Plumeria (aka Frangipani ) 
The picture I posted last week was of the buds. And while these things are ridiculously easy to grow, (heck! I had one in a pot in London!) I have been frustrated at every turn in this garden.Mainly damage from stonking great palms dropping fronds onto the flower stems, but also hungry bugs (not sure what as I never saw the beasties) and general malaise when we don’t get good rain.
Ah, but this year I have flowers coming through on this pink one and two more which I believe will be a lovely apricot shade.And one might even be cream. I shan’t break into the happy dance just yet…
Here is something else that makes me smile…Cassia fistula The tree needs serious pruning (again!), but we’ll wait til the flowers have finished.
And a yellow Heliconia.This is next door and I much prefer it to the harsh orange ones that keep reappearing in my yard!
And, because I can, an old picture of long-ago cats.The ginger one and the tabby were sworn enemies…except on a cold night when they agreed to suspend hostilities and share the fireside sofa! The Siamese Fighting Fish Cat didn’t give a damn, one way or the other!
And here’s something else that pleases me.Very much! Geiger, despite training, deterrants,cussing has always been a shredder.Of shoes and furniture, mostly.When they were itty bitty kitties I got them a scratching post.Nope, Geiger still went for shoes and sofas.But last week I bought a fancy-dancy scratcher made of compressed corrugated cardboard (yeah, the makers know a sucker when they see one!).It came with a small sachet of cat nip, to encourage the cats to use it. Well, guess what? Geiger LOVES it.I am almost allowing myself to dream of new furniture. 🙂
Moreidlethoughts Weblog 
Good girl, Geiger! (Love the frangipani.)
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Yes, she is being showered with praise whenever she rips into her daggy old bit o’ cardboard.
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We just have a pink frangipani…but when we move up top I’m out for differing colours…and setting to for a battle to abandon some of the furniture bequeathed us by the previous owner. Higher Authority says he doesn’t want new sofa because the dogs will wreck them. Mutineer says she will have new sofas as A the existing ones are not at all comfortable and B she wants new sofas.
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I’m thinking…Mutineers United might work.Anyone else out there with a husband who thinks tatty old sofas are “just fine.”? Join us NOW!
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The flower pics are much needed. There’s a horrific nor’easter outside the window as I type this. Cold, driving wind and rain. Not fit for man or cat.
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Be careful what you wish for…I have rather a lot of “phlower fotos!”
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Love all the flowers! We have snow and -16C right now. My two cats love the corrugated cardboard scratchers. I have them scattered about the house. Been using this kind successfully for many years.
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$20 seems a tad excessive for a bit of cardboard, but hey! as long as it works! I wonder if people would think me crazy if I rummaged through the recycled skip for some HD packaging…:-)
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Hooray for a shredder a cat will use which isn’t furniture (or me).
Love your frangipani. Which I don’t have.
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Frangipani might struggle with your winters.But you have cherry blossom, crab apples,tulips…
I’m crossing all digits that the shredding novelty does NOT wear off.
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delighted to find you blooming! it’s dark, gray and cold here these days…. also delighted that there was a solution for Geiger! Huey has been pretty good about using the scratching posts i have planted around my place… he is even respecting the christmas tree. i leave some safe ornaments hanging low for his entertainment… so far so good!
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The sunshine is lovely, of course, but we do need the rain.Never happy! Both cats are using the scratcher;must be channeling Huey!:-)
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In a triumph of hope over experience I have just ordered a new slipcover for my couch. Soon to be confetti I’m sure…maybe I’ll try a scratching post before it gets delivered.
Xo J
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Well, I do have bits of “confetti” to sweep up on a regular basis, but Geiger hasn’t ripped into the sofa since I bought the scratcher .Worth trying, Jane.
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Happy Christmas, Dinah!!! Apologies for getting here late!!
Sxxx
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Oh, Scarlet, you’re not late! And thank you.I hope yours is happy,too. xx
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Just catching up here….. we had one of those cardboard scratchers too, but they liked it for about ten minutes, left a heap of cardboard confetti underneath it, and ignored it for ever after. On the other hand (or paw), the enormous scratching/climbing tower bought years ago and known not so affectionately as the Monstrosity, is in use numerous times a day, and is really worth its considerable weight in gold.
But new furniture remains a dream – they still manage to hook a claw or two in passing on our poor battered armchair!
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Rachel, how lovely to “see” you! Yes, I know how difficult it can be to catch up after holidays.This year has been very much a catching up and switching off for me after all my whizzing around.
I am enjoying your Portugal trip.Lovely place, though I only know a fragment, and that very briefly.Another friend is recently back from Cuba and I’m wondering how she’d feel about another trip as my guide!
So far, the scratcher is still the fave rave.Both cats use it and Geiger has not clawed the furniture AT ALL.Mind you, shoes are another matter…
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I thought I’d replied here but obviously not! The scratcher looks brilliant though by now the fun may have worn thin. Hope not. I’m still waiting for my coloured frangipanis to bloom though the huge white one is gorgeous. When the big eucalypt branch came crashing down it broke off quite a few frangipani branches and several weeks after they are flowering, even though they are just stacked on the path. Very tough plant.
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The scratcher is now very battered, but still in regular use by both cats. And I have 2 more frangipanis out.Sadly, not the expected apricot, but pink.Oh well…
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You’re back! And with a touch of glorious summer to boot. I love the Cassia fistula, of which I have never heard, but intend now to find out if it could thrive here.
I am definitely a contender for Mutineers United, the Mr actually bought a new sofa but can’t believe he can’t sell the old, monstrous chairs for a princely sum, so our sitting room now looks like a junk store.
Happy new year!
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And all good things to you, too,Eryl.
I’ll save you the botanical heartache – C.fistula needs at least sub-tropical climes.Also, it grows to enormous size. I wouldn’t even try to sell our sofa/chairs.They are destined for the tip.(Of course, I may have to get the local Rugby forward line to move the brutes!)
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Damn!
Ours are destined for the tip too, I just need to break it very gently to the Mr.
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🙂
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