Straight From The Hart

  THE TASTES OF SUMMER Tender green onion blades,  tipped at the end With a white marble bulb, their flavors do blend With soup or a sandwich, I do recommend For these are the tastes of summer. Cucumbers growing green, awaiting their turn For slicing with vinegar and sugar, I yearn So cool and refreshing, my praises they earn These too are the tastes of summer. Sun ripened tomatoes, So juicy and sweet A smidgeon of salt, such a heavenly treat Just thinking of them makes my heart skip a beat A favorite taste of summer. Hot corn on the cob with the tantalizing name Of peaches and cream, it’s in my hall of fame From one end to the other of the cob I exclaim That this is the true taste of summer. Green beans, new potatoes, cooked up in a pan Just simmering slowly all day is my plan Some salt, bacon drippings, there’s no better than The taste of fresh beans in the summer. Green lettuce wilted down with some crisp bacon bits Add some vinegar, and sugar, it’s always a hit I have to admit that

Life started out hard for Mr. Grayson. Born in the fall of 2006 to a feral momma cat who had hung around our yard for several years, he was the the only one of her many litters ever to survive the dangers of kitten-hood and become an adult cat. She was killed on the street after he was weaned that year.   But Mr. Grayson was a survivor, and he continued to roam around the outskirts of our yard on the corner, scrapping for every morsel of food he could find. Milan would see him run to hide every time he went out to get the mail because the timid skinny cat was afraid of everything and everybody. We can only imagine how many rocks or sticks had been thrown at him to chase him away from other houses. He was mauled by the larger feral tomcats in the neighborhood, but he always survived to forage another day.   Milan has a soft heart for any living creature who is wounded and hurting, so he tried to make friends with this beautiful cat with the soft grey coat outlining patches of sn