Seconds Now Available

When Natural Scratch is produced, there are always some posts that do not meet requirements in terms of appearance.  This might be due to graying from exposure to the elements after cutting at the mill, blemishes, or other flaws.

Such posts are set aside and I sell them as seconds.  Cats claw these seconds just as enthusiastically as they do firsts but the appearance of seconds might seem less finished to humans.

Seconds have all the features of normal Natural Scratch posts, including the training booklet.  

If you're looking to save a few bucks, these are the cat's meow.  Please have a look at http://www.naturalscratch.com/buysecond.html

Orion On The Horizon

It's that time of year--the dog days of summer when the dog star (Sirius) and Orion the Hunter again rise in the eastern morning sky. 

They are harbingers of the winter months to come.

Now they are visible just before dawn but in January they will be at the zenith of the sky in the early evening as Earth continues its billions years old voyage around the Sun.

Then the summer constellations and stars will be impossible to see.  But, when they rise in the east in the minutes before dawn, summer again will be heading our way.

Cactus Flower August 2011

The post below is about the flower my cactus produced last summer.  There are several pictures.  Here is this year's flower.  It bloomed on about the same day in August but only lasted about 12 hours before it closed and started to droop.

 Click for a larger view.

* * *

My brother Bob gave me a cactus that is the offspring of one he received way back when from our Aunt Lily and Uncle Earl.

It produced a flower in 2009 at two separate times, so I knew what to look for this year and sure enough, a stalk appeared about two weeks ago and grew steadily.

The pictures below were taken over five days.

Most of the year, the cactus does nothing and seems to need nothing but a little water.

But, then, a few days of growth, 24 hours of glory, and...dissolution.

Click on the photos for larger views.

The End.