The kittens are coming!

I think she's content with the garden, really. Problem is, Sebastian can be left on a long leash and wanders about happily with me in sight, so I can work in the garden. Madam is really unhappy unless I am with her and interacting.

I daren't walk them together outside the garden here as it's too difficult to manage and protect them both if something happens.

It's a problem finding time to walk them AND me!

Deb

Sounds just idyllic = apart from the doggy bit.

he is a cat - why would he need you to protect him? most cats can dispatch dogs with no trouble

They have a better chance on their own territory.

Some dogs are just cat killers. If you've ever seen one of these in action, the cats have no chance unless they can run and climb.

I've known people to have their smaller dogs killed in front of them by unleashed dogs on beaches....much to the shocked amazement of the owner of the bigger dog.

I've already had one experience of holding a dogs jaws open so it couldn't bite down and kill my cat, which was in its jaws, with the dog owner standing by and doing nothing....I don't want another.

It's been woolly madness around here for the last couple of days. The cooler weather has made them into manic monkeys.....almost literally in Sebastian's case, as he tends to leap from high point to high point with wild gallops between.....both hurtle around between front and back screen doors, hurling themselves at them and climbing to the tops, making a truly unholy racket.

They are also having running wrestling matches all around the house.

Viola has taken to skittering around like a kitten, pouncing on imaginary prey and leaping like a mad march hare! Even Sebastian is stunned by this and watches, agog, with pupils as big as saucers.

She has perfected her horrible technique of waking me by inserting one claw into my nostril and pulling gently. It takes true grit to refuse to reinforce this behaviour by reacting.

I cannot bend over without having Sebastian jump onto my back...which is extraordinarily annoying.

But now, after having come up and kissed me while he does the wild front paw dance that is his version of "making biscuits" (, as I think it is called in the US? We call it kneading) he has curled up as close to me as he can get and gone to sleep while Viola has draped herself over my right hip.

Sadly, I have to go and do some work, so their idyll is to be interrupted.

Hot weather on the way, so things will calm down again. Pity things weren't like this when Margo was here! Lap cats they were under her calming influence.

Oh happy days!.. that snap and crackle electric discharge thunder and lightning..cats are nutso. Apricot could explode several times a day. Her best move was running ON the wall, and halfway between floor and ceiling was a line of pawprints. Most all of our cats have been excellent kneaders (like your phrase "making biscuits", not heard it before your post). Kneading is sweet as long as claws stay sheathed. Viola's trick with your nose is hilarious.

One grim note re dogs and cats. My first wire-haired fox terrier would attack other dogs and go for cats. He was never off leash, and we warned other dog owners to keep their pets away from him, but twice our warnings were ignored with horrible consequences. He ripped open a boxer. That dog was OK after surgery. In the other instance he killed a friend's puppy. He also killed a neighborhood cat when the poor animal ran over to him. It was one lunge, one shake, one broken neck.

You are wise to be on guard when out with Sebastian. You might consider carrying a spray of water and amonia, or some other commercial repellant, There are snakes in Eden.

Sighing and green with envy. Love the wild stuff. Love the lovely stuff. Not thrilled with the paw up the nose idea. Mikey had extra toes, so his paws were too big for such a thing.

Violas paws are tiny... sadly she could probably get half her paw up there if she tried!

just got back from Sebastian's walk.....and I planted the fig tree today!

Did you get the email with my new email address Boida?

Yep... I've seen killer dogs in action. Once rescued some poor little terrier from a pair of rottweilers...they were playing with him like cats do with their prey. Poor little chap ran away so fast i couldn't see how badly injured he was...I think it was superficial stuff. Probably wise of him....I don't know how much of a reprieve my intervention would have given him...they weren't looking at me in the nicest way, so I scuttled home, too.

Just nature...especially when dogs get together and form a bit of a pack without any human control around. Seen sheep after a dog has got them, too....they just slash as many as they can. Leave appalling injuries. C'est la vie.

A fig tree? Wow!

Yes, I got the new address. Mercy bow coo.

Wondering if people react when they see you walking Sebastian.

Amused, disgusted, indifferent, entranced.

You gave it plenty of room, I hope. Ficus roots can be witchy, I think even with Ficus carica.

Los Angeles the city planted huge amounts of Ficus microcarpa as a street tree , and sidewalks have risen all over the place over time. Big bad mistake for the city.

I don't know this site, but you'll get the idea.
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/02/prosser.php

Of course these are just relatives. And ficus can be maintained as a hedge.

It's an actual fig tree....that bears figs...a fruit tree, with the huge leaves a la Adam and eve.

Takes years to get big.

Yep, it has plenty of room. I'm likely to be planting ground covers around it and it's a way from the house.

My ficus plants are both in pots.

Found my first two worms digging yesterday! They were quite a long way down in the soil.

The poor back garden was mostly covered in plastic and gravel and huge chunks of pine bark, which kill my knees when I have to kneel on them. Luckily for me, the plastic has rotted. I thought I was going to have to pull it all off.

The previous owners became very infirm and couldn't manage the garden....hence its desertification. There are badly planned plants around the edges....but the majority of the back is start from scratch.

Ficus carica is the latin name - I mostly know latin names and don't mean to be latin snotty.

I'm from a city way over planted by Ficus - those babies need room.

On a personal level, I grew a F. carica myself in a very fat pot (house remodel intervened), and a friend had one at the edge of her driveway in San Diego. I wouldn't call it tiny, by a long shot.

Ficus benjamina is another matter, a common house plant. Perhaps you might remember me telling about where all the night herons landed on our street. It was at a house where the owner, whoever it was, planted an F benjamina in the parking strip. The 36" parking strip.

That tree took over.

X number of years later, after some development in the local marina, the herons that inhabited the cut down eucalyptus in the marina moved, some many to that woman's tree.
Soon after, that sidewalk, already upchucked, was covered with birddoo, as was her yard and house.

I'm all for figs and I'm envious you can grow them. Just read up, past my worries, re what locals say.

The fruit figs we have over here do get pretty big, but they take a long time to get that way....not going to be a problem for me. Demographics decree that the next owner of this property will be a property developer who will raze it and put two or three town houses on it, so I think my entire garden has a relatively small shelf life.

I've even been tossing up getting a monster like my adored lemon scented gums, because in my likely time here it will get big enough to be very pretty, be adored by the birds and give my garden the heavenly scent these trees have after rain, but not big enough to be a nuisance to anyone. As I said, I think it highly likely the whole garden will be razed after I sell. I'm just in the new medium density zone that has been created here and this area is, sadly, developing big time. It will do so even more when the expressway is finished and the train line put through.

Benjaminas can become ENORMOUS when they get their roots into soli! They're rainforest trees historically, as I understand. Our fruit fig trees never get anywhere near that!

I had a lovely fig in my first garden....was still a small tree when I left after seven years.

I currently have a fabulous peach tree.....the peaches are huge and so juicy they're an embarrassment. I have now planted a Myer lemon and the fig.

I guess I get you.

I'm sorry. I'd rather think long time design, but I can get not doing that if I think about it.



As it happens, my venice area is hot hot hot hot hot.
It's like watching my own life sizzle.

mmmm! Peaches. Boy, was my timing off!

Yep...and not by a lot!

The weather here over the last few days has been lime paradise. Absolutely balmy with cool nights. Hotti g up now, so hopefully all my new plants with their tender little routings will do ok.

Having my roots done at the hairdresser as we speak...off looking for a compost bin and a few new plants after.