Cottage Dogs: Rex

Rex is standing pretty for me

during our afternoon walk.

He is such a handsome boy!

Thanks for stopping by!

~MamaLisa

Thursday in the Garden at Marshwood Cottage

This summer we only grew buckwheat as a cover crop to help build up the soil in our raised vegetable garden bed.

Since we couldn't live a year without fresh tomatoes, we also had a couple of pots of cherry tomatoes and one cucumber pot.

The buckwheat seedlings took off quickly.

At full summer's bloom.

About a month ago seed heads (and tomatoes) galore!

Just a couple days ago, I left the cuttings to be tilled under.

And that's how our garden grows!

Thanks for stopping by!

~MamaLisa

Summer's Sunflowers

In honor of the passing of Summer 2015

SUNFLOWERS!!!

Planted from transplanted seeds

Water, water, water, water!

Buds!

POP!

And then its over!

We're expecting lots of sunflower seeds coming this fall!

Thanks for stopping by!

~MamaLisa

Old Dog Cooper

Cooper is between beds right now...

Thanks for stopping by!

~MamaLisa

Autumn in Maine

We picked the last harvest

The finches are molting

Our firewood arrived

And MamaLindy stacked it away

The sunflowers have bowed their heads to Autumn

And what was once green

Shines bright with the season

Happy Autumn from Marshwood Cottage!

Thanks for stopping by!

~MamaLisa

Our Blog is Moving at the End of July!

Hello all followers of Cat of Nine Tales!

First, we thank you all so very much for coming here and following our blog! Whether you comment or just view our posts, we're grateful to share a part of our lives with you. We enjoy being back blogging and plan to continue.

However...

Due to some confusing changes at Google and Blogger that I can't figure out or work around, we are losing our domain name www.catofninetales.com in August.

Therefore...

Our blog is moving at the end of July!

Since I have learned an ancient truth that where there is crisis there is opportunity, we are also using this to change our blog name to Marshwood Cottage. 

If you've followed our blog for a while, you know that since we lost Moseley and BJ, we only have seven cats (not nine) and I've been wanting to include more dog posts. So, once we throw in the gardens and birdlife, we've got a slightly different feel to the whole blog.

The Marshwood Cottage blog will remain at least 70% cats!

Today I'm asking you to please CLICK HERE to pop over to the new Marshwood Cottage blog (which is under construction) and subscribe, join, follow or however it is you find yourself here. All posts will shift over to the new blog on an as of yet undetermined date at the end of this month. We'll keep you posted!  

Thank you all and thanks for stopping by! 

~Lisa

Garden Plus Fire

Thursday in the garden at Marshwood Cottage

All veggies are doing well. After this photo I put down some mulch material to help keep weeds down.

But the real story at Marshwood Cottage is our new FIRE PIT!

DP dug the pit out about eight inches deep.

Rocks gathered from around the property line the interior.

Done!

The first fire welcomed in the Summer Solstice!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Lisa

Dogs at Marshwood Cottage: Buzz Girl

This is Buzz Girl

Buzz was born in January 2000 and is 14 years old. She is a Jack Russell Terrier and came from the same breeder as Cooper. They share the same grandmother (she is 9 months younger than Cooper), making them 1^st cousins!

We love her fuzzy rough coat, but keep her shaved down to be cleaner since she loves froggin’…

… and being dirty.

Like Cooper, Buzz was a model for Pet Edge Pet Supply. She’ll do anything for a chunck of hot dog or a piece of cheese. Look at these poses!

      

Also like Cooper, Buzz played flyball for many years and has since retired.

But she still loves to play fetch to this day.

Buzz’s full name is "Princess Busy Buzz Girl" because she is always busy having fun.

She loves her pool and especially the water hose.

      

She is our best hunter and swoops vermin right from under the boys’ noses.

She’s so stealthy and quiet while the boys just bark at their prey.

Buzz unabashedly loves men.

 Little boys…

…and big boys.

Like most self respecting terriers, Buzz’s favorite word is…

TREATS?

That’s our sweet “Buzzbellina!”  We hope you enjoyed getting to know her! 

Next, we’ll feature T-Rex!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Lisa

Marshwood Cottage Vegetables

The Vegetable Garden has been planted for 2014!!    Whew!

This is what it looked like in early April (yes, that is snow in the foreground).

We slowly cleaned out the debris, old mulch cloth and weeds. Then DP tried out the Mantis Tiller that was given to us last year (thank you C and M!). It worked great!

I made sure to get our plants before the holiday weekend to avoid the mad rush at our local greenhouses.

Over here we planted tomatoes (3 varieties), pickling cucumbers, bell peppers and threw in some beet seeds for fun.

On this side we planted zucchini, summer squash and pumpkins!

Here is the final outcome.

This year we took advantage of the trellis that came with the property, 

cleaned out the raised bed, planted peas on one side and green beans on the other.

All the seeds germinated with gusto and it needs a little more thinning on the pea side.

All we do now is weed, water and feed and soon they will feed us! Gardening is grand!!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Lisa