Photo Monday: Cats Being Cute

Cross-posted from the feminist librarian. 

Yesterday was a rainy autumn Sunday here in Boston, so in order to combat the rainy-day blues we assembled this post full of pictures of our cats being cute!

Teazle is undecided about sitting on shoulders

Human book shopping means paper bags for kittens to play in!

Gerry likes the advent of fleece bathrobe season.

Shortly after Hanna snapped this photograph Teazle tipped
right off the pillows onto the floor. So much for her Princess and
the Pea imitation!

Gerry has become protective of our little one ... 

... or perhaps it's just long-suffering toleration!

Wishing you all a peaceful and productive week!

Photo Wednesday: Christmas Tonttus

Hi folks, Anna here ...

This past weekend, Hanna and I were up in Maine celebrating an early Christmas with the folks. This involved a lot of good food, a Christmas carols service at nearby Colby College, and the creation of our very own tonttu for the apartment. Tonttu are Finnish house spirits that Hanna's mother learned about from her Finnish parents and grandparents. Here are some photographs that we took of the process of making two tonttus. It took the better part of Sunday morning.

these fellows were our model tonttus

here are some of the supplies Linda provided

We started with a base of cardboard, Styrofoam, and felt

all self-respecting tonttus need hats

Mine is on the left, Hanna's is on the right.

Hanna named hers Ibrahim; mine is named Helga

We brought them back to Boston on Monday to grace our Christmas shelf

While tonttu is the Finnish term for house spirits, some of you may be familiar with the Astrid Lindgren picturebooks which tell the story about a gentle tomten who cares for a family farm in Sweden. This is essentially the same folk character, though seen through the lens of a slightly different Scandinavian tradition.

I hope all of you are finding small and pleasurable ways of preparing for the holiday season ...

Photo Monday

Cat picspam!

Photo Monday

More photos, folks -- I was hoping to have a post about The Walking Dead -- the first season of which I have nearly finished -- for today in honor of the season, but I have done something truly dreadful to my lower back which results in me being unable to sit and type for more than, oh, say 10 minutes at a time.

So wish me luck at the doctor's office tomorrow and maybe, if I'm a very lucky girl, I'll be able to write the post for Wednesday.

See, I think this was once a really sweet mother-and-child
statue...but check out Mommy dearest's hand.

Little 'n large tombstones.

Guess where? Hey, it's Halloween!

Spiffy fountain again.

Photo Monday

More pictures of...things!

They killed Kenny!
Sorry, I really am sorry... This is in Mt. Auburn, btw.

I have no idea. But I bet it would be a cool hang-out on
Halloween.

Spiffy fountain.

Ditto.

A last rose.

Photo Monday: Maine and Back

This post brought to you by Anna.

This passed Saturday, Hanna and I drove up to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens to visit with her mom and dad. Linda was exhibiting at the Maine Fiber Arts Showcase. It was a rainy afternoon, but luckily the fiber arts event was inside the visitor's center.

As usually happens when we visit with Hanna's parents, we drove north with things to give/return to them and they met us with more things for us to take south again ... a new sweater for Hanna, the tam that Linda knit me for Christmas and finally blocked, and what Hanna has termed "the rudest thing ever":

Kevin with the rude squash (photo by Linda)

In exchange, we finally allowed Shirley -- the stuffed sheep from Michigan that we gave Linda for her birthday in July -- to move to her forever home in Maine.

Shirley and Linda at Linda's display booth (photo by Anna)

The garden is impressive in size and scope, although we didn't get a chance to see much of it in the rain. One section is the fairy house village. I think this is where these magical creations were headed:

fairy houses in the garden library (photo by Anna)

a fairy castle? tree house? (photo by Anna)

Shirley got a bit chilled (photo by Anna)

When we got home, Geraldine was pissy because we had left her alone all Saturday -- but she was somewhat mollified by the four new rag rugs we brought home, courtesy of Linda. Rag rugs are clearly for kitties to sleep on, not for humans to place their feet.

enigmatic cat is enigmatic (photo by Hanna)

Photo Monday: BU Bridge

Hi! Anna here.

Last Friday, Hanna and I walked from our apartment over to Cambridge via the Boston University bridge which has been under extensive restoration for the past several years. It was a gorgeous September day. Here are a few photographs that we snapped on the bridge.

Hanna looking west up the Charles river
(photo by Anna, obviously)

Moon over I-90 (photo by Hanna)

graffiti on the freight rail  bridge below
(photo by Hanna)

girders in the sun
(photo by Anna)

Cross-posted at the feminist librarian.

Photo Monday: Uneasy Detante

This is life in our household today. Hope yours is a relaxing!

Geraldine attempts to commune with
Bismarck: A Life by Jonathan Steinberg

~Anna and Hanna, Labor Day 2011

photo monday: home improvement

Anna here, in charge of Photo Monday for the week!

In the midst of Hurricane Irene this week, Hanna and I not only managed a trip to visit friends in Providence, RI, but also built some shelving for the bedroom in order to better organize books and clothes ... the dressers we'd saved from the apartment building trash (yes, we have been known to dumpster dive) and the wine crates from the store up the street just weren't cutting it any longer. The downside, of course, is that we had to spend yesterday evening constructing a 9' x 7.5'x 1' shelving unit in our tiny apartment. In tropical humidity.

Ah, the price of literacy.

First, we had to clear a space for the new shelves.
(If only we could keep the wall empty! So restful.)

We moved one of the old bookcases into the closet to hold VHS tapes
and periodicals. Play spot the cat for extra points!

There were 72 bolts to tighten. Ouch!
Gerry supervised from her perch on the piles of books.

By 10pm we had the whole thing constructed and
called it quits for the night.

Here are the shelves mostly filled (the wine crates remained ... but our
clothes are finally not buried at the back of the closet!

The cat's supervisory responsibilities exhausted her.

And now we have space for more books!

This time we've actually interfiled our books
for subject continuity!

And now as I type this, Hanna is making us Tassajara whole wheat millet bread which is one of my new favorite treats! I promise a recipe one of these days. We plan to enjoy it with Magic Hat Hex and matzo-vegetable soup.

Cross-posted at the feminist librarian.

Photo Monday

You know what I really hate about being depressed? How things I used to enjoy doing now seem like terrifying abysses of doom, humiliation, and despair. After spending most of last week dealing with a hellacious commenter on the orange blog (did you know I'm guest-blogging there for August with Minerva and Lola? I am! One of my posts is cross-posted from here, so you've seen it already, but here's the newbie!) who tried her best to hand my ass to me, writing new posts is somehow not on my Top 10 list of things to do this weekend.

And yet here I am and I have so many thoughts about The Doctor's Wife that we'll see what we can come up with by way of something Whovian for Wednesday.

Anyway, with that note on your Monday morning, enjoy some old photographs that I didn't put up at the time I took them but still really like. And I really do honestly hope you are having an awesome start to your week -- or finish to your week if you are one of those individuals who work over a weekend or night shifts or third shifts or weird stuff like that. Good on you.

The strange damage being done by something to my
beloved philodendron, Ianto.

Trees near the Saugatuck Dunes.

A panorama shot I got nearly right! (Also Saugatuck.)

Ditto. Not about the panorama bit, obviously.

Lakeshore sand.

Geraldine in what was one of her favorite napping places
last winter: the basket we kept our napkins in.

One of last winter's blizzards.

Ditto.

Ditto.