All day, the light has shifted behind clouds, slant and brilliant, then dull, then setting the leaves ablaze again. It's been warm, as the thermometer reads - above 50 degrees all day - but if you go out the wind is fierce and quickly chills your face and hands.
I spent some time on the terrace, taking advantage of the warmth and dryness to sweep and clean up. The plants all came in last week, and tomorrow we'll take some of them to the studio where they'll have a happier and sunnier winter. The woodbox is free now, ready for the short snowy trudges on evenings when we want a fire. The porch boxes are also free, and all morning a squirrel ran up and down the locust tree, jumped over the fence and onto the terrace to dig rapturously in the soft dirt. I went to the glass door and glared at him. Totally unperturbed, he hopped off the planter and walked up tot he door and looked at me expectantly, hoping maybe I'd bring him some nuts and save him a trip.
In a little while I looked up again, catching a glimpse of movement, and saw a large yellow cat also digging in the planter. This time I went outside. The cat - the same one I've petted a few times recently as he sunned himself on the hood of a nearby parked car - came up to me and rubbed against my hand. He didn't have a collar or tag, but looked well-fed and was strong and muscular. I sat down on the door sill, sunny but sheltered from the wind; he hung around my legs, purring and soaking up any affection I felt like giving, then settled down in a patch of sun, glowing yellow, and we rested there in companionable silence while the squirrel, temporarily thwarted, scolded us from the trunk of the tree.
oh beth you are such a tease to describe the yellow cat but post the yellow tree!
Posted by: Vivian | October 25, 2009 at 10:07 PM
You are a lovely companion, I am sure. Sounds like a sweet bit of the afternoon for you and for the yellow cat.
Posted by: Kim | October 25, 2009 at 10:51 PM
What a nice little speck of time you've so beautifully described.
Thanks.
T.
Posted by: Teresa | October 26, 2009 at 03:29 PM
You have captured a sliver of a moment. A micro prose?
Posted by: Uma Gowrishankar | October 27, 2009 at 01:26 AM