T-Bird Day Was Just Duckey

Got up Wednesday afternoon (I had worked Tues night, so I got home about 7 am Wednesday), it was a beautiful day, so I drove up to my Urchin's Digs earlier than I had planned for T-Bird Day. The traffic was light and it was one of those crystal clear early winter days. My part of the feed was veggies and wild rice. The Urchin provided the duck, mashed potatoes, gravy and sparkling cranberry juice.
This is the Urchin with her new kitten Wicket. He's a rescue kitten who was bottle raised so he's small for his 10 weeks of age. He's got a chainsaw purr, very curious paws and an amazing jump. He's not allowed a run of the house yet, not until he gets bigger.

He gets fed every 4 hours right now so he can transition from being bottle fed to solid food only. Plus he needed surgery so Urchin has to monitor him closely while he's healing.

This is D&D's older cat CC. Stands for Cuddle Cat. And she is.

This is D&D's younger cat Tabitha.   Tabitha has decided her job in life is to supervise the household from this chair.

So I didn't get much routine cleaning done or any project work done. Found the Round Tu-it for spending shinning times with my Urchin and D&D. The cleaning and projects Tu-it will just have to wait until Monday. Hope all ya all had a good T-Bird Day. Oh, and Happy 82nd Birthday to Ted Gewirtz ! Sorry I have to work tonight and can't come to the party.

Farewell Fall - Welcome Winter

Its official. As of Friday November the 20th it is Winter. There were no crickets or other critters singing in my yard on that night, thus Winter has begun. A quiet enough beginning, perhaps it maybe that we're in for a quiet winter. That would be nice - a quiet and not too cold winter.

When I got home from work Friday morning my friend Gypsy Jane was here. She had worked nearby Thursday and we had arranged for her to visit Friday. The day was bright but very chilly and damp, the damp at least was a product of the recent heavy rains. So we spent the afternoon changing strings on various instruments. Note to Self: Self, when next you buy dulcimer strings get the kind with little brass thingies on the ends. Putting loop end dulcimer strings on is way more work than its worth. Anyway, once Jane and I had banjo, guitar, 12 string guitar, bass and dulcimer strings on their respective instruments we of course had to play said instruments. After we had a dinner break that is. A good time was had by all.

Pippen and Skiddy Help Play Music

Saturday Jane and I tackled going through more boxes of books, sorting them into keep, give to the church library and sell piles. So all the book boxes I've located to date have been sorted once. I had already finished sorting through the all my clothes, cleaned what I wasn't keeping and then took the surplus items to the local Thrift Shop. The old Nokia cell phones and their accessories have also been donated to a recycling facility. Its looking more and more like a home here and less and less like a 4 room storage facility with bath and kitchen. Jane left for places south in the early afternoon and I finished up house chores. Then I settled down for a good read with one of the recently found keeper books.

Sunday I was off to Liturgy at church. I caught up on prayer and parish news alike, picked up the jacket I had left behind and found the shelf for the refrigerator that hadn't made it into the fridge before it came home with me. It was a very good day, but sunset came all too early ! Oh well, 2 days of work and then Thanksgiving with the Urchin !! WooHoo !!

Fall's Little Gifts

Fall is a very conflicted season. One day is all big poofy cotton ball clouds with blue skies so intense they crackle and a warm breeze full of bird song. The next day its cold hard rain with s slate gray sky and a cutting wind stolen from the straits of Mackinac. Last Saturday was one of the poofy cloud days light wind days, which means it was also a perfect day for ballooning. There are over half a dozen of balloons available for hire locally plus at least twice as many more used solely for their owners' personal pleasure. Its not at all unusual to see 6 to 8 ballons at once in various parts of the sky here. This particular balloon is about to land and ts chase truck was parked right across the street from were this was taken. It landed in the field just over the trees on the left of the picture.



The Fall Hunt Season is another sight & sound common to this area. I've heard a hunt before but never actually seen one let alone been able to photograph one before. This was was winding up one evening down in Culpeper county. About half the riders and a third of the hounds have walked past me and gone over a river to a farm pickup spot. This group was shortly joined by 2 more riders and another hound. Then they too crossed the road and were last seem heading towards a barn complex.

Of course its also hunting season alone the eastern side of the Blue Ridge. Archery season opened in early October, muzzleloading season in the beginning of November and general firearms season will open in mid November. This fine fellow doesn't seem all that concerned as he strolls around a field about 4 miles from my house.

The last 2 days have been very gray, very wet, very windy and very chill. I did the sensible thing - washed floors, vacuumed, polished all my shoes, cleaned out the hall and yellow bedroom closets, did the laundry, did the dishes, updated my blog, spackled and in short removed things from my Round-Tuit list. As a reward to self I then spent Thursday evening making music with my friend Jane. A very nice end to an otherwise dreary late fall day.

Fall Thoughts

This is one of my favorite spots to just go sit, watch the wildlife & think.

The trees in my woods have lost almost all their leaves, the understory plants are but dry stalks, and the crickets still sing of an evening but with less enthusiasm. I have redone the tomahawk stump pile & the firewood pile, putting landscape timbers under both so the bottom layer is held off the ground. All the wood I've cut up so far is now stacked back by my fire ring. The kitchen wall cleaning is almost done & I've started spackling the walls so I can paint them. My clothes closet has been gone through & everything that doesn't fit well is cleaned & ready to go to the local thrift store. The old cell phones & their accessories (the ones Urchin & I had when she was in college) have had their contact numbers erased & are ready to be recycled.

Friday last I was able to meet the Urchin for dinner at a grocery store food court. We had a great time, talked of this & that, pretty much just enjoyed each others company. I hope we can do that a bit more often. Saturday I puttered around the house a bit & then went to the Ivy Creek Natural Area for a walk in the woods. Sunday found me at the IWLL shooting range with my friend Jane. I finally got around to firing the .45 flintlock pistol my dad gave me back in 2000. It shoots nicely but I do need to spend some time working out its optimum target load. Monday I worked on the house & yard some more, then took a nice ride over Snickers Gap to enjoy the fall vistas. I also picked up pet & bird food. The chickadees, tufted titmice & wrens are quite happy about the birdseed part. Today I've done more routine cleaning while loading blog pictures. And so it goes.