The One With the Kittens in Those Public Entries

So… Nyx had her kittens on September 1st.

Six originally, but one died on Sept. 5th. The other five are doing well: Eyes are open, they’re learning to walk, and they’ll mew at me when I talk to them.

All the kittens are black, and it’s hard to get a good picture of them.

This one is the big, brave kitten. (Not sure if it’s a boy or a girl yet; it doesn’t matter to me, but since I’ve already agreed to give them to a shelter -in exchange for a free spay for Nyx- I want to have names for them¹.)

Nyx is okay with letting me pick them up, and occasionally put them in the box and move them to my bed for a little bit of sensory enrichment. They basically just toddle around (I put pillows around the headboard and in the little gap between the mattress and the wall, so they can’t fall down and get stuck) and climb up on my legs and chest.

Oh, and I got a pack of Halloween-themed tie collars for my cats. Smudge definitely, Nyx and the kittens maybe.

Smudge got all excited when I put the collar on him. He doesn’t usually wear one, and if he does, it’s his harness and we’re going outside/on a drive. (He does well with car rides. Nyx, as far as I can tell, doesn’t; she gets upset and stressed out from even short rides.)

I don’t think the collars will fit the beebees; they’ll be seven weeks old on Halloween, so who knows. They’re already pretty big, as you can see in the pictures.

Oh! And my garden finally gave me a pumpkin!

I’m so excited! I planted jack-o’-lantern pumpkins, and I definitely got a few buds, but they all shriveled and fell off. I also got a yellow crookneck squash, finally, and a few last-minute zucchini. And green beans, but not enough to make dilly beans, which is a little disappointing.

Also, new hobbies: Needle knitting (I’ve been loom knitting for about fifteen years, but I’ve always wanted to learn how to knit with needles) and pickling.

I’ve added about a foot since taking this picture.

A picture of the wrong side, for any fellow knitters on this site. I knit Russian style (I’ve also heard this called “Swedish style”), and the garter stitch in this style is twisted. I actually think it looks really pretty, and the fabric is much thicker than when I made my first swatch, knitting English style. But I think, given that I live in Vermont and we have long, cold winters here, the Russian stitching is a better style for, at least, winter knitting projects.

In jars: Half-sour kosher dill spears (these are fermented in a salt brine, so the second jar is sitting in my fridge; the first jar was delicious). In the bowl, the beginning of VT-style maple pickles.

These actually got processed in a boiling water bath, and the recipe said to leave them sit for six weeks, so the flavors could develop. I’m not sure how I’ll like these, because I typically don’t like bread and butter pickles (which is what this recipe reminds me of), but I’m open to the experience anyway. Worst that happens is, I don’t like them.

I should mention, my pickling spice mix is a little different from the one in the book I used (The Pickled Pantry by Andrea Chessman²). Mine has no cloves, way fewer cardamom pods, and pink peppercorns instead of black. So maybe that will solve my issue of not liking bread and butter/sweet pickles.

What hobbies are Denizens of the Box of Prose into lately?

¹Binx and Salem, natch. I just need to think up some other black cat/Halloween-themed names for them. Though I might end up naming my little buddy up there Totoro, because they remind me so much of that character.

²I highly recommend this book. I’ve made her recipe for kimchi, with smashing results, and like I said, the half-sour kosher dills were great, too. I want to try sauerkraut next; I already tried a small batch, but I over-salted it and it got slimy. Better luck next time.