn on again. 
And I thought, "It has fixed itself! Huzzah!"

Then I took a snap and noticed a foggy spot in the frame. 
And I looked into the lens and saw not just condensation, but actual water 
sloshing gently back and forth at the bottom of the lens.
Speaking as a photographer: It was creepy.

By comparison: this water is not creepy.  Maine, 2010.

Well, all I can do now is wait.
And I am sorry there have been no posts,
but apparently I can't string more than 140 characters together
without the spark of images.
Never really noticed it before, because I always have images.

Today, in mild desperation, I went spelunking on a flashdrive,
to find a few snaps to share
so I could write a post, however out of sync.
Welcome to that post!
Stay with me if you can; there's a treat at the end.

~~~

In other repair-related news:
farewell, thousand-dollar breadbox...
and welcome back, my beautiful oven!!!

Here's how it happened:

The appliance store failed to send me a bill for the service call back in February. The outcome of the service call (= non-functional oven) and lack of follow-through from the store (= getting no closer to having a functional oven) was obviously not what I had hoped for. Still, I felt responsible for the cost of a service call, and expected a bill. So when I was in town one day recently, I stopped in at the store, checkbook in hand.

While I quickly reviewed the Sad Story of the Stove for the manager, the service tech happened to overhear me. He asked a question. Then he looked thoughtful. Then he said he wanted to come out again and have another look, "just in case."

And he did. And he tested a different part than what the original error code had told him to check the first time. And got an odd measurement on his metering device. Suddenly, everything fell into place. (For him, not me. I was just pacing back and forth and trying not to hope but actually hoping very, very hard.) This different part was working well below its proper range which made the thermogizmo think the stove was more or less on fire and therefore the fan was on all the time and the failsafe device that keeps an eejit from using the stove when it's already on fire would not let the control panel respond to input.

(Paraphrasing.)

Anyway, the technician replaced the low-functioning part, and I turned on the power, and my oven was working again.

Can you believe it?

Ninety dollars.

Fixed.

(Cue the Hallelujah Chorus!)

I immediately went out and bought gruyere and heavy cream and a head of cauliflower, and made my favorite baked cauliflower dish. It was lovely. No picture, of course. Sorry.

Also no pictures of the subsequent mushroom quiche, bread pudding, or cranberry cake.

But here's a nice snap of some bowls in my kitchen, taken three years ago:

These bowls are white. Like my oven.

~~~
Still with me?

Finally, to wrap up this disjointed and oddly-illustrated post,
I strongly encourage you to click this link
to read a letter written by E.B. White in 1951.
It is in response to a complaint from the ASPCA
regarding the licensing of White's dachshund, Minnie.
I promise you, this letter will make you laugh.
Promise.
~~~~~

Monday, May 26, 2014

and the winner is

First, a big thank you.
When I posted this giveaway, I was not expecting
the inspiring and imaginative range of ways
people have come up with to support shelter cats!
Thank you all for the pleasure of reading your comments.
~~~

The trusty sequence generator at Random.org chose the winner:

nicewitch on ravelry!

nicewitch wrote:

Whenever I spot humane live-traps and good-condition animal carriers for sale at yardsales or in the classifieds, I buy them and donate them to our local charities running TNR [Trap Neuter Return] programs. My donations this month include boxes of books for a fund-raising book sale, and food and cleaning supplies to the humane society . Of my four current cats, one was a semi-feral who chose to come to me when he was injured, one was brought home by another semi-feral I was already feeding, and two were neighbourhood dumps -- I couldn't live without them!

Congratulations, nicewitch, and thank you for being such a good friend to cats,
both in the wild and at home.
~~~~~

Sunday, May 25, 2014

at your request

More baby goat video, taken yesterday morning.
This time, with some words!
(Move over, Chris Chibnall.)

Enjoy.


By the way, I want to assure you that the little black doe is
just as energetic and bold as her brother,
and the little silver buck also spends many hours sound asleep
and oblivious to his sister's repeated efforts to rouse him with a prodding hoof.

Their individual - and frequent - energy peaks are a bit staggered,
which seems rather tough luck for Lily!
But both kids are already so agile (mostly) and
so reliable about coming when she calls them (mostly),
that yesterday Lily decided she could have a few minutes of "Me" Time,
alone in the Chalet, while the babies were sleeping 20 feet away in the barn.

They grow up so fast, don't they, Lily?
Hide the car keys.

~~~

P.S.

A few minutes after I saved that videofile to my laptop yesterday,
I went back out to clean the barn.
When I reached down to pick up a water bucket,
my camera fell out of my shirt pocket. 

plop!

Straight into the water bucket.

Uh-oh.
It's been drying ever since, and I'm trying to be patient.
Tonight I'll put the battery in and press the On button.
Fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, just on the off-chance, 
I looked up my purchase info.
Lo and behold!
I had the foresight to pay for 
the Unfortunate Water Bucket Incident Service Contract,
and it should still be in effect.

Whew.
~~~~~

Saturday, May 24, 2014

giveaway tomorrow!

In all the recent flurry of baby goats, let's not forget the giveaway!

The winner will be drawn after midnight ET this Sunday,
so you still have this weekend to enter,
or to share the link. Please do!

I hesitated to make specific suggestions for the donation category,
because no one has to donate money to enter.

But someone pointed me to this online option which I thought was such a clever idea,
I've decided to share it here. (And this way, I'll know where to find it again.
This blog has become a big part of my functional memory!)




The $5.00 Castle for Shelter Cats - a heavyduty cardboard "castle" that provides precious private space for an individual cat while at the shelter, then transforms to a carrier for the adopted cat's trip to it's new home. Bonus: it's made in the USA.

The Greater Good website is a very "busy" place, but if you are interested, this link will take you directly to the Cat Castle page.

So, if you've been wanting to enter the yarn giveaway but haven't gotten around to it - 


or if you just want to tell your friends you've "bought a castle" - 
there you go!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone.
~~~~~