Ready for an exciting weekend? Skye and Storm, from reader Georgiana Y., definitely are:
My cats Skye and Storm have a very full life, in the morning they sit and watch the birds and squirrels in the backyard and in the afternoon they follow the sun and come to watch what is happening in front of the house. I often wonder how they can handle all that excitement!
Bonus Cuteness!
Could this be what has Skye and Storm so intrigued?
The stray cats I feed regularly decided to all come at once for the evening meal. I think the two female black cats might be sisters, both of them are very skittish but one more so than the other. The big orange boy is very friendly and not aggressive with them at all.
Georgiana, your home and kitties all look heavenly. I wish I were there with you all.
Happy Independence Day and Semiquincentennial to those who are of a mind to celebrate. I am under a lot of stress right now with a family emergency, it started Monday morning and is ongoing. Please post pictures of all your cute animules, I’ll check in when I can for emotional sustenance. Bibi is of course doing her best, but I can’t be home with her all the time right now.
With great affection for you all,
Ricky & Bibi’s Mom
AJJuly 4, 2026 / 9:32 am
Sorry to hear about the family emergency, thinking good thoughts for a quick resolution.
GeorgianaJuly 4, 2026 / 9:55 am
Here’s hoping everything turns out for the best with your family emergency.
DebgJuly 4, 2026 / 12:51 pm
Sending you big big hugs and healing purrs. We’ve got your back.
DubravkamcvmdJuly 4, 2026 / 1:22 pm
I’m sorry for your stress and worry. I hope it ends well.
TaraJuly 4, 2026 / 3:06 pm
Sending thoughts of strength for what you are going through. Bibi knows, they always know. Hugs.
KarJuly 4, 2026 / 6:14 pm
Best wishes for you and your family.
::Cyberhugs::
Ricky & Bibi's MomJuly 4, 2026 / 7:30 pm
Thanks, everyone! I’m trying to take better care of myself so I can get through this. Meanwhile, even if I don’t post much, I’m finding some healing here.
Duckie 🐥July 4, 2026 / 9:07 pm
That what we’re here for.
Ricky & Bibi's MomJuly 5, 2026 / 10:41 am
❤️
AJJuly 4, 2026 / 9:30 am
Such cuties! And such an exciting life they lead, I’m tired already reading about their exploits. They must have had a long nap after all that, lol.
Happy 4th to all my US peeps. Probably nothing too much going on here. I have a painting I’m working on, might drive up the coast to hang at the beach for a little while then home before dark to hunker down before the fireworks start. Surprisingly my neighborhood was quiet last night. Usually they start as soon as it’s barely dark until midnight or later. Fingers crossed its stays that way tonight. Have a good weekend all, and for those under the heat dome stay cool.
Alice ShortcakeJuly 4, 2026 / 9:31 am
I love the touching tails in the first photo!
The highlight of my week came on Wednesday morning, when booking opened for the Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition. At 9.45, armed with a cup of tea, a credit card, and a time-saving code to enter the queue, I logged onto the British Museum website expecting to complete the transaction in about half an hour. Booking opened at 10.00…and there were already 18,393 people ahead of me and an estimated wait time of “more than an hour”! It actually took just over THREE hours before I got my ticket and some time slots were already sold out. Later that day up to 60,000 people were waiting for up to nine hours. The September-December booking period sold out in a day and a half and the BM took about two and a half million pounds. It was a bit frustrating, but a vast improvement on the old “turn up, wait in a massive queue in the forecourt for hours and be robbed by vendors selling overpriced drinks and snacks” method (ah, happy memories of the 1972 Tutenkhamen exhibition). Apparently the tapestry will be displayed flat so visitors will get the closest possible view.
AJJuly 4, 2026 / 9:40 am
Oooh, so jealous, I would love to see that. It should be magnificent. Hopefully, the guards won’t be hustling people through and you get to actually have time to view/study it instead of just getting a glimpse while walking by. I call that drive by arting, lol. I wonder if the tapestry will make it Stateside, if it does I might need to make a trip to wherever it is.
Alice ShortcakeJuly 4, 2026 / 1:22 pm
I doubt that the Tapestry will ever leave France again after the BM exhibition. Doubts have been expressed that it’s too fragile to cope with long-distance travel -even the Eurostar trip from Paris to London will require a specially equipped train carriage to minimize potentially harmful vibrations!
DebgJuly 4, 2026 / 12:53 pm
Wowser! That’s exciting that so many folks want to see the exhibit. I would go if I could, but tickets are probably sold out for the exhihbition.
Alice ShortcakeJuly 4, 2026 / 1:10 pm
The first batch of tickets is sold out but that only covers September to December. Tickets for January to July 2027 go on sale later this year.
KarJuly 4, 2026 / 6:32 pm
that’s like trying to get Taylor Swift tickets.
Sorry it was so difficult to get your tickets but love that so many people are interested in the tapestry.
GeorgianaJuly 4, 2026 / 10:05 am
Good morning everyone.
About the cats, it was actually the first time all the stray came at once they usually come individually or in pairs. Also if you look down into the yard you can see the little calico princess that was featured here a while ago, she doesn’t like the other cats.
We’re still under a heat advisory here, it’s not as bad as it was at the beginning of the week but it’s still not pleasant. We had some bad thunder storms with torrential rain Thursday and that helped with the heat, fortunately we were not included in the 130,000 people who lost electricity in the Province.
Happy 4th to our neighbours to the south!
TaraJuly 4, 2026 / 3:07 pm
Thank you Georgiana!
Your girls are lovely as always. I love when cats lean on the windowsill to get a better look-see. So cute.
allein 🐾July 4, 2026 / 10:31 am
Hot, humid, and gross here this week (I know I’m not alone, there). Upper 90s and even up to 101 at some points. Today’s high 98, then tomorrow it’s “only” 85, then down into the 70s for a few days! Can’t wait! Wednesday I went to the dentist and made a few stops in the area, then stopped at the grocery store on my way home. The heat triggered a migraine and every trip in and out of the heat made it worse. I sat in the grocery store parking lot for a couple minutes, decided I couldn’t do it, and went home to sleep for a couple hours (surprisingly, my head actually didn’t hurt when I woke up…it eventually came back but the other migraine symptoms at least stayed away). Then Thursday I had to get blood drawn, so I had to go out into the heat without even being able to eat (brought a snack and drink with me, which I started drinking as soon as she was done; though I waited until I got outside to open the food). Friday I went nowhere. Today I’m going to my parents’, where my dad’s sister is visiting from Houston. Hope she wasn’t expecting to escape the heat (it was actually slightly cooler there, at least on Friday; the hourly ranged from 79 to mid-90s with some chance of storms). She got here Wednesday and goes home on Tuesday. Also it’s the end of the fiscal month so I have to work tomorrow and a little today (actually posting this from my work laptop).
Last night a storm blew in; didn’t last too long but the power went out for a few minutes and when it came back it was only partial. Some things were on, some weren’t, even in the same room (like the oven and one light in the kitchen were off, but the microwave and the other light were on, and the fridge was on but the light was dim). They came back after a bit, the AC started running while I was looking out the front door, and a few seconds later it went out again, taking the AC and the porch light with it, but not the living room light. At least my internet was on the working part. Eventually everything went back to normal but that was kinda freaking me out.
At least the dogs were good.
DebgJuly 4, 2026 / 1:03 pm
Wheelchair pup made me cry with happiness. And I have trouble with physics too!
DubravkamcvmdJuly 4, 2026 / 1:32 pm
Really.
KarJuly 4, 2026 / 6:20 pm
Cupcake is a smart cookie.
allein 🐾July 4, 2026 / 10:58 am
Something interesting I came across this week. 🐧
Penguins lead ritualistic and complex lives. They mate for life and maintain contact with their offspring. If a penguin is found dead on the ice, other penguins will dig a hole in the ice to bury it. The male penguins then gather around and ‘sing’ ‘freeze a jolly good fellow’.
Duckie 🐥July 4, 2026 / 11:35 am
🙄
allein 🐾July 4, 2026 / 11:37 am
😁
Ricky & Bibi's MomJuly 5, 2026 / 10:47 am
Well, that’s a keyboard killer if ever I read one.
DebgJuly 4, 2026 / 12:58 pm
Storm and Skye and all your strays are gorgeous, Georgiana. It’s always lovely to see the girls.
Sending best wishes to everyone suffering with the heat, especially if electricity is spotty and/or you don’t have AC. Stay safe, and stay hydrated. Also sending best wishes to everyone in the US who will have to deal with fireworks and firecrackers tonight. My town actually cancelled their display, like several other towns in Colorado, because of the fire risk. We’ve had lots of air quality alerts lately due to wildfires in the western part of the state.
I just finished a big clean of my main bath and then I go back to warping the loom. George is about the same: eating multiple times a day, playing with his wand at night, but still losing weight. Happy 4th if you’re celebrating.
allein 🐾July 4, 2026 / 1:28 pm
My town’s fireworks aren’t until tomorrow. They are at the racetrack about a mile and a half down the road. I don’t mind them nearly as much as the random people setting them off who knows where. At least I know to expect them and roughly how long they will last. (Unfortunately I can’t see them over the trees past my complex. Occasionally I’ll see a few colorful sparks between the leaves.) The racetrack actually closed a few years ago and I believe has been sold, so I don’t know if they’re going to do them after this. There’s talk of redeveloping the site into some kind of walkable retail sort of space (including a hotel and private club…). Also the parking lot across the street is full of Kia stock from the dealership nearby (maybe other brands but all I can see when I drive by is rows of Kia SUVs). As of Thursday afternoon when I last passed by there was no sign of them being moved so people would have somewhere to park…
TaraJuly 4, 2026 / 3:30 pm
Happy 4th of July to my fellow USians. I am in a pretty good mood after going to work today (at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania). I’m so proud of us. We decided this year was a very important year and we should be open on this 4th. Working the day was voluntary, but I was extremely happy to do it. We had 272 people come through to see our exhibit from the Stamp Act through the Declaration of Independence. People were dressed to the nines in their patriotic red/white/blue, as was yours truly with her red skirt, white linen tank, and blue earrings and a silly headband with stars on spring with streamers. We had a lot of swag from the City to pass out. We had activities such as writing your own broadside, making patriotic buttons, and taking a history quiz for a prize. People were very happy to be there (maybe because of the air conditioning? 😉 ) but many stayed several hours, reading the catalogue and pouring over the exhibit. At the make-your-own-broadside table, people were thoughtful and took their time. We emphasized, first amendment! Write what you want. They could tape them to the wall so others could read them. Next week we will collect them and put them all in a time capsule. It was a really nice event.
Philadelphia is sweltering, but also meeting the moment. I couldn’t believe how many businesses, especially restaurants, are open today. Center City Philly was as busy as any weekday. We, the USA, have had a rough past few years (decade?) and I mean that no matter what is believed. No country is perfect. History is messy. But we’ve also done some amazing things and I still have hope. Especially after today.
To our extra-USian Cutropolitans, thank you. Thank you for bearing witness and bearing with us. I love this community and am so grateful for all of you.
allein 🐾July 4, 2026 / 3:39 pm
❤️🤍 💙
Sounds like a great exhibit.
KarJuly 4, 2026 / 6:22 pm
that is a great way to spend the fourth.
love that you were so busy.
Ricky & Bibi's MomJuly 4, 2026 / 7:34 pm
I was working on a show as part of ArtPhilly’s What Now 2026 festival last week. All while there were at least two World Cup events going on as well! Philly really did it right. I want to come back and be a proper tourist some time.
DebgJuly 4, 2026 / 9:51 pm
What a fabulous exhibit. Wish I could have joined in.
TaraJuly 4, 2026 / 3:37 pm
PS: If anyone is interested, we (HSP) and the exhibit I mentioned, will be a feature on David Muir’s World News Tonight, tonight.
allein 🐾July 4, 2026 / 3:42 pm
I will try to check it out!
allein 🐾July 5, 2026 / 11:33 am
TaraJuly 5, 2026 / 12:06 pm
Oh you found it! Thanks for posting it 😁
allein 🐾July 5, 2026 / 1:01 pm
Wasn’t able to watch in real time but I looked for it this morning.
KarJuly 4, 2026 / 6:28 pm
Have a wonderful Fourth with some fireworks and watermelon if you’re in the US. And if you’re not in the US, cold watermelon on a hot summer day still sounds good.
Watching the Tall Ships on Tv.
remember watching this 50 yrs ago from the sea wall in Fort Wadsworth. My father loved that view above the Battery Weed.
My father was stationed there and thought that we’d be alone or fairly isolated since only active military could be on the base.
Well, us and 5,000 other active military and their guests.
Georgiana, your home and kitties all look heavenly. I wish I were there with you all.
Happy Independence Day and Semiquincentennial to those who are of a mind to celebrate. I am under a lot of stress right now with a family emergency, it started Monday morning and is ongoing. Please post pictures of all your cute animules, I’ll check in when I can for emotional sustenance. Bibi is of course doing her best, but I can’t be home with her all the time right now.
With great affection for you all,
Ricky & Bibi’s Mom
Sorry to hear about the family emergency, thinking good thoughts for a quick resolution.
Here’s hoping everything turns out for the best with your family emergency.
Sending you big big hugs and healing purrs. We’ve got your back.
I’m sorry for your stress and worry. I hope it ends well.
Sending thoughts of strength for what you are going through. Bibi knows, they always know. Hugs.
Best wishes for you and your family.
::Cyberhugs::
Thanks, everyone! I’m trying to take better care of myself so I can get through this. Meanwhile, even if I don’t post much, I’m finding some healing here.
That what we’re here for.
❤️
Such cuties! And such an exciting life they lead, I’m tired already reading about their exploits. They must have had a long nap after all that, lol.
Happy 4th to all my US peeps. Probably nothing too much going on here. I have a painting I’m working on, might drive up the coast to hang at the beach for a little while then home before dark to hunker down before the fireworks start. Surprisingly my neighborhood was quiet last night. Usually they start as soon as it’s barely dark until midnight or later. Fingers crossed its stays that way tonight. Have a good weekend all, and for those under the heat dome stay cool.
I love the touching tails in the first photo!
The highlight of my week came on Wednesday morning, when booking opened for the Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition. At 9.45, armed with a cup of tea, a credit card, and a time-saving code to enter the queue, I logged onto the British Museum website expecting to complete the transaction in about half an hour. Booking opened at 10.00…and there were already 18,393 people ahead of me and an estimated wait time of “more than an hour”! It actually took just over THREE hours before I got my ticket and some time slots were already sold out. Later that day up to 60,000 people were waiting for up to nine hours. The September-December booking period sold out in a day and a half and the BM took about two and a half million pounds. It was a bit frustrating, but a vast improvement on the old “turn up, wait in a massive queue in the forecourt for hours and be robbed by vendors selling overpriced drinks and snacks” method (ah, happy memories of the 1972 Tutenkhamen exhibition). Apparently the tapestry will be displayed flat so visitors will get the closest possible view.
Oooh, so jealous, I would love to see that. It should be magnificent. Hopefully, the guards won’t be hustling people through and you get to actually have time to view/study it instead of just getting a glimpse while walking by. I call that drive by arting, lol. I wonder if the tapestry will make it Stateside, if it does I might need to make a trip to wherever it is.
I doubt that the Tapestry will ever leave France again after the BM exhibition. Doubts have been expressed that it’s too fragile to cope with long-distance travel -even the Eurostar trip from Paris to London will require a specially equipped train carriage to minimize potentially harmful vibrations!
Wowser! That’s exciting that so many folks want to see the exhibit. I would go if I could, but tickets are probably sold out for the exhihbition.
The first batch of tickets is sold out but that only covers September to December. Tickets for January to July 2027 go on sale later this year.
that’s like trying to get Taylor Swift tickets.
Sorry it was so difficult to get your tickets but love that so many people are interested in the tapestry.
Good morning everyone.
About the cats, it was actually the first time all the stray came at once they usually come individually or in pairs. Also if you look down into the yard you can see the little calico princess that was featured here a while ago, she doesn’t like the other cats.
We’re still under a heat advisory here, it’s not as bad as it was at the beginning of the week but it’s still not pleasant. We had some bad thunder storms with torrential rain Thursday and that helped with the heat, fortunately we were not included in the 130,000 people who lost electricity in the Province.
Happy 4th to our neighbours to the south!
Thank you Georgiana!
Your girls are lovely as always. I love when cats lean on the windowsill to get a better look-see. So cute.
Hot, humid, and gross here this week (I know I’m not alone, there). Upper 90s and even up to 101 at some points. Today’s high 98, then tomorrow it’s “only” 85, then down into the 70s for a few days! Can’t wait! Wednesday I went to the dentist and made a few stops in the area, then stopped at the grocery store on my way home. The heat triggered a migraine and every trip in and out of the heat made it worse. I sat in the grocery store parking lot for a couple minutes, decided I couldn’t do it, and went home to sleep for a couple hours (surprisingly, my head actually didn’t hurt when I woke up…it eventually came back but the other migraine symptoms at least stayed away). Then Thursday I had to get blood drawn, so I had to go out into the heat without even being able to eat (brought a snack and drink with me, which I started drinking as soon as she was done; though I waited until I got outside to open the food). Friday I went nowhere. Today I’m going to my parents’, where my dad’s sister is visiting from Houston. Hope she wasn’t expecting to escape the heat (it was actually slightly cooler there, at least on Friday; the hourly ranged from 79 to mid-90s with some chance of storms). She got here Wednesday and goes home on Tuesday. Also it’s the end of the fiscal month so I have to work tomorrow and a little today (actually posting this from my work laptop).
Last night a storm blew in; didn’t last too long but the power went out for a few minutes and when it came back it was only partial. Some things were on, some weren’t, even in the same room (like the oven and one light in the kitchen were off, but the microwave and the other light were on, and the fridge was on but the light was dim). They came back after a bit, the AC started running while I was looking out the front door, and a few seconds later it went out again, taking the AC and the porch light with it, but not the living room light. At least my internet was on the working part. Eventually everything went back to normal but that was kinda freaking me out.
At least the dogs were good.
Wheelchair pup made me cry with happiness. And I have trouble with physics too!
Really.
Cupcake is a smart cookie.
Something interesting I came across this week. 🐧
Penguins lead ritualistic and complex lives. They mate for life and maintain contact with their offspring. If a penguin is found dead on the ice, other penguins will dig a hole in the ice to bury it. The male penguins then gather around and ‘sing’ ‘freeze a jolly good fellow’.
🙄
😁
Well, that’s a keyboard killer if ever I read one.
Storm and Skye and all your strays are gorgeous, Georgiana. It’s always lovely to see the girls.
Sending best wishes to everyone suffering with the heat, especially if electricity is spotty and/or you don’t have AC. Stay safe, and stay hydrated. Also sending best wishes to everyone in the US who will have to deal with fireworks and firecrackers tonight. My town actually cancelled their display, like several other towns in Colorado, because of the fire risk. We’ve had lots of air quality alerts lately due to wildfires in the western part of the state.
I just finished a big clean of my main bath and then I go back to warping the loom. George is about the same: eating multiple times a day, playing with his wand at night, but still losing weight. Happy 4th if you’re celebrating.
My town’s fireworks aren’t until tomorrow. They are at the racetrack about a mile and a half down the road. I don’t mind them nearly as much as the random people setting them off who knows where. At least I know to expect them and roughly how long they will last. (Unfortunately I can’t see them over the trees past my complex. Occasionally I’ll see a few colorful sparks between the leaves.) The racetrack actually closed a few years ago and I believe has been sold, so I don’t know if they’re going to do them after this. There’s talk of redeveloping the site into some kind of walkable retail sort of space (including a hotel and private club…). Also the parking lot across the street is full of Kia stock from the dealership nearby (maybe other brands but all I can see when I drive by is rows of Kia SUVs). As of Thursday afternoon when I last passed by there was no sign of them being moved so people would have somewhere to park…
Happy 4th of July to my fellow USians. I am in a pretty good mood after going to work today (at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania). I’m so proud of us. We decided this year was a very important year and we should be open on this 4th. Working the day was voluntary, but I was extremely happy to do it. We had 272 people come through to see our exhibit from the Stamp Act through the Declaration of Independence. People were dressed to the nines in their patriotic red/white/blue, as was yours truly with her red skirt, white linen tank, and blue earrings and a silly headband with stars on spring with streamers. We had a lot of swag from the City to pass out. We had activities such as writing your own broadside, making patriotic buttons, and taking a history quiz for a prize. People were very happy to be there (maybe because of the air conditioning? 😉 ) but many stayed several hours, reading the catalogue and pouring over the exhibit. At the make-your-own-broadside table, people were thoughtful and took their time. We emphasized, first amendment! Write what you want. They could tape them to the wall so others could read them. Next week we will collect them and put them all in a time capsule. It was a really nice event.
Philadelphia is sweltering, but also meeting the moment. I couldn’t believe how many businesses, especially restaurants, are open today. Center City Philly was as busy as any weekday. We, the USA, have had a rough past few years (decade?) and I mean that no matter what is believed. No country is perfect. History is messy. But we’ve also done some amazing things and I still have hope. Especially after today.
To our extra-USian Cutropolitans, thank you. Thank you for bearing witness and bearing with us. I love this community and am so grateful for all of you.
❤️🤍 💙
Sounds like a great exhibit.
that is a great way to spend the fourth.
love that you were so busy.
I was working on a show as part of ArtPhilly’s What Now 2026 festival last week. All while there were at least two World Cup events going on as well! Philly really did it right. I want to come back and be a proper tourist some time.
What a fabulous exhibit. Wish I could have joined in.
PS: If anyone is interested, we (HSP) and the exhibit I mentioned, will be a feature on David Muir’s World News Tonight, tonight.
I will try to check it out!
Oh you found it! Thanks for posting it 😁
Wasn’t able to watch in real time but I looked for it this morning.
Have a wonderful Fourth with some fireworks and watermelon if you’re in the US. And if you’re not in the US, cold watermelon on a hot summer day still sounds good.
Watching the Tall Ships on Tv.
remember watching this 50 yrs ago from the sea wall in Fort Wadsworth. My father loved that view above the Battery Weed.
My father was stationed there and thought that we’d be alone or fairly isolated since only active military could be on the base.
Well, us and 5,000 other active military and their guests.
Posting this on 7/5. Hope everyone and your furbabies who own you made through the kablooies. I found a book you might enjoy. Sleep in. Stay cool. Peace out. https://www.threads.com/@animals_lov3_/post/DaZhErLiNCs?xmt=AQG0PGR-gktmF6-NPI86aPdICuOApu4r39z73L08cFkYJZ2PE72igKBQIcS4Nb1VTIPUKhWX&slof=1