There's a Possum in my house!

This past Sunday Don went to visit his parents. He came home Wednesday night with a tiny surprise...my little Possum! I know, she's actually a five-week-old kitten, but with her pointed face and pink nose I thought she looked just like an opossum and the name stuck.

Possum was the runt and the only tortoiseshell in a litter of orange tabbies. She's eating well on her own and seems content living in a crate next to the computer desk until she's bigger. Possum has shown no fear of the dogs, in fact, she seems very interested in them. Last night she and Aislinn were playing together through the crate bars.

Of course, she gets to come out to cuddle with me. Possum loves to lie on her back cradled in the crook of my arm and swat at my fingers. She's just the sweetest little thing and Don was a real sweetie to bring her home as a surprise.

I have to admit though, we actually did have a possum in the house the first year we lived here on the farm. We had opossums coming into the garage to eat cat food (with the cats...they didn't seem to mind). One morning we found a baby possum under the shelving and figured it had fallen off mom while she was feasting on cat food. Don caught it and named it Possie.

Possie lived in a cat carrier in the laundry room until it got warmer weather and he grew a bit. Then we put him in a cage on the front porch. I never tried to tame him or turn Possie into a pet and when he was big enough we set him free. For several days after we released Possie he would come back and sleep in his cage, but finally he abandoned it completely...just as we'd hoped.

I'd adopt an orphaned opossum again in a heartbeat should the opportunity arise, but for now I'll just love on my little Possum kitty!

Spiders of a different sort...

Last week when I was down at the pond I checked to see if Huck's spider lilies had sprouted. There was no sign of them so I figured the dry summer was to blame and there would be no spider lily blooms this year. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I discovered they had not only sprouted, but would soon be blooming again!

I like spider lilies as they are late bloomers, quite unusual and easy to grow. My mom gave me these bulbs and I just used a trowel to lift up the dirt, shoved the bulb in and patted the dirt back in place. They've been coming up like clockwork near the end of September ever since.

Of course, I had to do a little research on these lovely flowers and discovered they are an Asian native. They were first introduced to North Carolina and now grow all over the South. I don't know if my mom planted her row of spider lilies along her front porch, or if they were there when my parents bought their farm 45 years ago.  I'll definitely have to ask her when I visit next!

For now, I don't think I will plant any more on my place. I'm content to enjoy Huck's spider lilies. My only regret is that he is not here to enjoy them with me...or maybe he is, in spirit.

Door greeters...

Last night I snapped this photo of our chubby little door greeter. Every night he sits patiently next to the front door. He's much more sedate than those door greeters at Wal Mart, but that's probably because he's stuffed with all the bugs that are attracted to the porch light!

Last year we had two door greeters, one on each side. I figure we only have the one this year because only one of the porch lights is working (and yes, he was sitting under the working one). Maybe tomorrow I will change the bulb and see if his buddy will show up!

While I was at the pond this afternoon I almost stepped on my door greeter's cousin! I'm sure glad I saw him, as he was quite a handsome and colorful fellow! Early in the summer I had to be very careful not to step on the hundreds of baby frogs at the pond. It's nice to see how much they've grown!

It's been an absolutely lovely day today. Thanks to last night's storm we had a cool day with a bright blue cloudless sky. I hope you enjoyed your Monday as well!

Ribbitttttt...

Day is done...

Sunday is done and the sun was gone much earlier than usually, not even giving me a lovely sunset like the one above that I snapped some time ago. Instead, dark storm clouds moved in and I had to hurry out to bring in a quilt hanging on the line and quickly feed the ducks, chickens and Elvis while long streaks of lightning snapped across the sky.

The loud, prolonged rumbling of thunder sent the dogs into hiding (Katie just got out from under the computer desk) and several of the cats decided to come inside. We got some rain and were under a tornado watch for a while, but the storm moved through quickly and the watch was cancelled early.

Now everyone is snoozing peacefully and I have the front door open so I can enjoy the cool fresh breeze and the hum of crickets. The next couple of weeks are going to be very busy for me so I am grateful for this lull...so still and quiet my eyelids are getting heavy!

I'm also grateful to Mother Nature for the rain. It will definitely help my new broccoli plants get a good start and will make digging up the last of the carrots an easier job!

Awww...he's so sweet!

Today was another beautiful Fall day. Don made it even nicer by letting me sleep in, something he does pretty much every day! While I'm sleeping he does his daily chores...feeding the horses, taking all the dogs out for a walk and sometimes gathering the eggs, feeding the rabbit a treat and giving the ducks and chickens fresh water.

Don added an extra surprise for me today. He tilled up a small area in the depleted garden and planted the broccoli I'd bought at the feed store the other day. Awww...wasn't that sweet? In return I made him a big breakfast of ham, eggs, grits and biscuits with homemade strawberry jam.

We really like broccoli and are hoping this Fall planting will produce well. I went out this evening and watered all the baby plants to give them a good start. I need to get some spinach seed and sprinkle it between the broccoli. One year I planted a Fall spinach patch and we had fresh spinach from the garden all winter!

My favorite way to cook young fresh spinach leaves is to saute them in my small iron skillet in some olive oil. I then serve them with a pinch of salt and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. They go really well with pinto beans and a fresh pone of homemade cornbread.

YUMMY!

Welcome Autumn! Glad you're here!

Today is the Autumnal Equinox...the first day of Fall! It's my favorite time of the year. I love the cooler temperatures, I love the smell of the air and the beautiful colors of the trees as their leaves change hue and eventually fall to the ground. I even love the cold dreary rainy days of Autumn...those are my favorite kind!

Autumn is a time for celebrating the year's harvest (which is why I chose this photo of my precious grandson that his Mommy made at a pumpkin patch last year). Unfortunately, due to the extremely dry summer, we don't have much of a harvest to celebrate. We did get the sweet potatoes dug, but they are pitifully small. The only things left in the garden to harvest are the rest of the carrots and possibly some butter beans.

We have lots of birthdays to celebrate in our family during the Autumn season, plus one of my favorite holidays - Halloween! There's Thanksgiving too, but it's not much of a holiday for me any more. Don and I decided since one of us needs to stay home with the animals he could go to visit his family on Thanksgiving while I stay home (then I visit my family at Christmas while he stays home). It might seem odd to some, but it works for us.

Today I hung one of my Autumn flags on the front porch and took a long walk into the woods just to soak in this glorious Fall day. For me, the only thing that spoils this time of year is being surrounded by gunfire and having to run trespassers off our property. Hunters who do not have permission (and no one ever does) to hunt on our property are not tolerated and fortunately the word has spread. We don't have even half the trouble now that we had when we first moved onto the farm.

Despite weekends that make me feel like I'm living in a war zone, I still relish this time of year. My only regret is that Autumn doesn't last longer. If it were up to me, we'd have three seasons...two months of Spring, eight months of Autumn and two months of Winter. Yes, I love it that much!

Happy Fall y'all!

Nature's crochet work...

Normally Don and I don't get up in the early morning hours due to his later shift at work. Yesterday morning required us to do so though, giving us a rare opportunity to enjoy the beginning of the day.

It was very quiet...muffled actually due to a dense and heavy fog (Memphis radio was reporting visibility of just a quarter mile). The landscape was drenched in dew and I just couldn't resist snapping this photo while I was sitting in the truck waiting for Don to close the driveway gate.

I admire the beauty of spider webs (more so when I'm not walking face first into an unexpected one). They remind me of crocheted doilies. I've sat on the front porch on summer evenings watching a spider build a web. They work very hard at it and one can't help but admire their agility and craftsmanship.

Perhaps I admire spider webs and crochet pieces because I never learned to crochet myself. I'm left handed, my mother is not and she found it difficult to teach me how to crochet "backwards". So I content myself with collecting vintage doilies and watching spiders build webs.

It's not a bad trade-off.