A November Update

The cottage is all closed up for another year. We actually closed it up the weekend after Thanksgiving – it was easier to just have it done.

It was a dreary day when we shut things down; we still hated to leave.

And now November is upon us: in fact, today is the 15th, which means half the month has slipped away already. We have most of the yard work done, and probably that is all we will do, lazy souls that we are. Hopefully it will be alright.
When cleaning out the mess around one of the rose bushes I discovered this vine, which I believe is Climbing Nightshade. It’s a weed – I’ll have to take it out in the spring; but look how pretty the berries are! Not good to eat, though.

It would have little purple flowers in the summer.

We have put out two feeders, one with a niger mix and one with sunflower seeds. The mix has been very popular with the goldfinches: it is made by Scott, and though a bit pricey is worth the money, as it attracts plenty of birds.

Goldfinch!

Stitches keeps an eye on what Wendy would have described as the “tragically flawed cat feeder”.

The birds flew away when I took the picture, natch.

Today a Chickadee had the feeder to himself for a while, but there are usually 3 or 4 Goldfinches on it. We’ve also had some Juncos.

The little sticks are improvised perches; the darn squirrel keeps breaking off the plastic ones.

Onyx has been lively and happy for the most part, but he has, in the last year, been grooming excessively on his stomach, and now on his legs as well. The vet had an explanation for it which involved the use of steroids as a possible cure, but we decided that unless he became  aggressive in his grooming (to the point of doing damage to his skin) we would just let him be.

Tongue out to lick!

Any spot he can’t reach is thick and soft.

This time last year, he was just starting to work on his belly, but he keeps making more bare spots.

You can see how bare his legs look in this picture. He still runs and plays, and attacks Snaps when he wants a tussle, and eats well. We have put all of the cats on a grain-free diet to see if it helps. We were, up until recently, using a grain-based litter, and until all of it is gone we won’t see if this makes any improvement. Here’s hoping.
My spare time – when I’m not goofing off on the computer like this – will go to baking, for the next month: first, baking for the church sale, and then baking for Christmas. Busy times. The snow is falling right now, and there will probably be some accumulation when we get up tomorrow. This should bring on the Christmas mood!