wednesday cat blogging [photo post]

On the 4th of July we had steady rain for over twenty-four hours, and I took the opportunity to catch up on some computer work while Hanna napped. The cats were super helpful as they always are.

Gerry likes to make sure my notebook doesn't go anywhere while I'm not looking.

This is my desk-in-progress (the other work space is Hanna's, usually); I still need a chair that fits the higher table -- it was a curbside rescue, I suspect designed originally as a kitchen island. Gerry needs to keep an eye on that one as well.

Being a cat is SUPER HARD WORK and requires lots of sleeping in order to be prepared for napping.

Teazle's real dream is to steal our two little grey mice from IKEA (named John and Sherlock), but since we keep those out of sight she carries the white mouse around instead. It is shaped less like an anatomically correct mouse and therefore seems to evince less interest than the others.

As you can see, they are enjoying the vantage point of our kitchen window which opens onto the back porch; on Friday they'll get their shots updated and then be allowed to visit with Jelly the curious neighbor cat who shares our balcony ... with no screen in between! To date there has been a lot of sniffing and watching and pawing at the window screens and occasional hissing and pleading to be allowed to plaaay!!

I hope the week is treating all of you well!

columbia point / jfk library [photo post]

As the early posts on this blog attest, I used to try and visit new corners of Boston on a weekly basis when I first started graduate school back in the distant period known as "2007." This ambitious project foundered on research paper deadlines, work, grocery shopping, and relationship building. These days, I don't get to new (for me) corners of the metropolis unless it comes by way of another life activity -- a recent meet up with friends took me to Porter Square Books, for example.

Back in June, Hanna had a meeting at the JFK Presidential Library on Columbia Point, so I trailed along and did my research and writing work there instead of at the local public library.

It was clear and breezy, a perfect morning for sitting out in the picnic area and drink our coffee before the meeting began.

While airplanes flew low overhead on their way to Logan, I captured a few photographs of the ocean meeting the land.

Once inside, I set myself up at a table in the atrium to work on some page proofs and listen to tourists gossip. The light and design were pretty spectacular.

Hope y'all had a restful, restorative 4th of July weekend!

cats + porch [#move2014]

We continue to feel so lucky in finding this apartment, particularly on sunny Sundays in June, when our back balcony is a breezy, cozy sanctuary; a liminality between in and out, private home and neighborhood society.

We enjoyed brunch together last weekend, along with a little light reading.

Repotted some happy plants...

... and got creative drying the week's laundry in the fine weather.

The porch is a new experience for the cats, who are practicing giving their mother attacks of the nerves by exploring the top of the (second floor! far from the ground!) railing without a net. We feel they should could equipped with safety tethers.

Geraldine seems largely content to chill in the shade or sun and survey her surroundings.

The clean laundry is obviously the best place for a black cat to settle in for a nap.

Meanwhile, our next door neighbors M and J have gotten a head start over us in the gardening department, with lots of promising seedlings that spent the weekend drinking up the sun and water they were afforded.

Hope y'all are finding ways of being in this early-summer moment. Happy June.

new perspectives on boston [#move2014]

We almost have enough bookshelves...

We're still unpacking here in J.P. but the living room is taking approximate shape. And I think my biggest observation from this first week in a new location in the same city is how much one's understanding of a big city like Boston is filtered through the situational perspective of daily activity. I mean, "duh." But we've shifted three miles south of our old home in Allston and suddenly our daily routine moves from one set of neighborhoods and local businesses to another.

Eventually, the living room will have an office space!

My initial impression is, weirdly enough, that Boston feels a lot more like a big city living in J.P. than it did living in Allston, on the edge of Brookline. Living in Allston, most of our daily routine happened in The Fenway/Longwood/Brookline neighborhoods, and Brookline definitely feels like a self-contained village enveloped by the greater metropolitan area of Boston. Jamaica Plain, too, feels like a very distinct neighborhood -- but within the city of Boston. It feels very conscious of its status as part of Boston, and I feel woven into the fabric of big city life in new ways. No longer does my evening commute cut passed Fenway Park and up Beacon Street through Coolidge Corner ... now I cycle by Symphony Hall through Roxbury to Jackson Square along the reclaimed Southwest Corridor Park.

"Kitty TV" has a new view...

Here are some of our discoveries from week one:

• Ghazal makes (and delivers!) tasty Indian fare
• The Southwest Corridor Park offers me a safer, more peaceful bicycle commute
• Koo Koo Cafe is not a new discovery, but is now on our walk to work!
• As is Green T Coffee, on those days when our path through
• Olmstead Park is too meandering a route to Countway
• The local fabric and yarn shop, JP Knit 'n Stitch, where we picked up fabric to recover our ageing IKEA chairs

My selection...

... and Hanna's

In the coming weeks, we're looking forward to checking out:

• The Thacher Milk Delivery service we saw drive by this morning
• Jamaica Plain Historical Society's historic walking tours on summer Saturdays
• The Boston Building Resources organization, even though we're renters not owners
• The Allendale Farm garden center and more local Agricultural Hall for some herb & vegetable starts for our sunny balcony

Hope all of you are well! Those of you whom I owe emails, I haven't forgotten! The moving exacerbated my tendinitis and exhausted us generally ... last night I was mostly asleep by 7 o'clock. Little old lady hours. But I haven't forgotten you!

<3

#move2014 in photos [what it says on the tin]

So we've moved.

I'm headed back to our old place one more time today to pack up the fridge and a few left-over things so the cleaners my parents are paying for can come and do the final scrub down. Then, hopefully, new people will come along soon and find Old Number Twelve a good place to live, as we did for many years.

Meanwhile, I promised pictures -- so here they are!

This is a lot of what the last ten days have been about.

The cats liked all the piles of clothes and bedding to sleep on.

I think they were worried we would leave them behind, so kept trying to get us to pack them!

There was a lot of turning around and finding this.

How did we fit all this stuff in one 535-square-foot apartment?!

The BEST THING about the move was when the movers -- Patrick, Mike, and Damian -- arrived.

They took the things away and packed them so swiftly!

While Hanna waited with the cats at our new place, I was left to "supervise" the departure by drinking my latte and taking pictures of the emptying apartment.

The last box...

... Of serials, naturally. We're librarians after all!

Books will be our biggest logistical hurdle. Here they are stacked up in the Inner Sanctum (what will eventually be Hanna's meditation/yoga space (and our guest bedroom! ... plus books).

These bookshelves (and three more) are already filled.

This is the new living room space (with a study nook to the right of the frame).

As predicted, Teazle and Gerry LOOOOVE this long hallway for chasing one another (particularly at night). I'm standing in the living room, and the room at the end of the hall is our kitchen. Off the hall to the right are the master bedroom, bathroom, and Inner Sanctum.

The movers put our bed back together, people!! It was the first room we made usable, after the kitchen.

Our kitchen has a table for eating! And gorgeous appliances.

Hanna found this photograph in the back of one of the cupboard drawers. Worrying? Charming? You decide! It now lives on our fridge.

We share our second-floor porch with the next-door neighbors and their cat, Jelly, whom Gerry and Teazle have only met through the window so far. Our plants are very happy outside, and we can dry out laundry out there as well! There are five huge maple trees shading the back lawn (And sheltering our house from the worst of the summer sun.

And not to brag or anything, but THIS is our new walk to work...

More house-proud pictures once we've actually had a chance to settle in and Teazle has finished the unpacking and investigatin'.

teazle knievel [photo post]

Time for Wednesday cat blogging!

I had the camera out on Sunday and Teazle was very interested.

This is her EEEEVIL CAT impression! (aka the time I accidentally took a photo with the flash on)

Little Miss Flirtypants.

The Joan Crawford look.

The "why have the petting hands gone away?" look.

Gerry maintained a stolid indifference to the proceedings...

But later settled down on the top edge of the book I was attempting to read.

(You can see that the petting hand returned to scratch Teazle beneath the chin.)