Homeless Cat -- Now Spotacus' Legacy
On 18 Dec, a very large cat showed up at our house. It was late and cold, and he looked in the door and made it clear he wanted inside. Well, since we have two cats already and he was a stranger, we...
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That's exactly what we've experienced here, Magnus, including the noses down at our local cuisine. Most of our full time makeup is also retired military, educators, and medical. It's sometimes amusing, more often a tad irritating, to have some city type waltz in here acting like we're less educated/worldly than that city punk. The reality is we've lived far more exciting and diverse lives than the ones looking down on us, and we landed here for the peace and quiet. We rather cherish how quiet it can be out here, when the tourists aren't here in such droves.
The county depends on tourism, though, so here at the lake we have lots of vacation rentals. In the county seat, they restrict vacation rentals, especially in the older neighborhoods and the more densely packed ones, simply to keep parking issues at a minimum. It's working so far. The county seat will probably go over 100,000 population in a couple years, so big city issues have already cropped up, and the city and county commissioners are only now understanding that they can't keep doing the small town things.
I'm glad we're well away from town, even with the tourists mucking up the weekends all summer. More of us than not have sufficient acreage to not have to listen to our next door neighbors' antics -- although I really enjoyed the mariachi band just down the hill and across from our fence late last summer...
Czarny's back on the porch with yet another grasshopper. Between him eating all but a leg, and the bitty ants hauling away said leg, the hopper population is way down.
One thing I've not seen this year at all are the dung beetles. With all the deer, fox and raccoon poo being deposted all around, one would think we'd see them frequently. Maybe I'm not looking at the right time.
Still have several hummingbirds hanging around, although they're not feeding near as frequently at the feeder. I guess we have sufficient hummingbird appropriate plants to keep them going until they finally migrate.
We were supposed to have the monarch migration through here this week and next, but I've not seen any. Other butterflies, yes. Really makes me want to move forward on the hummingbird and butterfly garden, but the big expense there is the deer fence we'll have to erect before even trying to plant, and it won't be cheap. Sigh.
The shrub rosemary is already starting to bloom. It blooms normally from November into January. Absolutely lovely bluish-light purple blooms. We didn't know this variety even had blooms when we planted it -- we were just trying to cover up a flat rock ledge in the middle of the lawn -- and now they are our favorite plants. We do absolutely nothing to them and they thrive, and the deer don't eat them.
It's warm enough to go swimming now, so I'll do that. Later, y'all.
The county depends on tourism, though, so here at the lake we have lots of vacation rentals. In the county seat, they restrict vacation rentals, especially in the older neighborhoods and the more densely packed ones, simply to keep parking issues at a minimum. It's working so far. The county seat will probably go over 100,000 population in a couple years, so big city issues have already cropped up, and the city and county commissioners are only now understanding that they can't keep doing the small town things.
I'm glad we're well away from town, even with the tourists mucking up the weekends all summer. More of us than not have sufficient acreage to not have to listen to our next door neighbors' antics -- although I really enjoyed the mariachi band just down the hill and across from our fence late last summer...
Czarny's back on the porch with yet another grasshopper. Between him eating all but a leg, and the bitty ants hauling away said leg, the hopper population is way down.
One thing I've not seen this year at all are the dung beetles. With all the deer, fox and raccoon poo being deposted all around, one would think we'd see them frequently. Maybe I'm not looking at the right time.
Still have several hummingbirds hanging around, although they're not feeding near as frequently at the feeder. I guess we have sufficient hummingbird appropriate plants to keep them going until they finally migrate.
We were supposed to have the monarch migration through here this week and next, but I've not seen any. Other butterflies, yes. Really makes me want to move forward on the hummingbird and butterfly garden, but the big expense there is the deer fence we'll have to erect before even trying to plant, and it won't be cheap. Sigh.
The shrub rosemary is already starting to bloom. It blooms normally from November into January. Absolutely lovely bluish-light purple blooms. We didn't know this variety even had blooms when we planted it -- we were just trying to cover up a flat rock ledge in the middle of the lawn -- and now they are our favorite plants. We do absolutely nothing to them and they thrive, and the deer don't eat them.
It's warm enough to go swimming now, so I'll do that. Later, y'all.
