On the Wall Sat a Cat...

     On the back courtyard wall of a long-standing town house, sat a calico cat. She surveyed a flock of sparrows, scattered on and below a little black feeder (set there for their use,) with the detached interest of her kind. She was Cook's favorite after all, and needn't worry about catching sparrows for her supper; besides mice were much fatter and the rewards ever so much nicer. (The last time she caught a sparrow she had been jabbed severely with the broom. Whenever she caught a mouse she received a fine dish of buttermilk and the choice leavings off the humans table, they were rather wasteful creatures weren't they?) 

     Her pastime was interrupted quite abruptly when, with a beating of many small wings, the sparrows took off all together in a cloud of brown feathered bodies. The cause of this disarray continued running, completely disregarding, (as humans are wont to do,) the disturbance he had caused.

     Now what is that human kit' up to now? wondered the cat as she stretched contemplatively. With a final twitch of her tail she set off along the wall to where, in a corner behind the little wagon cook used for market goods and such, the human child had stopped.

     Curling her tail around her paws, she settled down to observe this careless intruder to her domain: He was a breathless boy of seven or eight with sun faded brown hair and a jam stained shirt.  

Free domain photo from http://en.wikipedia.org

     This was a writing exercise I set myself a few months ago. The first version was a very boring run of sentiences:There was a cat sitting on the wall. Below the wall there was a bird feeder. The cat watched the birds. Then a boy came running by. The boy stopped at the corner of the wall. The cat walked to the corner and watched him. Very dull, but it did serve to jump-start my imagination. I have no idea what comes next but I liked the way it came out. Who knew writing a cat would be so much fun? Any way I am trying to write something on here instead of always posting photos. There is nothing wrong with only having photos I suppose, but it was not what I intended to do to begin with and I rather feel as though I am hiding behind them. Any way I thought I'd see what you all thought of this little snippet. 

Spring Fever Photos

I love our new camera! It was so nice out the other day that I just had to get out and take some photos...

This one was a friend's idea (he took a photography class not too long ago.) The birch tree looks so cool this way and the sky was such a spring blue too!

 Lilacs! I can't wait!

Tiger lilies, they're always among the first to come up!

   I love watching the bulbs come up in the spring. These Tiger Lilies were poking their heads up when the ground was still frozen! 

   This limestone wall is part of an old building that dad and the boys are tearing down. When we first moved here, around fifteen years ago, it was still fairly stable but then a few years later a bad storm past through. It did a lot of damage and knocked some of  the mettle sheets of the roof down inside. Since then, it has been slowly crumbling. As I said, they finally started to tear it down. We're planning on building something with all the old limestone. If it ever gets finished I'll have to post pictures. 

 

  It was built into the side of the hill,with the roof almost level with the ground on one side. The cats always used to climb along top of the wall to get away from the dogs.

They say that a treasure is hidden somewhere around here...

    I love the way old brick and stone walls fit together. They have such a different feel than modern concrete and such. They look as though they have so many stories they could tell...

    

'What next Magpie?' 'Lets take a picture of wood!'

   A friend's five year old daughter was over and came with me on my ramble. This one was her idea. I thought it was rather interesting, I never would have thought of it myself!

hmm...a fair sized beetle...perhaps a little snack is in order...

Eulalia and her momma, Amy, our milk cow

    I don't have the specs on the camera right now; it's a Canon I believe. I'll have to do a separate post on it and add it to my list of toys at the bottom. I was also thinking of moving those notes to a separate page, what do you think?

   Also, these are all straight from the camera, no touch-ups!