It’s the first Caturday of spring, and the kittens are starting to bloom. Join the chat and let us know what’s coming up in your life.
Macchia, by Diego Pianarosa (aka Pinku), licensed under CC BY 2.0
Weekend Open Thread
It’s the first Caturday of spring, and the kittens are starting to bloom. Join the chat and let us know what’s coming up in your life.
Macchia, by Diego Pianarosa (aka Pinku), licensed under CC BY 2.0
Ooh, I’m first! Everyone must be having a lie-in today. I’m usually pretty bad at gardening (I kill them all, including cacti) but I might try again if kittens bloomed in my pots.
Bad news is hubby has to work today and maybe tomorrow. Good news, I have a painting class today and a craft workshop tomorrow so I’ll be occupied. Also need to go weed whack part of the backyard. I swear it grew several inches literally overnight, and now my jungle is back. Probably need to get the professionals in to mow the whole yard. Other than my artsy classes just some errands and cleaning. Have a good weekend and hope the weather in your area is nice since it’s the first weekend of spring.
The hedgehogs are coming in early this year – we had one in our garden this week. And I’m going to a writing event at a cafe tomorrow, hoping to meet people and reconnect with my WIP. I had to reduce my hours at school because of stress, and I plan to channel those hours into writing. Have a great weekend everyone!
Slow morning today. Just got up and made coffee, now back in bed to read email. I blocked the bottom half of my mitten to see how it would work out and it is fabulous. Very encouraging!
Later today I’m going in to center city Philadelphia. The Macy’s store is closing, which means it’s the last day for the world’s largest organ to play ( but only for a while – we hope). The concert is from 9am – 6:30pm all day. I work a few blocks a way and we’ve made a point recently to head over for the noon concerts. As the store is selling off merchandize there are chairs, and rugs, and fixtures all over the first floor and people are hanging out wherever they can to listen. When I moved to Philly twenty years ago, I quickly learned that visiting the Wanamaker Organ during the Christmas season for the concerts and light shows was a generational tradition. As we’ve bumped into people stopping by for one last concert, that is the main memory they bring up.
Last year after work, I decided to take a “short cut” through the store to get to the subway. The evening concert was Phantom of the Opera. I filmed it and you can watch it here:
apologies for my poor cinematography skills.
I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.
That’s an impressive organ to be located in a store!
Very nice, that’s an amazing organ. Thanks for sharing. I can remember when shopping at stores like Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, B. Altman’s was a planned excursion/event, an outing to be taken as seriously as an appointment. Many of the stores had pianists in the area by the escalators to serenade you as you strolled and worked through your list. Who else remembers when the store elevators had operators that called out each floor and sales people that actually helped? Man I miss those days sometimes.
Yes I remember elevators operators they had them in the big downtown stores.
I miss the sales people who actually helped🫤
Wow! That’s gorgeous!
About five years ago the organ at my parents’ church was vandalized (apparently they were trying to steal the pipes to sell for scrap metal, but they’re not really worth much; at least two people were arrested). Many of the decorative pipes in the front fell and were all over the pulpit, but somehow the functional pipes were mostly still intact and playable. One news story said the preliminary estimate was at least $15K to fix it.
But I also learned a bit about the organ itself; I never really thought much about the range of sizes of all those pipes (also didn’t realize there were so many!): “The pipe organ was built by the J.P. Moller Organ Company of Hagerstown, Maryland, and has 677 pipes that range in size from the diameter of a lead pencil to one that is a foot in diameter and 10 feet long. It was dedicated at the church on April 9, 1967.”
I can just barely remember department store excursions as a big thing. Mostly I know about them from novels!
Beautiful organ. It reminds me of the one at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where I got to sing as part of the community choir back in the late 80s and early 90s. When I left, my friends donated for an 8′ Voix Celeste pipe as part of the organ restoration program. My favorite place in the entire world.
That is so wonderful! You could bring your own chair and sit and listen.
I remember as a kid (9-16 yo?) going to Macy’s at Christmas was a BIG deal! I can remember the long lines to eat at The Waldorf Room, and sitting nearly underneath the amazing Christmas tree! I remember the incredible bookstore! I’d never been in one so big, and I just wanted my parents to leave me there for a while☺️ (they wouldn’t) We’d walk around outside the store to see all the decorated windows which were just astonishing! My uncle lived in Chicago so we’d see him while we were there. Good times!
Oh the Christmas windows! In New York City, every department store had them and during the 80s and 90s, there was always a rivalry to see who’s was better. The windows would be covered up for the months leading up to the big day. On the day they were unveiled, people would be in line several hours ahead of time. It was a major occasion that was coved by all the news media, and for me the real kickoff to the Christmas season. My favorite was always Lord & Taylor’s, usually they had actual vignettes and animatronics, not just showing off what they sold.
I don’t remember many windows selling stuff, mostly vignettes and animatronics. It was So Cool!
Happy Caturday! Dryer vent cleaning day. Then I have to do laundry and dirty it up again. (He’s up in the attic right now.)
Seen on my way to work yesterday: an electric car with the license plate UNPLUG 🤔
I saw this on facebook first and it took me at least half a minute to realize the video is only 8 seconds long. (Comment from the WeRateDogs email: “Either this video is 97 hours long or I cannot stop letting it loop. Not mad either way.”)
(The bouncing ears are killin’ me.)
I saw Summit yesterday and loved him immediately. Such a sweetie.
That is so darn CUTE!!
Oh, and the dogs were good again, in case anyone was wondering…
Rory’s mutton chops! I’m dying!
I have never seen a cocker, or any dog, frankly, with mutton chops!😆
I miss the Top Ten🙁
But these dogs were amazing! I love how We Rate Dogs is able to help SO many dogs in desperate need!
Me, too. 😕
Good morning, everyone. Happy Saturday. It’s bright and sunny outside my window. Taking it slow today. Got new books in the mail Thursday. Good luck with your writing, N. Fritz.
What did you get???
I am a historian of epidemics. I got “Everything is Tuberculosis” by John Green and “Tell me when it’s over” by Paul Offitt. Trying to write my own book to help current humans understand conditions that need to exist for current plagues to subside.
Sorry to be a downer.
Au contraire, you are working to be part of the solution! Nothing “downer” about that, IMO.
Oh cool! Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map is one of the best history books I’ve ever come across.
My first ever course on medival Europe was on the 14th century, so the Black Death is like an old friend at this point.
The Ghost Map is a good book.
I am currently reading Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes. Next up is The Siren’s Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource by Chris Hayes.
Thanks for the hits, y’all! Got them on my to read list now👍🏼
Yeh, tell us! Inquiring minds…
thank you!
Bonus: Matt’s Top 10 Spring Dogs
The butterfly dogs get me every time.
WOW! The dog who discovered a whole new species of bee!👍🏼
The temperature is warming nicely here and all of the snow has melted in my back yard and this week I saw the first ducks flying back from spending winter in the South.
Also the groundhog who lives under my shed came out and was eating the seeds that fell from the bird feeders.
Spring is back! (doing a happy dance)
Have a good weekend everyone!
Please please plant a garden for the ground hog!
Don’t worry about this fellow, my backyard is wild so he gets plenty of dandelions and other plants to eat in the summer and he also snacks on the raspberries that fall to the ground before we can harvest them.
The first weekend of spring here is cold and wet, but the flowers are coming up, and leaves are coming out, and oh, so are babies. I am officially a great-aunt this morning.
I mentioned a while ago that my doctor had reduced one of my meds since I was doing so well. On my own initiative, I went back to the original dose this week. I had such bad nerve damage pain since I reduced it, and such bad joint pain (joints were actually giving out from pain) that I had to go back. I’m feeling much better, so I’m going to let my doctor know next week.
Tara, my dad used to actually build those pipe organs. I remember, when I was in kindergarten, how he would roll out the metal for the metal pipes, or carefully saw wood for the wooden ones. My classmates never understood what he did, and now it’s a dying art.
Taking it easy today. Coffee with a friend, then going through all my fabric and making plans. Have a fantastic weekend, everyone.
Congrats on the new addition to your family! And wow your dad had a great job.
Congratulation!!
Yes! Ditto.😘 What’s the sex and name?
Little girl. Don’t know the name yet, but she is seven pounds five ounces, and twenty inches long.
Welcome to the world, Tiny Duckling!
Good for you for taking care of yourself, Duckie. And my admiration to your father and his fascinating job.
Sounds like spring is springing up everywhere! I love to see the kitten plants sprouting!
It also sounds like we’re all doing somewhat better this weekend, which is great. People have exciting plans.
My own plans are the usual. I need to try fixing the ice maker in my 3-month-old fridge, then I want to finish weaving my rug. If you want to see how it’s turning out, there are videos of weaving and how I made design choices on my channel, https://www.youtube.com/@debgerish
If I get really ambitious, I’ll film some new content on designing a handspun yarn with 3 colors and planning my next weaving project, which will be on a rigid heddle loom. Talking through all this fiber arts stuff helps me write about it for Schacht’s website.
Hugs to you all. Enjoy the warmer weather.
That is incredibly pretty! And so much work! I left you a note on your weaving video.
Thank you! I love getting comments.
I am not crafty at all so all of that is amazing to me!
I wish kittens grew in my pots🙁😉
It was warmer here for a while, but we’re in the 30s now in the morning. My heat ( set at 55) actually kicked on last week! Plants are coming up tho!
Happy Spring!
I’ve had some good news regarding the terrifying dental costs I thought I would be facing last week. Instead of a new bridge and two root canals for £2400 I can have a denture for £300! Sadly, in order to soften the financial blow of the unexpected roof repair I’ve had to cancel the two holidays I’d booked for this year, but I managed to reschedule one of them – the Padstow May Day celebrations – for 2026.
In other news, yesterday I saw an hilariously inventive stage version of Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” at my local theatre. A cast of six worked wonders with lots of suitcases, sight gags, and dance routines to 1950s pop songs. And yes, they managed to pull off the “pursued by a crop duster plane” scene with three banners and a can of aerosol spray!
Alice, sorry about your holidays but the denture sounds a lot more reasonable. And that performance of N by N sounds amazing.
Glad it’s not as much money as you thought!👍🏼
The little dogs meet some not-so-little friends.
Sprout: But I want to be friends!😉