Crazy Cats

These crazy cats make us laugh and give us love during long weeks.

Clara in the bath tub.  This is her new favorite place to be.

Sometimes Claude needs some help with his grooming

Ah much better! Every night he comes for his brushing.

Maggie is ready for Autumn to come. This is her usual spot- curled up in front
of the fireplace.  She often stares longingly at the fireplace.

Harriet, our shy kitty, is becoming braver and sleeping downstairs! She blends in so
well with the couch sometimes you miss her.  This is her usual sleeping pose.

Clara, dreaming.  She must be eating a mouse in her dream.

A new friday tradition: Where's your foot?

Many of you have probably heard about or even participated in a relatively recent blogging tradition called "This Moment," in which people post a picture every Friday, unaccompanied by text. You can see such a post here, here, or here, for instance.

I have decided to start my own tradition, with a slightly less poetic title: "Where's your foot?"

Every Friday, sometime around 9 AM, I will take a picture of my right foot, and write a bit about why it's there.

I actually took my first picture for this purpose back on the last Friday in July, but lost my nerve about posting and committing myself to a weekly tradition like this. I invite you to answer this question for yourself, either once, or weekly.

Where's your foot?

Friday, 29 July 11
08:50


The Perkiomen Trail, about half a mile from Wm. Rahner Memorial Park, where I usually get on the trail. I often don't work on Fridays in order to spend the day researching and writing my dissertation. And, in fact, as of the end of May, I no longer had a "day job," so my schedule was even more flexible. Over the summer I often found myself on the trail (Isn't it sort of sad to speak of the Summer in past tense?), and off the trail, taking many detours through the woods. I ride one of these (don't pay any attention to the price, as I bought mine very used), which are most definitely intended for rough terrain. Riding is, by far, my favorite form of exercise. Mountain Biking would be my second or third choice of impossible dream-full-time-jobs, after playing the organ, and possibly cooking.

Where's your foot?

9 Sept 11

09:30

Yes, those are wood shavings; Poplar, to be exact. Liriodendron tulipifera, to be more exact. And that is also the base of a drill press. Because at 09:30 on a Friday I was at work; building pipe organs, to be exact. I won't be more exact about where, just yet, as we are in a temporary-to-permanent, try-each-other-out sort of arrangement at present. Your prayers in this area are most definitely welcome.

In case you didn't know already, I am a direct descendent of four generations of pipe organ builders:

Johan Jacob Dieffenbach (1744-1803)

Christian Dieffenbach (1769-1829)

David Dieffenbach (1798-1872)

Thomas Dieffenbach (1821-1900) - this one is actually my great, great, great uncle, so it would, perhaps, be more accurate to say I'm a direct descendent of three generations of pipe organ builders. Oh, well, you can't have everything.

I'll post some more about that some other time, but for now, at least you know where my foot was.

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Get Aways

We'd hoped to take a proper vacation this summer to visit a dear friend. But we've had to postpone that until a later date.  So we took 2 quick day trips this week to help us remember

to breath again in the midst of some crazy writing and dissertation deadlines.  They were lovely pressure free days with beautiful weather after the hurricane.

We went to Glen Onoko Falls in Jim Thorpe Pa where
the falls were amazing

The sun through the trees 

What is is about the sound of water that sooths a tired soul?

To end the day we went to Beltsville State Park, which has a lovely beach

Two days later we headed to Long Beach Island New Jersey to hear the ocean
and see what the beach was like after Irene- it was perfect

Then we went to the Edwin B Forsyth Wildlife Preserve: Bird Sanctuary

There were herons, ibis, egrets, gulls

We couldn't find C.S. Lewis's Marshwiggles, but maybe next time.

Irene's Visit

She danced around a bit

Did a bit of javelin throwing

Brought a dark and stormy sky

These sticks were deep into the ground. We could not pull them out!

Took off our new gutters

And overflowed the Perkiomen Creek.  She even took park benches
and picnic tables with her!

Preserving Summer

By day we're Phd students and organ builders, piano teachers and church organists.

But we've been burning the midnight oil this past week trying to capture as much

summer as we can to put away for the winter season ahead of us. (That and because our

garden is dying)

Most nights our kitchen looks like this- cans boiling away- although usually there
is a big mess. This is right at the end after the dishes were finished.

Pressing the last Queen Anne's Lace for future projects

Pickles, Peaches, Peach/Tomato Chutney, Tomato Sauce, Grape Jelly
and Maple Syrup

Rustic Peach Tart to celebrate Peach Week in our house
The recipe can be found here:
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/rustic-peach-tart-10000001213028/index.html

Then there's freezer jam and berries put away

And corn, beans, tomato sauce, banana bread, applesauce
cranberries and a few experiments: Watermelon/Orange Juice cubes, Pesto Cubes and
Mint/Lime Cubes for future meals

And for our comic relief tonight- crazy cats.  These pictures are not photoshopped
at all!

End of Summer Creatures and a nephew

We've been enjoying watching the creatures get ready for Autumn

The cats are watching the hummingbirds drink like crazy. Maybe I'll manage
to get a picture of the hummingbirds ones of these days.

While in Lebanon at home Adam snapped a few beautiful butterflies

This guy looks as if he is putting on quite a show- as long as he leaves our
cabbage alone I think we can be friends

A quick picture of Sammy- we had a nice visit together last week. He is
getting to be such a big boy. How did that happen?

Sunday stroll

It was hot and humid.  But we went exploring anyway. This time we went in the Greenlane park woods to see what we could find.