DISTANT DAYS, AND CRITTERS

Somehow  the days seem distant, lingering on the edge of an indistinct reality - somewhere beyond the trees, in the shadows of the mountain.

Late at night, in the abstract solace after midnight, thick fog creeps in and lingers until mid-morning. In the pinkish haze of a December dawn the fog casts illusions of drifting light outside my bedroom window. I lie in bed half-awake, watching the subtle colors of mists tinted by an unseen rising sun: ever-changing pastels of faded peach and blushing coral, pulsing over the landscape like the warm remembrance of a long-ago lover's kiss.

Holy crap, Jon - you're too damn good to be wasting your time writing in a blog.

These are only rank preliminaries, Kemo Sabe. I'm saving the good stuff for future endeavors. 

The days are annoyingly short. Dawn arrives somewhere around 7:00 and by 3:00 the distant sun is already sinking behind mountain peaks. Daylight disappears before 4:30.

Temperatures have turned mild again - near 60 during the day (that's Fahrenheit). The nights are chilly.

 Taken at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon. The sun is WAY south.....

Last night around 2:00 a.m. I opened the back door and my eldest feline Scratch darted out. I've been letting her wander outside during the day but never at night. She leaped (leapt?) off the back porch and came face to face with a large 'possum.
(I prefer to call it an opossum, but - what the hell - I'm in the wilds of Hickville).

This is the 'possum that resides under my back porch - - and it's the same 'possum that got into my house once through the clothes dryer vent.

My resident 'possum seems to be mild-mannered but he's a lot bigger than Scratch and has much sharper teeth. A close encounter could get very ugly.

I yell for Scratch to come in. She goes under the porch. Brilliant idea. If the 'possum goes under there, a brawl could ensue.

So, I keep Mr. 'Possum at bay with a broom until Scratch decides to finally come out and go back into the house.
This kills the better part of an hour.

I managed to snap a few pics of Poss.

    He's not demonic. The glowing eyes are from the camera flash. Here's the same picture lightened:

Wanna hear more wilderness adventures?

Sure, why not, Jon? You're irresistible. 

Today I brought in some plastic storage drawers that I had in the garage. They were securely shut and sealed with masking tape. 
Two of the drawers contained a large array of packaged seeds that I was going to plant next spring.
The other drawer contained some bars of soap.

Something - undoubtedly mice - managed to get into the sealed drawers. They ripped open the packets and ate all (and I mean ALL) of the seeds....
AND
they ate most of the soap!!!
Holy shit, I couldn't make this stuff up.

The only thing left was shredded paper from the seed packages.

  I had all the packets neatly placed in rows. This is what I found.

 Shredded paper - not a seed in sight.


You gotta see my new Creepy Claus post at this link:
Cabinet of Curious Treasures