RUSTY HAS A PARTY

In celebration of the Season, Rusty got a bunch of his friends together around his Chrismouse Tree. He even tried to get his newest friend, a catnip filled fish, to join in.

First he had to make sure all the Chrissy-mouses were in the right place as the table began to fill with his littlest guests.

The Teacup Yorkie just would not behave!

More guests arrive!

Sit here. Don't mind the Sabra Bear... looks like she's had a bit too much to drink before she got here!

Where's my fishie?????

Ah, there! Make room for my fishie!

OK! Let the party begin! We is all here!

ITS ALL ABOUT THE PRESENTS, RIGHT?

YOU HUMANS is all alike. No its not about the presents, its about the wrapping! That's the best part! "Specially when ya gots a catnip fishie to hide wif!

We is hid!

Oops, dozed off der in my little catman cave.

Anybody see my fishie? It musta snuck off while I was nappin'...

I serious! I lost my fishie! I upset!

Did it 'scape fru da hole in da paper? I dint make dat hole. Fishie musta.

I guess I gotta post a reward - 2 bags of catnip if you finds my fishie!

Gonna take a nap now.

Maybe fishie be back when I wakes up.

Rusty and his Chrismouse Tree

Let me add one here

Need a grey one in here

Where is the blue mouse?

All done! You like?????

OK move it to the table top... I got company coming!

Merry Chrismouse!

SANTA TRAIN 2016

 

As usual, the train was late - but really late this year. Seems more and more kids are lined up at the more southern stops waiting for their moment with Santa and Mrs Claus. Used to come at 2:30, then 3:30... this year the train rolled in at 4:30. All the pictures outside are processed with the brightness control all the way up as high as it can go. Sorry if it makes the pictures a bit less that clear.

Here are a few of the high lights of this year's Santa Train:

I made it go!!!!!

The caption thingie does not work right, blogger won't let me add any words after I post a picture... I hate blogger! But Live Writer says I don't exist - so what can I do????? Blogger gets more user unfriendly all the time. The improvements - aren't!

So bear with me.

Here are the kids enjoying the model trains while waiting for the BIG train.

Sorry, the pictures are not in the order I wanted... and they either won't move or they disappear altogether.

 

 

The Candy Train

Checking out the G Scale train outside.



 

 Her first Santa visit!

Who are these strange people????? 

Of course I have been good! 

Angels, we have been angels.

HOW TO MASSAGE YOUR POSSUM!

A friend just sent me this link and it made MY day! Now I just wish one of my resident possums would stop by so I could try this out!


Do give this a few minutes of your time. OK, 8 minutes, to be more exact... it is guaranteed to take the stress out of your holiday chaos!


http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/watch-a-demonstration-of-proper-opossum-massage-techniques?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=atlas-page


ENJOY!

This is my possum giving ME a back massage for my birthday.

And a flounder treat after......
(Ah, PITA, I so miss you!)

MID-NOVEMBER, FALL COLORS

The trees across the street have been a vision of beauty this past week. Even tho they have lost a lot of leaves, or maybe because of it, they are awesome in every light. It is supposed to rain this afternoon. That should bring more leaves down.

The camellias are covering the bushes, all of which are well more than 10 feet tall, 2 of them are over the roof. The shorter one had to be cut back this summer as it was laying on the shingles.

 Close-ups:

(Please note, I never use any color enhancement)

I will save the azaleas for the next post... the new fall azaleas in the Meditation Garden have made it thru a hot dry summer, I am glad to report. I did carry water out to them a couple times, but mostly, they were on their own.


We have had our first freeze and a couple heavy frosts. But it was so warm for so long, it is hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week! Be safe , ya'all!

the POSSUMS ARRIVE

AFTER ALL THAT WORK on the Possum Box, you'd think they would go there and hang out and leave the cat boxes alone, but NOooooooo...

Here is the first possum to come house hunting... in Spook's box. 'Course, it mighta been the bowl of crunchies in there... or maybe the heat was on and it felt good to toast the little pink toes... I dunno. Whatever the reason, this little fella comes by most every evening to see if any snacks are left in the bowl that definitely says KITTY. Anybody know where I can get a bowl that says POSSUM? Maybe I can get Elizabeth to make one for me. See the heating pad's cord on the bottom right? It is wrapped in wire to protect it from little possum teeth. They have 50, you know.

 

Then Possum #2, (what do you mean they all look alike!!!) dropped in to check out Hoover's new digs. And yes, there was a bowl of tuna in there and the heat was probably on... more little toasty pink toes.

I wondered if having the lights on in the little tiny greenhouses would keep them away last night... (the light is part of my 'bucket-of-bricks heating system)... but no, they just ambled on thru after checking out to see if any crumblies were left over. They don't know Hoover very well. I mean, why do they think we named her Hoover?????

This is Hoover sneaking around behind me while I got some shots of the fall colors. She fades into the scenery, but she is easy to hear in the dry leaves.


OK, next - the HUGE camellia bushes and other fall colors! (assuming this post works... sigh)

APT FOR RENT - POSSUM BOX

REBUILDING the Possum box was way over-due. The wood that surrounded it and served as a floor had pretty well rotted out. Wood does that when something sits out in the weather for 20 years or so.
This nest once was an air conditioner cover from a huge air conditioning unit at my old school... it was just laying on the ground in the courtyard, and after a couple weeks, I asked if I could have it.
I have asked for stranger things.
When you are an art teacher, you can get away with stuff like this. And the faculty had learned not to ask what in heck I was going to do with it because I might say something stupid like 'it would make a good cover for a possum nest.' So they don't ask.
Half filled with straw, it turned into a cozy bed for whoever needed a warm dry space... but it was over due for cleaning out and rebuilding.

Since I first built it, back in the 90s, I have discovered foam insulation board and I use it all the time at the Train Station for building scenery. Mostly I appreciate its being so light weight, I can lift huge pieces  that I could no longer lift if it was plywood. So, I had a half a sheet of 1 inch thick insulation foam left over from a section of the Town of Bethlehem that I built for a local church, so I cut it up to insulate the floor, sides, and had enough to put on the roof and cover it with tarpaper and some old shingles...
A good layer of straw inside and even more spilled outside - oh well - and the nice new clean box was almost ready. I need to figure out a way to close more of the opening, but I need to wait until someone makes their bed and packs the straw down first.
With the amazing amounts of rain and consequent flooding we've had this summer, it is all sitting up on 6 concrete blocks. The window leaning across the opening is an old window from the Train Station, left over from having all the windows replaced. Since I bought the Plexiglas in the window, I figured I might as well bring it home and salvage the Plexi. Instead, I will use it in its entirety for now. Its a work in progress.


The possum nest sits under 2 huge camellias and not very far from the Beautyberry bush which is now entwined in a really big fall blooming azalea. On the other side of that azalea, closer to the house is a deep red fall blooming azalea. On the other side of the beautyberry and its azalea is a bi-colored fall blooming azalea. In other words, the nest box is in a pretty neighborhood! These azaleas are all 5-6 feet tall and 5 feet across.
Location, location, location...

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? (October's Jungle)

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" said the email... Have you quit blogging?
Well, no, but it seems like I have, doesn't it? My only excuse is that I have been busy... and, to be frank, I am slowing down. So its not that I am busier than usual, just slower. It took me 4 hours to plant a hundred daffodil bulbs on Saturday... and that was not counting the time sitting on the bench with a visitor in the Meditation Garden, where I was planting the bulbs anyway... The discussion seemed so appropriate for the location. We were discussing the philosophies of  various monks and Buddhists, the Dalai Lama and Jesus... and trying very hard to avoid any mention of Trump and the hatred that seems to be taking over this land. Instead Dave was telling me about Richard Rohr and one of his books that he said I must read... I was telling him about Thomas Merton.


Rohr is a Franciscan Friar, Thomas Merton a Trappist Monk. Dave is a Baptist, I am a Buddhist, and this conversation took place on benches next to my seated Buddha in the Meditation Garden on a delightfully cool day with leaves gently falling down around us.


My time on the computer has been mostly work time. I do read a couple of blogs but seldom have time for answering them. Snowy's blog is always long and currently has been delightful with stories of his feline family. Sometimes I don't get all the way thru reading the blog let alone the comments, so I almost never get to the point of commenting myself. I have given up on a number of blogs I used to read. And, sadly, some of my favorite bloggers are now gone. I especially miss Philip (Canada.)


I never meant my blog to be provocative... I do enough of that in my Musings which is not public. As the Title suggests, my blog has mostly been about my little corner of the world, literally, my tiny 4 acres of woods on the edge of town that I have tried to turn into a semi-wild garden space. It could never be called a formal garden, and as I get older - and the plants get older and bigger, it gets a bit more of a jungle and harder to keep cut back.


So this post is for those who wonder if I will ever blog again... yes, I am still here. And this is the jungle for the month of October.

Then, too, blogger has become a pain in the butt to post on... That is probably my number one reason for not making the effort as often. I often start something and it sits in draft form and for some reason will not publish. Even now, it refuses to go back to left side alignment in spite of clicking on the icon.

 OK, now the print is blue. I have no idea why it did that or decided to underline everything. Can't seem to change that, either.

The picture that was supposed to go here landed at the top of the post. I haven't the energy to fight with it. Let it be there.

By the way, we have a new visitor... she thinks she is a resident, and she might be. We named her Hoover for the way she attacks any food out on the carport. The dishes are wiped clean in an amazingly short time. She is also getting much bigger... we figure 4-5 months old???? Spook tolerated her in the beginning, but he is not happy about her anymore. I have to babysit them and feed her away from him. She will eat all her food and then chase him and finish his.

I am going to see if this will publish...