Well we are in 2023 now. Honestly I think I may feel like it's 2020 for the rest of my life; I can't quite account for 2021, though I guess it would be easy enough to look at my 2021 round up post. I imagine it would be fairly similar to this entry. As always, photos are not uploaded chronologically for reasons that are above/beyond my pay grade. I continue to dye my hair - reddish in summer, purplish in winter. I keep thinking about trying just some kind of dark brunette - in the same family as my actual hair, just with a hint of gothy-cousinness. This was later summer, so the zinnias were popping.
I invited my father and his lady friend to come to the area at some point in November. Then I invited old Maryland friends to join us for lunch, which they did, and then I took them all up to the knob for the good views.
New Year's Eve was spent with friends. They made bao buns and spring rolls and introduced me to a new space-themed version of Catan.
The skies continued not to disappoint.
Ideally this would be paired with the photo taken in July 2020 of me holding baby Hippo and Birdie, but the blogger gods do not agree.
Went on a tour of a nearby plot of land that is going to be turned into public lands with access to the New River. The skies were on fire as our wagons wended their ways back to our cars.
In late August my godmother came to visit and one night we were out on the deck, drinking wine in the fading light and darkness. We both heard what sounded a lot like a kitten mewing...but it was dark and I refused to investigate. But a couple days later, the saga of kittens began in earnest. The story would be better told with appropriately chronological photos...but of course no....so this is Patches, the third kitten I found over the next week or so.
I decided to care about the World Cup this year, and chose to root for Argentina because of Lionel Messi's story, which I had only learned a couple of days before the competition began. So when they won in the most dramatic and stressful way possible, I was glad I had thawed a steak to celebrate. I think it's a NY strip steak? I forget. Anyway, cooked just a touch south of rare, with chimmichurri mashed potatoes and garlic mushrooms. De-fucking-licious.
At some point in the summer I visited Sewanee and accompanied my father's friends to an evening of music 'downtown.'
Also during the Sewanee trip I took the dogs on a long walkabout town in improper footware (re:sandals). Combined with a hike or two I did to get to swimming holes, and walking home from the music evening in cowboy boots, I developed a foot ailment that my cousin's podiatrist husband diagnosed as plantar facitis. I've had to be more careful about my shoes since then, as I woke up one morning with my feet on fire and a lot of difficulty getting around.
Also went to the Grayson Highlands annual wild pony auction.
Zinnias.
Birdie the mudbug.
Christmas Eve lobster with potatoes and green beans. I've been thinking about lobster since last year, when the seafood market I most rely on had them available...except the day of pickup suddenly they did not, which made me very upset. So a year later I decided I was going to scratch the lobster itch with a lobster purchased by the more nearby grocery store. Could have been a little bigger, meat-wise, but definitely didn't disappoint.
So it started with one kitten living in the basement of the building next to my property. Then I found another kitten in the shed near that building. Then I found ANOTHER kitten in the brush on MY property. Then I realized there were two more kittens in the shed, but they were wily/less interested in befriending me. Then it seemed like they disappeared...but really they had made the journey from the shed to under my porch. Found a fourth hiding where my propane is stored below my grill. And then finally this one...who was the most wily. The dogs tried eating him and in saving him from them, he understandably lashed out and bit me!
The skies the evening I found kitten number 3.
Just more good sky.
Pony cowboy.
What I see when I'm taking out my trash or walking to get the mail.
Four chicks hatched this summer. Three of which were roosters, which was too bad. I already had two roosters and not many hens (started with 10 now have four), so last month it was time to dispatch/harvest/kill some of the extra boys. A friend and her son came by to help with the processing, as it has been quite a number of years since I've butchered anything.
Went pretty well. We half hand plucked/half used the plucker she brought with her. I think next time if it's four birds or less, I'd just hand pluck.
I've been thinking off and on about whether I'll die unhappy. Like, if I'll die and look back at my life and be filled with regrets. I don't live my life constantly looking at things and regretting them, which I think sets me up pretty well for a death without regret, at least mostly. I have not become a renowned artist or writer. I have not found lasting love. I have not had a brood of children, or even a child. These are all things that I did hope to accomplish/do at different stages in my life, but I'm not crying about it most of the time. And I've been thinking about how even though I haven't become particularly successful or interesting, I've lived a number of lives in a couple of places. If death is the end, and there is no afterlife or reincarnation (which is what I think most of the time), then I feel like I've had a nice range of life experiences. Even if I haven't backpacked the jungles of Thailand, had a passionate affair with a Frenchman, published a novel or found someone to love. Point is, in relation to the photo below, is that a lot of the joy I get from life is in the beauty I can see in it. There are very few days that I don't find something in my immediate surroundings that I find beautiful, entertaining or special in some way. Thank goodness.
I remembered how much I like to read in fields this summer. I rented my pasture to my neighbor, as I still haven't pulled the livestock trigger for myself, and that meant my field reading sessions were even more entertaining and lovely. The first time I came out, the horses were totally miffed. They knew me, but they didn't know the blanket I was sitting on. They did a little wary cantering about before investigating and deciding I was harmless.
A majority of the Ohio family came down for a visit in July. Between my house, an RV they rented, and an Airbnb just down the road, everyone had a place to sleep. We went tubing on the New River one day, but mostly we all just hung out on my porches, which was exactly what I love doing!
The last of the Americaunas killed by probably a raccoon or mink.
Morning mist chickens.
Tuna! She was the first I found. Just like this really. I took her home with me, then felt like maybe that was the wrong thing to do, so brought her back, but then never saw a mama....so I decided that even though I didn't want a kitten, I'd have her as a kitten. Felt like fate before I found FOUR more!
NYE Veuve Cliquot being poured.
Saw some good rainbows lately.
Beluga. So I decided to keep Tuna but then the kittens kept rolling in, and I knew full well I did not want five cats. Beluga was the biter/last kitten that I caught. In a way, he was my great white whale, hence Beluga. He is a lover. Even though the dogs did try to murder him, he has absolutely no fear now. Birdie and Hippo also are no longer trying to murder any kittens, though I wouldn't say they are very happy by the feline additions to the household.
Meal prep with family. This was an assembly line for bacon wrapped chicken breast with a brown sugar etc. rub. Grilled by Andy and Isadore.
Hippo the goof and Beluga the boy.
Found my first indoor snake this summer trapped in a mouse trap. I'd actually seen this snake the day before...coming out of the floor where my washing machine's pipes go under the house. So I wasn't surprised to find this guy in the trap. I took him out and released him and tried to fortify the floor hole to prevent future snake visitors (probably not well enough though).
A summer field walk with rose.
Keep on painting badly. This is sushi.
Headed up to NYC for a visit with Louise and Tony and their kids. It was supposed to be a longer trip, including a lunch at Le Bernadin, a jaunt up to the Hudson Valley, and an omakase meal in Philly...but I got Covid and Louise got Covid and I left in a hurry after only three days. This is me having a tapas dinner with a different friend and being very happy about the softshell crab special. Unbeknownst to me...I had Covid.
Sexy summer selfie with hat?
An outtake of trying to get everyone into a photo.
When I came back to get Tuna and already knew I was going to keep her like a chump.
I went on one date this summer. The guy was a park ranger within an hour of me and graduated from a liberal arts/brand name college up north, so I thought we had some similarities in background and locale. Unfortunately he was also kind of a jerk. Or maybe I was the jerk. Mostly him. Made out in a parking lot then never saw one another again. He said I didn't have a sense of humor. I might have argued that I do have a sense of humor, I just didn't like his aggressively sexual jokes that he kept telling after I had expressed how much I did not like them. In any case, I took this selfie a day or two after our not very successful meeting.
Horses in the woods are fun to find.
Lil home at night.
Tuna when she was itsy bitsy and sitting on a painting.
I forget what happened, but I do recall that this cheese plate/martini/book combo was a reward for something stressful. Maybe the kittens? Maybe something else. The book was really solid.
This might look like he's being fierce or aggressive...but really it's just Beluga mewing for pets and attention.
I did finally get the whole pasture fenced in, which was a big job and a big thing off the neverending to-do list. Bud on the new posts.
Fall delivered this year in terms of foliage.
She is such a floof. I call her Tuna muffin sometimes.
The arrival of the fencing folks.
I'm struggling with letting the kittens/cats outside. When they were very little like Tuna was below, I definitely didn't want them outside unattended (nevermind that they were living their lives unattended until I intervened and probably would have been fine). But now they're bigger and I still get worried. Today I let them out for a bit, and tried to stay inside and do my own work, but I couldn't help but keep checking on them. I don't know what's wrong with me. Well, partially it's that as a kid I had two different cats - Tibbie the Tabby died because she was hit by a car and Chelsea (also a tabby) died of feline leukemia. I realize you probably can't catch leukemia out in the world, but I always felt like they both died because we let them outside. Like I see all these people with cats that just roam as they please, and I know I want to be a person who can be chill with that. But boy do I worry. Boy do I let them out only sparingly. And boy, I sure am going to try and loosen up.
The 'before' to the photo above's 'after.'
The remaining rooster.
Pretttty.
Orca! Orca was the kitten I found in the brush on my property. I'd heard her mewing for at least a day or two but the way sound travels made it hard to figure out where she really was, and then all the ground cover made it even trickier to find her. Hippo "helped." She and Beluga both have six toes. Once I caught all five, I had initially decided I'd keep Tuna and Beluga and bring the three tortoiseshell kittens to the local shelter. Little did I know that is NOT really how it works. The shelter was at capacity and no other nearby shelters would take them because I didn't live in their respective counties. It was kind of stressful - I was keeping the torties in a a big crate outside until it got too cold and then they were brought inside...but still caged as five kittens running loose in my house was too much for me. There was a lot of angst and worry that I was going to be stuck with them all, but eventually I found a rescue up in Blacksburg that was willing to take them. My vet and all nearby vets also were booked very solid for spay/neuters and I had begun to despair that Beluga would reach maturity with his balls intact...so I was relieved when the rescue woman said she could arrange for all of them to get spayed/neutered. At the last minute I decided I couldn't part with Orca, so now I have three kitten cats even though I'd been pretty firm in my feeling that I was never going to have cats again, and would never again deal with litter boxes. Joke's on me for sure.
Fat Tony and the kids went up to visit his family the weekend I arrived in NYC, so Louise and I got to hang out just the two of us. We went to dinner at a restaurant in a building that was formerly Jean Michel Basquiat's studio/owned by Andy Warhol.
The three torties in their big ass crate that I adapted so they had an 'upstairs cozy bed' area while 'downstairs' they had a litter box, food and water, and a tiny amount of space for play and shenanigans.
The evening I found Orca. I look like shit but the sky! I picked up my three and bid adieu to Patches and Grill Cat. The rescue lady was kind enough to let me know that they were adopted together within about a week. My greatest hope is that next summer/fall I don't have to go through this all over again. I mean little kittens are very cute but damn is it hard to find a way to get them out of one's house and into someone else's. Plus Tuna took about 10 days to reliably clean her own ass, which mean that I was doing that once or twice a day...not pleasant....not joyful.
They are still not fluent.
High school buddy Seth and his wife Claire and their two daughters came by on the way home from Nashville in the fall.
My Christmas/holiday card this year. On the inside is a different version where the words are the same, but the image is of Santa and the reindeer in the sky (and on fire) and a cauldron on the ground with a body of an elf going up in flames. Haha...and then cute photos of the pets and my wish that everyone has a lovely new year even though everything is garbage. I got a number of compliments - two different friends' boyfriends/husbands made it clear they thought I was a lot cooler than perhaps they had previously thought.
The garden did okay this year. I couldn't find watermelon starters, so none of them:( My DIY fence didn't keep the deer out though, and they ate ALL MY BEANS!!!!
Woodsy horses.
Dispatched roosters.
Low hanging clouds.
New work companion.
Finally went to a lookout not too far from where I live...which gives you 360 views of the mountains. Not in this photo, but I could see my house from up there, which was really neat.
Kitten butt.
One of the three roosters probably. Sadly the one hen that hatched was eaten by stray dogs a week after we killed the roosters. If I had known, I'd have killed her too so she wouldn't have gone to waste.
Space Catan.
I guess that's about all there is to it. I thought I had more thoughts to write down, but at this point I am done.
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