There's a curved brick path between the trees and metal stakes.
To my surprise and delight, I'm actually almost entirely caught up in this blog to start the new year fresh, instead of in catch-up mode. The only things left from 2007 that I somehow neglected to mention are a gingerbread house and a rat.
My friend Wendy hosted a gingerbread house making party the Sunday after Thanksgiving. She provided the houses (which I helped make dough for) already assembled and people decorated them according to their personal tastes. I made a nice one the previous year, using the usual candy suspects, that looked a little something like this:
Note the marshmallow smoke, the pond, the curved walkway, and the nice landscaping!
Later it occurred to me it would also be fun to make a house that could be entirely eaten by squirrels and other wildlife friends. Hence, the 2007 creation:
The seeds are held in place by peanut butter. Two rows of seeds along the front of the house have already been eaten by this happy and industrious squirrel.
I've been rat-sitting Wendy's pet rat, Violet, for the last several days. She's a cute little thing, with shiny black eyes (like a junco's!) and a cute brown head and stripe part-way down her back. Her paws and nose are a delicate pink.
I have to give her two medicines twice a day which is, um, a challenge. I'm used to pilling cats and I even fed baby birds liquid food with eye droppers. But baby birds want to eat and Violet does not want to swallow her medicine. And her mouth is considerably smaller than either a cat's or baby bird's. And she's squirmy! And she seems to have eight paws, all of which squiggle and push the dropper away from her mouth. She does seem to forgive me and likes to run and explore and even sit with me. Well, OK. Rats don't sit still much. She likes to run all over me. And she likes bananas. A lot. She may have escaped her room and come within three feet of a certain brownish cat. But no one was harmed. Better security has been installed. All is well in the new year! Prosit!
That's a nice picture of Violet! I had fun snapping her yesterday, and some of the shots were quite fortuitous - like the self-portrait w/ rat, and the shot of her under the dresser. I didn't know exactly where she was - I just put the camera on the ground and clicked! Of course immediately after the flash she scurried out to see what was going on, so I was surprised I'd caught her.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking such good care of Violet while I was gone, Paws!
wsg