Past Blogs

It appears that we have a little Houdini living in our midst. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since she previously went missing only to be discovered wedged deeply in the engine of our car. She remained there for two days, totally unreachable.

That great disappearance occurred after we rescued Beatrix (aka Houdini) and her three kittens after they survived a barn fire. They were all feral cats so we quarantined them in our garage pending their initial vet visit for exams and shots. Beatrix decided she was going nowhere but into extreme hiding. Hunger finally drove her out and into our waiting live trap.

Last week, Bea topped her engine trick. First, we noticed she wasn’t eating. This was very serious as for the last nine years she eats every dish of food as if it is her last, a behavior probably caused by going hungry when she was feral. Next, we noticed the edge of her mouth was all red and covered with drool. We suspected an infected tooth or teeth; we also rightly suspected that she wouldn’t let us open her mouth for a look inside. A trip to the vet was scheduled for the next morning.

We both realized that getting our girl into her cat carrier the next morning was going to be extremely challenging. When she is frightened, Bea likes to hide way back in a tiny attic high above our big cat room. It’s reachable to us only if we use a ladder. So, using our “superior” human brains, we decided to sequester her for the night in a tiny room with no hiding places which is under the stairs and adjacent to the main cat room.

Early the next morning, shortly before her appointment, my husband went downstairs to get her. I then heard a voice calling up to me, “She’s vanished.” I raced down the stairs and, indeed, there was no Beatrix.

Not being believers in the paranormal, we were stunned. We tried to calm down and employ reason. That led to us noticing some three-inch triangular openings at the side of each step. Could she possibly have gotten inside the wall? I rushed into the garage,  got a ladder and took it into the main cat room where I could peer back into the little attic. A terrified Bea stared back at me. She had climbed up the inside of a wall which had fortuitously led to her favorite hiding place.

Beatrix arrived at her dental appointment a bit late, but all went well. Closing up both ends of her dangerous, nail-studded escape route is going to be a big job. But it is important to have one’s cats be safe and accessible at all times. Queen Bea is just going to have to deal with that.

I love my neighbor state of Minnesota for many reasons, but their keen appreciation of butter is high on my list. Where else can you watch ladies’ heads being carved out of giant blocks of butter?

Even though Covid has caused the mighty Minnesota State Fair to be canceled, one of its premier events will go forward virtually. For the 55th consecutive year, Princess Kay of the Milky Way and all nine of her princesses will have their butter portraits carved. Note that the “Milky Way” in the princesses’ title refers to dairy products, not stars. The princess pageant started in 1954; the butter heads idea began in 1965.

This stellar event is sponsored by the Minnesota dairy industry and it’s a big deal…a 900 pounds of Grade A salted butter deal. The butter sculptures are created in a 38 degree revolving glass booth so all the fairgoers can watch the artwork being created. (Except for this year when there will be no audience of fairgoers.)

For the past 48 years, a California artist, Linda Christensen, has made the carvings. This year, travel restrictions keep her from traveling to Minnesota, and her apprentice, Gerry Kulzer, will take up the daunting task of sculpting the ten butter busts. Although relieved that he won’t have thousands of people outside the glass walls watching his debut, he is concerned about getting frozen fingers.

At fair’s end, the ten dairy princesses get to keep their heads. Some chop them up and eat them. Rumor has it that one ex-princess still has her head in her freezer….50 years later.

My home state of Wisconsin has a dairy princess as well. She is called Alice in Dairyland, and she does not get her likeness sculpted in butter. Hopefully, she gets a few of the famous State Fair cream puffs for being a good girl and drinking buckets of milk.

One of my favorite quotations is a song lyric whose eight words are filled with reassurance: “The fundamental things apply as time goes by”.

This well-known adage comes from the song “As Time Goes By” which was sung by Dooley Wilson in the 1942 film, “Casablanca”. It was written in 1931 by Herman Hupfeld but did not gain fame until the Bogart/Bergman movie.

The song is a reminder that a few things are unchanging, at least in the short span of a human life. These things keep operating oblivious to our people problems such as Covid and Constitutional crises, and are like anti-venom for hard times.

Take the seasons, for example. They just keep coming round, each bringing unique joys. With summer in full bloom at this moment, the fields are patchworks of green and gardens are technicolor wonders.

And then there is music, the great lifter of spirits. Even in the worst of times, music always breaks through. Conversely, happy times become happier with the addition of music. Nietzsche summed it up concisely: “Without music life would be a mistake.”

Two more daily doses of joy are the sunrise and sunset. Being a night person, I’m a staunch member of The Sunset Club. I have a perfect view from my front deck; only the bagpiper is missing. My husband has MacGregor genes in his ancestry, but he has thus far resisted my suggestion that he should learn to play the pipes. The sun will still set. It’s fundamental.

Here’s a video taken from our front porch of a splendid performance by el sol (click photo to play).

Without a doubt, hummingbirds are tiny natural wonders. My home state of Wisconsin hosts one species, the ruby-throated hummingbird, and it is always thrilling to glimpse one darting about.

All hummers have an impressive array of features and feats. Here is a short list:

• Hummingbirds flap their wings an average of 50 times per second, but some species can reach an amazing 200 times per second.
• The heartbeat rate of hummers is 1,200 beats per minute.
• Hummingbirds can hover, fly forward, backward and even upside down.
• With the exception of insects, hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of all animals. To keep those little wings flapping, they must eat more than half their weight in nectar every day. If people had their metabolism, we would have to consume 155,000 calories a day.
• Ruby-throated hummingbirds make a 500 mile nonstop flight over the Gulf of Mexico at migration times.
• To save precious energy overnight, hummingbirds enter a hibernation-like sleep state called torpor.

In addition to all these talents, hummingbirds have the ability to see colors we cannot see. They can perceive ultraviolet light. Researchers in Colorado recently reported that these tiny birds pick up on multiple colors in the UV spectrum and use these colors to identify food sources.

There is one thing that hummingbirds do not excel at, and that is being nice. They are highly aggressive birds. I’ve witnessed their boundary disputes in the gigantic aviary at the Sonoran Desert Museum (really a Zoo). There are numerous hummer species in the enclosure, and those little flyers have it all staked out with their invisible boundary lines. Visitors only need a short viewing time to realize they are standing in the middle of multiple war zones.

In addition to defending territory from other hummers, these birds have also been known to attack hawks and crows. Now that is a true David vs Goliath scenario.

Leave it to the French, masters of joie de vivre, to create a burst of joy during these sober, Covid times.

French illustrator and graphic designer, Jean Jullien, is known for his popular drawings of gangly figures. This award winning , thirty-seven year old designer has a style that produces smiles from the young children who delight in his books and from grown ups in need of whimsey. Her are few examples of his witty drawings.

But now there is more. Jean Jullien has gone 3D. He’s been cutting out his charming characters from steel, bending them into interesting poses and painting them. Voila! His line drawings have turned into sculptures.

Four of his massive artworks are now mingling with nature in Le Jardin des Plantes in Nantes, France. Since travel to France is currently off limits to Americans, we have created a mini video of this mirth filled event. Take a Covid break; imagine strolling in these lovely gardens. Photos from Dezeen Daily