Letters Between Good Friends From Opposite Sides Of The Sea

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Felisol said...
We have returned safely from our London trip.
The yellow leaves are falling off the birch tree outside our kitchen window.
Planting purple heather and onions for the spring to come is my garden work in between showers.
Gunnar dismantled our new garden pavilion before the autumn storm did.
The kittens visiting our garage have disappeared.
(Sob, sob)
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Terry said...
Where do you suppose those kitties got to Felisol??...So sad!!...

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Felisol said...The kittens.
We think they were wild born. They were so tiny and helpless. Gunnar bought them food and cat milk and we ended up with six (two adults as well, in our garage)
One day the neighbours had just run over one. The other day Gunnar found the orange laying dead under a car in the garage.
I was a tragic sight.
Now the old black and white which has been claiming our garden as his territory since we came here eight years ago, is thronging alone on the wall.
We also have a lot of birds around, because of our many trees and berrie bushes. The seagulls and big, squattering mag-pies have nests at our neighbours land.
They are often chasing cats and vice versa.
The song birds are hiding in God's summer curtains in front of our living room windows.
I miss having a cat of our own though.
And I should be awfully happy if we could manage to make a pair of hedge-hogs settle in the garden.
My mother has had some for ages. They're so sweet.


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Terry said...
Oh it WOULD have been a tragic sight to have discovered that orange cat.
In the city, sometimes people run over cats right on purpose.
That is why we keep our cat in as we did with all the other cats that we owned.
Gunnar is such a kind soul, feeding them!
Bernie is a kind soul too.
A couple of weeks ago, he came into the house, looking very sad about something.
"What is wrong?"
"Oh I didn't want to do it but I had too!"
"What?"
"Well, I have worked out at the garage all summer and never bothered the hornets and they never bothered me, but today I got stung twice. They are getting aggressive, so I had to spray their nest and kill them.
I really didn't want to do it, but I had too!"
Such a soft heart he has Felisol!

Your far side of sea dwelling sounds so nice!
All of that wild life!
We love the birds too and we feed them all year.
Some people are very particular about what birds they want dining from their bird feeders, but Bernie and I love them all!
Grampa Yade does too.
He took a picture once of the birds in his back yard...all different colors they were and then he had Betty make him a pretty card of the picture and he labelled it
"Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight".
It was such a sweet thing!

You know what Felisol, this is an unbelievable story really, but when Bernie and I lived on Ontario Road, we used to feed all the stray cats in the neighbourhood, and the squirrels and the birds too.
We had a whole line of cat bowls, a bird feeder and peanuts on the ground for the squirrels.
Well one day when we returned home, we saw this:
The birds were feeding on the bird feeder, the squirrels were cracking peanuts and right by them looking at them quite peaceably was a circle of cats laying on the ground and just resting!
Oh Felisol, I just wish that I had had a digital camera, because I would have taken a picture so fast of this incredible sight!
You see it is quite unbelievable, eh?
The way I figure it, is that the group of animals and birds knew that because we were feeding them all that they were one and in the same, members of a big family!
So incredible!!!...Love Terry



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Felisol said...
Dear Terry,
Our Father's best character is that He does not make distinctions between people or animals, so why should we.
My grammy used to say, there are no ugly flowers.
I think there are no ugly birds or cats either. I see that Saija has got herself a new kitten.
I'm happy for her.
Maybe it would be easier to keep our cats inside all the time, but they are so happy jumping and running around chasing whatever they see, and following us around while being outdoors.
I know there are special cats who has to be kept indoors, but we've only had those born free ones.
Of course they've always been fed and sleeping indoors, as well as playing the piano and the computers!
We've brought them with us visiting my parents, but even there they've been allowed to run outside, and they've never got astray.
That is Marcello once went for a todays affair. he came home via the roof and in an open window, and we found him sleeping in my bed.
He also used to follow Gunnar while working on the roof.
I do miss him.
So much joy.
The wildcats ware a sorry sight, mieuing and looking for food, but not really wanting contact with people. Nevertheless Gunnar managed to feed them and make a bed for them in the garage.
He was also the one to take care of the dead ones. I could not have cooped with that.
Gotta stop writing. A new day lies ahead with sun! and autumn leaves.
Yours Felisol



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Jim..... jimmiehov said...
I wanted, too, to mention cats in our lives, Mrs. Jim's and mine.
At our previous home, we had one cat, Farah.
Farah started inside but liked to climb the curtains. We didn't want to declaw her, and we couldn't make her stop climbing.
So she spent 17 years outside, in the yard, etc.
She died in the flowerbed, just went to sleep and didn't wake up.

Mrs. Jim has a rule (No. 105) that if anyone or anything leaves or dies from our home, it/he/she can't come back and won't be replaced.
That rule worked for the fish and the cat, never for any others.
Adi is Karen's dog who lives with us. Every one of the five kids has come back for from two weeks to two years. No cats or fish.
MRS. JIM SAYS THAT RULE GOES FOR ME TOO!

Finally, Mom had a lot of wild cats on the farm. She would feed them, some we could pet.

Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight!

............ Felisol.."On The Far Side Of The Sea"
...Post from "On The Far Side Of The Sea"From the secret garden birch tree where we used to hang our hammock.[Photo] I made my mother an angel for Christmas four years ago. She will not remove it even in summer. We need angels all of the year, she proclaims. [Photo] My mother of age 82 has got a tumble dryer, and she is tired and does not move easily. Nevertheless she insist on carry her wash and hang it up outdoors.
[Photo]My parents spent lots and lots of hours gardening. My mother always had a wish of a pond for waterlilies. My dad used a chisel and crowbar to dig deep into the mountain. In between Serina was born, and the pond was made as a safe place for her to play. [Photo] My dad told the fairytale about the castle with a thousand footsteps. I was enchanted when he started building a similar road down to the river which flows about thirty metres below the rest of our garden. [Photo] Two summers my father spent to make this road, not waisting the soil, but carrying away buckets for mom's flowers.
[Photo] We were not allowed to come down until the fencing was done.[Photo]
I used to sit on that moss grown stone right and get all absorbed by the sound, smell and sight of the foaming river, while writing poems in my diary.My father must have watched from above, 'cause he fenced out the stone.. I had to find a more secure sitting place,- at least half a yard inside. This is called "Kitten's garden", wild strawberries and white anemones are blossoming there, and it is and wild be my place of peace on earth.

[Photo] Backside of "my" garden where my father has piled a mountain of stones when he made our lawn.
[Photo]
The upper part of "secret Garden" where my mother and I long time ago built a fire place. My father coming home from the office, was not impressed."It will fall down next winter," he prophesied.Mom was determined to prove him wrong, and put in a dash of concrete now and then. many a kettle of coffee is boiled here, and heaps of hot-dogs grilled.[Photo]
One week ago. Gunnar is showing Mom the pics I made with my cellphone N73.




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Terry said...
Oh Felisol, what a lovely story full of memories and pictures of your childhood.
It sounds like you surely had a good one!

I love birch trees so much,
I think that they are my favourite trees.
We have one on our front lawn and we are the only ones in the area that does.
It is so graceful looking.
I guess the former owner must of shared my love of birch trees.
It was one of the selling points of this house!

I love ponds and to think that Serina had a homemade one,created with her Grampa's own strong, loving hands.
We had a pond near us where we used to catch polywogs and put them into bottles to see if they would turn into frogs.
We never quite had enough patience though so usually, for fear that they would die, we would return them to their natural environment.
The same with butterflies.
Little Pilgrim Pal has more patience as far as butterfly cocoons are concerned and keeps a watchful eye on them.

In the winter we would spend many an evening, under a star lit sky skating to our hearts content on the frozen pond.

Oh! that road that your dad made,
and all the time he spent to make it!
How exciting!
There is surely gold at the end of that road for you Felisol.
The golden dreams of childhood and now your own little princess is enjoying it, eh?

Oh the sweet music that you heard in Kitten's garden!
If you listen real closely, you can probably hear it yet in your innermost heart.
I can hear it!