[At This Very Moment] These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

(Semi-complete with photos...)

1. The Beehive Liquor Store: Where Partner just called me from the parking lot after overhearing two men talk about what a pain it was to have a $25,000 bail bond placed on them "because you know, I gotta work" while they were debating "Bud" or "Bud Light." I love the Beehive. Mostly because it's called the Beehive.

2. When I was kid, I couldn't wait to get into the snow and make tracks all over the yard. Build a snowman. Make 20,000 angels. Generally, a blanket of snow was an invitation to let my presence be known to all and sundry alike. As I aged, I came to enjoy the untarnished view of snow, and a track across it was like an affront. There was something so pristine about that silent white, and even more special was the way the moon looked blue upon it. But I had brothers, considerably younger, and they wanted their day trekking across the yard. Now with no kiddies or brothers, and an acre plus of land, one might think I could enjoy all the pristine snow yards I want. Not so. On Thursday night, we watched a fox catch a rabbit not fifteen feet from our front door. Yesterday, while vacuuming two deer moseyed across the back yard, and I can't even capture all the animal tracks on our lawn. Here are some photos from today:

We have a two rows of flowering crab apple trees on our property line, left over from when the property was a tree nursery. I have noticed that under many of those trees, there is often a plethora of animal prints. Partner and I have had a few hypotheses about this, especially after seeing the fox and rabbit fracas. We imagined fights taking place under the tree. However, after yesterday's deer sighting, I have a new theory.


The deer are eating the crab apples left on the tree. I tried very hard yesterday to get a photo of this for you, but the deer spotted me as her little muzzle was reaching up into the tree to nosh on the splendid bitter fruit. She took off with her pal in a glorious run across not only my backyard, but our neighbors too.



If you look closely, you can see the corner edge of our house. This photo shows how near to our house the various and sundry animals come. Deer, fox, coyote, a few cats (which makes us very sad), rabbits, raccoons-- etc. All this and we are only seven minutes by car from dear old Ann Arbor. We have been talking about moving into town, but I would miss this part of our house very much. Once this summer, we were hosting a contingent of young adults from our church. As we sat convivially on the back porch, two deer marched across the back property line. We couldn't have been more pastoral on a summer evening with the deer, wine, and good talk.

3. My manhattan.




I don't need to say anything more.




4. The Christmas Tree



We got a new kind this year, and I am officially in love. Putting the lights on this one was a breeze. My hands are not torn to bits from the tree biting and fighting me.







5. The beautiful cats (minus Maya, but only because I couldn't get a good photo of her tonight, not because I love her less than Noah or Eli.)
Here's Eli, the lover cat. One of his favorite places in the winter is here, in front of this heater vent. He often sits very close to it. Other things he does to keep warm: suns himself under the halogen desk lamp, lies across the heater vents on the floor, snuggles under blankets, preferably with me or Partner in such a position that allows him to keep his head on the pillow.

This Noah (the Neurotic) who has become much more of a lover since Chloe moved out. He never used to sleep with us, and now does every night. He barely ever sat with me, preferring Partner's cat friendly aura, but now almost every evening, he checks in with me by sitting on my lap or the arm of my chair for a few moments. He gets a "high" look when we pet him, thus Noah's blissed out orange face here.



6. I used to think I wasn't a frou-frou jewelry girl. But I might be wrong because looking through this catalogue has been inordinately fun for me. The price list, enclosed separately, is not as much fun. In fact, it takes much of the bliss out of the catalogue. Therefore, I threw that silliness away. Who needs prices? It's not like I am actually buying anything.



7. Christmas music is giving me much pleasure of late. I mean good Christmas music. Not that shit that's on the 24/7 Christmas music stations. Have you heard Grover Washington Jr do "Blue Christmas"? "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" a la Kenny Burrell? "Snowfall" Ahmad Jamal? No? Then come right over for a cocktail and Christmas jazz.

8. You can come over because our house, from top to bottom, is spotless. All toilets scrubbed, bathtubs clean, floors vacuumed and hardwood polished, sinks bleached, pantry organized. There's probably something wrong with me, but the feeling of joy this gives me is unexplainable.

There's really more here-- but I just wanted to post somethings that are making me really quite content, because as sad as I sounded in the last post, I am actually quite happy this season. Partner and I are making some changes in our life, together, and it's brought us both peace of mind. I haven't felt as close to Partner as I do now in a long time. I suppose really that's number 9 to infinity: We've felt ourselves have so much love for each other lately, and it's thrilling to know that after five years we only feel more love, like renewed love for each other.

And while I'm at it: You fellow bloggers, commenters and lurkers alike, make me happy too. Who knew I'd find such a community here? And while I am insanely green and jealous about upcoming blogger meetings from Boston to Melbourne, I'm still thrilled to be part of such a wonderful community of (mostly) women.