greetings from mid December

Hello again.  I see some of you have visited and found my December posts wanting. It's been an interesting month so far.
We seem to be over the hump as Wally's cold has subsided and we now have a new air source heat pump which will hopefully save on our oil bill as it is so well suited to this kind of cold that rarely goes below freezing. As well we have a new hot water tank to replace the sudden demise of our old oil heated tank, which Wally installed himself while he was ill. He worked so hard through his illness, dear man.

The snow of a few weeks back left fairly soon afterwards, and we've had none since.

In fact it's been almost springlike some days.  The cold out here is rather damp and makes for fog the day after a warm day.  One can barely see an outline of the trees on the other side of the field beyond Forget-Me-Not Cabin.

The cats and I amuse ourselves between episodes of life.

Here Muji is wanting some love.

 

He wonders why I'm so close but not patting him.

And here his inbred modus operandi: the reach for my attention

Meanwhile Babu is playing at my feet, chasing his tail or a crumpled paper I toss him hence the slightly demented look.  At a year and a half, he is still very much like a big kitten.

 

Finally some shots of him not moving where I can get some definition in his blackness.

 

And now he jumps for the camera strap. Isn't this the weirdest picture of him yet?

 

He's really a good little cat, really quite happy here, almost smiling.

 

Later I catch my boys napping. It's rare that Babu doesn't wake and move before I can capture the funny positions I find them in, very often doing a yin/yang.

 

Even with his eye "ajar" he is completely passed out from a busy day trying to provoke Muji to romp with him. He has been so good for Muji's damaged shoulder, getting lazy Muji to chase him and exercise it, so that now Muji doesn't hop, but limps, a big improvement.

How wicked my gentle loving Muji looks when he yawns.

 

I have many telephone doodles such as this that I'm planning to use in a collage, that new turn I was planning to take last month, diverted from my artwork by the work on the house and such.

Today I am gently easing back into creating.

 

These are the tricky days that precede the holidays.

Let us remember to be present in this intrinsically miraculous moment.

Gratitude is the key.