The animals...

Richard and I love our animals...they're spoiled rotten, too. 

I needed some sleep and went to nap. Richard decided to nap, too.  He came in and found this...Buddy, Christian and Dinah had joined me. Richard napped on the couch.  Guess he should feel lucky it wasn't the doghouse. 

Buddy sleeping on the Christmas pillows with his Wubbie.  Life is good.

Buddy supervising me while I am quilting.

Echo, Flint, and Buddy supervising Richard and I as we put up  the Christmas tree and decorations.  

Emmy, the feral cat has been coming in at night.  A rare photo of her, sleeping at the foot of our bed. 

Dinah contemplates the meaning of life, the universe and everything.  But probably, she just sees a bird. 

Christian Sleeps...

I'm not sure I'd have a funny blog if it weren't for Christian - here are his various sleeping photos...

Camouflage Cat...

I looked out my office window and Christian was on the ground.  Some birds were swooping around.  I don't think they were teasing him.  However, Christian apparently decided he could have a bird lunch. 

  We have always wondered how Christian managed to survive outside, because he has no protective coloring at all.  His white-bibbed front is visible, night and day.  His orange tabby back doesn't blend with anything natural. 

Well, we were wrong.  Christian blends with fall colors.  Can you see him in the tree below?  I made a black arrow.  If you click on the photo, it will enlarge and you will see his two white paws.

See his paws?

Here he is, trying to get down.  Richard and I, cruel cat parents that we are, stood and laughed, watching him circle that branch about 10 times, almost falling off another branch as he tried to figure out how to get back down on the ground (No birds were harmed in this picture, they chattered at the top of the tree and flew off).  I started yelling, "Backwards, Christian, climb down backwards!"  He obviously had no idea what I meant.

Finally, he figured it out.  Note his awkward position, he slid that far, then realized he could hook his claws in and "step" down.  About 5 feet from the ground, he took a flying leap and did a four-point landing in the grass.  Of course, Dinah was on the porch watching, so perhaps he wanted to impress her.  *She* knows how to climb trees, and can get down easily.

My Favorite Holiday - Christmas!

This is the season the ancients chose to celebrate the birth of Christ.  Glory to God in the Highest, peace and good tidings on earth. 

I went to visit my sister for a few days and in addition to my sewing, her baking, feeding animals, garage-saling, and shopping, we managed to go look at the lights in the Ft. Smith, Arkansas parks...and best of all, a living Nativity at one of the churches. Actors and actresses dress up in costumes to play the parts. Sheep, cows, donkeys, goats and camels also make their debut in the live scenes. I forget the name of the church that put it on, but it was so beautiful and moving. We all loved it.

The final scene in the living Nativity - the wisemen bringing gifts to the Saviour.

The park's lighted Nativity display.

Ahhh...the belle of the Mississippi and other rivers - a lighted paddlewheel riverboat.  That's my sister and I standing in front of it.

We had a great time together and plan to do it again. 

A visitor and some sky...and Christian...

We had a visitor here last week.  And the fall/winter weather is finally starting - rain, clouds and the lovely gloomy days that make one want to curl up with a cup of tea and a good book.  Fortunately, I can do both. 

Our visitor - I've not been able to identify the genus, but notice he/she has had a full meal.

Love this photo - I took it at a garage sale we went to.  The photo is the only good thing I got there - LOL.

Christian is a never-ending source of amusement around here.  I've never had a cat that consistently cusses (yes, he does, if you heard it, you'd know).  And he sleeps in odd places, in odd positions all the time.  As you can see. 

Brisk, cold mornings...

Sometimes, I see a vision that reminds me of photos I've seen of England or Ireland, maybe even Scotland.  This is one...

Fog in the valley.  Within 15 minutes of taking the photo, it had burned off in the morning sun, despite the cold.

I've watched all the leaves fall off this tree, day by day.

A jet leaves a contrail.

Flint, walking along, as happy as can be.  Each day he wants to walk more. I let him, as much as possible, keeping an eye out for when he gets tired.

Lots of photos - been busy...

This morning's walk was a crisp 31 degrees.  We didn't go to the bridge, only walked about halfway due to time constraints.  Because its getting light later, our walks have moved to about 7 am.  Usually, we have places to be by 9 am. An hour walk gives us only 30 minutes to get ready when we get back.  Here is a conglomeration of photos from different days.

A honey-colored sky.

You can barely see the moon in the lower center right of the photo.

This photo was taken the same day as the moon shot above, about 30 minutes later at the bridge. The cloud spot in the center was a natural phenomenon - not a flaw in the camera.  It was quite unusual to see.

We couldn't tell from far away, but this is probably a falcon, not a red-tailed hawk. The photo doesn't show it well, but the beak was more curved.

This moth was on a bathroom washcloth one morning.

Richard is outside, and Echo and Buddy are keeping an eye on him.  When he chops trees, the dogs aren't allowed outside. Both were a bit miffed they weren't being let out.

The glow on Buddy's face is Richard's computer screen.  Note Buddy's paw laying over Christian.

I was sweeping the room and threw the dog beds together, one on top of the other.  About 30 minutes later, as I went to put them back in place, Christian crawled out of the lower bed.  I'd not even seen him there, and I guess he figured being snug was OK.

A rare picture of Emmy, with Dinah.  Emmy has become so feral she won't hardly let anyone touch her.  However, she has finally decided she likes Dinah and Christian, and will often eat with Dinah (but not Christian, because he steals her food).

An assortment of photos...

 

We are still going on morning walks, but the rest of the days are taken up with various things.  After weeks of traveling off and on, there are a lot of chores - mowing, grocery shopping, church, helping neighbors, and taking care of our own household/cars/property.  And walking the dogs. :)

Right in the road, between our house, and Mom and Pa's.

At the bridge, Echo contemplates the sunrise.

Flint is joyful he can now walk part of the way, and he happily explores the sides of the road, the bridge, and anything that moves.

On a walk with the neighbor we found this. An armadillo, snuffling in the gravel before making his way to the side of the road and into the brush.

Home again, Christian chose to sleep in a somewhat normal pose...except for his tongue protruding through his teeth.

Christian is perfectly content being unable to breathe, apparently.  It took him about 5 minutes to figure out he was being squashed by an 85 pound dog, and protest mildly.  We had to tell Buddy to move, Christian didn't seem too concerned.  We don't call him Dumber-than-a-box-of-rocks for nothing. Sigh.

Dinah decides laying on Christian is a good thing.

Echo tolerates the cats, who adore cuddling up to her, because she is very warm with all that fur.

Busy few weeks...in pictures...

We decided to take a little holiday and go visit Mammoth Cave.  We've been by it quite a few times and never stopped.  Well, this time, we stopped and took a peek.  We took the historical tour, which was 2 hours and 2 miles long.  Pretty cool. 

This is the entrance to the cave.

Some deer, hanging out by the side of the road.  They weren't the least bit disturbed by the car.   

Down there, somewhere in the cave.  It was very cool, about 45 degrees, so I stole Richard's jacket. 

This is what I did today - canned 18 pints of applesauce made from Jonathan apples from the local orchard.

A few days worth of photos...

We've been taking our morning walks every day, but the rest of the day has been hectic and I've not posted the photos.  Our walks have been a little earlier, too.  The sun is up, but hasn't made it past our horizon, so when we go down the road, it is barely peeping over the treetops.  Makes for great pictures! 

Barely there...

First blush of pink and soft blues...

The mornings are getting cooler - fog in the valley. 

This is a mother skunk, and there were little ones with her - I suspect the white spot is a sport - a genetic albino - people around us have reported several albino skunks in the area. 

This little snake was sluggish and probably dying in the too cool morning air.  He flicked his little forked tongue at us, but didn't move.  A day or so later, we found his dead little body, petrified by the heat. 

Dinah guards the porch...or else she's contemplating life through a rail post.

Gracie came to visit today, with her sister, brother and Mom.  She is about 3 weeks old now, and weighs around 7 pounds.  Look at that hair!