Achoo

Achoo! I caught a cold while traveling, and now my nose is all stuffed up. Did you know sneezes travel about 100 miles an hour and can send 10,000 germs into the air? Sneezes protect your body by clearing the nose of bacteria and viruses Old beliefs about sneezing are that if a person sneezes, company is coming over, but if a cat sneezes it is going to rain.

Never try to stop a sneeze, because it can hurt your body. It is rare but injuries can include broken blood vessels in the eyes or broken ear drums. Your teacher or another adult can tell you the best way to sneeze if you don’t have a tissue ready. Purrs, Gulliver

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Tulips

If only flowers could talk, what interesting stories they could tell! The tulip is not only a good traveler, but a migrant as well. Originally found growing wild in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, tulip bulbs were brought to Istanbul, Turkey for the gardens there. Tulips were prized flowers, and became a symbol of the Ottoman sultans. One sultan had 12 gardens of tulips with 920 gardeners to take care of them. As a gift, tulip bulbs were sent to the Netherlands, where people fell in love with the flower and spent a lot of money to buy bulbs. One bulb could cost as much as $1,500 in today’s money!

Tulip colors have different meanings assigned to them. Yellow tulips symbolize cheerful thoughts, white express forgiveness and purple represents royalty. A red tulip, similar to the red rose, means perfect love. Now tulips can be found in many countries. I would like to go to a tulip festival one spring and see the acres of flowers blooming. There are festivals in the Netherlands which are very popular, but also in Mt. Vernon, Washington; Ottawa, Canada; Kashmir, India; Albany, New York and Holland, Michigan to name a few places. That would be a lot of flowers to see! Purrs, Gulliver

Williamsburg

I wish I could travel back and forwards through time. Going to Williamsburg, Virginia is like traveling through time to when the original United States were still colonies of England. Williamsburg was the capital of the Virginia Colony from 1699 to 1780 In the 1600’s and 1700’s, there were no airplanes, telephones, refrigerators or cars. People grew their own food, made candles for light (electricity had not been discovered yet), made their own clothes and tools. Kitchens and toilets (privies) were separate buildings from the living and sleeping rooms and there was no running water to the house. Everyone had to work hard- even the cats that caught rodents and kept them from eating people’s food. Wow, I didn’t realize how lucky I am – I don’t have to go hunting for my dinner! Purrs, Gulliver

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An Irish Birthday

Would you like a cuppa? A cuppa what? Why a cup of tea, of course! The Irish drink an average of 1,184 cups per person per year. Tea in the morning, noon and night, for any reason or none at all. And always black tea, never green or herbal. A good thing I like tea. My host family speak both English and Irish (Gaelic), and it is fun to listen to them sing Irish songs together accompanied by a Celtic harp. They are celebrating my friend Shelagh’s birthday – she just turned 10. Her father treated her to an old custom by turning her upside down, and holding her by the ankles, gently bumped her head on the floor 11 times for good luck. They then told me of another old custom. Farmers would often have the family pig live in the house like a pet. The pig was called “the gentleman who pays rent” because at the end of his stay he became sausage, bacon and pork chops which were sold at market! Purrs, Gulliver

Passports

Whew, I am sorry I have been behind in sending postcards. I was delayed in customs and immigration. They didn’t believe a cat could have a passport! A passport is a travel document given out by the government that proves a person’s identity. Like a birth certificate, it has my name, place and date of birth, photograph, and signature (a paw print in my case). Each country has a special stamp they use when I enter the country. Here are some stamps from my passport. Purrs, Gulliver passport stamps

Morro Bay

LAND HO! We were sailing off the coast of California when we spotted this rock sitting in water near the shore. We landed on a sandy beach nearby, and found out that we were looking at the “Gibraltar of the Pacific”, (Gibraltar is another famous rock off the southern coast of Spain). Morro Rock is the plug or lump of rock in the neck of a volcano- long extinct, thank goodness. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo named the rock “El Morro” in 1543. In Spanish “Morro” means crown shaped hill. Morro Rock is the last peak of the Nine Sisters rocks in the area- volcanoes that exploded 20 million years ago. Purrs, Gulliver.

morro-rock

Mouse in Portland

My friend Mouse, who is a cat so I never understood her name, moved from Salinas, California to Portland, Oregon last year. Now she has invited me to come for a visit! I think I will go when the iris are in bloom, and maybe some of the roses that Portland grows in its famous garden. I love visiting gardens and looking at pretty flowers.

Maybe Mouse and I will take a day trip to Mount Hood. It is about 100 miles away, but as the tallest point in Oregon, it can be seen from Portland. I called it a mountain, but Mouse explained it is an active volcano, though not likely to erupt in an explosion. There are several ski resorts and lodges on the mountain, and 12 different glaciers, or ice fields. We had better take some snow boots to avoid frost bitten paws. Purrs, Gulliver

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Camels

One hump or two? The single hump is a camel from the Middle East or upper Africa. The camel with two humps is native to Asia. Camels are suited to the desert because their eyes have three eyelids and two rows of eyelashes to keep sand from entering their eyes. They are also able to close their nostrils and lips to keep out the dust. I wish I had that kind of super-power! The camel is a symbol of patience, tolerance and strength. Camels are usually very peaceful. Just don’t get a camel mad – they can “spit” a stinky green fluid from their stomach all over you – it is as bad as a skunk smell! Purrs, Gulliver

Ghost towns

“Are there really ghosts in ghost towns?” My friend Scamp was worried as we prowled around the abandoned buildings. No silly, it just means the town has been abandoned. It happens when a natural disaster happens such as drought or floods. A war could drive people from an area, or maybe the main business of the town like a mine or manufacturing plant closes. Sometimes a train will stop providing service or a freeway will change the traffic flow and leave a town isolated. The term was popularized when the California Gold Rush of 1849 ended, but there are ghost towns all over the world. Some have been preserved and have become tourist attractions or movie sets. Others have slowly drawn people back to live and work in the area. No need to be a “fraidy cat”, Scamp, we won’t be ghost hunting today. Purrs, Gulliver

Mt. Ghost town

Idaho

After our tour of the State House, there was time for questions. One of the first things I learned was the building is heated by underground hot springs which come from deep in the earth. Idaho is an interesting state with lots of mountains and rivers. We found out that if all the mountains were flattened out, Idaho could be the size of Texas. Idaho is famous for its potatoes, it grows about 20 percent of the nation’s crop, and about 50 percent of McDonald’s french-fries come from Idaho potatoes.

Everyone wanted to know what the word Idaho means. It is actually a made up word! People in Colorado tried the name out first for their territory, but didn’t like it. Then it was used by miners looking for gold in the territory and it stuck. Idaho became a territory in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln signed the bill, then a it became a state in 1890. In 27 years the Idaho Territory had 16 governors, four who never set foot in Idaho! Maybe that was why so many silly laws were passed, because no one was there to say no to the voters. Purrs, Gulliver