endings and beginnings

More cleaning up in the yard new year's eve, more piles of debris, smaller ones. The easter lilies had started to come up before the freeze and all the biggest ones froze off but little ones survived and then the small ones, some froze while the ones right next to it didn't for no rhyme or reason that I could figure.

I was sitting at my computer later and I could hear Cat playing in the corner behind me when all of a sudden she started making the most horrible growly yowly sounds. I rushed over to her and she was writhing on the floor. Oh my god! What's wrong! I looked down at her front paw where an anole with a much shortened tail was clamped onto her toe. I reached down and pulled it off and Cat was immediately fine, and I let the thing go outside. Cat, the lion stalking its prey, completely undone by an anole.

With the first loud bang of fireworks Saturday night, Minnie took off headed for the closet in the bedroom. She was already trembly and a little bug eyed from the idiots shooting off their guns earlier (though they may have been hunters) and a few firecrackers. Lightning and thunder doesn't send her to the closet but fireworks do. I didn't see her again until she jumped in bed with me the next morning.

New Year's day I was going through some old posts from 2012 mostly looking for a specific post to backup a comment I was writing where I had documented a cardinal's nest from hatchling to fledgeling (9 days) and I realized I was a much more interesting and better writer back then. 2014 was the year I dedicated to the selfie, taking a selfie every Friday to acclimate myself to my aging wrinkling face. This year with every post I will attach a link to a previous post made on or around the same date. You know just to bore you twice. And so I jumped in the Way Back machine and picked this one from January 1, 2012.  I picked this one because it has a little story of my growing up but also because the second half I could have written today about the state of our polarized nation though I almost picked this one from January 1, 2011 just for the pictures of the sunset.  Oh wait, you get a twofer to begin. Read them or not.

A while later I texted my daughter to see when would be a good time to come visit my grandson Mikey and great grandbaby Paisleigh who are here for a visit with Audra coming in on Wednesday when she texted back that they were on the way to my house now. A few minutes later grandgirl Robin, Mikey and Paisleigh drove up. Paisleigh is a little over a year now and this is the first time I've seen her since they moved to Arkansas last summer. She didn't remember me of course but it didn't take long for her to warm up.

After their visit I thought I would go over and turn the water on at the shop and check for cracked pipes but then decided I didn't want to do that so I thought I would cut back the shell ginger on the east side of the house but decided I didn't want to do that either so I sat on the deck and read the rest of the day. Last night the two new buds opened and this morning I see that two more of the buds have flowers descending. If they open, that will make 7 flowers that opened after I cut the branches.