Winter 2025

 

The Pond Jan. 10, 2025

We got snow!  Lots of it... A walloping  total of ten-inches.  Millie and I made our daily walk, despite the fact that I had only 7-inch boots.  Thanks to Dan who made tracks in the snow for us to follow.  How beautiful everything looked!  I have no words to describe it.  Just Wow!  Walk #1,008 was certainly not one to be missed!  

I know this post is long on pictures and short on words, but, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

I will add that the kitties holed up somewhere during this entire event for 2 1/2 days, but are all safely back in the fold. 

 

  

The Next Day - January 11, 2025 ( I love those oh-so-blue skies!)

One thousand walks and the Kittens make a move...

Well, Millie and I did it.  We made our long anticipated 1000th walk over the hill.  The world didn't seem to notice, but to us, it was something to celebrate.  Lots of memories are locked into those 1000 days, some of which I photographed, but most of them are like "a river, glimpsed once and already carried past us, and another follows and is gone."  (Marcus Aurelius)  I will post a few pictures taken from those 1000 days at the end of this post.

In other news, the kitties moved themselves to another barn. When I went to the old barn on New Year's morning, I found nothing but an old empty crib.  All of my sweet kitties had gone missing.  One can imagine the thoughts that raced through my mind.  It wasn't until we were doing the evening chores that we spotted one of them in the tractor barn.  What to do?  Has anyone ever had success at herding a bunch of cats?  

They were all quite anxious and very wary, having reverted back to some of their wild ways.  Their mother was, after all, a feral cat, so their DNA was not to be denied.  There would be no catching them that day to return them to the safety of the old crib as Dan suggested we do.  Besides, I couldn't help but think, that maybe they were wiser than we were.  Was there some danger lurking around the old barn that made them seek a new safer place?

I was relieved that they were all safe and still together.  In hopes that they would return on their own, we left them in their new place, which was a bit more than a quarter of a mile away from their old place.  I did not feed them that day.  

Early morning of the next day, we found them just as we had left them the evening before.  They were hungry.  I fed them.  They had found a tub of bale-wrap mixed with hay in which they had obviously slept.  So, there you go....  Cats will be cats.  I moved their feed and water dishes to their new abode and made their bed better.  I stroked all their backs this morning.  

I'll never forget the late night walk Millie and I made in which we were harassed  by the coyotes.  

Or, of when we went walking after midnight, and caught up with a family of raccoons in a hackberry tree.

And, walking in a snowstorm should be on everyone's must do list.  Right?

I hope everyone's new year is off to a great start, and that you are doing better with your resolutions than I am.  I am not giving up.  Just blaming it on the kitties!  Ha Ha!

Until next time,

Mary

Walk # 987 & Merry Christmas!

 

ONE THOUSAND WALKS is a big deal around here... at least for Millie and me, and we are oh-so-close to that number having made our 987th trek over this old hill this morning.  We've only accomplished that feat one time before, and that was back in February of 2021.  Here's the way it happened.

From my calendar pages, I wrote on February 14th. "Low of 14 degrees, High of 14 degrees.  Snow and oh-so-cold.  It was probably a dumb thing to do, but Millie and I walked the lower trail to the old Black Jack tree and back down the hill.  As a result I felt tired all day. 1,314 walks."

February 15:  Low 7 degrees, High 16 degrees.  Our walking streak is broken!  The weather was just too dangerously cold today at single digits.  And, the snow kept coming down, now measuring about 6 inches.  

February 16:  -7 degrees (Negative 7 degrees)  We had sunshine!  Millie and I walked the hillside trails.  We are now under a winter storm warning.  It is snowing as I write.  We aren't counting anymore walks...maybe never again.  (But, we did!)

February 17:  So, Mother Nature gave us another couple of inches of snow, making a bit more than 8 inches on the ground.  I tried walking but the snow was deeper than my boots were tall.  Besides, I worried that Millie might get out on the pond ice and fall through.

So, if the Lord is willing and if the creeks don't rise, as I used to hear people say, Millie and I will be out on this old hill doing our 1,000th walk on the second day of January 2025. We will celebrate a bit with Dan, and then the next day we will hit the old trail again.  Who knows, we might even make it to 2,000!   

Here's hoping your season is filled with joy.

Merry Christmas!

Mary

A Walk With Millie...

 

"Walk with me; don't just walk me.  Slow down and see the world as I do.  I know you've got things to do, places to be.  But out here, with the ground beneath our feet and the sky above us, there's a whole world worth noticing.

The autumn chill is in the air today, crisp and full of new smells.  It's different from yesterday, and different from the day before.  Every day is new.  The leaves crunch under my paws, and I stop to breathe in the rich, earthy scent of them.  To you, it might just be a pile of leaves, but to me, it's a story - one I can't help but dive into, nose first.

So, slow down.  Breathe.  Let the chill fill your lungs and the colors fill your eyes.  Walk with me, don't just walk me.  See the world as I do, if only for a little while.  It's all waiting for you, just beneath the surface."

~ Facebook, Dogs World 

I am working hard on this.  It has become a new rule:  Pay close attention to your surroundings.  Do not think about other stuff.  I had kind of allowed myself to slip into the habit of  doing just that - a time to work out problems and to make plans, etc.  How many times have I said to Millie, "I need to talk to you about some things."   What a waste it was to get to the end of the trail and realize that I had seen nothing of the woods and fields and sky.  I think Millie likes the new rule and I know that I do.  

P.S.  You should see how well the kitties are doing.  And, how big they are getting.  They love me now.  All four of them.  Even Elon, the wild tux kitten which you can see hiding behind the door.  He is still shy and very wary, but that may be a good thing when it comes to surviving in the great outdoors.  He loves for me to stroke him, and purrs like a motor boat.  Here he is with Margo waiting on food.  You'll notice that I still feed them in the cage, but it is never closed.  I thought it might come in handy to have Elon there when it comes time to take him for his vet visit.  I have never picked him up, but I hold and kiss the other three.  I think Elon wants me to hold him.  I may try that tomorrow.    

Kitties and a Pretty Picture...

 

Fall 2024

It's not a very pretty fall here because of the extremely dry conditions we have been experiencing for so very long.  The pond along which Millie and I walk every day has always been a reliable place in which to find a good picture in every season, but, even it, came up lacking this fall.  I did find a bit of color there, however, and using my iPhone mustered up a pleasing enough picture.    

The barn kitties are growing up.  It has been quite a challenge to tame these little wild critters, but, slowly and surely, I am getting it done.  The Tabbies were first to allow me to touch them, and now love to be petted.  Little Blackie was next, and has now stolen my heart.  The Tuxedo cat is a wild one, but even he, is finally allowing me to pet him at the feed dish.   

I still haven't definitely decided which kitties are girls and which are boys.  I actually googled for information on how to determine the sex of a kitten.  I found a good site with drawings.  Step l:  Lift tail.  Ha Ha!  I think I knew that much, but lifting Tux's tail hasn't happened yet.  I have just about concluded that the tabbies are both girls and that the little black one is a boy.  My guess is that the wild black and white kitty is a boy. When they are just a little older we will make appointments for them with our vet, then we'll know for sure.  

Tabby White Paws

Little Blackie

Tux

The following quote has been going around on Facebook.  It's so me that I just have to share it here.

"Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.  Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness.  I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.  But by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill.  Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right."

~Soren Kierkegaard

It has been 934 days since Millie and I last missed our walk over the hill.  If I counted correctly we will hit the 1,000 mark on Jan. 2, 2025.  

A Garden Plan and a Typewriter...

 

Every garden needs a plan.  Right?  Or at least, Elizabeth from Elizabeth and Her German Garden thought so.  She once wrote, "I was forever making plans, and if nothing came of them, what did it matter?  The mere making had been a joy."  

What a blessing it is to love books.  Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden. 

When I got to the library I came to a standstill. -Oh, the dear room, what happy times I have spent in it rummaging amongst the books, making plans for my garden, building castles in the air, writing, dreaming, doing nothing.    

~ Elizabeth von Arnim 

  

 

 The typing in my Journal of Quotations is being done on my electric Royal Scripter typewriter that I bought when I broke my wrist a few years ago.  I enjoy the typing, even though I learned the skill on manual machines in two years of typing classes.  These were my favorite high school classes, made even better since they were taught by my absolute favorite teacher of all.  

So, for quite a while, I have been watching typewriters on eBay.  The one listed below ended a few days ago.  I loved this one and it was just what I had dreamed of owning.  I didn't even place a bid, but now I almost wish I had.  Undoubtedly, I wouldn't have won the auction, but it would have been worth a try.  There were a total of over 60 bids, ending at $355.  The shipping was free.  

 

"If you are looking for a special writing companion, then this just may be your writing soulmate.  A stunning example of a 1937 Royal De Luxe (Model A).  The glass-topped key strokes on this Royal queen are snappy, confident and yield a consistent print in an elite font.  Obviously, this typewriter was not overly used as there is little to no wear anywhere to be found and it is near spotless inside and out.  A newly inked black and red nylon ribbon has been installed onto the original Royal metal spools.  There is an original user manual..."

"However, true love does not occur until the first keystroke.  It's something that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated.  For the serious writer, there are no disappointments with this particular writing companion.  It has been completely serviced, properly lubricated and is ready to write.  Its condition is as close to being brand new from 1937 as could possibly be for an 87-year-old mechanical writing machine.  This is a stunning example of this rare model from a most pivotal time in American history."

And, finally...  We have new barn kitties.  Four of them.  They lost their mother, so we took them all in.  They will be sweet, but not yet!  I love them, anyway!  (Note:  I can stroke, from the head to the tip of the tail, three out of the four.  The black and white one is still afraid. Another little black one doesn't show up well in the picture.)