Sweet Pea

There is a tortie cat in this video that is not Sweet Pea.

My Anna's Sweet Pea passed today. Anna shared an iPhone Pet Friends video of Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea has been ill with diabetes for about two years. Anna and Aaron have worked closely with their veterinarian all this time.

Sweet Pea came to Anna in 2008 on a Hartford, Connecticut city street. A drug dealer had a kitten and wanted Anna to buy her from him. Anna said fine, she'd pay and the addict handed the kitten to her. Anna then walked away without paying. He threatened her but she said loudly so all could hear, "I've rescued this cat from you, you motherfucker. Get the fuck away from us." Anna is my formidable daughter. 

Sweet Pea has been with her ever since. 

🌈💔 Rest gently, Sweet Pea. We all love you. 🌈 💔

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Happy Tuesday: The Happy Devil Puppies

Stewie demands scratches.

My daughter, Anna, and her husband Aaron rescued these sibling long-haired Chihuahuas as babies; they call them the devil puppies. The abuse, physical and emotional, that they suffered was severe enough that the effects will probably linger forever. They are happy now and feel secure and loved. But they are a tad demanding!

Milo demands kisses.

I hope their happiness infects us all.

Click for more happiness

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New Haven: An Oil Tanker

Tanker leaving New Haven Harbor in November

After Toni's moving funeral, I returned to Anna's house before Anna and Aaron returned and took Daisy for a walk. The day was bright and clear after an early snowfall the night before. Daisy and I needed to get outside and see what the birds and ocean were doing. I was delighted to see this oil tanker leaving the harbor. I'd never seen such a large ship there before. There is an oil storage area at the top of the harbor that I seldom photograph, even though it is picturesque in a weird sort of way. Daisy and I continued to walk the shoreline as the tanker left the harbor. We then walked home and cleaned up the house a bit.

I never was able to get the name of the ship.

I wish that I had met the people on the ship and knew where the tanker was going.

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New Haven: The Comfort of Nature

Gray Squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis) at McDonald's in Connecticut

November of 2010 was a tragic month. I had to return to Connecticut to try to help Anna and Aaron and to attend the funeral of Aaron's little sister Toni (click here, here, and here).. We had just met Toni seven months earlier when John and I went to New Haven in March. On this November day, I stopped at the McDonald's in Rocky Hill, Connecticut for lunch and thankfully found many sparrows and a squirrel to photograph. Wild animals have always provided me comfort during these tragic times.

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?
Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.

But even the hairs of your head are all counted.
Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

“Look at the birds of the air;
they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?”

Too often, we feel as if we are all alone. It feels as if the entire world is indifferent to us. I spent time with the birds and the camera as different verses floating through my mind. After a long while of meditation, I knew I was part of Creation and was able to sadly smile and continue to New Haven.

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Wedding Photos by Matt

l to r: Andrew, John, me, Anna, Amelia

Me & John

l to r: Dan, Anna, Aaron

Amelia & Nate

Matt & squinty-eyed me

Amelia & Matt

Dan (left) & Andrew

Anna & Andrew

Little Ironman

John, me, Wingnut

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How I Went to King Arthur and Found My Future

John and me at the September wedding of my nephew

In January of 2009, the King Arthur blog had posted a recipe for pan de mie. It needs a special pan de mie pan, which I didn't have. Having nothing else to do and it being great weather, I went down to Norwich to the King Arthur store to get a new bread pan. I couldn't see the pan on the shelves as I roamed around the store. I got a clerk who told me that the pans were back ordered. And a man, who had been standing near by, said I could use his. I chuckled; we talked. And we roamed the store together. He had come to the store from New Hampshire to get a square spring form pan to make cheesecake for one. The store didn't have those either. But we talked about our kids, about cooking (which I really didn't do too much of), and we exchanged little bits of knowledge we had. I ended up buying a lot of brioche pans and mixes. He got more yeast.

We continued talking in the parking lot for so long that we went into Lebanon, NH for lunch. We never ran out of things to talk about, but I had to start my two hour ride home, so we reluctantly parted. We haven't been apart too often since then.

Yesterday, in Pageant Park, we were married. After being a widow for 16 years, I finally found a man who is fascinating, intelligent, outspoken, talented, tolerant, hard-working, giving to a fault, protective and loving. My children love him and the cats adore him. The grandchildren think he's the greatest thing around. We have expansive plans for our lives and are looking forward to the future. You've seen some of our adventures here in the blogs — many more await all of us!

I managed to take a few photos yesterday. Aaron took the wedding photos and they will be posted as soon as he transmits them to us.

Above: John and Catgirl walk on the beach
of Crystal Lake before the ceremony.

The view of Crystal Lake and the mountains
beyond it from Pageant Park.

Matt, Anna and Aaron chat while hanging onto the cars.

Left to right: Dan, Andrew and Xavier play volleyball.

Andrew

Anna

Ironman spends time with Daisy Dog (Anna’s dog).

Our Wedding Photos

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Daisy

See? I can do better than I did with Daisy's other photos.

      Daisy's Set

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Going Professional Soon

Aaron is a professional photographer. Even his family "snapshots" are stunning. He shot Daisy the Chihuahua in midair playing at home on the beach (click this link to see the photographs). My goal in life? To be as good as Aaron. So when we were in New Haven a couple of weeks ago, I forced everybody to play with Daisy while I lay on the floor to get photographs of her in midair that are as good as Aaron's. Everybody laughed at me! Even John! Well, Anna just rolled her eyes at me and muttered something like, "As if."

So I'm letting you be the judges. My photos are above this text. Aaron's are below. (Perhaps you couldn't even tell the difference in quality.) Whose photographs do you think are better?



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Scenes from New Haven

Last weekend when John and I were in New Haven.

Above: I-95 North seen from above. Whenever we go to New Haven, John and I immediately go for a walk in the neighborhood and on the beach, pier and marina. The interstate cuts off the shoreline from the city of New Haven. Anna lives on Long Island Sound in the City Point neighborhood. The area is full of old homes from the oystering era a couple of hundred years ago. Anna and Aaron have done a lot of renovations to their house and John is helping them with the next phase.

As dusk fell, Anna drove us to meet Aaron at his new studio. I sat in the back and played urban photographer. It's not as satisfying as photographing nature in northern New England, but I got some interesting shots in.

Aaron's new studio is not even finished being built yet. It is in an old factory building that is being rennovated. This was the scene as we entered. This is just one area of the huge, huge building.

Aaron at his envy inspiring Mac Pro, trying to decide which restaurant we will all eat in that night. His little sister, Toni, and her family were also there. Be sure to look at Aaron's work at:

aaronkotowski.com

Aaron has barely begun to move into the studio. There is an interesting light above the door.

All of us here are gabbing before we leave for supper. The little girl is Arianna, Toni's daughter. She is the cutest thing on earth. Arianna's dad, David, is waggling his finger at her. Behind David is my daughter Anna on the left and behind David is Toni, Arianna's mom and Aaron's little sister. On the far right you can see Aaron's hands and John's shoulder.

Aaron has some of his lighting in the studio.

John and Aaron leaving the studio and walking to the car. The floor has been tiled but not grouted yet.

More urban photography: a sign near the restaurant that we ate at.

Delaney's Tap Room & Restaurant (where we ate)
Click the link for more info.

Arianna and Aaron enjoyed themselves all night.

Anna had to stop at the store on the way home and I tried one more sign photograph for the photochallenge.org March challenge.


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