New Year Happy

              First Saturday of the Year that is New.  Candles in teacups blaze and writhe with fire.It's fold outside and Smokey waits at the door. Spencer flicks his paws against the constant sog. I'm afraid I always seem to be posting pics of cats. Well, they seem to be the most visible.  Especially in winter. Always staring in the door. Watching the elves make a break for it. Again. They were bored I guess. Decided to go sledding. Just too excited to try something new in the new year.

                                      And the cats watched.

 "I'm here". Well, Smokey seems to always be here. He DOES go home.Really he does. As does Spencer. But they show up every morning. Every noon. Every afternoon or early evening.  Very reliable. We seem to communicate.Flick Flick. Goes Spencer with the wet paws.

                           Spencer sits and listens. Watches. It's drier on the porch.

              Smokey is the brave one. He ventures out in the skiff of snow. Spencer does not like his paws wet. He sits in his pot. HIS moss basket. Flick Flick. He watches me sweep snow from the porch.

The Year of New is quiet.  The drifting snow, that will not last. And Cordelia. Perched like an angel on the Moai. Just like last year.  Flick Flick , goes Spencer.  Settling on his pot of moss.

 

        Year of New has new things. Projects to do. Fabric to cut. Yarn to twist into a dozen things.

The elves have come in from their day of sledding. Tuckered out.

They like to lie by the fire and  chill. Like cats.

 And some ,  in grey fur, dance and leap for joy in snow that will melt. Just because. Just because it is good to be happy. Wet paws and all. FLick Flick.

"With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?" (Oscar Wilde)

 

Ready, Set, Go Christmas

 Ohhhh, I love Christmas. The one time of year, you can stuff the mantlepiece with candles and  Nutcrackers and watch them clack their mouths  open in surprise.

 The cats flop genrously by the fire.  The other one's watching birds from the window.  But these two know a good thing when they see it. Ahhhhhhh, now this is the life...

  Cookie cutters dangle happily from the front window. A few years ago I was leafing through a Christmas magazine and saw how they spread out all their cutters from a light fixture. Why not from a window? I don't make  cut out cookies much, and I've go sooo many, so this is a great alternative. Some of these are very old, some are fairly new, like the cats cutters. They purr  from their place of honour in the sunset.

                                    

 And in the distance, a happy fat orange cat watches as I wrangle those cutters into position. This is Cordelia's buddy. I've never seen the two of them in the window together.  But often Cordelia will sit on the other side. Way up high on the hill. Surveying all.

 Candles glow. Antique angels sing. The little church is alight; a gift from a special friend. Brass stocking holders waiting with bated breath. Shining in the firelight,, while the cats snore underneath.

 And in the dawn, Cordelia, beautiful as ever, sits on her Moai head and listens. For bells pealing , I like to believe ; she is like a sentinel up there.

            The banister is set, Father Christmas awaits in the foreground, cause Advent is coming. And it comes soon. Next week. The elves are ready. These are special elves. Vintage. I found these on eBay. They are from the 1950's. When I was really young, in the 60's and 70's , there were similiar elves on the tree. Just like these. I always regretted that I had not kept them. Reminds me of that time.

                         Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Advent right around the corner. Ready, Set, Go Christmas......