Indoors and Out

Teasel sleeps on the bed after supervising our morning activities. Teasel greatly enjoys food and I have been calling her "Teasel the Tank."

Charlie, the dad cat, looks appealingly innocent.  Moments earlier his son Chester was under the rug atop the hassock with Charlie pummeling him, while Teasel jabbed a wiley paw under the rug for good measure.  Charlie has led the tribe this evening in wild surges through the rooms, crashing headlong into his cardboard box under the picture window, banging his head on the same window in an ill-judged leap for the sill. The sobering moment came with a crash in here.  I was taking cookies from the oven, so it was a bit later that I came in to find my ironing board upended, iron on its side with water puddling out, fabric strips in a muddle on the floor.

Charlie and Maisie's daughter, Jemima, is such a sweetie. She favors the top of this bookcase.  A leap into my old wing chair and a bounce up to the top shelf, and she can keep tabs on whatever I am doing.

Pebbles the Horse is recovering from a frightening bout of laminitis brought on by injudicious consumption of grass which had been frosted. This was a danger to her health that we had to learn the hard way.  She has been a month in this "starvation pasture" and none too pleased about it. She is being fed very carefully with a non-sweetened grain mixture created especially for horses who are subject to founder.  She has a water tub, and hay. She is bored with her confinement to such a small area, although pleased this week that J. has been working on the side entry roof and she can watch him.  If she creates a big enough fuss, chances are he will fetch her a carrot. It is a relief to see that she is once again stepping smartly.

Silvery bare branches against a clear blue sky. I was surely intending to include the bird in this shot--but zooming in has not identified which bird it is.

 

I am always intrigued by the patterns of branches against the sky. I tend to gaze up into the heavens, fiddling with the camera's zoom feature until I am dizzy and losing my balance on uneven ground.

In spite of living for a decade in Wyoming, my identification of native trees isn't good. These may be either young cottonwoods or aspens.  At any rate, you can see how the wind has canted them.

Cottonwood leaves, brown but still glossy, lie scattered on the dry rough ground and catch in clumps of dried weed.

If I were not lazy this evening--and if I was sure I could locate my book on wild plants, I would label this photo!  Maybe sorrel? 

J. has been working on the side entry roof this week. I expect that come spring we will be dealing with starlings who would like to nest in this newly sheltered spot.  They are such messy pests.

The kitchen window with its plant-laden sill faces the new entry roof.  This is the eastern exposure of the house.

A side view of guest/rental cabin, house and attached garage, taken from across the pond.  The "Sky Trak" which J. used to put the cross beam in place, and SIL's plumbing van add to the view.

The pond with a crinkled coating of ice, reflects the blue sky and the shadows of the over-hanging cottonwoods. Fallen leaves and twigs are caught in the cold slush.

This post has been a bit of an adventure---my first attempt at using the newer format.  I can see some advantages, such as the better photo uploads, but a few things are boggling my very untechnical brain. Perhaps I'll eventually be able to provide a "link" without pasting in a url.  There is always hope.