Purr Inside Of Me

Well, March has finally came here…
The time between the New Year and today has passed away so quick and imperceptibly. Just like I would fall asleep for more than 2 months.
I’ve recently realized that I’m much more sluggish than usual. I need more time to make anything right now. I’m anxious and I find it hard to establish where to begin. I’m getting discouraged really fast, sometimes I can’t find a motivation to start some task or even continue these I’ve already begun.
I feel like someone has taken from me all my power and energy.
The spring solstice is usually the most creative time for me. But it’s full of melancholy as well. I’m going with the flow because I don’t have enough strength for any other activity.
I have a feeling that even the slightest gust of wind would blow me off the Earth’s surface, leaving the world without any trace of my existence. Sometimes I think, it probably would be better for everyone...

My February was creative. Fine, if you count the quantity - I’ve made fewer things, but I’ve put the same effort as always.
Handicraft makes me calm, it always let me detach from reality; it moves my soul to a different dimension.

During the last month, I’ve written relatively fewer letters than in January. Don’t think I’m lazy, I always reply to me pen pals immediately. I think it’s the Polish Post Office issue. I have no idea what’s wrong with all these delays!
I’ve started my ‘snail mailing journey’ almost 2 years ago, and that time all the Europe letters reached their destinations after 2-3 days, all the intercontinental needed around 2 weeks.
Of course, I’m sending priority mails only.
Today it usually takes the European letter to get to the destination ~3 weeks, intercontinental letter approximately 4-7 weeks!
Whether there is anyone among my readers, who sends snail mails as well? Do you notice the letters delay too?
I reach the conclusion, that it’s Polish Post Office issue because I have that lag no matter what country I’m sending a letter to - it’s the same with German, UK, Italian, Finnish or American letters.


My Art Spirit still chooses watercolors as a form to reach deep inside of myself. Admittedly I’ve recently less desire to begin a new painting, but when I finally encourage myself to do this - I forget about the world surrounding me; I'm falling into the frenzy of creation. I really enjoy watercolors painting.
I’ve lately got some new colors from my mom (just because my name-day is coming soon). I decided to start painting someone’s photos. I mostly pick them from the Instagram accounts I follow, but in the nearest future, I would love to paint my own photos too.

My Bullet Journal for March went exceptionally well. I’m glad about the effect even more than in previous months.

Let’s skip to the different subject - unfortunately, I’ve lost my brass cat bracelet last month. I’ve bought it during my Budapest trip, so I felt saddened.
Luckily the person who makes this amazing jewelry has worldwide shipping available. I’ve ordered a new one. I’ve also found another charming bracelet, so I decided to buy this one as well.
A few days ago I finally got a parcel, these are my wonderful bracelets - with the cat and with the planet.

I only need to remove these chains, because I prefer string bracelets.
Anticipating your questions: no one pays me for recommending these products. I just want to share with you things I like and I use. I don’t even consider cooperating with any company, my blog is definitely not “for sale”.

At the end of February I was finally able to go to the concert. It was a totally spontaneous decision, I realized that one of my favorite bands - Alestorm - is coming to Warsaw, but I have no one to go there with. My husband hates events like this, I’m the opposite.
I’ve asked via our volunteers' chatting group if anyone wants to go with me. I haven’t expected anyone willing to go; I was really surprised that one girl told immediately, that she would like to go with me :)
I knew that girl only by sight before, we’re both volunteering in the same charity organization, but our shifts in the sanctuary are falling out on different days.
So, first of all, I had a great time during the concert, and I had the opportunity to get to know my friend better. I think I’ve found a friend, which I can go to some events, or play board games with.

Cleaning and ordering stuff has dominated the last part of February.
I realized, that I have too many knick-knacks at home - most of these things haven’t been used for last few years! I was so insanely attached to these things, that I couldn’t get rid of them.
Now I know, that I can’t live in such chaos, with too many things I feel like in the cage in my own home.
I empty all my cabinets in sequence, I get rid of things I’m not going to use anymore with no regret. I’ve given 7 huge bags of stuff for people in need and 4 for the charity auctions so far. Six bags full of stuff are still waiting for taking them from home.
I also discovered a lot of trash at home - items which are totally not re-usable - they were waiting for a better time: for repair or rework. Let's face it, I’ll never do that…
I still need to clean a few cabinets left, the loggia and the garage, so keep your fingers crossed for me! I feel incredibly fresh!

I’m slowly preparing everything for the next festival. This time we’re going to serve a coffee during the vegetarian-vegan event. The organizer assures us that there won’t be more than 3 coffee spots during the festival, so we’re going to be really busy I think.

We still need to buy a few things we need, but I’m leaving it for the next week.
I’ve been recently practicing less latte art for making Aeropress and Chemex.
I need to be able to make them as good as V60.
Another thing, that I’m not a huge fan of Aeropress coffee; it has a flat taste I think.

And also we’re projecting our own Aeropress filters holder. I think it might be a nice idea to promote our coffee shop in the future. Well, the name Pracownia (which means ‘The Workshop’) obliges us to make some handicraft things. When we refine it, I think we can start selling it too.
I can’t wait to open my own coffee shop, it’s going to be such an amazing and friendly space!

I’ve recently returned to preparing healthy meals. I’m trying to only eat things we’re making at home. When I need to eat outside I pick healthy options.
I’ve discovered a really delicious meal lately. It’s a sweet couscous meal.
I’m using only natural ingredients, no extra sugar.
It’s easy and quick to make it, you only need to mix all the ingredients: couscous + smashed mature banana + unsweetened cocoa + yogurt + almonds (or cashews) + some fruits you like. I love to add sour fruits to the meal - like apple, cherries, pomegranate etc. You can add whatever you like.

A few days ago we decided to make cats blood tests.
Well, all the results are rather average. Amaya has the best results I think (at least, they’re getting better if you compare them with the previous tests), but still, they’re not as good as we would like them to be.

Misio and Hedwiga have some elevated and lowered parameters.

Actually, it’s quite hard to make any analysis of Hedwiga’s results, because these are the first blood tests we’ve made since she’s with us. Of course, she had some blood tests in the past (when she was living in the cat’s sanctuary), but these are basic tests and we’ve asked our vet for the extended profile.
So we consider them as a single result, not in the context of changes.

This time we’re not going to analyze Purka’s blood tests. Results are totally weird.
It’s most likely caused by the way we’ve taken her blood. She was totally mad and scared! I was stressed too because I knew that she doesn’t understand why we’re “fighting” with her.
Our vet had to insert the needle repeatedly (in both paws), and we still couldn’t get more than a few drops of blood :( The whole process took us around an hour. We were tired, Purka was tired as well. That’s why these results are unreliable.

Anyway, the rest cats blood tests say, that we need to reduce the amount of salt in their diet more and we have to try to add some vegetables to the BARF. Creatinine is a bit too high and vegetables can help with this issue.
The greater variety of meat helped a bit, so we’re going to continue this trend. We plan to repeat all the blood tests after 2-3 months after we change the diet. In the end, we’ll customize the recipe, to get regular blood test results.

Cats relations are getting better I think.
Hedwiga is still a bit too fast for the others. Purka usually avoids her, but when the little one is getting calm, they’re sometimes sitting next to each other.
A few days ago I had to vacuum the house and both girls - Purka and Hedwiga - were sitting on their scratching post - they were uniting in the face of a common enemy, haha!

Purka has tried to lick her for the few times, but I feel Hedwiga didn’t know what she’s going to do. Once I've seen them lying together on the wooden cats' observation tower, but I didn’t manage to take a picture.
I think Hedwiga would like to play with cats, with Misio the most.
Misio doesn’t share this enthusiasm, sometimes he’s hissing at her. But I’ve also seen them sleeping together on the desk.
This cardboard box was left here only for a while, but cats have raided it :D

The only one who shows any desire to play with Hedwiga is Amaya. She’s punching or chasing her from time to time. But I can easily see, that Hedwiga respects her the most - sometimes she gathers up the courage to chase her, but these are rare situations. sometimes they’re sniffing each other and to be honest, it’s totally cute!
Once I’ve sat with them both, they were lying next to each other back by back.
I think the only reason why they were able to spend around 30 min lying together is that Amaya had no idea about Hedwiga’s presence.
She hasn’t let the little one hug her yet - I think it’s too early for Amaya.

We’re still trying to help Hedwiga to overcome her problems. I can even see the first results of our efforts.
When the little one started to live with us, she was biting everything and everyone all the time. She was getting mad very quickly and she couldn’t stop fighting with us then.
It was really easy to piss her - even reaching the object lying close to her could be a cause. She was also biting every time she asked to be cuddled; after a few minutes, she became angry without any reason I could understand.
When she acts like this I call her affectionately Tartak (which means “The sawmill”).
But I’ve quickly realized that she needs to get patience, love, and warmth.
So now every time she starts biting me I speak to her slightly or humming her some melody, sometimes she also needs to be hugged - she’s getting calm then.
At the beginning when she was getting upset she has expected to be scolded - she was cringing. But now she mostly knows that no one will shout at her, and hands can only cuddle, they’ll never beat. And can you believe, that these attacks have reduced? Now when she doesn’t want to be cuddled anymore, the most often she’s just moving to a different place. We can easily take all the things lying close to her, she’s not attacking hands anymore.
At the beginning, I was afraid to put my face too close to her, but I’ve recently tried and she didn’t bite or scratch me.
Sometimes she licks my hands; sometimes she lies on my laps and asks to be cuddled when I stop she directs her paws towards me and croaks ridiculously. I really love this sound. She recently started to purr slightly when I pet her, she’s very often smiling - if you know what I mean. Her face really looks like smiling!
Of course, sometimes she’s still getting mad, sometimes she starts to bite, but we’re still working with her and I’m pretty sure that one day she’ll be able to defeat all her fears.
It might sound strange for the people who knew her in the sanctuary, but she’s a really sensitive girl.

And at the end - this is a picture of two amazing cats living in the cats' sanctuary I’m volunteering in. They’re called Rózia and Przemo :)