Welcome to our Picnic

We got an award a few weeks back(mom is terrible at doing this stuff) from Forty Paws.  The Sunshine Picnic Award comes with an invitation to a picnic where each brings something to eat. We live in the mountains of western North Carolina so we will choose traditional and new Southern Appalachian foods to bring to our picnic. 

Let's see...how about pulled pork with blueberry chipotle BBQ sauce,  liver mush (similar to scrapple but made of pork liver, pork fat and cornmeal),  grilled mountain trout, branch lettuce (local watercress found in early spring at higher elevations at the edge of mountain streams or branches) "kilt" with hot bacon grease and vinegar, buttermilk cornbread cooked in an iron skillet,  sweetened fried apples as a side dish, corn pudding, watermelon rind pickles and sweet potato casserole. 

corn pudding

For dessert chocolate gravy poured over homemade biscuits,  cardamon coconut milk ice cream from the Hop, truffles from the French Broad Chocolate Lounge, sweet tea and Highland

chocolate gravy over biscuits

Callie is watching the peeps set up the picnic and all the goodies.  Hope this is enough to entice y'all to join us for this super fun picnic!  Mom will add a few non traditional things for the vegans and vegetarians like her.  Now will pick some blogs to host their own picnic - lets spice this up a bit and get some overseas cats to join in.

Flynn from Eric and Flynn's Adventures in UK
Georgia from Mickey's Musings in Canada
The Gang from Furries of Whisppy in Malaysia
Charlie from Charlie Rascal in Sweden

Hope y'all enjoy the foods and have a relaxing picnic!  We missed Cinco de Mayo cuz Mom was too lazy to dress us up!  But do come back for our Gotcha Day celebration for our beloved Angel Yoko on Mother's Day - this Sunday.

Happy First of May!

Mom chose Tabitha as our May Queen this year - Tabitha  was surprised and wanted to freshen up a bit before the celebrations begin   Excuse her for a moment while she grooms!

Mom loves this old fashioned holiday.  In her childhood, they would have bonfires the night before and decorate the Maypole with crepe paper and flowers.  At her parochial school they had a special day with a procession of children dressed in their best clothes with one girl chosen to crown the statue of Mary with a garland of flowers.  Mom was actually chosen to do that one year.

She also made May baskets - These are small baskets usually filled with flowers or treats and left at someones doorstep. The giver rings the bell and runs away.

Wishing you all a lovely First Day of May!  Here are some trivia bits about this cool day plus pics of the flowers in our yard!

Our strawberries

 The earliest May Day celebrations appeared in pre-Christian times, with the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, and the Walpurgis Night celebrations of the Germanic countries. It is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane. Many pagan celebrations were abandoned or Christianized during the process of conversion in Europe.

Hawthorn blooms

 A more secular version of May Day continues to be observed in Europe and America. In this form, May Day may be best known for its tradition of dancing the maypole dance and crowning of the Queen of the May. Various Neopagan groups celebrate reconstructed (to varying degrees) versions of these customs on May 1.

Lily of the Valley

On May 1, 1561, King Charles IX of France received a lily of the valley as a lucky charm. He decided to offer a lily of the valley each year to the ladies of the court. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became custom to give a sprig of lily of the valley, a symbol of springtime, on May 1. 

Azalea with a bumblebee moth

 The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer. (info from Wikipedia)

Dogwood

How to Wear Bunny Ears!

Tabitha prefers to wear her bunny ears off to one side for a jaunty look.

 

 While Ivy takes this off to the side idea to the extreme!

Uh oh..they don't seem to stay on  very well do they?

Now this is better - the more traditional way to wear your bunny ears!  However you wear them, have a wonderful Easter with your  loved ones! We will be visiting all our blog friends all weekend long so see you sometime in the next two days!

Happy Birthday Marg!

Callie, Lily, Ivy and all the rest of us Cats of Wildcat Woods (and Mom Cheri) would like to wish our friend Marg a very Happy Birthday! As you can see Callie has her party hat on....

Lily has the noise maker out...

and Ivy has the confetti ready!  Hope you are having as much fun at your house as we are here celebrating your special day!  Wishing you a wonderful day Marg, and a year of all good things!

 

Thanks to Ann of Zoolatry for making this super graphic to honor you.  If you want to join in and wish Marg a Happy Birthday go visit her blog Marg's Animals. and leave a message for her!

Thankful Thursday

Tabitha and Woody

Us cats would like to thank everyone for commenting on the previous post about Mom's co-worker losing her cat Mako.  Mako's Mom wrote "The blog post that you did in his memory really touched me and I really appreciate it."

Alasandra from Fenris and gang made lovely graphic for Mako - Mako's Mom said  "...please tell your blogger friend thank you so much for the sweet image of Mako."

I don't know if you realize this but you pet bloggers are such a supportive caring network of pet lovers and always rise to the occasion whenever anyone has suffered a loss or has a pet crisis to deal with.  So many pet people do not have friends who can sympathize with them and offer comfort in tough times.  It was wonderful to allow Mako's Mom to be apart of this amazing group in her time of loss.

Norm and Snowball

Now for an update on us - Pop will be dealing with a very very serious health issue in the coming weeks, with lots of doctor appointments scheduled.  Mom will try to post once a week but if you don't hear from us, that is what is going on.  Keep Pop in your thoughts and prayers for a good outcome.  We will keep you posted.

We will leave you with a fun song from The Golden Girls TV show...

Thank You For Being A Friend 
Thank you for being a friend
Traveled down the road and back again
your heart is true you're a pal and a confidant

I'm not ashamed to say
I hope it always will stay this way
My hat is off, won't you stand up and take a bow

And if you threw a party
Invited everyone you knew
You would see, the biggest gift would be from me
and the card attached would say,
Thank you for being a friend

Thank you for being a friend
Thank you for being a friend
Thank you for being a friend

If it's a car you lack
I'd surely buy you a cadillac
Whatever you need, anytime of the day or night

I'm not ashamed to say
I hope it always will stay this way
My hat is off, won't you stand up and take a bow

And when we both get older
With walking canes and hair of gray
Have no fear, even though it's hard to hear
I will stand real close and say,
Thank you for being a friend

(I want to thank you)
Thank you for being a friend

And when we die and float away
Into the night, the Milky Way
You'll hear me call, as we ascend
I'll see you there, then once again
Thank you for being a friend

Thank you for being a friend
(I want to thank you)
(Thank you right now, for being a friend)
Thank you for being a friend
(I wanna tell you right now, and tell you again)

Lyrics by Andrew Gold