Merry Christmas!

The Australopithecenes' family is growing, and with the arrival of Düssel the Neanderthal, they now have fire!

Presents!

Today Sis and I had lunch at Goldberg's and exchanged handmade, non-Christmas presents.  Sis made me this lovely scarf!

And I made her this cross stitch for next Halloween.  (Design by Laura Rimolo (Little Stitcher.))

The start of Christmas

Losing the cats is sad, but it means I can get out all the things we haven't used in years because the cats would spoil them.  Or dress up in their clothes.  So Muffy and Hoppy have finally emerged from the closet.

What we saw at the zoo yesterday

The fox and my friend Pam

A pool full of feathers from molting penguins.  The penguins looked really ratty.

A dead bear.  Actually, this is Denali, the more laid back of the 23 year old grizzly twins, enjoying a nap and a soak in the pool.

A dead goat.  Or Albert enjoying a snooze. 

Shadows in the forest -- beware of the tiger!

Little David's leaf -- finally big enough

Too much sadness.

Friend Steve has just lost Dreamer, his third cat in less than 6 months.  It's just not fair.  Steve, we will have to get together soon for a kitty wake.

Dreamer (left) with Charlie, the last cat.

Summer

Minkie would have loved this.

Farewell to Buster

We've lost another one.  Today was Steve's cat Buster's last day.  At least Steve still has Charlie and Dreamer.

Charlie comforting Buster last night.

Here's Buster (on the left) with sister Hetty.

And Buster (at the head of the food line) with the other boys.

Whimsy in the garden

Pam has a rabbit in her garden!

Ducklings!

No bees this year, but a mama duck brought her ducklings through our yard to Valentina's garden, and then all the way back through our yard to Claire's yard.  If you click on the picture, you can see them up close.

Goodbye to Jack the Cat

'A young man in the dark am I

But a wild old man in the light

That can make a cat laugh, or

Can touch by mother wit

Things hid in their marrow bones

From time long passed away,

Hid from all those warty lads

That by their bodies lay.

                                                          Day-break and a candle end.

William Butler Yeats

The rest of the Puyallup sewing expo swag

This came today.  It's a gorgeous blend of viscose and wool from Louise Cutting.  Instead of hauling tons of fabric across country, Louise brought extra large swatches.  After pouring over all the luscious choices I ordered this, and she mailed my order when she got back home.  I'm really going to like working with this!  The color isn't accurate in my picture.  It's more of a red, with a blue undertone.

I've got my own pussy hat!

Made by my friend Pam!  I am very proud to wear this hat!

Swag from the 2017 Puyallup sewing expo

Goodbye sweet Hettie

2000 - 2017

These are Steve's cats, Buster and Hettie (she's on the right).  Hettie made her last trip to the vet this morning.

Sam's picture

Oh! Lucky me!

My new Australopithecus afarensis

This is Susan, Lucy's sister.  Chewing on the leg of some stripey creature that she probably scavenged.  I think she's beautiful!

My new toys!

Düssel und Dorf

They only took two weeks to arrive from Japan.  The man is named Düssel, and his cat is named Dorf.

Little David in the garden