I am Back!

Wow, again, time flies. Two weeks without being in the blog-o-sphere!
Busy around here. Lots of medical stuff going on. Appointments, tests and so forth.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Everything turned out great and delicious. I love all the flavors of the celebration, the aromas and sights. Almost ended in disaster when kittens discover tablecloth. Claws attached and slowly dragging cloth towards the floor. Hissing and clapping of hands sent two felines flying down the stairs!

We have had lots of snow. And really cold. It is beautiful to watch from the warmth of the chair by the fireplace.

Thinking about Yule as the Wheel of the Year turns bringing Light to the Darkness. A favorite Wiccan celebration; but then all the sabbats are my favorite!

Wonderful book by Dorothy Morrison

Gotta come visit all my blog buddies. Hope all is well with everyone.

One of my Yule Fires

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

Hi!!

What's new?

Fine, here.

Here's some roses. From the grocery store. It was raining, mixing with snow when I brought these beauties home.

The vet and I survived the appointment with the kittens for their annual check-up. Both felines were having naps when it was time to go to the vet. Just scoop up a sleepy kitty and thrust him or her right into the carrier. No problem!! The kittens are 18 months old now. Pyewacket weighs 11.8 pounds and Pixie weighs 9.2 pounds. And the vet gave me permission to continue calling them kittens for as long as I want!!

Pixie says, "Sure, call me a kitten. Just don't call me to go to the vet any time soon."

Eleven-Twelve-Thirteen

11-12-13! What a great date; at least in American format. Just wanted an excuse to type today's date.

I have been having some computer glitches, such as very slow, or freezing up.Makes blogging very frustrating. Hopefully I can get through this post with no problems.Fingers crossed.

About the doctor's appointment last week:I am happy to report that the new surgeon we met is very knowledgeable, confident and caring. He spent almost an hour talking with us and going over everything with us. He has formed a plan for my husband's care, and we feel very good about this. My husband feels more relaxed than he has in months!

Our daughter Raethan came for a weekend visit to celebrate her dad's birthday. A short but fun visit, with family board game time, good food and a trip to AutumnWood so Raethan could finally see our property for the first time. Cold, cloudy and drizzly did not keep us away.

Raethan at AutumnWood

Here is something interesting. Remember the old falling down building at AutumnWood I talked about last week? Nicarus and Raethan could not resist taking a peek inside. I was nervous about the roof collapsing, but all was well. Raethan went in briefly and took a few steps inside, while her brother held open the door. She said there are a lot of rusty old bikes, old tires, old milk cans, some kind of tractor and a weird looking pump. Her eyes lighted on a steamer trunk, and naturally she had to drag it near the light from the door to open it. Fortunately, nothing awful sprang out at her. Unfortunately the only thing in the trunk was a newspaper--no hidden treasure!! But the newspaper, though yellowed, moldy and torn was from August 2, 1942. We were able to read few pieces here and there. An article with recipes for vegetables from your Victory Garden, a coupon for postage stamps to use to send letters to "our boys"; 48 stamps for 5 cents!! Some of the advertisements were hilarious.  It was fun, but the paper got very brittle and fell apart.

I have to wrangle my kittens into carriers this afternoon for a visit to the vet; annual checkup. I am dreading it mainly because Pixie is a demon to catch. She does not like being picked up, so a stealthy plan is in order to  grab her without her being aware of the waiting transport. If she knows, she will take off to parts unknown, hiding under places we cannot possibly get to.  Wish us luck!!!

Very cold today. Flurries around and about. Stay warm and cozy, safe and sound!

AutumnWood Afternoon

A picture-perfect autumn day for a drive out to the country to visit our new property, AutumnWood. Sky-blue, golden leaves, acres of harvested corn fields. Blue jays calling and red squirrels chittering. And the neighing of two horses from the neighbor's barn. (click on photos for a closer look).

A beautiful old farmhouse is just across the road and down a bit. The most marvelous trees, including a grand old willow surround the front. I am looking forward to meeting the neighbors.

Nick works hard right by the front gate planting daffodil bulbs. This area is very rocky, so the digging was not easy. Just across the road is the barn housing two horses.

Here is a very old dilapidated structure that we did not know was part of our property until we saw the survey map. It looks small from this view but is actually much larger. It is covered in a multitude of vines and shrubs.

You can see from this view how long the building is.  Through the windows can be seen old farm equipment (we think). We will investigate in the Spring.

After planting bulbs by the gate, and further back near the entrance to the woods, we hung autumn wreaths on the gate. One small step in claiming this place as ours.

Questions

November showed up rather abruptly, as far as I am concerned. Oh, I knew it was coming; after all, I had been preparing for Samhain/Halloween for a while. Not too hard to assume November 1st would be the very next day.

And changing the clocks back. I actually wish we would stop doing the whole daylight savings time thing. Really, why do we still do it? Just one of the millions of things about Life I have no answers for.

We went to the funeral on Friday, for the young woman who was murdered. The funeral home was crowded with mourners and it was a difficult time on many levels. There are a million questions about this event too, and probably not much in the way of answers.

To perk up my mood a bit, I went to a Holiday Craft Fair at the high school. What a bust! Very small. Not much in the way of creative crafting, too many "store-bought" goods and grumpy vendors and crowd. I thought hand crafted items were on the rise these days, but apparently not around here. Wonder why?

Tomorrow my husband and I meet his new surgeon for the reconstruction surgery. He stopped going to the other doctor a while ago, you know, the one who screwed up so badly. With optimism and a list of questions to ask, we expect this time to have a really good experience. Believe me, he won't be signing one single paper until we are fully informed and satisfied of the competence.

Gotta run, off to AutumnWood today with my son to plant spring-blooming bulbs. Will they survive squirrels, crows, raccoons, and the ravages of serious winter weather? Answer coming to that in the Spring!

Who me? Eat bulbs?