Ann Seeber

I took the opportunity to get out and clean off my front porch which was coated with straw from the cat cabin which I have now relocated to my patio. I brought the plant that I just acquired at the garden center, from the patio to brighten up the porch. The porch is where I've been feeding the community cats twice a day. You can see Brandy 2 in the lower left corner of this shot from my overhead porch-cam, thinking she can stalk the birds. They were having none of it! LOL

They are very aware of threats and spook at everthing! We have cats and hawks galore and the ferals were here long before I was. There are several very large colonies in the neighborhood. My little crew of 7 or 8 is just a sampling. Here's an overhead porch-cam shot of Brandy on the lower far left trying to stalk birds. She's still too young to neuter and goes around chasing squirrels, birds and bugs but is only successful with bugs, so far! 😉

I might as well post this for July 7 - Week 26. I saw this little girl near my patio and was impressed with the feather pattern and general attitude. Looked it up and discovered a juvenile female Red-Winged Blackbird. They DO have attitude and I have quite a few here at my feeders. The males clash with the Red-Bellied Woodpecker, who tends to think he alone owns the suet feeder. She stays mostly on the ground.

@Daniel Hess It is there in my PSP2023 Preset Shapes folder. If it might not work in 2023 I can move it to 2022 ... I think I'll try that. OK, that worked! Thanks Daniel.

@Daniel Hess I put the file in the Preset Shapes folder as you suggested but I don't see how to bring the shapes up. They don't show up in my PSP 2023 Preset Shapes. I can see the ones I put there from the class but not your map. Do you have a suggestion?

Got it! Thank you. I did have to copy/paste as the link also gave me the "unsecure" flag. Thanks again, Daniel.

@Daniel Hess When I clicked on your link, this is what I got...

Here is my Wild Cat Calendar for July 2024. The month and year are in Babilonia font. Everything else is in Agency. Someone posted this story and two photos on my Facebook feed a few weeks ago. I have posted the larger version in the Files section at the top of our Scrapbooking with Paintshop Pro group there.

I asked at the garden center FAQ and "lice" is looked at as "aphids" here. Possibly a European term for the same insect? When I had to deal with my girls coming home from first grade with a "lice infestation" in their hair I didn't see it as "aphids." In fact, I also had an infestation of aphids on my indoor succulents a few years ago. Oh, I just found it. The government of Canada has the answer: Plant lice = aphids

Week 26 - I had a surprise visitor. On June 25th, the rescue came, and we managed to trap 4 of my outside cats so they could be vet checked, neutered and vaccinated. Among them was the young, female tortoiseshell I call Brandy. I had hoped to get her as she is too thin and young to be out on her own. When the rescue evaluated her, they decided to put her in foster care as she seems to be a good candidate to become a house-pet. The other 3 (all males) were returned to me on June 27th and when released scattered to the far winds! Hopefully, I opened the door early the following morning, to see if any of the returned crew would show up for breakfast. And there was the big black male I called Batman and also little female tortoiseshell Brandy! Say, what?? Did she escape? Turns out, Brandy has a doppelganger... Truly identical twin... I may have been feeding both all along and not realized there were two!! Actually, I am really pleased as I was fond of Brandy and don't feel like I've lost her to foster. Her sister is a very good replacement. We won't be trapping again for a while based on 1) not triggering the cats so soon after the last go round and 2) the vet is at the local Animal Rights Alliance (T.A.R.A.) and will only take 6 at a time and we have to get in line for appointments. My feature this week is Brandy - Number 2.

Wow, this is beautiful, Anja! An inspiration...

Suz, it's a Layer thing, not a Tool thing...

Hi Daniel - Carole explained that the Lock keeps the transparency and lets the "paint" focus on the object alone. Be sure to undo the lock. It can make problems further along... hth

Actually, I'm now feeding seven outside cats twice a day so any hunting they do is a supplement. We just trapped four of them: 3 boys were neutered and returned here. I have a "cat cabin" filled with straw on my front porch where I feed them, so they do have shelter even though the porch is also covered. The leftover female, Brandi, is still too young to spay so they're putting her in foster in hopes to domesticate her as she's quite friendly. I still have 3 more to trap including a surprise twin to Brandi that I'm calling Randi. It looks like i may have been feeding both all along and not realizing there were twins in the mix. Predators are mostly raccoons that do threaten newborn kittens. The rescue moves fast when they hear of a litter. No coyotes, thank goodness! I remember your neighbor's cat with the "sexy tail" from the last vector class! LOL

on this topic, I'm involved with TNR which is Trap/Neuter/Release of stray community cats that can never live indoors. When teaching kittens (who are able to be domesticated when they're young) to use a litter box, it is recommended to first use organic potting soil, which is similar to being outdoors. I know most cats prefer to be clean and I wonder if your local cat would use a litter pan instead of the garden if it had garden soil in it? They tend to prefer the confined space, which is why they love kids' sandboxes, too. You could add sand to it, and that might even be better and keep the cat out of your garden. Just slowly nudge it away a little further every day and before you know it your garden will be cat-free!😽

Yeah, I love it, too!

Cute!

W = The Williams Pear is another name for the Bartlett Pear in the USA and Canada.

Well, I took the quiz, and my score was 6/10. Oh, well, I'm working on it. 😉

Man, I'm confused. Except for the post by Alicia Garbelman above ^^ the rest of the page is from last year (2023) ???

P = Pawpaw

Chippie considers him/herself quite photogenic!

Suz, from here it looks like the background color varies and that exact spot is close to the color of the text. Possibly??

Oh, wow, I didn't know this. I also hadn't noticed that my anti-alias would stop working spontaneously from time to time. I do take special care with the settings for the Pick Tool which seem to change without warning. I've also realized it may depend on if I just used a script as they do change settings without warning.

Although I curse out the mess underfoot that the Canada Geese leave under my dead cherry tree, now that they've migrated, I miss them. This was last week and now they're all gone for the summer.