Recent Evenings & Enjoyment

Silkie and I have done some rearranging of our evening patterns, routines, and rituals.

Partly that is because of the upcoming July 4th fireworks activities, which have already been sounding their impending approach, and partly because of the heat out on the back cement driveway.

One routine is her last visit outdoors for the day and/or night. Usually that is around 6 pm except in the summer. We have been in triple digits for over a week now, and it's too hot for her out on that cement driveway. It is still heavy with the heat of the day at that time. So we've begun to sit on the front porch around 7 pm. The porch is of course elevated and the indoor/outdoor somewhat shabby carpeting is so much cooler than the hot cement on the drive. I take out a little rug piece and one of her catnip toys, I sprinkle a pinch of catnip out there, prop open the screen door, and she enjoys the evening breeze and I enjoy sitting on a white rocker I picked up in here two years ago at one of our yard sales for only $25 bucks. Sometimes while I'm sitting, I crochet; other times, I begin my evening prayers. But we've been enjoying it.

I hope to put a pot or two of kitty grass out there this weekend and a small rag throw rug for her. She loves crumpling up those rag throw rugs and pushing them into pillow-mounds to rest her head on.

The other routine is our brushing in the living room before she goes to sleep. It's our quality time. But some area neighborhood residents nearby have already been popping off those fireworks, sporadically, as soon as it gets dark. So instead of waiting until 9-ish or later, I've been going in at 8 or 8:30. That way she is brushed, we've chatted and sometimes I sing to her, and she's had her final round of munchies. If the random fireworks sounds then go off, she hies herself hither into a corner of a center area of the house until they stop. But at least I know she's happier that she has not missed her quality time.

I'm not sure which of us is enjoying those front porch sessions more, though. I know it will not last because our monsoon season hits in July and we have downpours that will make that routine impossible, but for now, rolling along...