Paddy's Wanderings

Of Cats & Christmas Trees

Once again, there lays our Beloved Bully Bear, fallen from his carefully selected perch, the victim of the climbing hijinks of the baby black cat. It is of course, a Christmas tradition. Tree goes up, cat goes up tree, down comes Bully Bear.

This year we got the tree up a couple of weeks before the big day. Down it went before it was even fully decorated. A careening cat, diving into the tree at Mach 2, will surely bring down the most stalwart of trees. We have a nice artificial tree, sturdy, and for the most part, cat proof. This year.. not so much.

The base gave up the ghost, cracked almost beyond the wonders of super glue. It held, barely. Still, the tree spent two weeks on the floor, in various heaps. Nothing we tried dampened the persistance of that darn cat.

Canned air got her to hide under the couch until we let our guard down, then up the tree she went. Shoes and assorted projectiles did nothing. The momma cat hissing at her and batting the kitten ears barely registered. Even the dreadful moniker of Mundane Noodle, screamed at her as only a six year old can muster, did not deter her in the least.

I admit, I gave up.

Then on Christmas eve, we righted the tree in one last attempt to weather the kitten storm. Mom went to work. Me, middle son, and the t-k went over to my Dad's house. We arrived back home to find the tree, with momma cat sleeping on the skirting, still standing. As people owned by cats, we were cautiously optimistic and headed to bed.

Christmas morning and the tree still stood, presents flowing from underneath. Two cats perched on the outer edge, doing the catnap. All was good. The tree made it through the night and into the day.

Now, as I sit here, the little tree that could, is still standing. For the past five days, the wee kitten has ignored the tree. It is a cat thing. I am tempted to leave it right there until next year. Two can play that game. I am, after all, the top of the food chain! I am the master of my domain. My brain is as big as that cat and I can reason, use tools. I have opposable thumbs...

But it does occur to me, she is the cat.

And I, well I am.. the mouse.

 

 

 

At the Creek

This is Quinn Creek in early Autumn, before the change of color. There was a lot of rain at that time and the creek had swollen. This is the small section of creek running through the swamp end of The Farm. This picture is taken by my Dad from the gravel road as he stood on the old bridge.

I have tried, over the many years, to capture the essence of the creek. It is a small part of The Farm, just cuts across the corner of the swamp and there may be 250 yards of it actually on the property. It does not seem like much, but it is.

Simply put, the creek is time. It ebbs and flows, rises and falls, constantly changing, and yet, a constant. A touchstone, a marker from childhood, a sign post of the present, a guiding arrow to the future. The creek reflects images, in the still water of mid summer, to the gurgling flow of autumn, the bubbling rush of spring, the icy crystal of winter frost.

I do not own the creek. I borrow it, for a short time. It is there, and it is with me, always.

 

Surfing Quirky Sci-Fi

I have been hunting for a tv set just like that one. It is from 1950 and looks all kinds of sci-fi-ish and although in black & white, would be cool to watch. I think. It is my retro-ness peeking out again. What can I say, I like old things. Put the kidney table in front and a tall glass of something and I would be good to go.

For the past two weeks, I have been sick, super sick. My Doc assures me it is not Capt Tripps(my Doc has a good sense of humor, that is why I go back to him). I only say this in contet because really, you get enough health updates via other social media and the last thing you want to read about is that on a blog.

Being *cough* sick has led me to one of my favorite locations in the castle, in front of ye olde TV and plenty of stuff to watch. So I did, a lot. It was groovy and now that I am better, I can go back to work and have my fave shows back up again.

I know you want to know what I was watching, you are curious. Ok maybe not, but here goes anyways!

Lost:

No silly, not Lost in Space, but Lost, as in that show that was on and everyone hated the ending? Yeah that show. I caught a few stray episodes and was intrigued when it was airing, but somehow... always felt 'lost' in the story. Enter streaming video and voila! we watched the entire series over three weeks. Good thing too. If I had to wait until next week for the next epsiode or over the summer? I would have been really irritated. As it was, we got to watch begining to end and I loved it. Yes, I liked the ending, it made sense to me. Go ahead, yell at me, but it was good tv.

Eureka:

I never get to catch this series as much as I want, enter streaming vid. Picked up some lost episodes and love the show even more now. And.. still irked this is to be the final season starting in Jan. Major ticked off.  Oh Sci-Fi aka SyFy, you know we have a love/hate relationship and you fuel that fire. Either way, how can you not love a quirky show about screwed up uber-geeks in a town where anything can happen and often does? Kudos also to having Max Headroom as your dog catcher.

Warehouse 13:

Who does not want to be a secret agent/archaeologist/paranormal investigator? And... get to play with cool gizmos while tracking bad guys across the globe and recovering mysterious objects? Plus its quirky and funny, enough action to keep it going plus its a mystery! Bonus time.. it looks like its going to be on for awhile too.. crosses appendages.

And that was the two weeks of couch sitting. Lots of TV and lots of meds and it was groovy. Well, not the sick part, that part sucked dinosaur eggs. At least I wasn't bored out of my mind. Even if I was hacking so bad I had to pause playback and got nothing accomplished other than playing zombie on the couch. It was ok.

Tune in next time for...

 

 

Snow Maple Morning

Sunrise after the first snow storm of the season. Looks really cold, but it was not bad. I always like the look of frozen snow on evergreen trees, reminds me of many days spent in the swamp at the Farm. Of course, this pic is 2 1/2 hours south of the Farm, about three dozen years from boyhood. In other words, a long way from memory.

The storm was a Michigan nor'easter as you can tell by the snow and ice on ye olde maple. When the wind blows down from Ontario across Lake Huron right across the bay, it funnels into our valley and up the river. Makes for nice pics, plays havoc on the roads.

As a kid it means building snowmen and snow forts, ice skating on any frozen surface you can find and just having fun. As an adult, at least for this one, it seems to be just another obstacle in the mad rush of days. I have the sneaking suspicion I will become a snow bird, enjoy the first snow fall then make a bee line down the Great Road to the Land of Oranges, Gulf Courses, and beaches.

I did take a moment to enjoy that morning, there might be hope for me yet. Ask me in the depths of winter and you'll hear another story. Today, today I will enjoy the snow from behind the glass.