Newport leftovers

This will be my final Newport post. It's a few somewhat unusual photos that didn't fit anywhere else.

The first picture is unusual just in that it doesn't get to happen very often. :)

Here we have a fake (I think) owl, presumably put there to keep other birds (the multitudinous starlings, perhaps?) or maybe bats(?) away. I wonder if it works.

What is this horse-head thing - a hitching post? Or just a good place to plant a vine?

Watertower Square. Okaaaay. I guess it's office space.

Then there was this lovely tree with the pink and brown leaves!

Sooo pretty, right? Some Google searching finally informed me that it's a Tri-Color Beech tree. Have you ever seen one before? I hadn't. I love it!

This 'thing' below is some kind of evergreen plant that's been trained to twist around itself. Or something. We saw a couple different ones of these. I didn't take the time to search for what it might be.

Now below is a really strange sight. It left us confused.

Take a closer look:

Yeah, it's wires. Why???

One final photo. It's one I didn't take. I found it in my camera. Hmm...

A visitor in the garden

I walked out to check on the garden a couple mornings ago, and a slight movement caught my eye. I saw what it was, and then went to the house for the camera. When I got back to the garden, this is how I found it.

It had its head tucked under its wing and was napping!

I accidentally made a noise and it woke up.

It was a chipping sparrow.

The morning was cool and misty, and the little birdie was quite puffed up against the chill.

It looked like an adult bird, but it apparently couldn't fly for some reason.

It was just lucky that no cats had followed me out there!

Dogs of Newport

As we were walking along, we were serenaded by this big guy. He wasn't the friendliest chap around. Let's just say I'm glad there was a fence between him and us. But then when I got the camera ready to snap a pic of his fierceness, he walked away. Ha.

This little cutie was much more friendly. So was its owner. When she saw I had a camera, she told me to take a picture of her dog. So I did!

Next door was a rather bored? lazy? relaxed-looking dog who didn't seem to mind our presence at all.

Just cute.

We met a few dogs on the sidewalks with their owners, too, but they were moving too much for photos. :)

10 days old

Rainbow's babies are doing very well. They're growing quickly and getting their eyes open. Such a nice little pile of softness.

One of them's kinda sassy. She likes to hiss at me. See?

This innocent face hissing?

YEP! Pretty fierce, she is.

Well, 'pretty', anyway. ;)

Some distinguishing markings are beginning to show up on the white ones. If you look carefully at the center of the pile below, you'll see a little grayish ear. And that tail ending at the calico's nose is kind of gray, too. I'm not sure if it's on the same body as the gray ear or not, though. :) That white head on the left may end up with orange ears. Or white.

I'll keep ya posted.....

Newport's York St. Cafe

We ate out at several different places while we were with Jess & Alex. The most interesting was the York St. Cafe. The food was great, and the walls were lined with shelves and shelves of memorabilia. It was fun to just sit and gaze at all the stuff.

The light fixture was kinda cool, too.

Here's some more 'stuff':

Alongside our table was another wall of shelved old stuff. Grandpa's eye caught sight of a "rhubarb extract" bottle. It eventually led to our getting acquainted with our very personable waiter who turned out to be originally from Minnesota, and he told us how much he'd enjoyed rhubarb as a kid and how he missed it because nobody raised it in Newport. Well, we just happened to have brought a whole bunch of it along for Jess & Alex... and that waiter was mighty surprised when Jess and Grandpa returned to the cafe with some of it for him later that afternoon. :)

Flowers of Newport

Along our walk, we saw lots of beautiful flowers...

Peonies:

And roses - lots and lots of roses that just begged to be photographed:

Some pansies in a planter also caught my eye:

These were really thick and pretty, but I don't know what they were. They covered a large area. The sun on the white didn't make for the best photo, though:

I don't know what these were, either, but they were dainty and cute:

Update: The flowers above have been identified (thanks, Kris!) as Evening Primrose (top) and Hardy Geranium (bottom).

These newly planted begonias are already pretty, but they're going to be 'gorgeous' when they really get going:

Yep, I helped plant those... and can't wait to see how they look in a month or so! I have it on good authority that the hydrangea bushes we planted are putting out buds - yay!

The woodruff we planted behind the hostas below is hopefully going to spread and fill in a good-sized area. The tiny white flowers smell divine!

I told Jess she must give me progress reports on how everything is doing. Maybe she'll send some lovely photos I can share with you. :)

Happy news/sad news

I mentioned (I think just in the comments) a few days ago that Miss Haily was AWOL. I hadn't seen her since our return from Cincinnati, and I'd about given up hope for her. However, yesterday morning when I went out to feed all the cats, there she sat in the "window" of the hog barn, waiting for breakfast just like normal. And boy, was she hungry! She was hungry for food, and hungry for lovin', and she couldn't seem to decide which she wanted most. :) She was apparently very happy to be back home, and she was purring up a storm! She'd lost a little weight (which she could easily afford) but otherwise seemed fine. I wonder where she'd been, and if possibly she'd left because I was gone. I'll never know. But here she is, quite contented again on the deck:

And back in her favorite pose:

That was the happy news.

The very sad news is that a couple of nights ago Cottonball got attacked by a raccoon and was mauled so badly that we had to put her out of her misery. I'll spare you the details, but I know what happened because I saw it... ON OUR DECK! The 'coon unfortunately got away. It hadn't acted sick or anything - it had been getting a drink out of the birdbath just a while earlier - and the way it ran off when Grandpa went after it, it didn't seem like it would've been rabid. So I did a little googling to see if raccoons actually do kill cats... and I found, much to my surprise, that they DO! They will eat anything. So now I have one more predator to worry about with my cats. Aargh.

And poor little Cottonball. So awful. So sad.

Here's my last photo of her, taken before we left for Cincinnati. She was peeking in the garage door, hoping I'd let her in.

Well, I can't leave you with that. So here's one more photo to brighten your day back up. My beautiful Autumn, in all her kitty glory. :)

Of course, now I'll be forever worried about her...... But hopefully she'll grow up to be as savvy and smart and long-lived as her mama is.

Houses of Newport

While we were at Jess & Alex's, we took a walk one evening and I took lots of photos. First I'll show you some of the houses/buildings. I love the variety and interestingness!