Saturday stuff...

The orange cat (Orange Kitty) was by the back door this morning when I walked into the kitchen. He's there every morning, quietly sitting on the door-mat, waiting for his breakfast. I've been keeping Gatsby inside the house at night, to give Orange Kitty a break from Gatsby's howling, and after the orange cat has his Meow Mix, I let Gatsby out onto the porch.  I have to say that Gatsby isn't chasing Orange Kitty off the porch anymore, but he is indeed 'staring him down' and letting that cat know who owns the porch.

The barn swallows have been unusually quiet this past week, after the debacle with the snake eating those baby birds in the corner nest, and then also killing one of the adult birds.  That particular nest is the biggest one on the porch, and none of the other birds are going near it, or even flying close to it. Staying away from the scene of the crime.  I've often seen nests that have broken in half and fallen onto the porch or into the flowerbeds. I had thought that those nests just weren't built strong enough, but now I'm thinking that a snake crawled up into those nests and their weight collapsed the nest.

The peacock (King George) hasn't been back to the house since the hay was mowed last week. Surely, he didn't like the sound of the mowers and the hay-balers.  I can still hear the peacock calling out for a mate from time to time, and friend J up the road has taken photos of King George as he crosses the road and pecks in the grass with the neighbor's chickens.

The local Farmers' Market has begun selling fruits and vegetables this weekend. The late frost destroyed a lot of the local plantings, and the torrential rains we had at the beginning of this month didn't help the farmers either. My husband usually goes to the Farmers' Market every weekend.... talks to the men there, picks out some fruits and vegetables from each of the vendors.... and talks about the weather.  The fruit prices in the supermarkets are off-the-charts lately, and most of the summer fruits are just sitting there. Who wants to pay eight dollars a pound for fresh cherries?  Or nearly three dollars a pound for nectarines?  There is a peach farm in one of the near-by towns, and we've gone there two years in a row when it's peach-picking time. In a couple of weeks, we'll be there again to pick our own peaches, and hopefully the per-pound price of their peaches won't be anywhere close to the prices in the supermarket.