Welcome to my journals!
So good to see you here. I am “Most Beloved,” she who lives in the big house at Gardens at Effingham.
I write a great many of the stories here, recording my observations, snapping photos, and keeping a daily journal about the gardens.
My journals are my sketchbook where I keep detailed notes about the cats and the many activities and adventures in the gardens.
From the Journals of Most Beloved
- A Mother’s Day to Remember: Cali Cat Has Kittens
- Cat Naps and Winter Dreams: Is it Spring Yet?
- “Okay, Who Gave the Cat a Pen?”
- When Peaches Meow: Musings from Most Beloved
- Three Ways to Know When Summer Ends and Fall Begins (According to the Cat)
- Hungry Hawks and Plump Kittens
- A Cat Sleeps in Our Gardens
Cali’s Newborn Kittens Video
What greater gift than the love of a cat.
Charles Dickens
Blog Archives
- April 2022
- March 2022
- January 2022
- November 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- September 2020
- August 2020
- January 2020
- November 2019
- February 2019
Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.
James Herriot
Latest posts
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A Mother’s Day to Remember-Cali Cat Has Kittens
Mother’s Day Surprise A glorious May Mother’s Day, replete with brilliant blue skies and wisps of sun-drenched clouds, became gardens requiring enormous clean-up once the storm had passed. We had walked in the mid-afternoon, savoring the sun and remarking on the cerulean blue sky. But we had no longer returned home before the skies grew […]
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“Okay,Who Gave the Cat a Pen?”
Ah ha! Captured! That stray pen–twirling, whirling, edging ever closer its way towards me. And Paper? Well, that’s a given. I’m already sitting on top of a stack of papers. ’Tis my place (always) to sit atop her papers, especially when she’s writing, especially the papers she’s trying to use. And besides, what use does she […]
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When Peaches Meow: Musings with “Most Beloved”
The Orchard Years I look up and above to the picture Mom gifted me of my 11-year-old self, hand across the back of our Labrador Retriever’s shoulder, and Dusty (our rescued groundhog) pulling at his jaw. I was sitting, plaintive smile, faraway look in my eyes even then, blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, […]
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Three Ways To Know When Summer Ends and Fall Begins (According to the Cat)
#1. The cat is subsumed by melancholy “Oh yet to relish, to sleep, to bathe in the heat of the midday sun–” –sighs the cat Oh yet to languish, to sip, to savor a cup of catmint tea–” –bemoans the cat Act 1, Scene 1: Bay Window in the Breakfast Room. Most Beloved upon seeing […]
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Hungry Hawks and Plump Kittens
The kittens, at 7 months now, flush beautifully with their full winter coats. Poofy and gorgeously striped, they frequent the food bowl together, an inherent pecking order amongst them, one often under the forsythia while the other one eats.
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Ode to Joy of Being a Cat
Scherzo. Forte. Crescendo without denouement. Succession of notes, days metered in the click-click of 4/4, key of A (for August heat), unstable and trilling, repetition the same and in measured heat, 90 degrees plus and even when not, humidity to sear the presto.
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Cat Naps and Winter Dreams: Is it Spring Yet?
Winter Daydreams Eagerly await mail for seed and flower garden catalogs to arrive Bring in mail and start an ongoing (and ever-towering) stack of winter dreams Pile up all garden books, magazines, journals, and catalogs Gather a soft, snuggly blanket (preferably one that looks good against all my white fur) Get excited and open several […]
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A Cat Sleeps in Our Garden
Days fall short now, time cutting across day’s light, night coming too fast—before supper, before work can be done, before we are ready. Gardens have been put to sleep—by us, or by nature—and while inside we work by light, outside, this early darkness awakens late fall’s chill. Against this vague, ambiguous drift of days between […]
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Finding Spring in the Snow: Happiness is the Color of Daffodils
Daffodils in Early Spring With their creamy yellow centers surrounded by snow-white petals, Daffodils bring smiles of joy and unbridled happiness in anticipation of spring. Saturday and I’m dilly-dallying the day away. Frivolously, I might add, and contentedly I must add, for I am alone with she who loves and adores me. Just the two […]
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Happy Highlights: Newborn Kittens Video!
Welcome to my journals! So good to see you here. I am “Most Beloved,” she who lives in the big house at Gardens at Effingham. I write a great many of the stories here, recording my observations, snapping photos, and keeping a daily journal about the gardens. My journals are my sketchbook where I keep […]
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A Photo Gallery of Midwest Gardens in Bloom
Celebrate the Seasons through Flowers At Gardens at Effingham, we celebrate spring, summer, winter, and fall through the joy of our perennial gardens. Enjoy the gardens in full bloom through this photo gallery of the seasons. Spring Beauty Spring and summer bring a spectacular display of early, mid, and late blooming flowers, shrubs, and trees: […]
Gardens at Effingham 