Chimney Smoke

 

 

There's a whiff of it in the air, and it's not a forest fire!  The sugar maples are about to turn that crazy orange they do.  Our first load of picture-book firewood arrived today.  Call it scarf weaving weather,  and I've started adding a little alpaca-silk blend yarn to the mix, for coziness. I'm still in the lost-in-the-woods mode, in soft smoky colors and Rosepath,  and I like it like that.

Blue Bird and other signs

Have you heard that, once again, the world is due to end?  May 21, 2011 is Judgement Day. That's coming right up, but I feel that it's not likely to happen so soon, because, in a barn, in SW Wisconsin there is a small miracle. I've told just a few people about the new kitten I've been waiting for. Sometimes cats around here have noticeably big, fan-shaped feet, due to extra toes. I have acquired a strong desire to have one of these cats. I heard of a cat in the neighborhood that often has kittens with extra toes on their front paws.The cat-daddy is feral, and he's the one with the extra-toe genes. He comes around every spring, and this year he made his visit on schedule.

This must have been the longest gestation in cat history, but at last it's born. It was a 2-kitten litter, and just one kitten has extra toes--on each of its feet!  Four big paws!  It's mauve! I'm the first on the list, maybe the only one on the list, but the farmer's wife said I can have it.   It's just 2 weeks old, and its mother has it and the other kitten, without extraordinary feet, high up in a spidery hay mow. It takes a ladder to get up to find them. Just a few more weeks to wait, unless an owl, or some other mishap (end of the world?) comes along.

My old Mama Kitty hasn't heard  any of this news.  I'm going to call it Smoky. (What color is mauve anyway?)