Tomatoes, Potatoes And, Oh Yes, I Have A Kitty Cat!

It's hot, yucky and hot.  Yes Perthies, I know you have had it much worse and I feel very sorry for you, but please allow me my whinge okay :-)  I'm feeling a bit useless as it's too hot to be doing much outside except for early in the morning, then I try and find things to do inside that don't involve playing on the iPad too much ha ha.

I've been peeling shallots and garlic for pickling.

I spent a day peeling and cutting up potatoes.  We have so many and although they keep for ages, eventually they go soft and yucky, so a way of preserving them is always on my mind.  Potatoes don't freeze well, unless perhaps in a casserole or soup, but I wanted to try making chips, par frying them and freezing them, to see how they go.

I ended up par frying them for ten minutes, so they were past mush but not yet coloured.  Then I drained them and froze them in a single layer, before bagging them up.  We tried some and I am fairly pleased with the outcome after refrying them for about five minutes. Some of them are perhaps a tiny bit dry, so next time I will cut them a bit fatter and par fry them for a minute or two less.  The next batch I plan to try as wedges, leaving the skin on.  Again, par frying them then freezing, and shaking some spices into the freezer bag, and probably oven cooking them when we eat them.

I glanced out the kitchen window to see Lucy, the old roo with the long, Lucille Ball eyelashes, drinking out of the birdbath!  She has figured out that there is water and a bit of green grass to be found around the house, so she stays close most of the time during the heat.

Here she is with her child Lucky, having a siesta in the shade.  Note my window sill, we have quite abundance of tomatoes!

Next job was to do some dried tomatoes, sprinkled with herbs and salt, then squashed into a jar and covered with olive oil.  Nice.  The next batch of spare tomatoes I think I'll cook up and freeze in cupfuls, for winter cooking.

Now, for my big news.  We haven't had a cat for three years, what with moving from Perth and living in a shed, and I have really missed it.  After persuading my dear husband that he would once again love a pussy cat in the house, I started to ponder the details.  I love oriental cat breeds as they are very people-oriented cats and they talk, loudly, and that's what I've always had.  But I liked the idea this time of adopting a rescued cat plus there are no Siamese or Burmese cat breeders in Albany, so I started watching the Albany Animal Rescue Team Facebook page.

Then I spied a photo of two 4 month old slate grey kittens, who had been found abandoned two months ago (which I presume was after Christmas, how disgusting), and had both been in rehab ever since with foster carers, to bring them back to health and teach them that not all the world is a terrifying, horrible place.  Anyway, the bigger boy was declared ready to find his forever home, and so I arranged to visit him at the foster carer's house.  And that was that really, he was coming home with me!  I arranged 24 hours grace, then went shopping.  I had forgotten how much stuff one small pussy cat needs!  Cat carrier, cat litter (he's going to be an indoor cat), mushy food, bickies, collar, flea stuff, worming stuff, brush and a couple of toys later, I was ready for him.  Except for a name.  It took me 36 hours of hard thinking to make a decision.

Let me introduce you to Neo.  He is named after the cool dude in the Matrix movies who has quite some acrobatic skill, plus neo means new, it's his chance for a new, happy life. 

He is still a pretty nervous little boy, easily startled, but amazing how quickly he is settling down.  He found himself a couple of man caves where he feels secure. The first was behind our walk-in robe door, amongst the folds of my hanging up dressing gown, where he could hide but peep through the crack between the door and doorframe to see what we were up to.  His new spot is behind our bed, in the tunnel area under the bedhead, so he has an exit each end which obviously pleases him.  He still goes in there to sleep, he seems to still need a lot of security to have a good sleep.  While he was settling in, we got busy making him a magnificent tower to climb, scratch and survey the world through the window.

 We found some spare wood and poles in the shed, gratefully accepted some carpet from a friend (thanks Lesley!), bought 60 metres of sisal rope to wrap the big pole, and got started.  After a bit of brainstorming it all started coming together, a nice sturdy tower.  I had a look at some in the pet shop and was shocked at the cost and also how flimsy some of them were.  Imagining a cat thundering across the room and flinging itself up a tower, I would think it needs to be quite strong!

Anyway, here it is, the kitty tower, sitting proudly in Neo Corner.  I just hope to heck he uses it!!  So far he is reluctant, but it still smells of glue and he is still a scaredy boy so I suspect we need time.  He did however, grace me with ten seconds of scratching on the sisal wrapped pole so that thrilled me no end.  I want to eventually see him sitting on the top, watching the magpies through the window, and generally surveying the world from his 1.2 metre perch.

Now, photo time.  He has been rather difficult to photograph as he tends to sleep hidden away during the day, and then when he is out and about he has a lot of energy to expel, hence it is hard to catch him in a pose!  He has started doing little maddies around the house, and loves chasing little pieces of screwed up paper.  He is so cute.  :-)  He looks very grown up don't you think.  But his age is pretty right, I know this because of those little round things that have just pronounced themselves, sitting there proudly.  They are coming off tout suite!

He is a beautiful slate-grey colour, with just the faintest hint of a stripe on his tail, and a couple on his body.  He is long and sleek, and it has been suggested that he may have some Russian Blue heritage.

 He has beautiful eyes.  At first I thought they were yellow-green, but they also have a copper look to them.  Regardless, the intensity of them against his grey coat is really beautiful.

 Here's a shot of him with his brand new collar, that he has accepted with amazingly good grace.

Hanging out on the bed with his new toy.  He is definitely feeling less stressed here, and has taken to a lot of exploring around the rooms we are currently letting him into.  His latest game is to try and walk around the entire living room without actually touching the floor.  There are paw prints on all my dusty shelves ha ha

Have you fallen asleep yet?  I will try not to overdo the pussycat photos in future, however I think I may fail dismally.  He is such a lovely little boy.  He has a teeny tiny meow that I find amazing, having had only raucously loud oriental cats before, but he makes up for it with his huge motor purr!

I will finish today with something my dear daughter sent me, she is so right ha ha ha