"Chip by chip, day by day...

I enjoy this place from which I can watch and record bird activity.  It's hard to imagine that the first hummingbirds may be here in just over a month.   

 

Look at this weather acting all cute and springy like it didn't try to kill us last week.  ~From Facebook, of course. Fortunately we did survive the near record-breaking Arctic blast of last week, and now, it's as though spring has arrived in all her glory.  How great it is!  I am sure we must all have the worst case of spring fever ever.  I know I do!

We weren't far up the trail this morning before I realized I was way overdressed, so off came this old jacket, which is in reality just a liner from an old army surplus coat. (I am currently working on a new trail jacket that I can't wait to leave hanging on a cedar peg.) These old cedar branch stubs must surely have a purpose, wouldn't you think?    Over the years, there has only been one time that I forgot to go back to retrieve my coat left hanging there, and only realized it when the following morning I couldn't find my coat.  I was thankful a burly ole bear didn't find it before I did.     

"Do not curse the mountain for its height.  Climb it breath by breath, and let patience be your guide.  Endure not as one burdened, but as one sculpting a legacy, chip by chip, day by day."  -Stoic Wisdom

Today was walk # 1,055.  "chip by chip, day by day..."

Thoreau & More...

 

"I find it good to be out this still, dark, mizzling afternoon; my walk or voyage is more suggestive and profitable than in bright weather.  The view is contracted by the misty rain, the water is perfectly smooth, and the stillness is favorable to reflection...The solitude is real too, for it keeps other men at home...My power of observation and contemplation is much increased.  My attention does not wander.  The world and my life are much simplified."  

& MORE...Particularly about cats.

 

"Gather kittens while ye may

for time brings only sorrow

and the kittens of today

will be old cats tomorrow."

~Unknown 

The kittens had their appointments at the vet clinic.  It sounds like such an ordinary and common thing, doesn't it?  But, NOT!  These feral babies are anything but "ordinary and common."  

The plan from day one was simple enough -  Feed kittens in wire cage.  On the appointed day, close door.  Load cage, kittens and all, into Jeep and take to vet.  

But, it didn't happen that way.  When that big, tall scary man went into the crib to help carry the cage things got pretty wild.  As our granddaughter said, "They were like bouncing off the walls."  It was probably a good thing that the door came open and three of them escaped.  Well...  One was better than none!

 And, that's the way it was done.  One cat at a time.  By the time, this ordeal was over, we had made a total of eight trips to the animal clinic.  The kittens began to get very suspicious of my every move, so that by the time I got to Kitty #4, she was quite a challenge.  But, now they are all back home and doing well.  And, I am no longer having nightmares about catching cats!