Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
#Wordless Wednesday – Close Up on Benji
#Wordless Wednesday.
~ Susanne
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Creative Spammers
Like you, I receive dozens of spammy comments on my blog posts daily, and most of the time WordPress classifies them so.
It’s giving this Spam a bad name! I found these at the Aloha Bowl Swap Meet in Oahu. Hawaiians love their spam, though I do not. 😉
Anyway, my job is to watch out for the other spam, comments flagged such by WordPress. I like to review the comments in case legitimate ones have been wrongly captured – it happens, though as the spammy comments grow in number, I’m starting to send them directly to trash.
But lately there’s been a new twist. I’ve had comments classified as spam, but they also generate an email, telling me there’s a new comment awaiting my approval. (I require all first-time comments are moderated. Good thing, huh?)
I had one like that today. I saw the email before I looked at my blog and the comment sounded reasonable, one I might have written myself. Turns out I did. I headed to my blog and found the same comment in my spam folder, and as the comment sounded familiar, I went to the post, and confirmed it was an exact copy of a comment I had made. Sneaky, huh?
Apparently, WordPress was conflicted, so it generated an email to me, as though it were legitimate, but also captured it as spam finding it suspicious, for other reasons.
I still don’t know what drives spammers to such lengths. Don’t they have a life? Couldn’t their technical knowhow be put to better use?
Confusing as a piece of modern art!
Like this legitimate picture from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
~ Susanne
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A Walk in the Woods at Nolte State Park
We took a walk through the woods last week, at Nolte State Park, not for the first time nor the last – it’s one of our favorite local hikes. An easy, mostly level, trail around Deep Lake, it’s only a mile and a quarter long, and good for walking all times of year, rain or shine.
On this particular day, we found the sun lighting the path, and occasionally peeking through the tree canopy.
We found many downed trees along the trail, both new and old,
this one apparently happy with its recent fate.
Those fallen long ago have already transformed into their new selves,
strange and mysterious.
Those decaying but still standing, give fertile ground to other life forms.
We passed a stagnant section of the lake, cutoff from the source, the kind of place you might find a gator if this were the south; thankfully it’s not.
Instead, we saw this little turtle sunning himself.
And further on the trail, a fisherman doing the same.
~ Susanne
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Saturday Caturday – Benji and the Hot Tub
I didn’t use the hot tub much during the covid era, I don’t know why. But with things finally back to normal and the weather improving, it was time to refill it. Benji was there to help.
“Not like that Benji! Don’t drink the water. It’s not for kitties.”
“Aw, Sue! Why not? You’re always spoiling my fun!”
“Sorry, Benji, but your job is to supervise. And guard the hot tub from other critters.”
“Got it, Sue! You can count on me.”
Happy Caturday from Susanne and Benji.
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I’d Rather Be in Arizona!
Earlier this week I was loving springtime in the Pacific Northwest. I went for a walk at Coulon Park and enjoyed brilliant blues skies, happy birds, and a joyful turtle!
And I thought to myself, ‘there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than here, right now, in the Great Northwest.’
Until today.
When I woke to rain and wind and gray and said to myself, ‘take me someplace where it’s hot and dry!”
Call me fickle, but today I’d rather be in …
Arizona!
As that’s as close as I’ll get for now.
Sharing with Sunday Stills, I’d Rather Be.
~ Susanne
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New PC and MS One Drive – Yay or Nay?
I got a new Desktop PC last week and I like it. It’s All-in-One so takes up little space, has all the extra storage I hoped for and it’s fast, really fast.
But one thing irks me, and it’s Microsoft’s pushiness with OneDrive. It comes loaded as the default for storage; documents and photos no longer save to the hard drive; they save automatically to OneDrive.
I already have a system in place for my photos and I back them up to an external drive. I have no desire to have them in cyberspace, as secure as they claim that to be, nor to be pestered continually about syncing them up across devices.
I checked with the boys as many of the pictures are of them.
“You mean my pictures would be floating in a cloud?” asked Tiger.
“I understand your concerns perfectly, Sue,” said Benji. “It’s a control issue.”
Maybe I’m old fashioned, but that’s it, indeed.
I need to make a decision before I’m too far down the OneDrive path. There’s plenty of information on the web about undoing this default, so others must also be unhappy with it.
How about you?
Do you use OneDrive?
How do you manage your photos?
~ Susanne
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Happy Spring in the Garden and the Finches are Courting!
Spring has finally arrived in the Great Northwest after a cold and rainy winter. We got a head start over the weekend when we hit 60 degrees for the first time since last November. It was worth waiting for.
There’s much to be done in the garden but fortunately nature takes care of much of it. My Indian Plum is blooming with no help from me. I’d been admiring this native in the woods for years, not realizing I had one growing wild in a forgotten corner of my yard. I transplanted it to the back where I could enjoy it, and it’s thriving.
I did manage to plant something new last week, Lenten Rose, another early bloomer. Tiger found it soon afterwards during one of his daily sojourns, and appreciated how it collected water for him.
As the garden is waking up, the birds are courting! I especially love to watch the house finches. The little lady perches, waiting for the male to appear.
He does – dressed in bright red-orange – and begins singing.
Okay, I’ll leave them alone.
~ Susanne
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Junco in the Spring Garden
I love all the birds who call my garden home, including this year-round resident, the Dark-Eyed Junco, looking quite dapper surrounded by green.
~ Susanne
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You Don’t Say! For #Wordless Wednesday
`~ Susanne and Benji
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Washington my Home – Waterfalls from the Evergreen State
I was born and raised in Washington, and I LOVE being surrounded by green! Though officially known as the Evergreen State, you wouldn’t be wrong if you called it the Waterfall State; it has more waterfalls than any other state in the country, over 3,000, according to my official google research. Who knew??
So, for this week’s Sunday Stills Color Challenge I thought I’d share some of my favorites since they are indeed surrounded by green.
I’ll start with perhaps the most famous – Snoqualmie Falls – the go-to falls for visitors. A 45-minute drive east of Seattle on I-90, just walk to the overlook and gawk. No hiking required though there’s a trail down to the bottom if you like.
The next one is even closer to home though less well known, near Black Diamond, on the Green River Gorge. Those rickety stairs you see will take you down below for a mere five dollars. We did that once.
It was worth it.
Rocky Brook Falls is on Hood Canal. My mom took me there many times when she lived in Brinnon back in the day, and I took my husband to see it earlier this year.
You’ll find Sol Duc Falls in Olympic National Park, after a hike through the forest. It’s one of my favorites.
The next set are from Mt. Rainier National Park, where there are over 150 waterfalls. We hiked to Silver Falls last year. Wow.
We’ve stopped by Narada Falls many times before but hadn’t hiked to the bottom until recently when we caught a rainbow.
Christine Falls is gorgeous from the road. Hiking is optional.
I’ll close with Myrtle Falls, overshadowed, or perhaps, showcased, by the mountain behind, just a short walk in Paradise.
There are many more I could show you, but this will do for now.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 