Trixie, Up Close and Purrsonal: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies

Hallo there, Effurrybody!

As you can see, this week it is I, the One and Only Queen Trixie, Furrst of My Name, Empurress of Jerusalem, Israel and the Entire Middle East, Queen of Hearts, Guardian of the Boudoir, Alpha Kitty Extraordinaire, leading the J-Cats on the weekend blog hops - the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted, as always, by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie,  and the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, indefatigably hosted each week by the Effur Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

We had a furry, furry cold week and on Wednesday night, it even snowed. That was preceded - and followed - by days of almost non-stop Sky-water. It should therefore come as no Surprise to any of you, that all of Us spent so much of the past week snuggling up as close as We could - to Mummy and to each other.

SO - furrst of all, here is my Sunday Selfie, taken almost at the furry moment that yesterday became today, at 00:01 this meowning, before Mummy retired to bed.  You can just about see that I am leaning against her jeans-clad leg, displaying all my Glorious Floofiness, as well as one of my sweet little paws.

Seeing as it looks as if I have only one ear, Mummy thought We might try LunaPic's Van Gogh effect, but I pointed out that the lovely Athena has gone for a Van Gogh effect this week (although not from LunaPic) and We didn't want you to think We are CopyCats, so We tried three other artsy looks instead.

Furrst of all, here is the Chalk effect:

Next up, the Fairy effect at 75%:

We quite like this, although We don't see what's so Fairy-like about it, do you?

Last, but not least, the Wallpaper effect at 25%:

This last one makes me look quite transparent, don't you think?

And here are the bloggie hop badges:

             

Now, as a special treat, purr-haps you would like to see the sight that greeted Us when We woke up on Fursday meowning:

Strangely enough, the geraniums in the window boxes seem to have taken no harm from the snow and ice.

And, of course, you no doubt want to know what is happening in Israel on the COVID front...

Well, it appears that the infection rate is falling, but it is still high, and the number of seriously ill is over 1000, of whom 321 are in critical condition. There seems to be some disagreement as to whether we are over the worst or not. Besides which, as We mentioned last week, they have eased the restrictions regarding school attendance, as of last Fursday - but it seems that only half of the home testing kits which were supposed to have been distributed to the pupils have, in fact, been distributed!

So We don't think We can breathe easily yet.

As for all of you, remember that it ain't over till it's over, as they say. Make sure your Humans continue to take Precautions.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

A Rare Ussie: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies

Hallo again, Effurrybuddies!

It is a fine, sunny (but coooooold) day, here in Jerusalem - and once again, We are pawticipating in the weekend Bloggie-Hops, as We always do, come rain or shine - the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by the Effur So Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

This week, We have a Surprise for you - an Extremely Rare Ussie!

Yes, Mummy managed to snap all three of Us, together!!!

As you can no doubt guess, Trixie did have some reservations as to whether she could trust the mancats not to pounce on her (which, for some reason, they think is furry funny), and is keeping a cautious Eye on them. Still, this was an amazing transformation as she usually makes sure she is at the far end of the sofa from her brofurs.

An Event as rare as this is worth preserving for Pawsterity, don't you agree?

So We made three different artifications of the picture, all using filters and art effects by LunaPic - and you must let Us know which you like best.

Here is the furrst, made with the K3 effect at 60%:

Next, We tried the Space effect at 60%, overlaid with Nebula at 55%. We think it has a kind of Star Trekkie feel to it:

Our third and final Expurriment used the Delaunay effect at  50%:

And here are the bloggie-hop badges:

               

Now, We expect you'd like to know what's happening in Israel with the Evil Mutant Ninja Coronavirus, wouldn't you?
Well, it's hard to give exact figures because yesterday, they reported that the Ministry of Health's dashboard crashed. Besides which, since they are now allowing most people to use home testing antigen kits, rather than having to take the more accurate PCR tests at official testing sites, it's quite likely that more people are sick than is known to the Ministry of Health (although probably not all that seriously, otherwise they would be ending up in hospital).
As far as Mummy can tell (using the data from the official Ministry of Health site which is supposed to be updated 3 times a day, but was last updated yesterday evening), there are now more than 442,000 people infected, of whom 732 are seriously ill. 146 of the latter are on ventilators and 16 are on ECMO machines.

In spite of the spiralling morbidity, the government has eased up the restrictions on schools and whereas till now, if one pupil in a class tested pawsitive, the whole class had to go into quarantine, under the new rules, pupils will be tested (with the less accurate antigen tests) every Sunday and Wednesday, and only the pupils who test pawsitive will be quarantined.

Mummy says "NO COMMENT". You may draw your own conclusions.

On the other paw, many institutions, such as the Israel Opera, the Open University and (most impawtantly), Mummy's Caterwauling Club are opurrating on Zoom, as they did during the Official Lockdown.

When will it all end, that's what We would like to know???

Now, it is time to start blog-hopping. Before We go, We want to remind you to make sure your Humans continue to exercise Good Judgement and take all the necessary precautions. If anything happens to them, who will take care of US, after all?
(Just kidding. We love Our Humans and We know you love yours, too and don't want anything Bad to happen to them.)

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Rain, Rain, Go Away: Shimshi's Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies

Hallo there, Effurrybuddies!

For the third day in succession, it has been raining Cats and Dogs!

Hmmmm. I wonder why they say that. I haven't seen any furriends falling out of the sky - but there sure has been an AWFUL lot of skywater. The Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) rose 5cm last night, thanks to the steady deluge.

And it's coooooooold! Tonight, for the furrst time this winter (if We are not mistaken), the tempurratures are set to fall below zero! Brrrrr!!!!! That's a whole lot of Cold. We shall snuggle up with Mummy under the duvet and try to remember that tomorrow is Tu b'Shvat, which is supposed to herald the coming of Spring. It will help if the Weather Prophets are right and the rain stops late this afternoon.

This week, it is My Turn to repurresent the J-Cats in the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, as well as in the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by the Delightfully Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

Here I am, then - The Mighty Shimshon (Shimshi for short) aka The Little Purrince, Furrst of My Name, Stealer of Hearts, Master of the Queen's Mischiefs, and Captain-of-the-Guard.

And here are two versions of My Artified Self - both created with the help of LunaPic.  The furrst one uses the Crayon filter at 80%, with an overlay of Sadness (because of the depressing weather) at 25%:

Then We tried Sunshine (which We are all longing for), also at 80%, with an overlay of Flowers at 40%, in honour of Tu b'Shvat:

Which do you prefurr?

Here, now, are the Blog Hop Badges:

               

And how could We fail to mention the Evil Old Coronavirus, about which Mummy had a rant in her own bloggie last Fursday and the week before that and will almost certainly have another rant about later this week too?

It seems the Evil Ninja Mutant Omicron has spawned a sub-species but nobody knows yet whether or not it will prove more, or less, dangerous than Omicron. What does seem to be happening is a huge spike, not only in the numbers infected by the virus (which variant, We don't know), but also in the numbers of seriously ill - and that includes people vaccinated with four shots. What they are not telling us is, how many of these are people with existing serious health issues.

At any rate, even though there is no direct government instruction to do so, Mummy's Bible Studies class has moved over to Zoom, and her Caterwauling Club is holding rehearsals in a hybrid form - in person for the Brave and via Zoom for the Cautious. Mummy is one of the latter, We are thankful to say.

We hope you and your Humans are also being Cautious and taking effurry Precaution against the Evil Pestilence.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Caspurr at Snuggletime: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies

Hallo again, Effurryone!

This week, I, Sir Caspurr the Courageous and Caspicacious, Furrst of My Name, the Snuggle-Bug, Commander-in-Chief of the Impurrial Forces, King of the Tigger-Tabbies, will be repurresenting the J-Cats in this weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art Blog Hop, which is hosted by the Wise and Lovely Athena and her HuMum, Marie and the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by the Delightfully Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

You can't see Her, because She cropped the picture, but in this shot, I was snuggled up against Mummy's leg, with my brofur Shimshi on her other side and my sisfur Trixie a bit further up, as We all shared a sunpuddle yesterday. It was lovely and snuggly and cosy. If I seem to be looking at Mummy somewhat reproachfully, it is purrobably because She moved in order to take the photo and disturbed Me!

We artified the picture and added even more sunshine, using LunaPic's Sunshine filter, and then gave it an elegant frame:

Now here are the blog hop badges:

            

Since We don't have much to add, except for the fact that the Evil Coronavirus numbers are apparently completely out of control, and the regulations for dealing with that seem to be changing daily, confusing effurryone and making Mummy lose all patience (about which She had a rant on Her own bloggie last Fursday and will no doubt rant again later in the week, if and when She gets round to it), so as not to leave Our Faithful Furriends short-changed, as it were, We are adding a  jigsaw puzzle for you this week.

 112CaspurrShabbatSnuggletimeSunshine

We will let you get on with it, as soon as We have reminded you to take All Necessary Precautions to keep you and your Humans safe from that Beastly, Rotten, Evil Old Coronavirus.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

xoxox

Trixie Has the Sads: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies

Hallo again, Effurrybody!

Trixie here, hoping you all enjoyed the Mew Year's pawties and that 2022 has started well for you all.

The Mew Year has actually started off furry sadly for Us, especially Mummy, because her brovver, Our Uncle D., has gone back to England. We hope to see him back here in the Spring, for a family wedding, but with all the travel restrictions because of the Evil Coronavirus, (which is now entering its third year!) there is no telling what will happen.
We think We might have won over Uncle D. to being a Cat-Purrson (which he has always insisted he is not) - at least he gave Shimshi some head scritches when he was here yesterday to say goodbye. We hope so. It is furry embarrassing for Mummy, having such a close relative who isn't devoted to Cats!

Anyway, here I am, being extra specially cute and loving to Mummy, to cheer Her up:

And here is a close-up of Me:

I would like to make it quite clear that I am the Proud Possessor of TWO ears, only one of them was hiding under My Head (mol)!

These are the pictures We have chosen to repurresent the J-Cats in this weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art Blog Hop hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie  and the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by the Delightfully Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

We have therefore artified both pictures (with the help of LunaPic) and We hope you will tell Us which is your Favourite.

Furrst  of all, here is the full length pose, eyes, fangs, tummy and all, in Stained Glass at 70%:

And here is the same photo, Showing Me in Dreaming mode, at 40%:

And here is the close-up. We don't usually use the Sadness filter, because We are opposed to Sadness of any kind, on principle, but this time, it was unavoidable, because Mummy is so furry sad. But We would not allow her to set it at more than 70%:

And finally, here it is (that is to say, I am) in Grey at 60%:

Next, here are the blog hop badges:

                                  

                        

Now all that is left is to wish you all, once more, a Happy Mew Year and to remind you and your Humans that the Beastly, Evil, Rotten Old Coronavirus is still lurking around the corner and to take effurry Precaution against it.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

XOXOX