Convergence

In the Goodwill shop in Martinsburg (of all places), i stumbled upon a vintage Speedball linoleum cutter set: wooden handle and five blades. I figured there was a fair-to-middling chance the blades would be dull, though they didn't appear to be nicked or otherwise damaged. They can (theoretically) be sharpened, and the whole thing was a buck, so i didn't have much to lose - as soon as i finished being astonished, it went into my basket, and i laughed at the notion of my vintage shop and my print shop converging.

It was interesting to compare it to the new blades i've used, even ones of the same brand and style - when i tried it out on a lino block, i was delighted by the smoothness of these blades in cutting. I also think the #1 blade (the tiny V-cutter i use so much) has a more acute angle, so you can get a finer line... i still have to look at new and old blades side by side to check that, but that's my initial impression. While i admit that the newfangled plastic handles that unscrew to store blades are handy, i'll definitely be hunting for a stash of the vintage blades to use!

An unexpected guest

I had hoped that once we got Zelda spayed, she'd hold the territory up here, and we wouldn't have other cats wandering in... but since the kittens are grown and (more importantly) since new neighbors - who feed their cat out on their porch - moved in, Zelda doesn't see much reason to slog all the way up the mountain to our place.  There's a more convenient meal ticket for times when the hunting isn't so good, and she never liked to admit how much she liked the belly rubs, anyway.

So now i've got a stray who's wandered in: plainly a housecat until fairly recently, neutered, declawed, very sociable, and you can still see where a collar sat on his neck. I made all the reports to the shelter, sent in pictures, the whole lot, but the weeks are stretching on with no match, and it's starting to look like maybe the poor guy was dumped.

I've got no openings for kitties at present, so i'm starting to check with friends who might be in the market, knowing that the rescue groups will still be full with the glut of spring kittens.  I've got at least one friend who wants to meet him, so i hope she'll fall in love when she does... who could resist this guy?

Theme and variations

I picked a bunch of pie cherries recently, and thus, the latest incarnation of the cheesecake bars:

I pitted the cherries and fixed them up (vaguely following a pie filling recipe), then folded that in with the cheese mixture.  It's tasty, but i'm still most partial to the blackberry version, i think.... The plate (isn't it cute?) is Harker "Cameoware" from the 1940s - my sister got me four of these sweet little squared bread plates at Christmas a few years back.

A visitor

There were two of these beauties zipping about the other day, and i managed to get a quick shot of one of them.  I should probably spend the time with some graphics software to try to restore the true color to those blues... but it's not likely to happen anytime soon.