quiet before the return of winter

We're in this soppy messy impasse. March weather, Ed calls it. Except, it's not March. It's February -- the month most likeable for its brevity.

I go out to feed the animals.

The cats are nesting in the uppermost shelves of the garage. Sweet. What's not sweet is the melted snow right outside the garage. It reveals mountains of droppings -- this was the kitty bathroom at the time of the great freeze. Right now, it's just one great mess. I pick up the snow shovel and deal with it as best as I can. Three cats in one small space -- ufff!






In this warmer spell, the cheepers are restless. They want food. They probably want to be out and about.





But are they safe yet? When is a good time to release them?

In this turmoil of snow, hawks, and cold weather, we locked up the cheepers just as Stop Sign brought her babes to the garage. I wonder if the cats would have stayed had the cheepers been set loose. I know that we could not have left bowls of food out in the open for the ktties.

Today, Stop Sign followed me to the barn. Perhaps she had that aha moment -- oh, so that's what happened to all those chickens who pestered me before!






Breakfast.






And catch up time. I have a lot of paper work to do. The afternoon comes ever so quickly.

Time to pick up Snowdrop!

It's our usual fare: books, fruits, play.






Including a game of pretend ballet school. Snowdrop, being teacher extraordinaire, asks me to do leaps and twirls. Maybe she wonders why my leaps aren't terribly high and my twirls are a bit slow paced. Or maybe she thinks I'm pretending to be a really ancient person. Still, we make a good team. We teach her pretend children how to love to dance. Isn't that what counts?






Sometimes Snowdrop gets distracted by a sudden idea or opportunity. Today, right in the middle of ballet school, she veers off to the table of various Polish wood carvings and tiny Italian glass birds. I lose her to a story that she now creates with her new playmates. I retreat. She stays with her new game until her daddy comes to pick her up.






I make soup tonight. One of those hearty ones, with onion, beans, kale. I add carrots, corn and cabbage. A big pot, good for several days. The temperatures fall all evening long. Snow tomorrow night. A February mix of March and January.