KEEPING AN EYE ON HIS DISH

The sun was pouring in through the kitchen window and Slugger was soaking it up. Of course, he was also keeping an eye on his empty dish. I liked the shadows cast by the window mullions on him... they almost make him look like a bandit.

R.I.P ANGUS

Last January 19th, I posted this photo of Angus on my blog. In that post I talked about his gentle spirit and how he had the eyes of an old soul. Sadly, he passed away suddenly and before his time. I will always remember his sweet disposition, his sturdy, chunky body, how well he got along with Slugger and how devoted he was to my cousin.

FIRESIDE

There is perhaps, nothing better than spending a cold night watching the flames of a roaring fire dance.

BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL

LABOR OF LOVE

I remember it like it was yesterday. Forty three years ago today, my Dad who was a ship's officer died at the age of forty seven in a faraway land. My Mom was left with a mortgage, two kids and the need to find a job in a hurry. By September, Mom was teaching elementary school in the community I grew up in. At night, after correcting papers and making lesson plans I remember her sewing, knitting or needlepointing. Mom is artistic and creative. I like to think I got that gene from her. For years she knitted watch caps and donated them to an organization that distributed them to sailors. Of course she did this to remember my father. I recall the day, some twenty years ago that she decided to participate in a church project--needlepointing kneelers. She wanted to do this in my father's memory and was determined that it depict a ship and the sea. It took her months. Because her breathing is so compromised she hasn't been inside the church in years and for me it has been even longer. Today, I went there to see if her labor of love was still there. It is.

THINKING

IT'S COMPLICATED

The older I get the more complicated things seem to become. Funny, thirty years ago I thought it would be exactly the opposite. Nothing is simple any longer.

RACING HOME TO SEE THE GAME

VOTE NO

I love the newspaper business. I feel privileged to have spent the past thirty one years at the same newspaper doing what I have wanted to do since I was fifteen years old and took my first photography class in high school. Tomorrow the members of that newspaper's union will be voting on a proposed contract agreement. Sadly,this is how I will be voting.

NOT JUST AN APPLE A DAY

The shelf in the kitchen is beginning to look a lot like a medicine chest. For an eight year old cat, Slugger has a lot of health problems. Just a few months ago he was diagnosed with asthma and another pill was added to the cocktail. The minute I reach for the pill vials Slugger's ears get flat and like Houdini he disappears. He doesn't get too far before I scoop him up and return to the kitchen. Once I have him he takes his pills like a champion and then the reward... a few treats.

ENDURANCE

I looked out the kitchen window this afternoon and saw a blob on the lawn. Immediately I thought that a bird had met some awful fate. I went out to inspect and was relieved to see a tired looking pine cone. In the far corner of my backyard I have a pine tree that has probably been on the property since the house was first built in the late 1940s. The red bellied woodpecker loves it as do the squirrels. Every fall it drops a boatload of pine cones in the yard. I hate picking them up because they are sticky, but by Spring they seem to be gone. I was amazed that this one had survived not only the twenty inches of snow that had buried it, but the cats who seem to love batting the pine cones around.

POKER FACE

THINGS MAY APPEAR

Today was a very troubling and difficult day. Sitting in the passenger seat of a friend's car reflecting on the day's challenges, I saw the "objects in the mirror are closer than they appear" warning. Sometimes they are larger than they appear too. As Yul Brenner said in The King and I, "Is a puzzlement".

CAMERA SHY

OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS

Mom has really gotten the hang of her Christmas Kindle, so much so that she seems to be overcoming her Internet/computer trepidation. Tonight she came over for dinner and a game of Scrabble. True to form, she arrived with her completed New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle. She informed me that before we ate, she wanted to look at a crossword blog that discusses the puzzle's theme and also shows the answers. She wanted to make certain that she had it all done right. I think Mom's Christmas Kindle may have created a monster! She sure is warming up to using a Mac. Oh boy, her birthday is less than a month away.

TWAS THE SEASON

LIGHTS OUT

ENNUI

I am learning that my photo opportunities are quite limited now that my Achilles tendon is immobilized and I have to wear a "boot" from my knee down to the very tip of my toes. Slugger is becoming my subject of choice. After my knee surgery he seemed to be hanging very close to me, but after I was "booted" he seemed a little frightened. Gradually he he has been checking it out. Although I still am fascinated by some of the things he does, positions he gets in and his knack for following every spot of sun around the house, he is bored with my being home all the time and my camera. He makes it very clear just whose house it is.

LATE AFTERNOON LAMP

When the sun is out, I love the way the late afternoon light spills in through the French doors in my living room. The Benjamin Moore Philadelphia cream walls start to look like very rich butter and the shadows start to grow long, like the day. Today I noticed the long shadows cast by one of the lamps and I liked the geometry of it all.