This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: The Eagle at Hidden Falls.

Pacific City

A lot has happened since I last posted on this blog, but nothing that I felt like posting on this blog.  I suppose anything I had to say was either too personal, or too business.

My online business has been expanding and experiencing all varieties of twists and turns.  Living arrangements and long term plans have fluctuated accordingly.  At times it looked like we would be living in Portland, at other times it appeared we were moving to LA, and there were moments when Arizona, Texas, or even the mid-West were possibilities.  Where are we now?  Right back where we started.  Beautiful Pacific City on the Central Oregon Coast.  While situations somewhat beyond my immediate control are the reason for my current residence in the coastal forest near here, yet it stands that at the moment I am not complaining.  Not about my geographical location, in any case.

If you’ve ever read an advertisement concerning Internet Marketing you might have noticed that “Work from Home” is a big button for many people.  “Work online, so that you can work from home.”  “Work from Home.  Be Your Own Boss.”  Etc, etc, etc.

All I can say is, do these people have cats?

Nutmeg the Innocent

There are endless distractions at home.  Whether they be familial distractions, or the kitten who attaches to your arm and kneads mercilessly while you try to type.  (I’m not mentioning any names, just look at the picture -> ).

Well, I work online.  Granted.  I earn a sufficient income on my laptop to rely on no offline source of income.  Check.  Got that part of the picture all worked out.  Still working on the “millionaire” aspect of the equation.  Give me time.

But … work from home?  No.  There is no decent internet connection at home, and no chance of getting one.  And besides, Home is Where the Distraction Is.

Today is an important day for me, because today is the day I move into my new office, downtown in the great metropolis of Pacific City.  (Fishing village turned weekend getaway).  I would have moved earlier if my router had arrived … but we won’t go there right now.  The view from my second-story window is not as good as the view from the internet cafe by the beach, but that’s okay.  I can still see the top of Haystack Rock over the rooftops, as well as the Giant Sand Dune, the tip of Cape Kiwanda, and the mist.  (I believe the ocean would be visible, if not for the mist.)  Even better is the sound of seagulls.  I love seagulls.

It’s quiet in here right now.  There’s nothing but me, a few items of temporary furniture, and a couple of boxes.  The only sound is the seagulls, and my keyboard.  I’ve had a hard time writing over the last months, but sitting here, it suddenly seems so much easier.  I like it here.

Not only that, my internet connection here is fast.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Finally Something to Write About.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Koko and Nutmeg Playing Ping Pong.

1. I was busy
2. I didn’t have time
3. I had a lot to do
4. I was doing other things
5. It fell off the calendar
6. I had a lot going on
7. Work got in the way

The good news … I now have two kittens.  Kokonut has long since stopped attacking his adopted kid-sister, Nutmeg, at any moment of proximity – that’s how long it has been since I posted here.  Nutmeg is finally potty trained (a miracle in itself), is no longer throwing up … and she even has a name.  I think I went through about 5 names before I settled on “Nutmeg.” She does not look remotely like that particular spice, she is black and white (and drop-dead gorgeous).  But “Nutmeg” works, and I like calling her “Nut.”

My kittens could probably be considered somewhat spoiled, as they have raw meat, usually chicken liver, for breakfast every morning.  But I simply consider that no feline creature was made for a diet of dry carbohydrates.  And not only that, the chicken liver at Safeway is cheaper than the wet cat food I was buying before!

I could say a lot more.  I could give you a better recap of … other parts of life.  I just … am still … trying to catch up, on all  my incomplete projects.

Not to mention the fact that I only have a couple of months to finish my photography course before the deadline.

Or maybe my “monthly post” idea should become “semi-annual posts.”  Or annual posts?  Or how about, once every two years … wasn’t there a word for that?

No, seriously.  I do aim to one day start posting perennially.

I also aim to one day post my cat pictures – as is the original, most traditional, and most time-honored purpose of blogging.

As I write, nutmeg has come across a rather unfortunate twist-tie, covered in thick red paper, which is now under full onslaught.  Ah … she is carrying it away in her teeth now, looking back and forth to make sure no competing predators try to steal it from her.  Oh!  Koko has approached her  …  Hiss, growl, stay away from my twist-tie!

This is the first time I have seen Nutmeg growl.  Koko is still twice her size so it is always amusing when I see her scare him off.

Okay, now, to get on with it.  The real purpose of my post.  I want to tell you about the elephant who draws better than me.

Now, I admit it, that’s not saying much.  I mean, really no competition there.  Some people were born to draw, I was not.

But this elephant has won my full admiration and I would love to hire him (or her) as my graphics designer.

Some critics insist this is not really an elephant. After all, their brains are smaller. I agree that it would help if one could see the elphant better, and not just the trunk. But I find it very amusing, if not a little sick and sad, that some people still think that a brain, or the size thereof, has anything to do with thought. But, I digress. Maybe I will save that for another post – perhaps next year’s.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Why I Haven’t Posted and the Elephant Who Draws Better than Me.

KokoNut Playing on the Deck

Yesterday at 8 am we left to drive to the city in search of kittens.  We had specifically decided that we wanted to adopt a brother-and-sister pair.

The first shelter we arrived at had no brother and sister pair (we thought).  There were some beautiful black and white kittens, but they were all sisters.  Each litter was in its own austere, steel cage.  If there was a single cat, or a kitten who was the last in the litter, the cat was alone in its own cage.  Come to think about it, I imagine the steel cages must speed up the adoption process.  It wrenches the heart to see all those cats and kittens, though well taken care of, living in steel cages, sometimes alone.

The first kitten I noticed when I walked into the shelter was a male, brown, tiger-striped tabby.  To be honest this is not my favorite color where cats are concerned, but in any case, his siblings had all been adopted.  I was instantly drawn to him but I reminded myself that I wanted a brother and sister.  When I put my fingers in front of the cage, he not only purred and rubbed against them, but reached his little paws outside the bars and began kneading at my fingers!  Alas, he had no sister.

I found a female kitten, a Siamese mix, from the litter next door and put the two kittens in the play room to see if they would get along.  At first it seemed fine.  But after a while, the little guy began to try to socialize with the girl, and she would have nothing to do with him.  She hissed at him whenever he approached.  But that didn’t stop him from following her around and persistently trying to get her to play.

The women at the shelter told me that they usually don’t allow kittens from two different litters to be adopted because the owners wind up getting fed up with the kittens while they are still learning to get along.  But, after talking to me, they were going to let me adopt these kittens.

The little male kitten had not been neutered yet.  After learning that we were only in the city for the day, they agreed to get him neutered right away so that we could pick him up that afternoon if we came back.  We left to see if we could find a brother-sister pair which might get along better, but said we might be back.

We drove around.  We got lost.  We found a bunch of adoptable kittens on display in the pet store, but the woman in charge of them was not there and they were fast asleep.  We drove some more, got lost some more, and arrived to the Humane Society.  No brother-sister kittens.  We picked up my nephew as we would be driving him home with us.  We reached the woman in charge of the pet-store kittens and drove out to meet her.  We were able to wake up and hold some of the brother-sister kittens.  They were nice kittens and they definitely got along with each other.  But something just wasn’t happening.  I tried and I tried to really like them.  There was nothing wrong with them.  I just kept thinking of the little tabby male I had first seen when I walked into the first shelter.

Finally, at the pet store, I asked my mom what I should do.  And, as she aptly put it, “you don’t look like you want those kittens.”  And she suggested I go back to the first shelter and get the kitten I had been talking about all day.  Moms are so good at that stuff.  After receiving much advice from the woman in that pet store, about disease, vaccinations, and the rest, we left.  I decided I didn’t really want the female Siamese mix that had been hissing at him so much.  I didn’t really like her attitude when he was trying to play with him!  I suppose this is to some degree a Siamese characteristic – aren’t they known for being a bit arrogant?

But, for a few minutes, while driving, it looked like we wouldn’t reach the shelter before they closed.  I thought I would never see that little kitten again.  But, with a change in the winds (or the traffic) it worked out.  My nephew and I were dropped off at the shelter.

I went in.  The little tabby kitten was still there.  The Siamese girl had been adopted – but that was okay.

Then I found that the other black-and-white Siamese mix girls had brothers!  They had been in the cage next door and I had thought they were a different litter.  I found a brother-sister pair that I liked very much.  Which was “what I had been looking for all day.”  But, this little striped tabby was still sitting there, alone in his cage.  I liked him so much!  I held the black and white male, I looked at the kittens, I thought about it for 5 minutes.

I had been so certain I would adopt a brother and sister pair.  But I realized I could not go home without the brown and white tabby.  I would never be able to live with myself!  There was “something about him.”

So, two women came out and informed me that adoption hours were closing and I had to decide.  I said, “that one.”  Little tabby was tested and came up negative for a couple of scary diseases, we completed the paperwork, and I left with a cat-in-a-carrier.

While we were driving home (a two-hour drive), little tabby took it surprisingly well for a while, but then began to meow.  I took him out of his box and held him.  He was happy with that!  Very unusual for a cat to prefer riding in an open car, but he did.  He gazed out the windows at the passing scenery, cuddled, purred, and slept in a variety of positions on my arm and chest.  I got very car sick for a while so my nephew held him in the front seat.

When we got home, the kitten accustomed himself to his new space in my bedroom, but periodically hid in any nook.  After I finished preparing his food and litter box, I pulled him out of hiding and pet him.  He came right out of his funk and began to purr and paw, explored his surroundings a bit and even ate some of his food, which he had not touched when we first arrived.  I tried to log on to check my email.  Kitten helped me type on the lower keyboard.  But he kept getting my passwords wrong, so I decided to try the upper keyboard.  Kitten followed my fingers, and helped me type up there.  Finally after many failed attempts, I managed to log in.

Later that night I returned from a few-minutes absence.  The door had been closed.  The kitten was no where!  We searched every nook in the room, every place he could be.  Even the dresser drawers.  He had vanished!  My mom and my nephew joined the search-party.  We imagined he had somehow gotten out of the room, so we searched the rest of the house.  He was no where.

Finally we decided he would reappear.  No one had opened an outside door, and he would be meowing if he were trapped somewhere.  So we decided he was hiding and would come out for food when he  was hungry.  I continued to attempt to stop searching, and then search anyway.  I said, “I am going to stop searching as otherwise I will go crazy.”  My mom said, “you said that twenty minutes ago.”

I did stop searching.  I went to sleep.  A bit later I was awoken by some commotion near by.  I turned on the light just before the kitten appeared beneath my dresser.  He had climbed up behind the drawers and been hiding there!  Probably asleep.

Mr Innocent came and slept with me the rest of the night, and woke me up in the morning to incessant purring and cuddling.  At breakfast we went over different name ideas.  I wanted to name him something that spoke of his personality and not his looks.  But when I said that his coat reminded me a little bit of a cafe late with cinnamon and chocolate sprinkles, my nephew said “Cocoa!”  We all stopped.  The name seemed fitting.  Even my dad liked it!  I thought about it for a while, and decided to name him Koko.  If I think of another name I might give him a middle name.  Again, so much for planning where the name was concerned.

So there you have it.  The kitten’s name is Koko.  I planned to get a brother and sister, and I planned to name him differently.  So much for planning   Koko has been sleeping happily on my lap throughout the time I have been writing this post, and I’m glad I got him out of that cage.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Koko.

I am experimenting with integrating Twitter with this blog.  Since I sometimes do have 30 seconds to update my Twitter status even if I don’t have time to write a full post.  (Which is, after all, why people love Twitter so much.)  However I think I will turn of the Twitter comment integration, it doesn’t seem to really work.  If you would like to follow me at Twitter, you can find me @annavwilliams.

In any case, since I last posted on this blog, I have:

• Added several photos to my new photoblog, Anna Vera’s Photos.
• Begun to exhume old photos from my hard drive and post them, and am gradually chipping away at the backlog.
• Put up my poetry blog, Anna Vera’s Poems.
• Attended the Reach the Beach event in Pacific City and watched the bikers come into the finish line.
• Hiked to Cascade Head and then to Hart’s Cove, where I photographed the forest and the coast, but also underestimated the length of the walk to Hart’s Cove, was hours late getting back, considered spending the night in the forest, and could barely walk for two days.
• Got my shoes drenched twice, once in mud-water, once in the sea.
• Fed the rabbits behind the Internet Cafe.
• Visited beaches at Bob Straub State Park, Cape Kiwanda, and Neskowin, and worked on my photograph collection.
• Coined a new acronym – YAHRP, which means “Yet another Haystack Rock Picture.”
• Realized that it is nearly impossible to get a photograph anywhere along the coast, between Cascade Head and Cape Lookout, without Haystack Rock appearing somewhere in that photo.
• Started sorting through YAHRPs and choosing my favorites so that I could stash the rest away, out of sight.
• Attended my niece’s theatre performance in Portland.
• Found an amazing “secret beach” which has a very climbable rock and its own sea cave, near my home but relatively hidden.
• Attended the June 6 Blessing of the Fleet in Pacific City, and paid tribute to 14 fishermen of the dory fleet who lost their lives at sea this year, amidst songs and prayers for better safety of the fishermen in the months to come.
• Worked on dozens of other websites and Internet Marketing projects (the details would bore you).
• Completed three lessons of the New York Institute of Photography Course.
• Drank a lot of coffee and tea.
• Extended my running habits past the mailbox and down the street.
• Found a long and virtually car-less road up the hill and into the forest, very near home.
• Have found the increased sitings of coyotes and their tracks near the house to be disturbing.
• Practiced the portrait photography I am reading about.
• Contributed photos of my local area to the Chamber of Commerce website (you can see them there at Pacific City Chamber of Commerce – but you sometimes have to refresh the page as a different photo loads every time).
• Oh – walked down the cliff beside my bedroom, to visit the waterfall, twice.  The second time I got completely lost and stuck between river and cliff, and almost could not get home, surrounded by grasses taller than me, stinging nettles, spider webs, unstable ground, brambles, branches (rotting and otherwise), bees, and lost trails.
• Journeyed to the other side of this property, via the land of two neighbors (now that our Bridge was washed away), and would have photographed the waterfall from that side, except that I forgot my camera (though not my camera bag).
• Played with my sisters cat.

There.  I could tell you a lot more but I think this should suffice.  I hope you feel somewhat updated.  I will try to increase the frequency of my posting.  In the meanwhile, thank you for visiting my blog and I hope to see you again soon

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: My Monthly Post.

If you would like to see it, you can find it at http://annavera.com/photos/

If you wish you be informed when new photos are added to that blog, you can subscribe to the photoblog itself. This is a different subscription than this blog – if you are subscribed to this blog you will not necessarily receive updates of new photos.

You will have to subscribe to that blog as well.

To subscribe to my photoblog, please use the following:

Subscribe to Anna Vera’s Photos in a Reader

Subscribe to Anna Vera’s Photos by Email

I hope you like my pictures. I have a lot more on my hard drive and I will add them as soon as possible.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: My Photoblog is Up.

Someone Else’s Crime

I will grow tomatoes
When you’ve set me free.
I will live at home in peace
Where all will let me be.

I will wake up cheerful
In the morning to the sun.
I will feel at peace at last,
Once my Freedom’s won.

I have been imprisoned here
For someone else’s crime.
I have lived my life in fear,
And I have done my time.

All I want, is to feel safe -
Relaxed and calm and free.
I have been good, to fellow men.
Why aren’t they good to me?

I try to keep my head up high,
Imagining the day
When I will be allowed to fly,
When I will go away,

And wrap myself in someone’s arms
Who knows me as I am.
I try to think about that day,
As hard as try I can …

I will wake up smiling,
In the morning sun.
I will kiss the one I love, and
Once this battle’s done …

I will grow tomatoes in
My garden in the grass,
And tie my hair behind my head …
And when this storm has passed,

I will sit up late at night
With cats and cups of tea,
I will live no more in fright
Once I have been set free.

I only want this misery
And fear and pain to end.
I only want a life at peace
Surrounded by my friends.

But that will be another day.
Today I must remain
Within the madness of this place
In fear, and hope, and pain.

But always, I hold up my head,
Imagining the day
When I will be allowed to go,
When I will fly away …

Not now. It isn’t over yet
I must sit out my time,
As I have done, for all these years,
For someone else’s crime.

- by Anna Vera Williams

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Someone Else’s Crime in a Song.

Almost every morning the robin redbreast tries to break into my bedroom window.  He flies at the window, backs up, and charges it again.  I’m not sure what he is trying to do – maybe trying to get me out of bed.  If I sit up and yell at him he goes away.

My mom says they do it on the upstairs windows as well but she has no idea why.  They act like a bird trying to get out, not like a bird trying to get in.  Continuously flying at the window over and over.  Its so funny!  It reminded her of the joke about the drunk man.  There is a tree with a fence around it.  The drunk man comes and shakes the fence, yelling, “Let me out!” And then keeps circling the fence shaking it and looking for an escape.

I love how many animals there are here.  If you first drive up the driveway it doesn’t seem like you are entering a zoo.  But if you live here, particularly if you work 12 hours a day at a laptop in front of a window which overlooks the valley, you see a lot. I have seen bald eagles fly by many times in the last few months – and the last time there were two of them,  flying maybe 25 meters in front of my window.  The white on their heads and backs is so bright!  Several nights of the week I hear coyotes howling.  And once, a couple of weeks ago, we saw one run by and cross our driveway in front of us, when we were on our way to Pacific City.  I found their tracks too – wasn’t sure what animal it was but when I looked it up online I found it had to be fox or coyote.  And since I haven’t heard any foxes, I can assume its coyote.  The vultures come more frequently, and sometimes a hawk.  But they aren’t as exciting as the eagles.

In the beginning of Spring time, the bats came out.  They surprised me because at twilight they were dive-bombing (probably for mosquitoes) in front of my window.  And then gallivanting around outside the dining room windows as well during dinner.  I am glad they eat mosquitoes although I wouldn’t mind if they ate more of them.  Its hard to recognize them at first and I didn’t know what they were when I first saw them.  They looked like shadows of falling, flapping birds.  Except in this case the birds would have been falling in the same place and in the same direction, over and over.

Then there was this funny and stupid little dear.  I was coming back from my daily run/walk to the mailbox (I’m such an athlete.)  I was in the “walking” portion of my journey.  A little dear came out of the forest and started to munch at bushes about 10 meters away.  Between him and me was nothing but grass and I couldn’t believe he didn’t see me.  He kept walking closer to me, munching away, so I walked closer to him.  It didn’t effect him at all.  So finally I said, “hello.”  The little dear looked up and looked all around, searching for the sound.  But not looking at me, even though I was smack in front of him!!  So then I said “hi,” again and finally he found me.  He stared at me for about 2 seconds, and then turned away and trotted into the forest.  Stupid little dear!  So lucky for him that I wasn’t a hunter.

I haven’t seen an otter yet.  My mom says she thinks an otter ate all the fish in our pond.  She said it was so big it was almost the size of a small seal.  So now I regularly have dreams with talking seal-sized otters in them.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Alarm Clock on Wings.

Feeding Celery to a Rabbit in Pacific City, Oregon

When you say the word “rain forest” to many people, they instantly get the concept of a tropical rain forest.

Not all rain forests are tropical. I live in a rain forest in the Pacific Northwest. Its very non-tropical, and its very rainy.

Living in a forest bears many advantages. My Internet connection is not one of those advantages. The connection is via satellite, and it is not fast. It also goes dead under certain atmospheric conditions – like rain.

Yesterday I fought with my connection throughout the day, struggling to get or stay online. Finally I saw it as futile, and decided to spend my time on more fruitful pursuits – its not like I don’t have plenty to do offline as well.

Late at night, when I was almost asleep, the silence of the house was suddenly broken by a creaking sound. My bedroom door was suddenly moving, for no reason. Then the wall beside the outside door would creak, as if someone were standing right outside my bedroom, leaning against my house. That was what it sounded like!

I tried to convince myself that no one was really standing outside my door in the rain, occasionally leaning against my wall. But it really sounded like it. And sometimes when you are alone in a room, in a stormy dark forest, in the middle of the night, logic evades you … well, if you are not a girl you probably have never had that problem, or would never admit it if you did.

I was just falling asleep, you see … I was nearly asleep, and then the door just moved. And after a long silence, it did it again. And … again … creek … but there was no ghost in the room. That was obvious. Which was almost scarier than if there had been a ghost.

Of course I know it was the wind and the rain causing the house to fuss and fidget. But it just really sounded like a man standing outside my door. And leaning.

For a while I couldn’t move. I was just frozen in the bed in terror, like a rabbit in the road. I just lay there.

Finally after what seemed like … a long time, I managed to get up and check my lock. A few times. Then I went upstairs to the kitchen, and stood there. In the middle of the kitchen. Because it felt a bit safer in the kitchen. But I realized I could not stand in the middle of the kitchen all night. I had to go back downstairs to my scary bedroom with the creeking door and the man leaning against my wall.

Back in my bed, I lay in silent terror. I thought about just starting up my laptop and going back to work. But alas, that would just put me in front of the window, with the light on and all … an easy target. At least gun fire through my window would likely miss me, if I stayed in my bed.

I swear to god, sometimes I think my late-night logic reminds me of being in kindergarten.

I don’t know how, but I finally forced myself to reason.

First of all, if there were an intruder standing on the grass outside my bedroom door (occasionally leaning against the house), the motion detector would have turned the lights on. Secondly, this person would not still be standing there, doing nothing (other than leaning against the house occasionally) for hours. But above all, no one in their right mind would choose a night like tonight to besiege my bedroom. It was windy and raining like crazy. The person would have had to drive down a long windy road into the middle of nowhere, and then walk up a long driveway, in the wind and rain, only to then come and stand outside my bedroom door and occassionally lean against my house. The probabilities were against it.

Therefore I finally deducted that the creaking sounds and the occasional movements of the door were not being caused by a strange man standing outside my bedroom and occasionally leaning against my wall. But more likely, by the wind, the rain, the condensation, and the changing temperatures, which were causing the house to unsettle and shift. With that in mind, I finally forced my mind to other thoughts, and went to sleep.

The next day when I woke up, the sky was blue with white clouds, and the weather was pretty. Not dark and rainy anymore. I got a ride to the Internet cafe by the beach, where I could watch the waves crash, and get some work done. The speed of the Internet connection was astounding, in comparison to what I was used to at home.

In the evening, just before getting in the car to go home, I fed the rabbits. Behind the cafe there is an RV Park and campground, and in this campground there are wild rabbits. But they are tame. When you approach these rabbits, they don’t run away, they run toward you. Or they hop. They want food. I brought cabbage.

I handed a bit of cabbage to the first taker. He ran off with it – and the rest of the rabbits followed him! To fight over his cabbage. Instead of getting more from me. Finally they came to their senses and they came back to me for cabbage.

They were very eager to get the cabbage. I was kneeling in the grass doling it out to them, one by one, and they would hop up into my lap to get that cabbage. I loved feeding the rabbits.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Rain, Rabbits, and a Creaky House.