pause, observe, alert!
feline surveys her queendom
sentry on duty
sentry by Angie Quantrell
Monet in the Yakima Valley
Haiku Moment: sentry
Tag Archives: Monet
OH, THE THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH HAIKU! (+ WHO WON THE GIVEAWAY?)
Thank you, Danna Smith, for sharing all about haiku last week in a very special blog post. You can read it here. Danna has offered a giveaway of 2 (TWO!) of her Poetry Pop Journals! Wow!
But first. I had to play. I used the template Danna shared and penned a haiku comic. Sadly, you have to use your imagination to understand the drawings, and it was much harder to print small words than it looks! This is Monet, our cat. She loves the garden and watching moving things. I assure you, she is much prettier in real life.
In case you can’t read the print, here is my haiku comic:
Monet writes a haiku.
hot summer bees buzz
zig-zag garden rocket ships
orbiting flowers
Now that was fun! We would LOVE to read your haiku! Post one in the comments or tag us with #haikumoment so we can find you!
Drum roll, please.
The winner (with assistant Monet) of the Poetry Pop journals is:
It got a little dicey after this, because then Monet wanted to play a paper game.
Alyson, come on down! You are the winner of 2 Poetry Pop journals!
Thanks, everyone, for reading and participating in the fun. And thank you, Danna, for the word play fun and inspiration!
Now, let’s all go HAIKU!
Haiku Moment: mine
this lap is mine, mine,
mine, mine, mine. I will not share.
go away. my lap
mine by Angie Quantrell
Monet claims her favorite lap. And her beloved human. (Not me).
Haiku Moment: playtime
i often wonder
why the couch looks like this-yikes-
playtime strikes again
playtime by Angie Quantrell
inspiration: Monet, destroyer of couch and assorted other household locations
I woke up one morning composing this haiku in my head. I was literally playing with words and counting out lines while I was in that between fully asleep and fully awake stage. That’s never happened before. I grabbed for my phone to take notes before my eyes were even fully open. LOL. My honey thought something was wrong, I grabbed the phone so fast.
Have you ever sleep-dreamed a poem or story idea?
Monet would like to know. And wonders if you have a couch she can destroy, or at the least, rearrange.
Haiku Moment: tasty bird
move! gotta see, look!
time for hunting, you’re blocking-
where’s that tasty bird?
tasty bird by Angie Quantrell
Monet, the hunter
Yakima Valley
Gardening Day #summer
Gardening day began early since the heat was headed up to the triple digits. Monet LOVES when mama works in the garden. She is often on guard. Or supervising. The fence is new from the middle of last year’s garden, and it seems to be doing a wonderful job of keeping wild bunnies from free-grazing the crops.
First up was harvesting about half of the onions. They are de-greened (I’m sure there is a fancy name for that) and drying in the shop. Only one has gone to seed!
The carrots are doing well. Last year, the wild bunnies* ate off the tops as fast as they grew. I didn’t get anything but stringy roots. This year, ta-da! Now. Next year’s goal is to THIN them so I can get normal carrots. I think of all the crops growing in the garden, freshly harvested carrots smell the best. Mmmmm.
It got hot fast. Monet and I recovered in the breakfast nook aka shade patio west of the sunflowers. The mornings are lovely in this spot. The afternoons are brutal. Bountiful SUN. For the sunflowers.
“We” (Monet???) also harvested another large bowl of peas, 4 zucchini (2 days ago, I only saw 1), and wax and green beans. Tomatoes are coming. The kale is doing fine. Herbs are great. Sadly, there’s a bumper crop of weeds, especially crab grass. Yuck. I harvested a wheelbarrow full of weeds as well.
Now we’re hiding from the sun. But I’m thinking a swim with the grands would be a good fit.
How’s your garden doing this year? How are you staying cool?
*Our wild bunnies came from people dumping “formerly pet” bunnies in the neighborhood. They are adorable when small, but destructive when adults. Digging holes, eating everything, attracting predators, and reproducing like crazy.
Two things.
- People. Both does and bucks can be altered by a veterinarian! I did not know that, but now I do. The “neighbors” have six pet bunnies and all but one have been spayed or neutered. Practice crowd control.
- People. Life in the wild is fraught with predators. We have personally witnessed a run-by cat (not Monet) who snatches baby bunnies and hauls them off for a meal. This happened several times. There is a hawk nest not too far away, and every year the parents raise one or two baby hawks. The raising involves teaching them to hunt. Guess what they hunt? Bunnies. I once saw something weird over the fence and went to investigate. A hawk had landed on a baby bunny. I scared it off and the bunny ran off. It was okay, but later a cat got it. Before you commit to having a pet bunny, remember how long they live. Don’t be a dumper.
From the Cat: Happy New Year!
Monet wanted me to send out her greetings and wishes for a wonderful and joyful new year!
From her humans (aka slaves), we also hope you have a beautiful 2023!
Haiku Moment: puzzle time
cat must bathe upon
table top work-in-progress
pieces here and there
puzzle time by Angie Quantrell
feline model and puzzle assistant: Monet
Haiku Moment: distraction
mom feathers afluff
dad’s piercing cry, distracting
leads astray, away
distraction by Angie Quantrell
photos by Angie Quantrell, a pasture somewhere in the Yakima Valley
This scene took place yesterday after 2 killdeer parents escorted their 3 remaining offspring (they usually lay 4 eggs at a time) right to the RV. I heard loud piercing cries, looked out the side window and there they were, tiny stick-legged babies. Perfectly placed for capture by our magnificent hunter cat, Monet. EEK. Good thing for them, Monet was inside napping. Also, good thing for them, I went racing out to try and shoo them away.
Which was not as easy as one would expect! What with the babies racing in opposite directions (from me and each other) and the parents doing the same, attempting to distract me from the babies. 30 minutes. It took that long to figure out how to get them all close to the horse pasture next to us and hopefully far enough from monster cat to survive.
But along the way, such cuteness and fierce protection from the parents! One parent actually took a dive at me, though my best intentions were to save them. The giant person was threatening.
#lifeinthepasture
It’s a bit blurry (they move fast), but can you spot 3 babies?
Kitty Bioré Strips for Shedding Season
What do furry kitties and people noses have in common?
Both sometimes need de-furring (or de-zitting). I doubt that last is an actual word. But you know what I mean.
I’ve personally used the Bioré strips on multiple occasions, to some success. But after a week of so of poofs of kitty fur falling from Monet (our hunting monster girl cat) and floating around the RV, I was getting pretty tired of wearing gray itchy hair.
After one snuggle session, I accidentally wiped my fur-covered hands on my navy shorts. Oops. So off I went to get the lint strips, which quickly took care of the problem.
. . .
And then. Could it be that easy? Let’s try and find out. (With Monet, this is risky business, trying stuff like sticky lint strips on her body. I could be putting myself in the way of scratches, bites, or hisses. Such is the personality of Her Highness.)
. . .
But it worked! For a few times. And then she was done. But oh, the wonder and delight of cat-ching that much fur before it was displayed around the RV.
Go ahead. Try some kitty Bioré strips this shedding season. Let me know how it goes.
Love, Laughter, and Life 
