vilakins: (nikau (NZ!))
Nico ([personal profile] vilakins) wrote2009-08-11 08:07 pm
Entry tags:

Two cats and a flower

The Matrix Security guy came today to service our alarm system and had to check the control box in the harness room (a large cupboard in the carport called that because the previous owners hung their tack there). When he left, I thought I'd better check to make sure he hadn't shut a cat in there. There didn't seem to be anyone there and I was about to lock the door again when I saw a stripy face appear in the gloom below a pile of cartons. She refused to come out at first--and Jasmin was very worried and trying to get in after her--but I lured her out with a play tube (an old cable outer). They were both quite happy once they were running about on the deck chasing it. :-)

While out there I found my little pohutukawa potted tree has a flower! That seems very early for pohutukawa, but maybe the miniature varieties bloom early. Either that or it's going to be a killer summer!

Two cats and a flower


A photo of Ashley looking like a seashell.


Jasmin on the new kitchen mat we bought in the weekend. She must like the texture, but it looks as if she knows that the colours match her own. :-)


My first pohutukawa flower! It's an iconic NZ flower; see, well, icon!

[identity profile] vandonovan.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 08:40 am (UTC)(link)
Beautiful flower! And I love Jasmin looking up at you, so cute. And Ashley does look like a shell, ahahaha. Love it. :D

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 09:24 am (UTC)(link)
I love pohutukawas! Jasmin almost looks cross-eyed with intentness, doesn't she! I'm glad Ashley looks like a shell to others. A nautilus perhaps? Yes, this one (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Nautilus.jpg)! :-)

[identity profile] ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 09:45 am (UTC)(link)
Pretty kitties and flower--definitely nautilus.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 10:17 am (UTC)(link)
I'm glad others see it. :-)

[identity profile] glitterboy1.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 10:24 am (UTC)(link)
Jasmin's a perfect match for the mat, isn't she? She's also lovely.

I'm glad you thought to check the harness room! I lost Muffin for an hour or so at the weekend, when it turned out that he'd slipped through the (usually closed) garage door while I was getting a ladder out. What is it about a door that makes cats desperate to be able to get through it?! :-)

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 10:36 am (UTC)(link)
We didn't realise how Jasmin-coloured the mat was when we bought it, but she does!

Cats are so good at getting through doors without us seeing them, and getting shut into rooms or cupboards. Jasmin was in the spare bedroom all evening last month. She was very forgiving when we let her out though. :-)

[identity profile] kalinda001.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 10:54 am (UTC)(link)
Aw, the kitties are adorable. Ashley does look like a seashell. And Jasmin on the new mat, camouflage...the expression on her face is cute...can you see me on this mat?

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 11:00 am (UTC)(link)
Or: "You bought this just for me, didn't you." :-)

[identity profile] bigdamnxenafan.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Awww lovely pics! What an interesting flower! So beautiful! :)

Jasmin seems to appreciate the mat you bought. I'm sure in her mind it was purchased just for her. hehe

Ashley has such lovely coloring. She does look very spiral-like when she's all curled up like that.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
They're gorgeous cats, my lion and tiger cubs! :-)

My pohutukawa is very small, about 1/4 the size shown. Big trees grow along the coast, as in this icon (drawn about three years ago) and bloom in summer. :-)

[identity profile] entropy-house.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 02:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Lovely photos! Ashley & Jasmin are getting more beautiful by the day, and that flower is so cool and alien-looking.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
I think they're getting very beautiful too! Jasmin, like Claudia, started off as rather an odd-looking little kitten, but they both turned into beauties, which Tessa and Ashley were already.

The normal trees grow along the coast and bloom in summer, becoming covered in red: the "NZ CHristmas Tree" (see icon).

[identity profile] entropy-house.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
No kitten was ever uglier than Bonnie! For the first couple weeks we didn't photograph her because she was so ugly. :^)

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
We did photograph Claudia--and laughed at the Kitten From Outer Space. I should find those photos. Poor funny little Claudia, but we loved her so anyway. I chose her over her prettier sister because she was friendlier.

[identity profile] entropy-house.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
Ken took Bonnie because she'd been dumped at the vet & they said they'd kill her if no one took her. And as ugly as she was the odds didn't seem good. She had pure yellow golf-ball eyes, ears that stuck out horizontally, and ragged tufts of muddy gray/brown/black fur stuck out in random wadded clumps all over.

The earliest photo I have of her she was already starting to look better, though.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
Good for Ken! Any kitten would look a bit worse for wear after being dumped. She's a beautiful cat now.

I got my Petra from a bankrupt pet shop which was going to kill her; they gave her to me free, along with bowls and other stuff. Poor little thing, she was full of worms, but otherwise adorable from the start (dark tabby with a white nose and tunny). She got on really well with Sigi, the two-months-older kitten I'd found starving. Damn, but I still miss those two. I miss all of my old cats.

[identity profile] entropy-house.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 02:41 am (UTC)(link)
*sigh* I've had so many that were really special. Just off the top of my head... Midnight and Ginger, Sarah Jane and Leela, Mouse and Chessie and then there were special outsiders, Foxy and Jet and...

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
They're always with us.

When you move, you could get a kitten. :-)

[identity profile] entropy-house.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
I am really hoping I do get to move & get a kitten. And a puppy. I like to raise them together so you can always bring in a new kitten without the grown dog causing problems.

[identity profile] jaxomsride.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Jasmin : Camouflage you is doing it right!

Of course she likes the mat, you bought it for her didn't you? :¬D

Ashley is lucky you checked, she could have been there for Hours! Aww cute that Jasmin was worried.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
She's hard to see in the kitchen now! Tessa OTOH was hard to see in the sitting room which has dark brown carpet, and Claudia matched the silvery deck.

I always check straight away for cats after tradespaople have been here--and their vehicles too before they leave. It's just lucky she showed her face before I decided she wasn't in there. It's where I'd have looked though is she hadn't turned up.

I think Jasmin was worried, and Ashley was grateful for being found. She was probably hiding form the guy.

[identity profile] vjezkova.livejournal.com 2009-08-11 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Jasmin must know that the mat suits her! She is so wonderful!
:-)Oh Ashley, with her pattern, really, a seashell:-)
Now I am wailing here again...for pohutukawa!

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
Once again I have beautiful cats, though all my cats (and most cats in any case) are beautiful. I love looking at them; I go all sift inside.

My pohutukawa is about 1/4 the size in the photo. The normal trees grow on the coast and bloom in summer (see icon), with big flowers, and the red and green make get it called the "NZ Christmas tree".

[identity profile] nautile26.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
Definitely shell-like. :)
And Jasmin looks just wonderful on "her" new rug.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 01:46 am (UTC)(link)
Ashley looks like your icon! :-D

[identity profile] nautile26.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
Indeed! :)
trixieleitz: a green tree with red brush-like flowers, intense blue sky in the background (pohutukawa)

[personal profile] trixieleitz 2009-08-12 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, that's a very striking photo of Ashley! It might work as an icon. And Jasmin is just so adorable with those huge eyes!

I have a wee southern rata in my garden, and I'm waiting for its first flower :)

I heard something on the radio recently that said (if I recall correctly) that they are expecting an El Nino summer again this year, so we should have an early spring, but there will probably be droughts in some areas. Right now, it's raining heavily, but the tui is back :)

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 05:07 am (UTC)(link)
I might iconise it! I'm going to do the yin-yang cats too.

But el nino means rain, rain rain! Aaaugh! It's la nina that's a decent summer, isn't it? :-( I'll keep an eye on the local big pohutukawas; they're usually pretty accurate.
trixieleitz: sepia-toned drawing of a woman in Jazz Age costume, relaxing with a glass of wine. Text: Trixie (Default)

[personal profile] trixieleitz 2009-08-12 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Don't know - but this seems to indicate El Nino is on his way. Also seems to say temperatures and rainfall will be average, which is not the impression the other story left me with.

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-12 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
That's just the next few month: a pause before the rain. Crap. I didn't get a holiday this year and it looks like next year will be a wash out.

[identity profile] pinkdormouse.livejournal.com 2009-08-13 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Excellent photos!

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-08-13 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks!

[identity profile] emerald-happy.livejournal.com 2009-10-02 08:06 am (UTC)(link)
*pets kitties from across the internet*

[identity profile] vilakins.livejournal.com 2009-10-02 09:25 am (UTC)(link)
And I've just been doing it for real!