The boys....

I have been wanting to post pictures of the cats for a while now, but the only time they will be still is when they are sleeping. I went ahead and took a few of the boys today.
First we have Bubbie...the above picture is just typical of him. He sleeps like this at least half the time. And below he is helping Roger surf the net, taken a couple days ago.
Can you tell that he loves us? He should...remember when he broke his leg....way back here. I think he has been grateful ever since. Before his leg was broken, he was Roger and Rachel's cat....did not have the time of day for me. Unless I was feeding him..just didn't care if I gave him any type of petting or anything.
After he went through his leg being broken, he comes at least once a day for me to pet him...can be very insistent on it. And he still doesn't mind Lorelei...remember this. That seems like a lifetime ago. Just look how small Lorelei was in that post.
And this is my boy! Like his namesake, I am Cougar's favorite person. He likes everyone but I am the one he loves best!
I cannot put the skirt under the tree...any time I think about it, a cat is sleeping under it. And I don't like to disturb them. I will forever think that a cat laying sleeping in a house or store adds so much to the atmosphere.
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As I type this, we are getting snow!!!! I told Roger the other night that winter is officially here. We happened to go to bed about the same time and here came Puss Puss wanting under the cover with us. And she still insists on being between us. Roger let her under the cover on the outside edge but she just goes under and then proceeds to climb over him and snuggles down between us.

Bubbie, on the other hand does not want between us and generally does not want under the cover. He likes for one of us to scoot back from the edge of the bed and then he will snuggle in to our stomach and sleep.

Cougar comes and will come up and if my hands are under the cover, he will reach under with his paws to find my hand. He only wants to be petted a little bit and will either sleep curled up at the foot of the bed or get down completely.

And Mama Cat now comes and gets in bed occasionally to be petted and even sometimes to sleep with us. She now comes and gets in my lap and sits and sits. And she still is good with Lorelei also...if you knew her life before she came to live with us, you would understand that her attitude is basically a miracle. I have yet to see her get mad at Lorelei.
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That is it for now...I am hoping we get enough snow for it to make the world new. It is just beautiful to look out towards the streetlights now.

Christmas mood....

We were coming home from Sarah's today, and happened to have the radio on and this song happened to come on...

I so would love to be home one more time in my life when a few inches of snow is on ground....the photo below is of our childhood home. I can remember wishing we had ornaments to really decorate that blue spruce out front for Christmas. We were lucky to have any to go on our Christmas tree....let alone to decorate outside. We had a strand or two of the big multicolored lights and a few of the shiny ball ornaments...I don't ever remember getting to buy any new ones.

However, I can remember cutting a star out of cardboard and wrapping it in aluminum foil to put on the spruce...I think about this every year...and I never fail to think about how we saved wrapping paper from year to year. And I think of gathering pine cones and painting them with gold and silver paint. Thinking about that now, I would love to know where the paint came from and why we had it. It was in little bottles...maybe a couple inches tall. I wonder if they had been model paint...but even if they were, that still does not explain why we had them.

But don't feel sorry or sad for me...having a childhood like this has made even simple things so much more enjoyable. I buy a few new Christmas ornaments every year, and probably get twice the enjoyment from it that most people do.
Anyway, all that is going through my mind, and thinking how I have lived in the small town I live in now for 30 years...even with living here that long, Tennessee is still home.

And I would love to go back to Tennessee to live, but I could never willingly move farther way from Lorelei....nor her mommy either. It is bad enough when the kids move away by choice or with work and jobs...but I don't think I could willingly move away from them. Our one daughter lives on the west coast, but at least we have hopes of her someday moving back closer to home.

Right now I get sort of teary-eyed after leaving Lorelei...she is such a bright part of our life. She is always so glad to see us...right now she is at the age where Mamaw and Papaw can do no wrong...and honestly she can't either;-)

Every picture tells a story....

For the first time in a long while, Roger and I went on a rambling drive today...I kind knew where I wanted to start out at, and in fact most of the time gone was on roads we have been on before...with a few new ones thrown in.

However these below, and the ones I am going to show on Time Stand Still are probably not ten miles from home, and certain not longer than a 10-15 minute drive...if even that. Be sure and check out the photos there....
You need to click on these to see them...specially the one above. There had been this little kestrel on the power line and every time I got near enough to even think about taking a photo, it would fly. Usually just past the next pole, but it skipped one and went on...I wondered why. Then gave a second look and there was this big hawk sitting on top of the light pole...it took off before we could stop.

In just a second here came the kestrel and looks like it was trying to knock the hawk right out of the sky! Just click the above picture...it is a tad bit blurry but there was no time to focus. I can't help but wonder if what the hawk thought, or if he had a head ache.
They proceeded to fly on; it was as if the kestrel was escorting the hawk away from its hunting territory....
In the end the hawk was fine and no worse for wear...