It is colder now, and I was much amused yesterday when I let Kitten Britches out the door to see what Dennis was doing. Her hair stiffened up against the cold, she lifted her paws off the cold cement- her revulsion was evident within 5 seconds and it was back inside again.  House cat I guess! Never would I have thought she’d love being a house cat- I thought her tolerance of the comfortable but unexciting (no mice, wild dogs, possums, raccoons) was the best we could hope for. But she has BECOME a house cat, right down to her favorite chair. Here she is with Dennis one morning last week-

We went to the arboretum today for a walk. Mary Isabel was there, as always. Right in front of her was a witch hazel bush in bloom. And farther on, at the base of some prairie grasses, some frost flowers. We caught them at just the right time, before the sun got too high to melt them away.

The sun lit up the frost on the grasses.

The glade-

As we got to the arboretum I saw an eagle fly across the highway. So I insisted we go down by the river, where I thought we might see him. Sure enough, he was there-

Towards the end of our walk, Dennis spotted the fur of a recently-eaten rabbit. Alas, poor bun-rab.

Now resting, perhaps, in the gullet of this nearby hawk- or it might’ve been an owl before the sun came up who got him.