While walking this evening, I unexpectedly came upon a kitty that I hadn’t seen since our first meeting on Sept. 4, 2017. Bandit, the Tuxedo hung out in a yard near where Monroe Ave. crosses […]
Category: Living
The Cats of University Heights: Luci
Nearby the same building where, on Georgia at Monroe, I met Peso in May 2017, another kitty greeted me and my wife on April 2, 2018. As I knelt down to snap some portraits, a woman walking by with a child said that “her name is Luci”. I had not encountered the long-hair tortoiseshell before—and doing so suddenly caused concern that I hadn’t seen Peso for several months. I do hope that he is okay.
Luci gave grovely meows but never approached Anne or I—that day or April 4, when I captured the Featured Image, using Leica M (Typ 262) and Summarit-M 1:2.4/50 lens. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/11, ISO 200, 1/45 sec, 50mm; 4:30 p.m. PDT.
The Cats of University Heights: Desire
Five minutes afer seeing Snow looking out from inside an apartment on Louisiana Street, my wife and I encountered another window watcher—twentieth for the series—at the corner of Mississippi and Monroe, on March 19, 2018.
I shot the Featured Image, chosen purely for cropped composition, at 3:12 p.m. PDT, using iPhone X. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 16, 1/371 sec, 6mm. The companion, captured on April 2 at 6:18 p.m. with Leica M (Typ 262) and Summarit-M 1:2.4/50 lens, is more color accurate and intimate; you wouldn’t know from the vantage point that the cat looks out from a second-floor window. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/4.8, ISO 200, 1/90 sec, 50mm.
Snout Sunning
Ha! It’s an unexpected follow-up post. In the last one, a dinosaur looms over Morla. This afternoon, while walking past her yard, I spotted something on the dino’s snout. I unslung the Leica M (Typ […]
Mornin’, Morla
On Easter Sunday, which this year also was April Fools, I walked the neighborhood, practice manual focusing with the Leica M (Typ 262) and Summarit-M 1:2.4/50 lens. Morla the tortoise was out and about, too. […]
The Cats of University Heights: Snow
The second of three consecutive Window cats—and nineteenth out of 152 putty-tat profiles to date—is another white. My wife and I spotted this handsome looker on March 19, 2018 along Louisiana Street between Meade and […]
The Cats of University Heights: Holiday
This place is going to feel like a real meowy beastie blog, while the backlog of photographed but not featured felines clears away. Apologies, I got behind posting to the series while furnishing my daughter’s new apartment. Four of them look out from glass, like today’s wonderful white, who is the eighteenth behind a window—and unbelievably the sixteenth sighted on Alabama Street. Monkey, who recently passed away, lived on the same block. Laramie, Lupe, and Smokey remain residents.
I waited weeks to profile the kitty that earns nickname Holiday, seeing that it’s April and a Christmas wreath still hangs on his owner’s door. Somebody often cracks a window for Holiday, who is a fixture when days are sunny and warm. I held back the profile hoping to meet his caretaker(s) and get a name. I first photographed the cat on February 17, 2018. That’s long enough ago to abandon the quest and move onward.
The Cats of University Heights: Sebastian, Too
Meet the second Sebastian to appear in the series. The first lives near the Vermont Street Bridge, which is more than a mile (1.6 km) from his namesake, who romps with two other kittens around a home on Mississippi between El Cajon and Meade. One of them, Persepolis, posts simultaneously but separately.
Sebastian and his mates were adopted together, which wasn’t the owners’ original plan. But the three were obviously a bonded set, having been fostered together, and they couldn’t conscientiously be separated.
The Cats of University Heights: Persepolis
The series is way behind, based on the number of furballs photographed but waiting to be profiled. My apologies for the break. During the past two weeks, I was occupied setting up my daughter’s new apartment. But that project is finished. Whew. Let’s resume with the first of three kittens, living on Mississippi between Meade and El Cajon Blvd.
Persepolis is this handsome ginger’s real name. Companion Sebastian posts simultaneously but separately. Hopefully soon, their mate Lilly will join the series, whenever I capture a better portrait (She was too quick, and I too slow with the camera).
Decorating Shabby Chic
While my daughter was away for two weeks, I furnished her new apartment, which was a fun exercise. I decided to go vinatge, buying several semi-matching Shabby Chic-style pieces—the majority from local store Loveseat.
The Featured Image is Molly’s nearly completed living room; a few additional accents are not shown here. She already had the phonograph player and guitar—earlier Christmas and birthday presents, respectively; I added most of the rest, including the picnic basket and painted box, with a few exceptions like the painting. The lamp, light, and chair are from IKEA.
The Only North Face They’ll Ever Climb
Our kitties Neko and Cali love to sleep on my North Face sleeping bag, which we keep for them on the spare bed in the office. Typically they take turns sleeping there. The two together […]
A Garbage Story
Human behavior perplexes me. This morning while walking towards the Sprouts market, here in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood, I observed a grey-haired woman stop walking to pick up a discarded cigarette carton; a wide-brim hat obscured her face. I smiled and thought: “Good for her! How commendable”.
But she soon followed community-minded behavior with inexplicable action. The lady tossed the thing into foliage alongside the sidewalk. Surely, I misunderstood—but, no, her right hand was empty. So much for the goodwill of grabbing unsightly refuse and disposing in a garbage can—which wasn’t more than 46 meters (50 yards) further along. Passing the spot of the drop, I could see other trash.