Mrs. Nelson - Christmas 2011

Mrs. Admiral Horacio Nelson is our one-eyed sweetheart! She has been with us for six years now and today she enjoyed an early morning sunning on the wicker settee.

We had a great surprise when we saw her first bloom for this year on Oct. 31, 2011. Each year is a bit different, but this year the blooms began opening on the lowest hanging branches. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of buds all over this lovely old gal.

Christmas 2011. Our Gilkey Christmas Catcus is 45 years old!.

She's truly the spirit of our Christmas and our joy throughout the year, too. At nearly 5-feet wide now, she has more buds than ever before. People ask about her care and treatment.

Watered every Sunday - about 1-quart.

Liquid fertilizer in all summer waterings.

Each Sunday she is rotated one-quarter turn.

Stop fertilizing in October.

Year round East and South filtered sunlight.

Abundant blooms began after she became root bound.

Blooms from late October to late April.

28 Nov. 2011
Click image to see larger version.

Jasper soaking up the late Autumn sun through the sheer drapes at the upstairs deck doors. Notice the lovely, hand crocheted accent rugs? He believes it is exclusively his. Mostly, he's right.

This is my desk. It's a corner desk with very large left and right wings. The center area is quite deep which affords me plenty of room for crocheting (see work in progress), drawing patterns and other assorted things such as writing notes, paying bills, etc. It is the ETC that seems to draw Foxy (left) and Jasper (right) to warm themselves under the full spectrum "real" light bulbs. We love our pound babies, all four of them.

USMC Graduation - Sept. 2011

Daniel Jacob Milligan and Layne Camarena.
Camp Pendleton, CA.

The Placement of the Tree.

With four cats and a home filled with family, the tree needs to be out of the way, yet viewable. The small entryway for the official front door serves this purpose. Paul said that he'd place a directional sign on the exterior of the door for Santa Claus.

The tree is decorated and it has been placed on a short platform. Christopher inspects the skirt while Thomas waits to help put it in place underneath the tree.

Paul's arm, Christopher and Thomas

Our annual Christmas tree, strung with lights and ready to be adorned with ornaments. Thomas is placing a hanger onto an ornament while Christopher, in the background takes a brief break in anticipation of "placing" the tree in its "spot" for the Season. Paul is just out of camera view as he assesses the remaining ornaments.

Another view of the decorating before they placed the tree into the safe doorway location.

Thomas (23), Christopher (25), and Paul (ageless).

back row:
Thom Appleby (20), Christopher Appleby (23), Paul Appleby (55).
front row:
Lynda Canning (48), Chris Dabis (61), Emily Appleby (86)
NOTE: Thom and Christopher are the sons of Lynda and Paul.

Summer of 2005 when Danny phoned to let me know that he would be in Sacramento. We drove there to meet him and some of his classmates. I love him more than I love breathing! My grandson, Daniel Jacob Milligan!

Paul Appleby & Chris Dabis
Summer of 2006 on our lower deck.

The newly married Mrs. & Mrs. Paul Buttress.

(left to right) Emily Appleby, Pauline (Appleby) Buttress and Paul Buttress as they pose in the wedding garden at Lake Tahoe's CalNeva Lodge

Yes, that's the famous "Rat Pack" hangout for the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. There were seven members: How many do you recall?

My first Schwinn bicycle.  Eventually the training wheels were removed and a basket was added.  I rode many miles going to the neighborhood grocery store to get 25¢ loaves of bread and hamburger from the butcher at 4 pounds for $1.00.
San Leandro, CA., 1952 or 1953.

My first motorcycle. I toured the Southwest USA on this 1985 Honda Magna in 1991.  This bike is water cooled, shaft driven, V-45, with a 700 cc engine.  Six gears forward, no reverse!  It weighs about 500 pounds and when I dropped it on my left foot I rode again the day after the cast was removed.

I play my paternal grandfather's fiddle which is slightly over 100 years old now.  It is a hand-carved German instrument with a robust bass range, and a bright and crisp upper range.
Lady Fiddler - Spring 2006 with the Fruit Jar Pickers band.

Original layout with Budweiser's logo replicated in glass.  This was a custom creation for Budweiser's distribution facility in Northern California.  Drilling the hole for the eagle's eye was a challenge and I had to do it twice before meeting with success.

Foxy - Maine Coon Mix.
Foxy, and his littermate brother, arrived on our front porch in a cardboard box as abandoned kittens in 2002.  Foxy is the sole survivor but we enjoyed the two of them for three years.

Every night Foxy jumps onto my desk, *flops* down, rolls onto his back, tips his head sideways (sometimes upside-down) and demands me to brush his tummy! "Mom,... *M-O-M* ... brush me!!!"

Mrs. Admiral Horatio Nelson. A very powerful name for such a small cat. It took two staff members with leather gloves to get her out of the holding-cage at the animal pound. She's a fighter for sure. Admiral Nelson, you might recall, lost an eye and an arm during his battles. Mrs. Nelson has one eye, and she reveals it reluctantly from a summer day's nap. It takes three people to hold her for a brushing. She prefers to be 'left alone' and on very rare occasions she demands 'lap-space'.

Jasper is about 3 years old and he was a stray cat from last winter. He was scared and forced to fight off predatory animals during the freezing snow falls. I continued to leave food for him, and eventually he trusted me. It took about a month for him to be relaxed. He tested positive for FIV (feline immune virus) which means we have keep him healthy at all times. Any illness will impact him harder than other cats because his immune system has been compromised. He's SO sweet! He sleeps on our bed at night. Funny; I've always wanted a Siamese cat but never could afford one. Then... this little fellow needed a home. My heart had been ready for him for a lifetime!

Primer: Named after the often popular car color, primer gray. He's a big boy and was identified at the animal shelter as "Dangerous" with a warning that he did NOT get along with other cats. He had been residing at the shelter for three months. They sure are good with animals and though he was there for an extended amount of time, they took great care of him. Thom and Paul investigated a bit further and questioned the "Dangerous" designation. Turns out that after Primer came to the shelter they had him neutered. Did that change is attitude? Who knows, but he is NO danger. He is just the opposite: He brought calmness to our den of cats. All four act as if they were litter-mates, well......... exclude Mrs. Nelson from that group.

Our home office occupies an area downstairs which would probably be used as a second living room for a normal family. It measures 28' x 18' and our two 'corner' desks are placed side by side to form a "W" pattern down the middle of the room. We had a completely dedicated electrical panel installed and outlets placed into the floor for the computer equipment. My desk is to the right. Paul has 'command central' with two complete computer systems. I made the 'skirt' so that the rats nest of wires were not visible. To the right of my desk is another 10' of the room which is the 'wet bar' area. We have a mini kitchen in that area where we make tea, coffee, refrigerate things, and nuke our meals.

Some people treat themselves to a world-wide tour when they retire. I retired after 39 years and I bought two sets of this wicker (made with resin).

Why two? Maybe I'm a long lost realtive of Noah because more often than I will admit in public, I buy TWO of things, or FOUR! I don't know why.

Located in the lounge area of our home office, it sure adds a welcome warmth to the room. Our desks are to the right of the loveseat

My plan was to place this set (two chairs, table and loveseat) onto the lower deck (just outside this room), but it was delivered in rainy weather and I didn't want it to get wet. Eventually, I liked it so much in this area that I decided to buy a 2nd set for the deck, but that set will go on the upper deck (directly above this lower deck).

As of now, Jan. 2008, our Christmas Cactus is 41 years old. She is about 3 feet wide and was re-potted 3 years ago into a larger container. There are blooms facing this side and buds on the remaining sides. It is placed on a lazy-susan and rotated a little each week. There is both an East (left) and South (right) filtered sunlight for her.

The late Billie Gilkey gave me (Chris) a slip from her very frail plant in June of 1966. From that little three jointed slip came this lovely plant. The blooms this year are simply amazing! She spent the summer on the lower deck, then was placed in this location behind the sofa in the upstairs living room. She seems to like this location and that's good because I cannot physically move her again!

She's 43 years old now at Christmas 2010. In 2009 she was accidentally knocked to the floor and landed upside down. Her crown was smashed and sorrow filled our home. We removed the broken branches and I wish I had had sense enough to have prepared them for replanting. Had I only trimmed them into smaller peices, dried them for a week or so, I could have repotted them to have given as gifts.

This year, when she finishes blooming after Easter in 2011, I will trim some of the branches and prepare them for Christmas gifts 2011. I'm, sure Billie Gilkey would be thrilled to see how well she's grown and flourished.

Click image to see a larger version.

This Bob Crabb cartoon was the inspiration for our "lunar maximus" Full Moon Party. Participants are diverse with professional backgrounds in law, public finance, psychiatry, geriatrics, political humor, and an English cynic. Missing from this mixture is our media member: She moved away from us two years ago and cannot be replaced.

Imagine a dinner gathering and a local event being discussed by this group! That is what we do. We select local events and each person gives comment and input from their perspective. It is usually quite an eye-opener and "I didn't know that!" is heard quite often. Laughter is our background music. Visit Bob's website by clicking here!

44-years old this year, 2010. She's located in an east and south window. That must be perfect for this old gal because she begins to bloom in mid November and continues well past Easter.