CATS in the ARBOUR

                    A farly simple day.  the arbour is decaying fast. Leaves turning yellow . A place for Spencer to hide. A place to sniff.

 The grape arbour is one of my favourite things. Provides shelter in the hot weather, produces grapes, keeps the wind at bay.

                              Smokey and Spencer use it as their play place. I think rats hide in the topmost branches. I think they hunt them. I think birds hide there as well.

  But today, on a beautiful crisp fall day, there are no rats. And no birds. The cats have taken over.

 "All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee: all the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem: " (Summum Bonum by Robert Browning)

Smokey sucks in sun , at the height of the morning...

 "Make me thy lyre , even as the forest is:what if my leaves are falling like its own! The tumult of thy mighty harmonies.If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" (Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley)

  Spencer's motto:"Behave toward everyone as if receiving a great guest."

"I love tranquil solitude and such society as is quiet, wise and good." (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

GRAPE HARVEST.....fall is really here.

 It's really happened. Summer's gone. It's really fall....when the grapes are ready to harvest, and the leaves and vines start to decay. Cordelia is very good at knocking  down bunches of grapes. She seems to prefer the bird bath as her perching point.

  We cut the grapes and lay them on the fence to collect into bags. It's tedious work. 5 hours of cutting. 5 hours of dumping grapes into bins and bags.

 Smokey spent part of the time supervising.....as you can see, quality control is his strong point.

    Or it could be Cordelia  toddling off for home..........

           We cut, we snipped, we chopped vines ( well, I do the chopping...that's what I like to do best).

 And we ended up with about 200 pounds of Concord grapes. This year they ripened 6 weeks early.

 Ready to be taken to Willow Point Wines to be crushed and squished and drained into Carboys to ferment and foam into wine. Hard to believe that dark, ugly liquid will turn into clear wine. Cordelia's Cordial III....that's what I'll probably call it. Third year of grapes. And now we stream into fall, then winter...........by the spring  this yukky brown stuff will be wine.

FOG and the MOUNTAIN

 I love fall ( I think I'm repeating myself)....can't help it. Everything changes so fast. The mist comes down, the fog takes over, and the clouds meet in the middle.  I was just taking out the garbage lst night, and this is what I saw..........

 Clouds changing over Mt. Washington.................

 Clearing to show the range..........

 Descending behind  to make a  reflection of the mountain with the mist and clouds....

 Optical illusions...........

                   All from our hill, from our front door. ..........

      From fog to sunset, within a short period of time................even the ravens taking advantage of it to grab dinner. They are BIG birds adn squawk a lot. I think they are pretty cool....Yes, I love fall.....( have I said that before?)

SOMETHING TOLD the WILD GEESE

 This most glowing  time of year. The geese are overhead every day. Strings and strings of them.  Reminds me of my absolute favourite poem by Rachel Field "Something told the Wind Geese"...

"Something told the wild geese it was time to go.
Though the fields lay golden something whispered, "snow".......

 "Leaves were green and stirring, berries,luster-glossed, something cautioned , "frost"......

 "All the sagging orchards steamed with amber spice...."

 "But each wild breast stiffened at remembered ice. Something told the wild geese it was time to fly, summer sun was on their wings,winter in their cry."

                  Also means hide and go seek with Spencer and Cordelia...

                Also means  grapes have to be harvested, and Cordelia of the Grapes will lose her leaves.                      And it means candles, warmth, and light.......

Cordelia's Cordial III

     Grapes are almost ready. I'm still stripping leaves and vines from them. Need to really cut them back this weekend, rain or no rain. Time to get them ripened to harvest for wine.

                       Everything has changed......bushes are turning into twigs, wind is starting to howl, rain starting to fall, again, and again, and again.......

 Welcome to Vancouver Island.................

                               And the grapes are just waiting. Racoons showed up last night.....I thinkt hey were pickign at the fruit..........

                       And the wind and rain, and ocean continue to turn into storms. I love it.

                                        And Cordelia still supervises her grapes. Grapes that will be her wine. Will have to drop off a bottle or two,to her family, when it matures.
                                  Cordelia's Cordial III...............because she is very cordial.

CORDELIA... White Cat in the Grapes

 There she is. Cordelia. Of the Grapes. Gold Eyes. The White Cat with personality. The white cat who lives behind us , on the hill. The white cat  who shares moments with us, and we feel lucky to know her.

                  We're waiting for the grapes to ripen so we can pick them to take to the wine shop. Cordelia seems to like sleeping on the fence under the vines. She has very nice family up the hill. Never asked her to come here. And yet, here she comes, practically every day. She's a flirt.

                                    She likes to supervise.....usually she nods off.

                                     She likes to comment.............

  Rubs her face on the grape vines......toddles around your feet...

                          Poses for important photo shoots.............

                                               Craves attention...........

                                         Hopes she gets a snack................

                             Enjoys lots of ear scratches. We just can't help it. She's just lovely.She says hello, bides her time, toodles off somewhere, then magically reappears.And we, the lucky ones, wait with bated breath till she reappears and carries on the conversation from where we left off...........