Home-makers

Hi everyone. Like many of you I am sure, I consider myself to be a home-maker, and although we are pretty much sorted in our new home now, I still rearrange things if I think it will be more comfortable or convenient for us. But today I have been busy with a different sort of homemaking, because I have been preparing a 'home' for my new little kitten which I hope to collect tomorrow afternoon. Because I will need to keep him indoors until he has at least had his first round of injections at the end of next week, and because I spend a lot of time there and will be able to keep an eye on him, I am going to make my craft room his home for the time being. So I have bought him a soft padded bed, a litter tray and a big bag of kitten food. I expect he'll be happy to stretch out on the stone floor as it gets hotter, but at first he will miss the warmth and company of the rest of his litter, and the dog that has been his foster mum since he was abandonned at around four weeks old. (You can see more details of this in a previous blog). He will still fit into the bed when he is an adult cat, and he'll be glad enough of it when next winter comes around, and the stone floors are again very cold! I don't expect he will like the dry kitten food very much either as he has been weaned from milk onto ordinary cat meat, but the dry food is healthier for him and will not attract the ants as much as meat would, so I want him to have it all the time. I'll soak it for him while he is tiny, and mix a little meat into it until he is used to it. I also visited the vet today. He was a very pleasant man, and fortunately he speaks good English. So I was able to find out what is leagally required for a cat here (microchip and rabies injection), and what else is advisable. It will be nice to have a cat about the place again.
Out in the garden, home-makers of a different kind have been busy. I first spotted this wasp nest last week. It is in a small potted tree, and it is only tiny, about the size of a walnut. I cannot decide whether the wasps are just building it, renovating an old one, or are busy laying eggs in it. I only saw two wasps on it the first time, but there are now several more and quite a few cells seem to be occupied this evening. They are not the sort of wasps we have in England, and as they haven't bothered us when we have been eating outside, I have left them alone. It is such a beautiful construction, it would be a shame to spoil it, but if it gets any bigger I may have to think again.

One other thing I have been keeping an eye on in the garden is this palm tree which suddenly produced a flower stem. It has grown so quickly and now it is opening up it is really pretty close-up. I have been watering the trees fairly regularly as none of them are in a very big pot, and this one obviously liked that and has rewarded us with a flower. Just another little surprise for us to enjoy.