(civil) war-torn but on the mend

 The snow lasted until...today!  Beautiful glittery snow...

...criss-crossed with the telltale signs of heavy travel.

I love seeing everything snow-covered...

...and I love seeing the birds come out.

pileated woodpecker

male cardinal

Still, it was a rough week.  The temperatures dropped to single digits, and both Todd and I got sick with bad colds.  We had to miss an eat-along viewing of 1971's Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at the local theatre - a major disappointment.  At least we both felt well enough on Sunday to watch a Civil War reenactment at Spring Mill State Park.  Guns were blazing!

There were deserters...

...and plenty of casualties.

Ready...aim...

Bayonet charge!

You'll notice that for the sake of historical accuracy, several of the soldiers were barefoot (in the snow!).  They all had to laboriously re-load their muskets after a single shot, too.  It was agonizingly slow.  I couldn't imagine that inefficiency in a real-life battle!

Other than that little outing, life around our house has been very...very...slow this week.

Sleepy cats, sleepy us.  But now we're both better, and the weather is warming up a bit.  Hopefully we can get back outside again soon.  Have a great week!

a rush (of activity) and a push (of frosting)

It's the time of year to pull out all of our favorite Christmas decorations!  They were boxed up last year, so it was nice to see some old familiar faces...like these guys.  I hand-cut these Star Wars "snowflakes" for Todd in the early years of our relationship.  A good reminder that I will never, ever indulge in paper cutting by hand again!  #ouch

Our decorations aren't fancy, and they never match.  Some of the interior lights are colored, some are yellow, and some are white.  They line nearly every interior window and are fairly tacky-looking...but I love Christmas lights and I don't care.

We didn't get a tree this year, but have two smaller evergreens that were pressed into service.

All of our ornaments have some significance and many are handmade, like these hanging over our fireplace (we're just starting to build the fireplace frame, so for now this old window is hanging on the wall itself):

I hand-stitched that vintage coat and cross-stitched the Nordic glove, and they are very dear to me...as are these two:

One signifies all the strays that we feed (this particular stray is Clothilde), and the other has Oregon on one side/Indiana on the other...our home states. The others are mostly store bought, but each one means something, so I wanted to hang them up, tree or no tree!

I *love* tiny Christmas trees and put them everywhere...red bows, too.

I love, love, love paperwhites in the winter, so of course I have a little teacup-full in the living room.

At night, with the fireplace on and the mismatched Christmas lights blazing, with the ornaments swaying on their strings and the little trees and pops of red bows and red flannels everywhere, with our cheerful plaid stockings looped over the ends of our bed frame and hanging over the stair railing...it feels very festive indeed! 

I made a Christmas cake for a party this weekend but got no good photos of it.  It's a standard white layer cake with vanilla frosting, but I cut up some waffle cones to serve as pine trees both on top and against the side of the cake. I ran out of time for careful decorating but I think the overall effect was nice:

After covering just one tree, the star icing tip stopped cooperating and no matter how hard I pushed on the bag, only strands of frosting shot out. I gave up and looped them around the trees in a pretty haphazard way.  It was only when washing the tip that I discovered a piece of butter lodged in the end - argh!  Well, now I know, and this information could be useful for when I make this cake again...and I definitely will.

The weather's been chilly overnight but rather mild during the day.  Each morning, the sun warms the light frost, making a pretty little shower over the eaves of the barn.

The cats luxuriate on the heat pad...

...and we watch birds on the tree outside the living room windows.

Sunrises and sunsets have continued to be amazing!  This is our back yard with the sun just coming up.

I like to enjoy these little pleasures in the midst of a very busy time.  Christmas sales are hopping and there's always so much going on this time of year, with first Thanksgiving, then my birthday, and then the few frenetic weeks until Christmas itself.  I love holidays, but I'm always glad for the post-holiday lull, which usually means lots of pajamas and soothing television/favorite books. 

Until then...have a great week! 

to all the cats I've loved before

First it was Clarence in Indianapolis...

...then Clotilde in South Carolina...

...and now we have a new face peeking through our front door...Claudia (pronounced Clow-dia)!

I've been a little worried about the resident barn cat. I rarely saw her, just sometimes a glimpse of her tail end - literally! -vanishing into the weeds.

But for some reason, she appeared on our porch yesterday and allowed herself to be stroked.  She's a darling, friendly cat, who deigns to eat a little cat food, but only after she's had some cuddles. 

This morning, she came strolling from the barn with the present of a dead mole in her mouth!  Quite a handy girl to have around the farm, although her purrs and cuddles while I'm working in the garden is payment enough.  I'm absolutely delighted to have a new outdoor cat! 

More good news...our barn swallow babies have fully fledged.

They took a halting flight this weekend when our electrician was laying cables for shop lights in the barn, but came back to the nest.  They weren't there today, though.  I counted 10 barn swallows flitting around in the late afternoon light yesterday...I wonder if our babies were among them?

More babies around...first it was the crowd of young red-wing blackbirds around the feeders, but now, 'tis the season for house finches.  Here are two wild-haired babies with dad.

Struggling for balance!

I love the finch mob we see every day.

And always a delight to see the "big boy" - a pileated woodpecker.

Our blackbirds are still around, ready to give me a good scolding when I dare to stray into their territory!

More frequent guests...our little rabbits appear around 7:30 p.m. each evening like clockwork.  They frisk...

...bathe...

...or sprint!  I guess even rabbits get the zoomies!

They have thoughtfully left both my flowers and pitiful little tomato patch alone.  I love looking out for them every day!

I'm keeping a sharp eye out for something else, too - black raspberries.  Our bushes are maturing and I've been able to pick enough fresh berries...

...for pancakes!

I can't wait until we have our fruit and vegetable beds laid out next year.  It's so satisfying to bring in food from the yard...even these puny tomatoes from this year's mini-patch!

It's such a peaceful experience to go out in the early morning, sun streaming through the stand of trees on the hill...

...checking the tomatoes, fussing over the flowers, and giving Claudia a nice head rub before breakfast.  Next year will be even better, when we add our livestock and geese! 💗 It's so hard to wait!

At least I have a little company while I wait...with our bath-hating dog...

...lazy cats...

...and a beautiful view from our soon-to-be-rehabbed front porch!

Have a great week!