Monochrome Monday ~ Sitting In The Grape Arbor With Little Kitty ~ Original Photography and Original Discussion About Grapes and Napping Cats ~
Hangin' in the Grape Arbor At Sunset With Little Kitty
There I was, late in the day after some heavy chores around the place, sitting in a chair by the grape arbor, watching the sun dip down into the western sky. The end of a busy, hot, but very productive day. The grape leaves always provide much-needed shade, and an interestingly odd, cooling effect. It's as if they give off some sort of invisible, heat-reducing moisture cloud to the air beyond.
You can't actually FEEL it outright, but it always seems to be there. The hotter the day, the more cooling you get. It had been a tiring day, and I really appreciated the chance to finally sit down. The garden is going in, and I'm attempting to replace the water pump and tank in the pump-house. Albeit VERY S-L-O-W-L-Y. I wonder if anyone else's DIY projects never go to plan? Plus, there's always weed-eating to do, and I was tired. Did I say that already? Irregardless, it was time to sit and chill at the end of a long, long day.
No sooner had I plopped down into the white, wrought iron chair by the grapes, when up wandered Little Kitty the Cat. Somehow, all the furry four-legger's seem to know whenever a lap has recently moved into a horizontal position on any flat surface of the yard. Particularly in the waning sun. They waste no time procuring their 'rightful place', usually on some part of my person. And sure enough, she climbed up into my lap (not overly coordinated, for a cat), spun around a few times to get comfortable, then fell fast asleep.
Even though I knew I would get no response by this time, I went ahead and inquired anyway: "What HAVE you been up to today, Little Kitty, to tucker you out so?" Nothing but silence came back to me in the light, balmy breeze. But I soon recalled one of the base axioms of life. After all, she IS a cat. No excuse needed, for a lengthy cat nap. At ANY time of the day. Ah, what a life, and she was following that wisdom as if she wrote it herself. I was obviously stuck for the duration, in my chair by the grapes.
What better time than this, to sit among the cooling grape leaves in the golden, falling light, and snap a few photos of the shadows messing about at the edges of the stacks of leaves. Once I took a good look around through the LCD screen, I realized there was an entire, small universe of interesting things going on in the multiple layers of the arbor. Gotta love digital 'film'. It's free, and the camera holds more images than even Little Kitty can sleep through. I snapped happily away from my captive place in the chair.
She soon awoke, stood, stretched, and decided it was time to move on. Probably to another, less wiggly place to continue her nap. What an existence! But I have no complaints, from where I sit. This provided an excellent opportunity to take quite a few B&W images of the leaves for @old-guy-photos Monochrome Monday extravaganza. Thank you, Little Kitty, for slowing me down and helping me out with this endeavor.
Though, if anyone were to ask: I've been known to crawl under the arches of the grape arbor on REALLY hot days, for a nap of my own. Every now and then, when the mood hits. Usually joined very quickly by at least one, if not several of the other yard-nap specialists. Maybe their grand ideas about living The Life is rubbing off on me, like white cat hair on a pair of jet-black slacks. We can certainly hope so.
~ Finto ~
Little Kitty the Cat
Thanks for stopping in and viewing some Monochrome images of grape leaves in the waning daylight. If you have any thoughts about grapes, leaves, cats, B&W photography, why the earth rotates in the direction it does, how many holes are in a graham cracker, or anything else questionably fascinating that this post reminds you of, please feel free to comment away in the spaces below. I'd love to hear from you.
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Posted: 07/10/2018 @ 01:30
Excerpts From Late-Night Conversations With A Mechanical Cat
Fact Number 84
I sometimes think that that kind of life is the cat's meow, know what I mean? Eat, nap, allow my human to pet me, stretch... rinse, repeat.
The shimmer of the leaves are the color of spun silver (can one spin silver or is that only gold?) It glistens in the sun and shine and makes me calmer and quieter just looking at it. I am yawning big nap yawns just looking through it.
DIY is not for the faint of heart. It never seems to work out quite the way it should. Or it works out perfect and makes me overly confident for the next disaster.
Whoever said summer days are made for fun and sunshine? Keep cool!
Beautiful photos of grape leaves in black and white! Great shot!
The Little Kitty the Cat is really cute.
Ah! I can imagine the cozy moment between you and the Little Kitty the Cat under the grape leaves in the hot day…. ;)
wish i have those hands & keep upvoting such as this creative funny post!!
Thanks for sharing this..
Chilling in the nature is brilliant. You did like the ancient Romans, laying down surrounded by grapes (well, they were on a carpet of pillows).
Did you know that it's when you take the time to chill and do absolutely nothing that you become very creative?
Well, now you know!
Now I know, and now I need to go get a pillow from the Goodwill, and drag it under the arbor to play Roman-of. For those days of coming up with more writing ideas. Thanks, that should help. Not only do things fly about cranial-ly when chilling, which is so true, but I also get many good ideas when taking a long, hot shower, or biking.
Time well spent. Very well.
I agree, any time spent relaxing in a chair and taking photos is a good one. Even IF pinned down by one of your less-than-favorite animules. Do you ever take a chair out in the bog, wilds, etc, to help sit and watch for hours as you wait for a damselfly to land and pose? Seems that might work. Then again, your chair might sink into the bog. Wouldn't want that, puts a real damper on the photo session...
It would, and staying in one place for too long attracts many insects that are after one's blood.
It is perfectly doable for photographing dragonflies, though. See here. Maybe I should repost it, it's the season for such things after all.
Oh, I need one of those cool places! Its so hot here and the landscaping guy had fun chopping down my beloved jungle! Now its even hotter! Next time I will put a big sign : LEAVE AT LEAST ONE TREE ALIVE!... Maybe that way something will survive the guy...
The nerve of them. It is amazing how much the presence of trees makes a difference. Getting out of the sun is half the battle. Having your own grapes to crawl under is a lot of fun, and cooler, though I doubt they would grow there. Though I bet things grow where you are, VERY VERY fast.
Yes! Thats the good thing! I miss my jungle, tho...
You mean to say say your DIY projects sometimes take longer than expected? Wow, I thought I was the only one lol.
I like them all and especially the stem thingies...very minimalist. A very nice showing indeed. Glad you have no wrath for these grapes!
No wrath at all....got a chortle out of that one. I'm pretty sure taking any project x 12 will just about get you there and it done. Maybe. Must be another axiom of life...
I am not surprised that a kitty thought of your lap as a nice place to nap. Animals know good people when they see them.
Thanks for the nice thoughts, they are professionals about all of this nap business, that's for sure. And seems to be on me rather often ( :
Thanks you, small blue kitty, I appreciate your smiling catterly countenance.
Very nice high-contrast shots. The textures in the leaves come off very well, that way. As for the cat, he's going to have a sore neck, sleeping like that!
She can sleep just about any place that presents. Though this one was special, looked REALLY uncomfortable. A true Little Kitty Krick in the Neck, for sure. Glad you enjoyed the images and the sleep-professional. We should all learn this art to the Nth degree, like a cat.