2017-06-11 23:26 Winter vegetable garden
Y (Kuma's owner)
I grow vegetables in the backyard and the veggie patch is covered by a net. My vegetable gardens had been giving me lots of fresh and organic vegetables, and had been worked well until before this winter came.
Recently, the temperature suddenly went down and I think wild animals are having a hard time finding food. Then, they found my vegetable gardens.
I have planted snow peas, kidney beans, lettuce, daikon and spinach and all of them have been bitten by something. I guess it must be possums.
The reason that I thought that possums ate my vegetables is the spinach has been eaten. Usually, insects hesitate to eat the spinach because it contains oxalic acid. Another reason that I am suspicious of possums is my vegetables were always eaten at night. The possum is nocturnal.
I searched on the internet to find the solution of protecting my vegetables and found out that it doesn't seem easy. The possum can climb trees and fences and they are clever with their hands. I found a spray for avoiding birds and animals but I don't want to use chemicals and hesitate to use it. Therefore, the only solution to protect my vegetables is grow them in the veggie patch that is covered by a net.
I like possums. They are charming.
I keenly realise that it's not easy to coexist with nature.
2017-06-04 00:08 A Hair-Dresser In My House
Y (Kuma's owner)
Do you have your favorite hairdressing salon where you often go? I used to go to a shop which one of my neighbors managed, but they have moved somewhere and I don't have my favorite hairdressing salon any more. My hair is wavy and it's not easy to handle it and I always don't like my hair style, nor does Midon.
He is the youngest cat and is very active. He always looks for something fun to do. I bought him some toys but he lost interest right away and found something more fun which were not cat's toys. As I wrote before on this blog, he loves playing with paper, like newspapers, paper leaflets and receipts. Therefore, I need to pay attention when I input the data of receipts to the computer otherwise he might tear them out.
One day, my husband was taking a nap on the floor cushion in the living room. The other two old cats were also taking a nap as always but Midon is different, he is young and is full of energy from the top of his head to the point of his tail. Midon was roaming in the house looking for something to entertain him, and the taking nap husband caught his attention. I was watching curiously what would happen. I knew he was going to do something cheeky but couldn't guess precisely what he was going to do.
Midon got closer to my husband's head and sniffed it and gazed at his hair carefully. He seemed that he didn't like my husband's hairstyle and thought that he had to do something about it. Then, he started licking my husband's hair. The surprising thing was my husband was sleeping deeply and didn't wake up. It was the chance that Midon could arrange the hairstyle as much as he liked. He licked the hair for about 3 minutes and my husband's hair looked like pomaded hair, it was wet with Midon's saliva. He looked very pleased. I was watching it whilst laughing without knowing that Midon's next target was me.
One night, I felt something was touching my head and woke up. Midon was sitting and looking down at me. I had a bad feeling and it was right, he started licking my hair! He grabbed my head with his paws and licked my hair with a firm sense of mission.
"I have to correct her hairstyle!"
I didn't expect Midon's attention to come over to me. However, my hair is longer than my husband's and it seems not easy to lick, therefore most of the time the victim was my husband.
The chances of licking are anytime, Midon noticed that it's a good opportunity when humans are watching TV in the living room. My husband and I watch DVDs of movies often. It's a good way to improve English hearing. When we watch a movie, we sit on the sofa and it has a backrest, as a matter of course. I think you can already imagine what would have happened next.
We paid attention to the movie and didn't notice Midon was coming. He climbed on the backrest and licked my husband's head. My husband said "No, no, no!" but Midon didn't want to stop it. Then, finally Midon was taken from the backrest by force.
Midon seems to be a cat that cannot stand seeing an unstylish hairstyle. I heard that female cats love to lick their coats but male cats are not so enthusiastic at taking care of their coat. I don't know if it's true or not, Midon is a male cat and loves to take care of his coat very much. I see him licking his coat almost every day. When he just came to our house from AWLQ (Animal Welfare League Queensland), if we patted or touched him, he hurriedly licked where we touched as if he was cleaning off dirty things. My husband and I used to say does he think we are dirty, jokingly? In fact, looking at him licking his coat, it seems like he would say "Oops, my coat gets dirty!"
I really appreciate his kindness, but it was actually an unwelcome favor. He still doesn't like our hairstyle and his meddlesome acts seem to continue still more.
2017-05-28 22:03 Looking for something worthwhile
Y (Kuma's owner)
I like to listen to a radio when I'm working or driving. Radio broadcasting teaches me songs that I didn't know and it's a chance to find the songs of my tastes.
Recently my favorite is Labrinth who is an English singer and songwriter. My favorites of his songs are "Beneath Your Beautiful" and "Jealous." I found a man who attended the famous TV program "The X Factor" and sang Labrinth's song on YouTube. He sang very well and it was really touching. I realised how music influences people's hearts.
Long ago when I was one of the accounting staff department, my colleagues and I talked about how lucky artists are jokingly. In every month, we calculated and entered the data on computers and made reports. If we miscalculated and made wrong reports, we would be warned. Our job had to be always accurate and it was a stressful job for me, even if we made correct reports our work didn't deserve to be praised because people thought it's natural to be correct.
I remember one of my ex-colleagues said that he has finished making the monthly report correctly and said that "I have made sure that all the numbers are accurate. Isn't it wonderful? Will anyone clap their hands for me please?"
I know that the artists or singers who are often on TV and radio are the tip of the iceberg. Most artists and singers are having a difficult life to earn money. So, maybe doing accounting is not such a bad job to do, as at least people who work at an accounting job, who cannot get either the applause or the cheers, can have a stable life instead.
I respect people who can express their talents in any way; singing, painting, writing, dancing or whatever, they are great. The creations they made ease the stress of my life and make me happy. What a wonderful job that can make people happy!
I'm not an entertainer and an artist but I have an experience of being thanked by a stranger who played my jigsaw puzzle on my website long ago. At the time, I made online jigsaw puzzles just for fun. One day, I received an email from a man who played my online jigsaw puzzles. He said that he hadn't laughed for a long time and he didn't think he could laugh any more but after he finished assembling one of my jigsaw puzzles, he laughed. The jigsaw puzzle he enjoyed had a little trick that was a funny and comical animation that would be displayed after he finished assembling all the pieces, and he saw it and laughed at it. He seemed that he was suffering from depression or something. He said that he has got hope and said thank you to me. Actually, I have got hope from him. It was one of the most remarkable emails that I have ever received. I was so happy when I read the email and it became an opportunity to encourage me to make more puzzles. Making online puzzles wasn't my job at the time but I felt it was worth doing it.
I wrote about artists above, because it's easy to imagine that they felt merit from their fans. I'm very sure that every artist had the same kinds of experience that I had once and I think that it's not only artists, any kind of jobs have a moment to feel worthwhile.
Since I have received the email, I had been looking for a fulfilling and worthwhile job for me and I think I found it. A job is not only for making a living.