Winter loungers
Sunlight roars at this latitude, any time of year. I thought I might not get this winter light post up while it was still winter. However, with the recent nationwide weather and low temperatures, that turned out to be of no concern!
Stripey and Boss
This one was slightly jazzed in editing. I’m having a hard time getting the slight photoshopping I do to work as I’d like.
We could almost be a set for “Rear Window” out there, but not quite. I have noticed more cats in films about urban areas, though. They’re mostly in dock scenes, which is accurate. Cats have always controlled rodents at docks in cities.
When it was below freezing all night I told Spooky she would be warmer if she went and snuggled with her brothers. But she responded, “No way.” She does not like to have anything to do with her brothers:
Long-furred Spooky does quite well by herself
Silver joins “Kitten” space
Silver joined in too! The “Kittens” mostly tolerate him. He’s not really used to them, though. He does this soft little really low growl that we can hardly hear. I’m sure the cats can hear it much better than we can. They walk up to touch noses with him like they’ve always done with each other. He does the growl and turns away. It’s better than the way things are with Franklin and Shelley though. Frank is being “Cranky Franky” and Shelley is being The Dragon.
Franklin likes to reign over his space
Shelley the Diva
I don’t know if this picture could be winter light or not – it could still be green out there in winter here – but it shows off her tortitude, I think.
Silver has learned to run through the kitchen, following Bill to other areas of the house he may be. Silver doesn’t hesitate to go up on the counter and sample anything there. He may start to think his name is “HeyStinkerGetOffTheCounter”. Even Shelley hasn’t gone into the kitchen all that much. And, we like it that way, we especially don’t want the cats around when cooking is ongoing. But now that Silver’s shown the way, the others are catching on. One day I walked in there and found Spooky on the stove, Boss strolling amidst some stored items, and Stripey entering the other door looking all animated and eager. If they just settle in to lounge on a box stored there, we’ll let them stay.
Camellias bloom in December here. Sometimes they were more vibrant in previous years though they are still out there. Here are two old pictures:
Boss with camellias several years ago
Lynx with sunshine and camellias
This year:
Boss watching in winter
Boss with his reflection around sunset time
The creek where we wish we could be, jazzed up a little more
Another picture of Spooky Spookums, who is my screen saver:
Spooky Spookums, screensaver
I had hoped to do a post on art before now. I’ll do it soon, I hope … For one thing I wanted to feature a link to an artist in Wales, UK, Rosie Scribblah. So I’ll put the link here and also feature it whenever I do the art post too. She always does something for Caturday, and this may, or may not, be posted on Caturday. Rosie does the most skilled drawing and printmaking I have ever seen!
Our ferals have all gone to the Rainbow Bridge. We’ve only briefly seen one cat out in the yard briefly since then. Bill says we will feed them if they are hungry, but we can’t take any more inside. I do hope the relentless Cat Distribution Network gives us a break. We’ll see. Some long time residents who feed some neighborhood cats about a block over, are moving. We sure hope they take the kitties with them.
The other day we were talking about what makes a work Southern Gothic, whether written, film, or whatever medium. And the next day a humorous post about that turned up in Facebook memories! Maybe I need to say that my fixation on the beauty of black cats doesn’t mean I’m writing Southern Gothic. Neither does my occasional mention of “panthers” seen or heard around the southeastern region. “Panthers” spoken here does refer to the large cats, mountain lions aka pumas, which have been frequently reported. They actually were here and have been documented, the last confirmed one having been shot in Tuscaloosa County in 1956 according to Google. I also recall seeing a stuffed cougar reportedly shot in a rural area nearby, in a rural museum we used to visit. It was wilder and more forested around the southeast for much longer than is generally known. However, the sometimes reported “black panthers” are most likely misidentification as there is no melanistic phase of the cougar, although occasional melanistic bobcats have been seen. (Although at times I think I’ve seen a bobcat in the house, that’s actually our domestic cat, Lynx.)
Meanwhile, we are working on getting the print copy of Catwoods 2 out. Like everything else, it’s taking us forever. It always helps our kitty crew when people buy my books. Here are the pictures of my two covers and the link to both volumes on Kindle:
Both Catwoods volumes are on Kindle.
It appears I can no longer make the link work, but if you go to the Catwoods page on amazon and click on my name, Leah Alford or Leah T. Alford, you can go there. Or, check the last post back announcing that Vol. 2 is out, and the link should work there. I have apparently lost the ability to make the Kindle link to both versions work on wordpress, maybe because I’m using the old editor rather than the Blockhead editor. If you look up Catwoods on Amazon and click my name, Leah Alford, you should be able to find both Kindle versions of Volumes 1 and 2.
Or, try the link to both books on this page of the blog, which worked last I checked:
Print copy of Catwoods Volume 1 from Borgo Publishing: https://www.borgopublishing.com/product-page/catwoods
I live near a creek in a forest, in close observation and awe of the wildlife outside, as well as the domestic animals of the household. I'm writer Leah T. Alford. I was "catwoods" on this site Catwoods Porch Party, Itchmo Forums for Cats and Dogs, and a few other sites that may or may not exist now. I have now published a book, and the publisher wanted it called Catwoods. I never expected the book title to be the same as my username, so for now I've changed the username to Leah. For more info, click the "About" button above.
Catwoods Porch Party 