“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It Goes On.”
Robert Frost

Friday, January 31, 2014

The Playhouse

As a child, did you ever have a playhouse or treehouse?

When I was little, about 7 or 8, I had an actual house for a playhouse. Our family farm had a one bedroom house set several hundred feet away from the main house behind some trees. It had been built back in the early 1900's for the farm-hand to live in. It had no indoor plumbing, but it did have a sink (the water was caught underneath in a bucket). There was a hand pump outside for water. It also had an outhouse. The house was occupied most of the time up until the mid 1950's and then rendered vacant for a decade or so.  It was finally sold to a neighbor and was moved and turned into a small lake cabin.

During it's vacant period, my cousin and I transformed it into a very fine playhouse for a couple of summers. My cousin was older than me and was good at improvising, we scrounged a few odds and ends from the house that my mother let us have. The cats and dogs were our kids and we had a grand old time in there. We did lots of pretending and dreaming there, many fantasy cakes and cookies and fabulous fun was had!

We were already re-purposing and recycling before it was trendy and I don't think we ever uttered the words, "We're Bored!" once. It was the best playhouse ever!  I think my mother loved it; we were not underfoot and she knew we were safe and occupied!

The sweet little poem below sparked my memory of my playhouse, I hope you enjoy it and the cute illustrations by Lois Maloy.




Tell me about your playhouse! ~ Diane



Friday, January 24, 2014

All Cats Go to Heaven


I want to thank all of you that left such kind words of sympathy and comfort for me.  It has been a rough couple of weeks for the kitties and me.  Guy has especially been missing Ginny and I have given him more attention and cuddles than usual.  He seems to be his fun-loving self today.  I am taking my cue from him and am trying to move on and get into a new routine without our darling Ginny.

Next week sometime I will get back to regular blogging about cute stuff, but I wanted to share one more post about my thoughts on this event.  Some of you may think me crazy, but I dearly love my kitties and would do almost anything for them. 

Ginny had been in advancing hospice care in our household for some time, in the past two weeks her condition worsened and her care needs accelerated to the point where she needed almost constant attention.  We knew her passing was near and spent time with her in our basement, placing her in her favorite chair. She spent most of the time sleeping, but some just resting,  occasionally she would seem to have some distress, trouble breathing or some pain and I wanted to be there to comfort her.  So for her last few days, I spent most of the time with her. 

Part of the time I spent reading to her, it seemed to calm her to hear my voice and it calmed me to be taken to another place for a few minutes to escape some of my grief.  The excerpt below is from a vintage book I own called All Cats Go to Heaven, written by Beth Brown and illustrated by Peggy Bacon. It was published in 1960 and is an anthology of stories about cats complied by Beth Brown. This is one of the books I read stories from.  After reading this story I love imagining my little Ginny flying off to a new world to meet up with her best friend Cocoa.  I hope you enjoy the photo and the passage from the book further below.

Thank you again dear friends. ~~ Diane











"It happened so suddenly.

One moment ago, she was there.  And now she was here.
She had felt no pain, no fear, just the slightest twinge as her shoulders sprouted into wings and the wings lifted her up from the city street, carried her like an autumn leaf high into the sky, sent her whirling through a long, strange tunnel -- and now settled her down in this unfamiliar place, her four paws planted in fog.

There was fog all around her like a sea of surging gray, fearful yet wonderful to her aching senses, particularly to the broken bones in her body.

She drew a deep breath.  Was, this death, she wondered, a matter the cats often discussed as they gathered in the gutters of an evening?  Was she finished with life forever?

Where was she?  She had never felt so lonely.  She had never heard silence so loud.

Then, off in the distance, the mist began lifting, cleaving the blue sky from the green earth.  An eerie glow filled the firmament,  And, suddenly, the blaze of morning lighted the universe and Tatters found herself standing before two immense bronze gates leading to another world, mysterious beyond measure.

She caught a glimpse of blooming tree tops.  The heavenly odor of new-cut grass perfumed the air.  Perhaps these were the green pastures of promise beside the still waters for those who passed on.

No sound came to her ears.  Not a sign of life stirred anywhere.  Yet reality was everywhere.  The gates were real.  The sky was sky.  And the earth had become brown and solid underfoot......."
 from All Cats Go to Heaven by Beth Brown