random cat picture day

Yes, another one, already.

I was going to title this "Mystery Picture" or some hopefully witty version of that, but then I spotted Tabitha keeping cool from the January sun in the shade of the dwarf bamboo.

For the curious gardening and tree-loving people out there in cyberland, the bamboo is beside a hazelnut tree (male, sadly, so no fruit), which just sprouted there of its own accord (which explains their too-close proximity). On the far right of the picture are the leaves of a flowering cherry tree.

Anyway, the mystery of the picture is that I don't know what exactly this wooden item is. I found it at a garage sale last summer. There's a homemade-looking stand thing, with notches at the top, as if waiting for a skinny dowel to sit in it. It came with the quilting hoop. It's a good quality hoop, so I was pleased to get them both for just $5. I'm unsure whether the hoop goes with the stand, but the lady selling it thought her mum used them together. There's a part missing, obviously, but she couldn't find it, so the mystery remains with me.