Have a great day! 

When I was out walking the other day, I stopped by the hen house. Although the nesting box could use a little more straw, the hens were faithfully laying--9 eggs from 9 hens! 

Here is a sampling of my daughter's hand-quilted placemats and a hot pad. Her grandmother taught her how to hand-quilt and she is working on a set of six placemats. How fun! 

It's that time of the year--if you come to visit me you will find a pot of simmering soup on top of a crackling fire and kitty cats all gathered 'round to soak in the heat from the warm floor tiles! 

When the woodstove is going, the kitties sleep in the sunporch most of the day. Snowflake is always stretched out in the silliest of ways! 

Fall

Early morning ribbons of fog twist like meandering streams
Amongst the hills.

Shafts of sunlight pierce the mist mingled with smoke
From my just-stoked woodstove.

A cheerful littering of yellow leaves lie beneath the tall maples,
Whose thinning branches stand stark against the sky.

A Wisconsin autumn, in all its quiet beauty, has come.
Jean in Wisconsin


A horse grazes in the distant valley partially
hidden by the ribbons of fog.

Autumn beauty 

A new trio of lawn ornaments... I think we need to do some fencing. I never was into lawn ornaments, myself, but these are kind of cute! I'm not sure I like their calling cards, however. 

And So...

There are times I click on “comments” and I get a message that says I’m forbidden to access the page. Ooooookay. I wonder if this has been happening to any of you? If I hit “back” and try again, I usually can access the comments page. ???

Thanks for all your comments! I’ve been re-reading them and thought I’d try to respond to a few of them. I’m glad you enjoy my photos and little stories. It is fun to share them! It is also fun to read your little stories left as gift packages in my mailbox. Thanks!

Donna, you are going to have to find a time to bring Katie down to see the kitties. Tell her that they have never come to me with a sore paw that has a sliver in it, so I suppose their fur protects them. They all seem to enjoy hiding in the wood box!

Kim, is you kitty getting use to living in his new home? Are you? I suppose I should visit your blog more often and find out on my own, right? I’ve not been blog cruising at all lately. I have cut back on my computer time and it all just does not get done. Sigh.

Shakespeare has not returned and now Aslan is missing, too. It has been a hard year for the kitties! Thanks for all your responses to our little Citrus. When I count the cats to be sure they have all come for a meal, I recall all the ones we are missing and wonder…

Some day I should plan to have a Shades of White reunion and all of you could come to share s’mores around the campfire and time under the stars. I’ve always wanted to build an A-frame cabin overlooking the pond. Now wouldn’t that be a nice place to stay when you come to visit? I don’t think I’ll open a B&B, though, Jill. I’d rather have a little place I could retreat to when I needed some time alone.

Dy, the wonderful tanning process has come to an end. I guess the poor woodchuck remained too long in the frig and rigormortis set in. JM decided not to finish the task, and he buried it. He had planned to brain tan the hide. Sorry—no photos.

O.K. I need to go back to grading papers and learning logic. High school is a lot harder than the elementary years! I’m really enjoying the VP Omnibus. The Teaching Company’s Great Authors of the Western Literary Tradition have been very interesting, too. Now if only I could spend another 4 or 5 hours a day reading…

Blessings!