It’s the last Caturday before New Year’s Eve — but it looks like someone has gotten into the champagne a little early. Hope you have a happy new year in 2025!
Après le réveillon, by Isaszas, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Weekend Open Thread
It’s the last Caturday before New Year’s Eve — but it looks like someone has gotten into the champagne a little early. Hope you have a happy new year in 2025!
Après le réveillon, by Isaszas, licensed under CC BY 2.0
“Thanks, this box is a perfect fit! Oh, just pour the bottled stuff down the sink, you don’t need it now. ”
It’s been a quiet week at the Shortcakery. My all-you-can-eat bird buffet in the back yard has attracted a few blackbirds and robins, but most of the diners are pigeons who look as though they should be on a diet. I haven’t seen a single sparrow, hardly surprising as these once common birds are a rare sight nowadays. Oddly, none of the visitors seem to understand that the lard balls hanging from a hook are food!
I didn’t know sparrows were getting rarer in the UK, that’s not the case in my backyard here in Québec. I often see 20 or 30 at a time perched in my 15 feet cedar hedge and they swoop a few at a time to eat in my bird feeder, I also get some Blackbirds and Cardinals but never any pigeons.
Not too long ago sparrows were EVERYWHERE – in hedgerows, parks, gardens, urban areas – but I rarely see them anywhere. It isn’t just sparrows, either. For the first two or three years after moving into the present Shortcakery housemartins were a common sight in the street, but they’ve also disappeared.
Alice, I hope the birds you love most discover what a great friend you can be to them! I’m getting more interested in birbs myself because I walk next to a bird sanctuary when the weather is fine.
There’s got to be a reason! Is there anyone knowledgeable that you could contact?
I did some web-searching. Apparently sparrows have been in decline in England for some time, owing to the usual suspects: climate change, disappearing habitat, etc. This makes me sad.
I didn’t look into house martins, but I suspect the situation is similar.
Sorry I don’t have better news for you.
My sister’s cats were too funny with the catnip on Christmas! One had gotten into it a few days before and was found wide-eyed staring at the wall. They looked so bewildered, but happy!, when exposed to it, rolling and squirming on the floor😆
Thanks for the reminder that I should nip my cats. We haven’t had a good stoner session for a while.
Wish you had a picture of them, stoned out of their gourd.
We were too busy laughing to even think about that I guess😆
Happy Caturday!
The dogs were good for Christmas.
And I got a duck for Christmas.
heehee! Nice. There are so many adds on my page I just scrolled right past you “duck.” 🙂 Cool! So what are you going to name her?
lol…I didn’t think about the possibility that it would blend in with the ads.
I don’t know…any ideas?
Let us know how well it works, please!
I’ll try to test it this weekend.
What about Rosa? As in, the Louise Penny novels?
Not familiar with those…
Oh – they are good, if you like mystery. Both for listening and reading, bet your library has them, and there are lots – so once you are hooked, there’s plenty to go around.
Not a big mystery person…
I am mildly annoyed because I’m halfway through a library book and have another one checked out that I haven’t started yet, and in the last two days I’ve had two ebooks become available and had to tell it to save save them for later (and for one this is the second or third time I’ve done that).
(One is James by Percival Everett, a retelling of Huck Finn from Jim’s perspective, and the other is Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson. I am currently reading On Freedom by Timothy Snyder and the other one I have sitting on my night stand is We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida. None of which inspire any names for a duck.)
I was thinking of kids’ books with ducks but most of the ones I’m familiar with don’t have actual well-known names for the ducks. Maybe Jemima Puddle-Duck?
Jemima’s good
Oh that’s a great idea! I love those books so much, at least until the last two or three. (They’re getting a little preachy for my taste.)
I’m still in the early ones, thanks for the heads-up👍🏼
Torby is hysterical and I want to scratch him earnestly!
Just yesterday, at my appointment, I was telling my optometrist and his wife about We Rate Dogs. They’re big dog fanatics, so I hope they catch this week’s video, which is utterly fantastic.
What’s up with the Harvard thing? It’s delightful but I’m unaware of this meme.
I have no idea. I’ve seen plenty of similar videos of actual high school students receiving their college acceptance email and filming the reaction. I guess someone decided to pretend with their dog just for fun? (One of them literally said, “because we’re bored” in the caption.) Why Harvard, specifically? Why not, I guess…?
Some info here: https://www.dailydot.com/memes/pretending-dog-got-into-harvard/
Less pointless: https://sites.harvard.edu/caninebrainsproject/
lol…so they’re just making fun of people who do it for real. 😄
I thought I had that Inside the Mind of a Dog on my Netflix watch list, but I just checked and I didn’t. There’s a Cat one also, which I did have on the list (now they’re both there). One of these days I’ll get around to watching…
Oh, and I meant to share this before Christmas…
For our cat-loving knitters…
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Cat-Yarn-Bowl-Artwork-with-Hole-Crochet-Knitting-Basket-Holder-Dispenser-for-Desktop-Bedroom-C/13382924424
🤣
🤣🤣
want want want want want
I used to have a tissue box cover that came with a similarly placed opening for the kleenex.
** clutches pearl necklace ***
Happy last Caturday of 2025. It’s been a nice week in Southern California. I was immediately put on stuffie mending duty. BunBun’s face is seamed back together, his ear is also repaired and tacked down, and his little cotton tail has a fresh poof of quilting batting – Ballerina Hippo has a new satin-stitch eye – and Ballerina Elephant’s head is firmly attached to her shoulders again. Everyone is happy.
We saw the move Flow on Christmas Eve morning, along with about a dozen other people. If you can still catch it in the theaters, I highly recommend it. As animal lovers you will appreciate how the film makers captured the personalities of the different critters perfectly. I spent yesterday with my favorite Aunt and today is my birthday. Not sure yet what the plans are.
I hope the last bit of 2024 wraps up peacefully for everyone.❤️
Happy Birthday!!! 🎂🎉
Thank you!
Many happy returns of the day!
Happy Birthday! Thanks for reminding me that I wanted to see Flow. I may have to wait until comes to streaming as I don’t think I can persuade hubby to see it. So good of you to perform surgery on the stuffies. Did you have an audience? I used to hover when my mom fixed my friends.
Happy day, Tara! I’m glad you’ve been enjoying your vacation and hope everybody treats you right for your birthday!
Happy Birthday! 🎂🛍️🎈🎉
I want to see Flow. I saw it advertised on Christmas and am intrigued.
Happy Birthday!!!
Saw Flow a few weeks ago and was somewhat befuddled by the ending but enjoyed it.
Thank you everyone for your kind wishes! Spent an hour with my favorite cousin in Little Tokyo, then a few hours with my sister and her kids at the best art store in So Cal (Art Supply Warehouse) and there is a new Daiso Japan across the street – so naturally we had to stop there. Dinner was at El Cholo – a standard Family dinner place. I did not let them put the birthday sombrero on me, but I graciously accepted the flan (which I don’t like), in order to blow out the candle. It was a good day.
Happy Cat-urday one and all! The cat has good taste in boxes and the humans in champagne. Been a busy week in SoCal. All the projects I wanted to get done … amazingly got done! Whooo! Storage shed organized, items donated, house cleaned, plus papers AND photos/mementos filed. Also did some shopping, found some funky Valentine kitchen towels. Yes they have hearts on them but in hot pink and the rest of the towel is abstract and multi colored. So nice and cheerful. Off today to the car expo at the convention center. You get to see all the new models and prototypes. Fingers crossed I can keep hubby from finding a new car he wants, lol. Tomorrow is errands and back to work on monday. Enjoy the weekend!
Wow! So many commenters already.
For Christmas, I got a cold. Not the kind that suddenly disrupts your life and makes you shove a box of tissue in your pocket, but the kind that slowly creeps up on you and says “I’ll be here for a while”. I plan to be generous and share it with as many people as I can.
Allein, I LOVE your new vacuum. Trying to come up with names, too. However, that yarn bowl made me shudder, because I have had to deal with the real thing.
Happy birthday, Tara.
Had great fun yesterday ordering books online. Hubby doesn’t buy gifts for me for Christmas; he just hands me a wad of cash and says have fun during Boxing week. I plan to hit a craft store when I feel better.
Little Duckie got whole oats for Christmas, and I’ve had to make sure the container is securely closed between treat times. She gets very aggressive when she feels too long has gone between treats.
Off to do a few little chores, and then I’m going back to bed.
They say you can never get rid of a cold until you give it to someone else. Take care of yourself.
Ha!😆
Allein, I went to the vacuum website and when I read this, “Horsepower Duck lovingly ventures into every nook and cranny, making your place squeaky clean.” I nearly choked with laughter.
What about Hepa for a name?
I’m late to the party–not because I had a great evening with the kitty pictured above, but because it’s a busy day.
New appliances get delivered today! That means timing things carefully so food comes out of freezer and fridge at the right time–don’t want to slow down the delivery people, but don’t want a bunch of spoiled food either.
Also I’m now the proud wearer of a single contact lens. My glasses situation was making me nuts, so we’re trying monovision by adjusting my right eye for close up. When I was 11, my right eye went very nearsighted and my then-optometrist put me in one contact lens. My current doc congratulated himself on his time-traveling abilities, taking me back to my early days!
Most of this weekend will be taken up with the new appliances. I took off Thurs and Fri to enjoy a 5-day staycation, which will be great. I’ve been revisiting my fave author Ursula Le Guin, in audiobook form, and falling in love all over again, just like discovering her at the age of 19.
Hugs to you all.
I hope the appliance delivery went smoothly! How fun to have new toys. Which Ursula Le Guin are you currently listening to? I love her books. Re-read the Earthsea saga recently – erm – make that almost ten years ago! 2015! Time to pull those out again.