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Katrin Hieroglyphs.
23. Februar 2024
Yes, that would sort of fit that aspect - but you can also go from bits of woods to sticks if you ar...
Bruce Hieroglyphs.
23. Februar 2024
I think the closest English equivalent would be 'Down the rabbit hole'. It has one entrance (No, not...
Harma Spring is Coming.
20. Februar 2024
I'm definitely jealous! Mine disapeared except for one pathetic little flower. But the first daffodi...
Gudrun Rallies All Over Germany.
23. Januar 2024
Vielen Dank für den Beitrag. Ja, wir müssen darüber reden, gegen das Vergessen. Zum Glück haben mein...
Anne Decker Aargh.
17. Januar 2024
This is less likely to have an effect on your personal samples as you likely wrap the same way for a...
MäRZ
15
0

There's a "Something" every day.

Yesterday was Pi Day - and today, my computer obligingly tells me (even though I did not ask) it's World Sleep Day. There's a something-day every single day these days, it seems!

At least this means that should you feel sleepy, you can blame the day. If you're feeling just the same as always... well, I guess our little cat does, too, and she sleeps a lot anyways.  

In, as you'd guess as she's a cat, varying positions and degrees of "aaw"-ness. Quite often it looks so comfy one gets the spontaneous wish to lie down beside her and take a nap as well.

In spite of today being World Sleep Day and the cat napping here and there since the morning (on a chair, in a basket, in her cat bed, and on my arm on the desk), I have not joined her for sleepies but instead did some writing and editing tasks and some spinning. And now for even more work... but no getting up for the moment even though I'd have some tasks that require hopping around... because the current sleeping spot is draped half over my arm again.

0
DEZ.
15
2

Because you have to blame something.

This morning I found a link to an article in my news digest - about how free-ranging cats are a danger to species diversity, and may be to blame for species going extinct.

Well. WHAT?

I'm aware that there's been a discussion about cats hunting, killing, and (not always) eating all kinds of prey animals, and that this should be curtailed to give the birds and whatever other species more of a chance to survive. Yes, cats are fierce predators with a very strong hunting instinct, and yes, I can see that this may pose a problem. I'm also not thrilled about cats killing birds.

However, I'm also not convinced that keeping cats indoors all the time is the perfect solution. It's definitely safer for the cat in regards to traffic dangers (rarely do cars go inside of living spaces, after all) - but having seen how our old lady lived a second spring when she discovered the Great Outdoors, keeping cats penned up inside, even if it's a rather large place, is also not the best thing that can happen to them. (There is a lot of pros and cons for indoor vs. outdoor cats, but all the cats that I have had in my own life were outdoor cats, and were very fond of their freedom. And I am talking about Germany here, which had the wild cat before the house cat came, so it's not really an invasive species here. Things are different for areas where cats are not more-or-less native predators. Also - feral cats are a problem everywhere, and they should be caught and at least neutered so they cannot breed without restriction. There's enough cats around already.)

To get back to the main topic though - in my firm opinion, free-ranging cats may today pose a problem for animal species that are in their prey spectrum, and are already struggling. The reason for that, however, is not the fact that humans keep cats as pets and companions, or else we'd have lost a lot more species since the Middle Ages or even earlier. Species diversity is endangered because humans have been very good at making bad decisions, at impacting the habitats of a lot of species, and reducing biodiversity overall through the use of monoculture, pesticides, herbicides, and general other Stuff That Is Very Bad For The Environment (TM). And it really ruffles my feathers to have that blamed on cats now. Because it's much easier, obviously, to say that cats are to blame for this or that going extinct than our ruining the planet.

Interestingly, the article itself, from what I've read of it, is not blaming it all on cats as much as the news digest snippet that I got sent does. If you're interested, it is open access in Nature and you can find it here. Linked within is another, equally interesting article about "Invasive predators and global biodiversity loss" where, interestingly, not only cats are listed - but also foxes, rodents, and other imported invasive species. And also interestingly, rodents have played at least as large, if not a larger, role than cats. In any case, the main culprit for importing these species is... the human.

0
DEZ.
14
0

So many options...

I've looked a bit more for museum collection management software... and I am amazed at how many different options and solutions there are. Most of them, however, will upload or import or otherwise duplicate an existing file. Most of them are also designed to run on a server (though that is something that I could work with), which makes perfect sense for an accessible database, and are accessed through the browser. (Also workable.)

However, it takes a bit of time to skim the documentation for each of the options to see if it might be suitable for my purposes... and that's where I'm still stuck, skimming stuff and figuring out which one may be worth a try. 

That's all happening in little bits of time inbetween "proper" work stuff, though. With extra help from the little cat today (who has been putting her paw down on the touchpad more than usual...). But I won't complain too much about having a fluffy companion while working!

Having the cat relax and hang out on the desk also means that I get to sneakily shorten her claws as necessary. She's not active enough anymore to keep all the claws short enough through wear and tear, and the tendons in older cats sort of wear out as well and don't retract everything as completely as it should be... and that has actually caused her issues with walking. Plus claw snags, which may look funny, but must be rather annoying and sometimes probably also painful. So we got a claw trimmer (human nail clippers have the wrong shape) and now we're keeping her claws short enough that they don't bother her. 

Fortunately she's fine with having her paws handled; the only really difficult claw is the thumb claw, but even that is unsupervised and standing out sometimes, in some sleepy positions. And then, snip!, it is suddenly a little shorter. And Madame is a good bit happier - not strictly in that moment, but overall, since being able to walk without pain is definitely a great factor in personal happiness!

0
OKT.
10
0

Back (with a delay...)

There I was, telling you I'd be back here on the blog yesterday... and then somehow the day went by, with a lot of things done (catch-up-stuff still left from my trip to the conference) and I completely forgot to blog.

Even though it's on my trusty to-do-and-reminder list... but, ah, that only helps if one looks at it as the workday draws closer to ending. Otherwise... well. Like not looking at the calendar and then promptly forgetting about dates. 

So... what was happening here?

Lots of things. I went off to Romania, for a conference about Eastern European Traditional Textiles... hoping to learn some more about them (as I was rather blank on that topic), and make some new acquaintances to get better network possibilities into the East. Both plans did work out, to my great delight! I had a wonderful time looking at splendidly embroidered shirts, doing a little hemp processing, taking part in a dyeing workshop that included some dyes I'd not had contact with before, and visiting the wonderful museums in Băiţa and Sibiu.

While I was away, the little cat felt a bit under the weather... apparently she managed to catch a cold, which made her appetite about non-existent. She spent a few days just sleeping and eating very little, but she did pull through - and the plus side of her spending a few days only sleeping is that she rested her right back leg enough with that to let it recover from whatever sprain it had. Now we hope the rest of her cold will pass quickly so she can go back to her usual upbeat self.

She's at least fit enough again to conquer her favourite sleeping spots (which all have conquering aids for her now - ramps or steps, for easier access, since the jumping powers of probably-around-18-years-or-older cats are, let's say, limited...)

Meanwhile, planning for the Textile Forum is also happening, there's a demonstration coming up where I will be showing tablet weaving (which has to be prepared), orders have been sent out and more prepared to follow their chums today, and some more planning has been done - which I'll tell about tomorrow. 

0
AUG.
08
0

International Cat Day.

Today is, as I found out this morning, International Cat Day - taking place annually on August 8. And because that is the perfect excuse to not write a long blog post today, and instead delight you (well, hopefully) with a cat picture, here you go: 

Madame is, not surprisingly but still a little sadly, getting old. She's always had some food intolerances, but those got much more severe last year. After several months of searching for a possible cause, we did find out that it's probably the thickening additives in the canned cat food that she reacts to... and that ruled out about all kinds of available canned pet food (in combination with the kinds of meat she cannot have, there's about nothing left that would work for her).

So we switched to mixing her food ourselves, which means buying meat and adding in all the vitamins, minerals, and other things that are necessary to achieve the right amount of everything. Definitely not a low-maintenance cat - but she is much better now, having less issues with scratching herself, and also no more bad gut issues. The past few days, though, she seems to have hip pains :( and we hope that getting her some more aids to get onto her fave spots without jumping, and providing her with some nice warm spots, will help.

Growing old is not for cowards...

0
SEP.
16
0

That's It With The Plan.

My plan was to finish some sewing project today - but it has been thwarted... well, I could technically do it, but I'm choosing to let my thumb marinate as recommended instead.

If you're now wondering what I mean... my left thumb currently looks like this: 

It looks much worse than it actually is. That is a moist cover to keep a small, slightly infected wound open and able to ooze out anything that will ooze out. I tried to get a (rather large) pill into a poor sick cat yesterday evening, and that was only partly successful as in part of the chewed-up capsule landed inside the cat (good), and part of the cat's teeth landed temporarily in my thumb (not so good). (The cat is not to blame, by the way, as he was not trying to bite me - he had only two wishes: To close his mouth again, preferably with the pill outside of it, and to get away from this horrible situation. My thumb just happened to be in the way of achieving wish number one.)

Because cat bites are notorious for getting infected, and I need my hands in good working order, I did the very sane and grown-up thing and went to the doc this morning. So now I'm getting antibiotics for a few days and the (tiny little) wound gets a spa treatment. It's not hurting much or really heating up, but there are signs of infection, and since the fascia in the fingers are plentisome and those are not agreeing at all with infections, better to act quickly and hit the bugs with antibiotics than get real issues later on.

Bonus, though: I got reminded of the fact that one of my basic vaccinations needs a refresher, and got the shot while at the doc's today.

So. Lessons to learn from this? If you need to pill a cat, consider wearing (thin leather) gloves right from the start. (Thick gloves will not work, you can't put pressure on the small spots at the jaw joint then.) 

Most importantly: Don't get bitten. If you do, it's a good idea to go to the doc straightaway, as soon as there are the first signs of any infection. Don't wait around, cat saliva is evil stuff.

(Bonus tip: Go check your vaccinations and see if they are all up to date. Second bonus tip: If you're getting antibiotics for any reason, get yourself something to build up a healthy gut biome again while you're in the pharmacy anyways. These meds kill bugs first and never ask, and that includes the ones that are supposed to live happily in your gut.)

The irony of the whole thing, by the way? The pill for the cat was antibiotics...

0
MäRZ
14
0

Argh.

Today started off okay, and then it somehow deteriorated quickly - as in I found out that some of the stuff I had written and finished has magically disappeared (so I have to write it again), and then something similar happened with new writings. And that all while I felt behind already.

The cat "helped" by hanging out on my desk and giving me a microneedle treatment, insisting that the best place for her claws was the back of my right hand. Sigh.

At least it looks like I found out what was the reason for the issues, and they are hopefully resolved.

Also, there will be cake now. And you get a cat picture, because, well, Internet and cats...

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