Let Me Introduce .... Montgomery C Cat aka Monty

You see, it's been six months since our gorgeous old Jarmie left and Max was lonely.  A work colleague volunteers at the local Animal Protection Society and she has been taking to me for ages and ages about fostering a cat (plus the beautiful Kristin from Wanderlust) has been sharing so many photos of the different beautiful cats she has been fostering on facebook that we finally did it.

We decided not to foster but to adopt.  I went along thinking I was going to bring home a ginger tabby, I have been craving a ginger tabby for ages and yes there were a couple of beautiful boys there but they were just too large for Max.  Max is a small cat and I didn't want the new cat to overpower him in size.

There were also some beautiful tortoiseshell cats that I loved but none of them connected with hubby and me.

So after more than an hour of siting with, touching, watching many, many, many cats, I was starting to despair that we would find a companion for Max.

Then I happend to walk into the last large room that the cats could sleep in, it was mostly empty but I suddenly spied a little silver tabby, curled up asleep on a tower.  Now I didn't want another grey/silver tabby as that's what Max is, but there was something about this little sleeping bundle that drew me over to him.  I gently touched his foot and one eye opened and then he started to purr.  The loudest purr I have ever heard.  He jumped up and virtually landed in my arms, put his head on my shoulder and looked at me with his large eyes and that was it.  He was ours.  He bought tears to my eyes and I walked out and said to hubby, it's this one. And he had a little tear as well and said yep, that's the one!

I'm sure the volunteers thought we were strange, but there is something about this little cat that reminds me of Jarmie.  The fact he was born only days after Jarmie left this earth has me wondering about the possibilities of a little bit of Jarmie being there within his soul.  I know, I'm weird!!

He is going to be a big lanky cat, he's got big feet and long legs and the longest, longest tail you have ever seen.  But he is just the right fit, small enough now for Max to be the boss, but with enough spirit that he won't let Max dominate him and eventually be big enough to stand up to Max if he needs to.

We pondered over a name for days.  He has an M on his forehead just like Max, so I wanted an M name.  Lots of facebook friends and family came up with suggestions and we nearly settled on Milo, but for personal reasons decided that wasn't the right name.  So we officially registered him at our vet today as Montgomery C Cat.

He and Max have taken a day or two to bond, Max being a little put out, and Monty not really caring if Max hissed at him once or twice.  Monty has an extremely laid back attitude to life and is the perfect spoil for over sensitive Max.

It's nice to come home and find the two boys waiting for us now, to see them playing chasey down the hall and around the corner down the other hall.  To hear Monty's loud purr every time you pick him up or touch him.  I'm waiting for the day when I find them curled up together on a bed or a chair, then I will know that the bond is complete.

Thanks Monty for choosing us, we feel very priviledged to have you in our home.

Thanks for popping by xxx

Now For Something A Little Different

It seems my last few posts have been very much about my health, my weight loss and my bariatric surgery, so now for something a little different, cause there are lots of other things that have been happening in my life.

So what's been happening in these parts in 2013?  We can start with my surgery in Jan and then move quickly to the 4th Feb, the first day back at work post op in fact.  Well, on that day some not very nice people decided to break into our home and trash and steal, kick in doors, break windows and generally make themselves at home.  I was the person to arrive home and see the door off our carport swinging in the breeze, and following our burglary last September I kinda knew what that meant.  The neighbours across the road where almost on me before I had a chance to get out of my car, as it seems they came home and disturbed the low-lives (there were 2 of them) who then casually drove off and waved.

Needless to say, it was a little devastating, all my replacement jewellery was gone, my DSLR and point and shoot cameras (and hubby's point and shoot Christmas present as well), my iPad, my iPod and our laptop.  The front door was kicked in, the bedroom window smashed and the carport door damaged as well.   The insurance company was less than useless and it is only this week that we have finally got everything replaced and this was with me having a major meltdown on the phone to them over 2 weeks ago.  Even when we rang them on the day it was going to take them a week to send someone out to  fix the doors and windows, so we had to organise that ourselves and then they quibbled over the price.  Seriously our house was not secure!  On a lighter note, cause there has to be one doesn't there, just to stay sane - we also found that they were very hungry burglars, taking ice creams, bananas, iced coffee, and some diced fruit in natural juice from the pantry.

Then lo and behold 8 days later the crap heads were back to make more mess and take the TV, smash another window and scarily they came in with a key this time.  The whole window smashing was a ruse to cover the fact.  But it was fairly obvious that the window was broken from inside to outside this time, unlike the week before, so all the locks had to be changed - again (had them all done in Sept 12)

So nearly $10,000 later we now have security cameras, a monitored alarm system, security film on the windows, solid core doors with deadbolts on all 4 external doors and 2 new three pin lock security doors.  We live in a prison to keep the crims out, nice world isn't it?

The worst thing of it all though, has been how traumatised Max has been by it all, he still continues to cower if there are any loud noises or races for cover if someone new comes into our house.  This has of course been exacerbated by our renovations.  Yes that's right, all of this has since been followed by a bathroom renovation, a huge new patio constructed out the back, a new built in bookcase and a scrapbooking nook in my study, oh and new floor covering throughout the whole house.  Gluttons for punishment aren't we?

My poor hubby has lost 10kgs in weight, moving all the furniture countless time to paint walls, ceilings, cornices and skirting boards, put it all back only to move it again totally when the carpet and vinyl went down.  He is now down to his pre-wedding weight way back in 1977, I on the other hand have to have major surgery to lose any weight at all, gotta laugh at that.

Today marks the penultimate chore in the bathroom, the roof has been painted, now we just wait for the glass for the shower screen and the mirror and it's all done.  Was supposed to take 2 weeks, and we are up to week 4 or is it 5 with no end date in sight - sigh.  But it is looking good and when it is finished I will post photos.

You may remember I posted about my green cocoon, well it is even more green now, as two of my study walls are a glorious deep limey green, I just love it.

So without further ado, here are some photos of the scrapbooking nook in my study.

Pic on the left shows the desktop away and on the right with it out.  It is a great invention that allows me to work and then pop the desktop back out of the way when I am either not using it or part way through a project.  No more having to put everything away every evening.

Strangely though, I am overwhelmed thinking about which project to start with.  I have so many photos, so many empty albums and so much scrapbooking paraphernalia that it is sort of scary.  My daughter says to choose one small project and start there, so maybe that's what I will do this weekend.

But my newest favourite space in our house is my floor to ceiling built in bookcase.  I love books, I love to read, I love to keep my favourite authors books.  My shelves are still overflowing even though I have given so many books away over the years.  Rows and rows filled with Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, Alex Kava, Dean Koontz, Stephen King and James Patterson to name a few.  My knick knacks have found a home there as well as my gorgeous Enjoy Lighting candles.  Every night they light up on their timers and cast a beautiful glow down the hall, even hubby is loving them.  I wish I could curl up right inside my bookcase but instead I can enjoy looking at it each time I walk down the hall, or lie in bed as it lies just outside our spare bedroom where I seem to spend so many of my nights now (better for my back and mental health than sleeping with hubby and his snoring, sorry honey).

Sorry about the quality, is is grainy as I had to have the flash off to get the glow effect, I just love these candles.

left is looking up the hall and right is looking down toward the backyard and our new security door

Some of the shelves, knick knacks and all

Hubby and I have also just sent off to renew our passports so we can be part of the wedding celebrations in Seattle as my daughter marries the love of her life, can't wait to meet Kam and her daughter Kiera and Kam's parents.  Going to be a few emotional and fantastic days in September.  USA, here we come.

So all in all, a busy and somewhat stressful start to 2013 and we are only just of a quarter of the way through the year.  Still I can only see good things ahead, some time relaxing in our new patio, having a wonderful new bathroom and scrapbooking and reading to my hearts content.

Thanks for popping by xxx

Healthy Gardens - One of our frogs

Hubby was out reorgansing his orchids the other day when I heard him shout - bring the camera.

Every year we find a couple of lovely frogs hiding somewhere in the orchids. Here is the latest one - isn't he a beauty?

I am sure he is smiling in one photo - happy little frog!

Motorbike Frog - Litoria moorei

Find our more about frogs of WA here - click on the frog sound button and enjoy the chorus we regularly hear in our backyard.

Just Beautiful

We have some lovely orchids on our patio and as usual this year there are many beauties flowering. The one I love the most is this lime with pink centre which finally flowered again this year, it has been around 5 years since she last shared her beauty with me, isn't she beautiful? Last time we got 5 spikes of blooms but this year only 2, still I am not complaining as she is just so beautiful.

Here are some of the others lovelies out at the moment, they are pretty special too.

My hubby deserves all the credit for these, all I have to do is buy them and then admire them, which I do often, it is hard not too. I even like it when they are just lush green leaves.

On Tuesday we went to Ezi Grow Orchid Nursery in Darch (Western Australia) and got 4 more beauties - just loving the two variations of soft white, one with a pink centre and one with a yellow centre and then the yellow with the vibrant orange tongue is absolutely stunning, hubby chose the more subdued but equally lovely brown one.

This post is not sponsored, but I must say, it is an amazing nursery with great, helpful staff and very reasonable prices.

Our New Kitchen and A Question

Finally after 33 years in our home (built in the 70s which is also when we moved in) we are getting a new kitchen. The old one is on its last legs and has been for years, but kitchens are expensive and so we have had to wait until now.

The area is not very large and so when we looked at Ikea kitchens we realised that the 600mm wide benches were too wide for us. This meant we had to go to a kitchen fabricator and obviously this increases the price.

The wall between the lounge and kitchen is being removed to open the space and I can not wait to move our house into the new century.

The first image is looking back into the kitchen from the lounge over the new breakfast bar, obviously there is not blank space to the left but that is were the door to the laundry is. The 2 white areas are windows on the external walls of the house.


We have chosen to go white - bright white acrylic benchtops with white gloss doors and drawer fronts, stainless steel under bench oven with a black ceramic cooktop. Our new fridge and microwave are also stainless steel. We are having glass splashbacks and this is were the question comes in - what colour? I am loving the thought of lime green or orange as a tribute to the 70s (given that those colours were huge in 70s kitchens in Aus - although our current old kitchen is neither of those colours). What do you think? Should I be brave and go bright or should I be careful and stay with white or frosted glass.

Kitchen is due to be started in mid August and will take 3-4 weeks to be functional, so not looking forward to cooking only microwave foods and doing the dishes in the bathroom or a bucket, but so pumped about finally having a new kitchen. Oh and did I mention, that the benchtops are being raised as well to help with my bad back? Maybe I will get back into cooking - or maybe not - who am I kidding, but doing the dishes will be helps easier and less strain on my back.