Two nasturtium seed pods emptied out of my pocket, sitting on the bathroom shelf. Memories of summer’s beauty. Full of beauty to come.

This is how I started 2013, as the base layer in a kitty pile up. It’s looking like a good year.

The end of 2012 was equally good, shared with excellent friends, eating delicious food, talking, talking, talking, laughing, and staying cozy while the snow fell outside.

Happy New Year!

Wolfie died on August 1st. He had been sick for several months so it was no surprise, but after living with him for 17 years I felt abruptly cut loose.

The following week I brought his ashes home in a little cardboard box with a label that read, “This is Wolfie. The companion of Estyn Hulbert.” — which I find strangely compelling. Tightly fitted inside was another box, this one made of something solid and mahogany-colored with a beveled edge at the top.

I had thought I would bury his ashes right away, but the box is still sitting on my studio desk and I can’t bring myself to spread his remains in the damp fall earth. Maybe I’ll wait until spring, when the dampness promises warmth and growth instead of dark days and freezing. Wolfie spent his final years being an old grump of a feline, so I think I’ll plant a crabapple tree over him, in honor of his crabbyness.

The household feels lopsided without him but Annabelle, Maxie, Noola and I are slowly adjusting. Extra love. Extra kindness. For all of us.

I found this via How’s Robb?. It’s worth watching and worth watching as large as possible.

Hefted from Dreamtime Film on Vimeo.

Here’s Maxie two years ago.

And here he is now. Bigger body. Same peekaboo games.

I was looking through my photo archive and realized that all Fall and Winter I’ve been taking pictures of patches of sunlight, welcomed gratefully by my friends and I, and of the accompanying shadow patterns.

I’m so busy in this run up to Thanksgiving weekend, and I’m very grateful for it. I’m hunkered down at the big table by the wood stove, with my beads and my order list, my cup of coffee, and War and Peace on CD. I kid you not. Forty-eight CDs, sixty-one hours!

For the last fortnight the hummingbird activity at the feeder on the porch has been intense. A couple of times I’ve seen ten birds at once.

For such tiny creatures they have big attitude, reminding me of New Yorkers with their fast moves and “You lookin’ at me?” moxie.

(It was raining when I shot this, which made for noisy background, accentuating the traffic sounds.)

Indoors there’s been a lot of silent, focused, staring.

One morning I was standing looking out the side door at the garden. I was waking up, sipping my coffee, with Noola draped across my shoulders (she likes it there).

A hummingbird perched on the fence next to the tomato plants. All of a sudden he flew directly towards us and stopped at eye level, a foot away, hovering and checking us out, and then just as suddenly flew off into the trees.

Noola and I were both blown away by the experience.

The raised beds have been reduced to little bumps, practically invisible.