Track-Footed Monster

Today is the anniversary of a most auspicious day - it's the last time I gave birth, 32 years ago, and remains oh, so beautifully fresh and memorable. But this day is not about me, so I am trying to move on ...

Allow me this little memory indulgence, though, of a time when I read books out loud to my kids. One story we loved was called "Zooey and Hazel" by Gill Bond (a South African author),

in which the children come across some tracks that they ascribe to a "track-footed monster," which is what immediately came to mind when I saw these tracks in the snow.

It was such a delightfully innocent child's interpretation of our world that has remained with me over the years.

Icicle Teats

Looking at all the icicles and their drips, I kept seeing cow's udders!

I guess cabin-fever has begun to affect me! Ok, so this last one is less udderly.

Cracks

These are cracks in our latest snow, but they also represent 

 the cracks and fissures in my psyche as I impatiently wait for spring to settle in.

These pock-marks mirror my brain riddled with thoughts of a dysfunctional world - I feel so disintegrative and rattled!

The Butter Dish Incident

During Fluffalo and Peep's recent sojourn with us, there were a few instances when we had to leave them alone for a few days. On one occasion, we returned home to this scene:

Not only was the butter dish shattered, but the tablecloth was askew as well. Since the cats wouldn't talk and reveal the truth, no matter what we tried, we ASSUMED that it could only have been Fluffalo, since he's been known to lick butter, such that we had taken to keeping the butter dish closed with an elastic band (still intact in the pic below). We surmised that he'd probably been up on the table, and had been pushing the butter dish along to get the lid off when it reached the end of the table and fell off. 

After speculating for some time, we remembered that we had a security camera that had possibly captured what had actually happened. Before watching it, we gave the cats one last chance to 'fess up, but neither ratted the other out. When we saw the incident play out, we were in fits of laughter - it turns out that Fluffalo was "sort of" innocent after all. Just a clumsy, spooked cat that ended in calamity.

Click on my YouTube link below to watch how it happened (it's very short, just 10 seconds long): I still laugh out loud about it at the oddest moments ... what a silly cat! How could anyone be cross about this?

https://youtu.be/LVgoCgHzl6o

Draped in Winter

Winter's grip persists

We look at snow through cloth drapes

Or at drapes of snow