Where has the time gone?!

Wow! It’s been a long time since my last post. The time (and the end of the year) flew by as I kept thinking I’d sit down and post. I did try a couple of times but encountered some issues after installing an updated operating system on my phone and computer. The new iOS saves photos in a different format (*.heic instead of *.jpg), and WordPress doesn’t recognize those files. This means I have to convert photos before I can upload them. Additionally, there is the problem of almost-full storage on my WordPress account. I already pay for a “Premium” account to get additional storage, and the next plan is for commercial blogs, which I don’t need. I hope you like videos, because I finally realized that I can make videos with my photos and upload them to my Youtube channel. Like this one:

Enough about technical problems. What else? Sadly, no Thanksgiving with friends, no trip to New Mexico for my mom’s birthday, and no dinner party/tree decorating. For the first time in years I had to decorate the tree myself and to do so knowing that the muchachos would knock off anything they could reach. (I had to move several ornaments higher on the tree.)

The deer and turkeys keep coming, of course. Here’s what that looks like:

Several bucks visited, and I hope they survived hunting season.

What else has happened? What about a (very cold) white Christmas?

Even considering the snow, I think the most unexpected thing that has happened in the Hollow since my last post was the sudden appearance of a little stray cat. I noticed it first when I saw the deer stomping and snorting in alarm one day, then several neighbors saw it near their houses. When I saw it on my rambles it didn’t run off like other feral cats I’ve seen, and it was obvious something was wrong with its left eye. Finally it showed up at my house, where I fed it and fixed a shelter under my screen porch; I called it Noel (Noelle) and sang the carol to it when I fed it.

I was able to catch it, get it checked out at the vet (and learn that he is a male), and Noel (pronounced “nole”) is now living in a giant dog crate in my insulated daylight basement until he heals and I’m able to handle him.

It’s time to go feed him. I hope to post again before too long!