Yesterday morning, as I was shuffling around trying to wake up, I heard a kitten crying out back. That got me awake and dressed and outside considerably faster than I’d planned to be up and outside. The kitten did not sound like it was in distress, mind you. I simply could. not. wait. to. see. what. it. looked. like. I’d like to say that my enthusiasm was because this was the first kitten mewing of 2009 (which it was), but the simple fact is that I quite enjoy meeting kittens.

Gremlin, it turned out, has had three kittens in hiding somewhere for weeks, and had decided it was time for formal introductions, not to mention time for them to do some of their eating out of a bowl. This litter is a nearly matched set of three: much white, with swirled calico markings of the palest gray and the palest orange, with darker gray splotches on the face. I’ve never seen cats like this, and now I have three. (I will be wanting homes for these shortly, if you’re local, and know anybody wanting a kitten…)

So I have, naturally, been spending time watching and petting kittens, and laughing quite out loud as their spunk outpaces their coordination.

Yesterday was also the day that the sand lilies first bloomed out back, and the Sweet William started blooming out front. Such a deal. The sand lilies are wild. The Sweet William was here when we got here. Beauty isn’t necessarily better when it’s free, but it sure doesn’t cheapen the experience, in my view.

When I was out admiring the sand lilies, they were being visited by small, dark green hornets. Yes, Virginia, there are real green hornets. I don’t recall seeing any before we moved here, but these definitely seemed to be hornets, and they were decidedly green.

While I was happily steeped in kittens and flowers, I got news of the death of one of my favorite old ladies (life’s so often like that, isn’t it?). She was 98, so I can’t say the news should have been unexpected, but it did come as a jolt. She was a Christian lady, radiating vitality coming and going, and the last I’d heard she was still playing the piano every Sunday at her church, and playing it well.

In other news, yesterday we were hearing from tourists coming to town from different directions, all saying,  ’I drove through snow to get here! Can you believe that?’

Well, yes. We’re happily between ice ages, but we will have our moments of ‘unseasonable’ weather, particularly at the higher elevations. Get used to it. Besides, it made the fire danger go down. That’s a good thing this time of year.

This morning, I put all my pants and shorts into bags, and took them to the new thrift store. I have been living nearly exclusively in dresses and skirts for months and months now, and decided to take the plunge into entirely feminine dress, all the time. There are quite a few ladies around here who do not own a pair of pants, and so I know it can be done. (Well, OK, I know a bit of history. Most women in most of history never have had a pair of pants, so obviously it shouldn’t be a problem. But I grew up in a pantset and jeans world, and have been in need of some remedial training, so to speak.) After donating the pants, I further helped the thrift store get properly launched by buying a jumper. It looks nearly new, and cost three dollars. Yay, thrift stores.