the heat's on!

I know people like to brag about how late they start the furnace: not until November 1st! Not until after Thanksgiving! No, Christmas! Not until it's time to turn it off in March! They pump the AC until it's bone chilling cold indoors (all my European friends complain about American AC levels and I'm so with them on that one) and then they keep that furnace off. Not necessarily to save on fuel, but to show our ability to live with a cold nose.

And of course, at one level, I agree that a cold nose is healthier than a sweaty palm, but I like moderation: not too hot not too cold. Just, well, normal. And normal for the farmhouse required a testing of the heating system today, for the first time this Fall. And yes, it is officially Fall.

[I interrupt this Autumnal Rhapsody to wish my older girl and her husband a very happy tenth anniversary! My girls were gracious enough to get married on the first day of the next season, giving even forgetful types a chance to nudge themselves into remembering. Ten years, many cats and three kids later and here you are, still laughing! How awesome is that! With so much love...]

And of course, there was a furnace glitch. Ed's on it. But it confirmed all that you and I already know: we need to test our stuff before we actually need to use it. 

The walk to the barn was... brisk, but pleasant.

But breakfast is in the kitchen. We certainly could have managed a 55F (12C) meal outside, but for us, this morning pause is all about lingering. Though I'd forgotten how much the cats like to see us at the kitchen table. Guys, leave!

Sigh... Cats are like people: a package of good and not so good traits. Yes, I love love love the fact that Dance (our matriarch cat) is a grand mouser and chipmunk-er. She (and a few of the others) catches them with such skill that we have been mouse free here, at the farmhouse, for several years now. 

However...

She also likes to bring in her catch and play with it for a while. Today, she did that with a chipmunk. Out on the porch. When I opened the door, she gladly ran in with her catch to play some more on the living room carpet. I chased both her and her "victim" out. She then ate it. Too much protein I guess, because within minutes she was regurgitating the whole mess. This is typical cat behavior. Great and gross, all in one fell swoop.

And so, the furnace is working, the garlic is planted, the tomatoes, the ones that did not succumb to disease, are harvested. We are very ready for the season that begins today: Fall.

Snowdrop is ready as well.

(yes, the girl does sometime run out without a smile on her face... I think...)

Though the sweater comes off quickly what with all that sunshine!

(the last fraises de bois haul...)

Evening. A fishy dinner, which hypes up the cats who love fishy leftovers. You know, those cats with their good and bad habits... 

And to finish on the theme of good and bad sides -- Ed and I finish watching the US and the Holocaust. I thought afterwards about my book, Like a Swallow. In writing it, I had hoped that the reader would understand how much even partial knowledge of what happened during World War II affected all of us living in postwar Europe. Back then, I felt certain that simply knowing about the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany would be enough to stop any such movements going forward. I suppose if I've learned anything since then it's that people committing such crimes against humanity were, well, ordinary people, like you or me. They were not exceptional, we are not exceptional. Straying into the dark side -- we, most of us, are capable of doing that. Resisting the impulse to expel, expunge, or even remain indifferent to those who are not like us, those who have done nothing to harm us, those who merely want, themselves, to survive -- that has to be at the forefront of what we think about. Let's hope we can do that. 

With love...