Groovin' to the music

Older Daughter is playing piano for a four-person choral group (including Don) at our church. They're singing three Christmas songs, so Older Daughter has been practicing daily, diligently making sure she's confident in the music.

Lihn – Younger Daughter's Quaker parrot – evidently appreciates the music. I let her out of her cage mornings and evenings, and every time Older Daughter is at the piano, Lihn flies over and joins her, groovin' to the music.

The bird seems fascinated as to why Older Daughter keeps pressing the keys.

Lots of "help," don'cha know.

It's no accident the keyboard stays covered when not in use.

Bitter cold

As with much of the rest of  the nation, we're in for some bitter, bitter cold.

We had a snow whomp on Thursday night, receiving about six inches in a couple hours.

This came on top of a very windy day. Unsurprisingly, we lost power last night as a result. It's times like this we are beyond grateful for our wood cookstove.

Oil lamps provided light.

This morning, Darcy came back from his walk with his feet covered in "jingle balls," as we call them.

He spent 20 minutes chewing them off.

Because her side of the house doesn't get heat from the wood cookstove, Older Daughter opened the (normally closed) connecting door to warm the place up. Of course this meant Frumpkin had the run of the full house. And where did he park himself? Under the parrot's cage, of course.

Darcy was a good boy during Frumpkin's liberty and behaved himself.

And Frumpkin was a good boy as well, and didn't attack the parrot in her cage ... though it looked like he wanted to.

Instead, the cat had to content himself with staring at the birds outside on the feeder. Cat TV!

The power came back on after about 18 hours, thanks to those thankless heroes, the hardworking linemen of the power company.

The wood cookstove isn't going out at all for the next few days as temps dip so low. But our weather isn't anything compared to what they're getting back east ("Hurricane-Force Blizzard Could Hit Northeast Next Week, Weather Forecaster Warns").

Stay warm and safe out there, dear readers!

Pet update

Some time ago, a reader asked how our pets are doing. In a word, fine. I thought I'd post pix of the three animals we have right now: Mr. Darcy, Lihn, and Frumpkin.

It's hard to believe Darcy is six years old already. Where does the time go? Here's some recent photos of him:

Frisbee wolf. Darcy "hides" behind a cart, waiting for Older Daughter to throw a Frisbee:

Here's another picture:

One of his favorite perches, surveying his domain while resting his chin on the rail.

Milking some attention for all it's worth.

Evening walk.

Playing in the yard.

Hiking in the woods.

Watching me rake leaves in the side yard.

Dozing with a rope toy.

Enjoying fall.

Snoozing in front of the woodstove.

Now on to Lihn, Younger Daughter's Quaker parrot. This lady is now nine years old.

Lihn gets out of her cage for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the evening. Here she's on the floor, exploring some tankards. (Older Daughter is working on them in the background.)

Don finished a sandwich one day, and it had a few bread crumbs left on the plate. Lihn loves bread. We seldom let her have any, but a few crumbs are fine.

One evening she sat on the perch near my desk and proceeded to groom herself, contorting into amazing shapes.

Every so often I'll send photos to Younger Daughter (currently stationed in Europe) to let her know her pet is safe and sound.

I also periodically schedule vet appointments to get her beak trimmed, since it has an annoying tendency to get overlong very fast. Her next appointment is in early December.

Now for the World's Most Spoiled Cat, Frumpkin (Older Daughter's pet).

Frumpkin was a stray who adopted us several years ago, long before we moved. Older Daughter took him in and spoils him rotten. We don't know his age, but he's in the prime of life and in excellent health.

As you can imagine, he's sticks his nose into all of Older Daughter's business.

Changing sheets is a challenge.

He's strictly an indoor cat now.

Fortunately he has his own "catio" outside Older Daughter's door where he can sit in the sun and survey his domain.

Plus his cat tree is right by the window.

On a chilly rainy morning, Frumpkin cozies up on Older Daughter's bed:

Here he's getting "into" Cat TV (he loves the squirrels!).

So as you can see, all our animals are doing fine.