We love our life in the noisy Hollow!

With our trip to the BIG CITY behind us, I contentedly sit on my front porch with a bowl of fresh raspberries and a pink transferware cup filled with GOOD coffee. AHHH, 10 o'clock in the morning, here at our humble, Ochre Moon Manor.
I would never be happy living in a city. I am a homespun girl to the very soul. Maybe there's always something exciting going on in the BIG city, but my "excitement" comes from the little vignettes of life I see all around me, from right here on my porch. The noise of honking horns and the voice of hundreds of people are replaced by the honking of my geese, the crowing of a rooster and the muffled quackery of 9 little ducks busily splashing in Wee Minnow Brook. The wild birds tweet, chirp, caw and whistle in a crazy chorus from the mass of branches that criss cross the azure sky above. A speckled Roo walks behind my chair, his sharp toenails clicking across the floorboards, "Off the porch!" I scold, as I toss a plump raspberry onto the lawn. Off he runs with his juicy morsel.
A ginger pussycat sneakily slinks across the yard, I know he is heading for my mudroom to eat giblets from MY kitties dish. It's okay, he is a stray, and he needs to eat too. Poor thing, I doubt he has ever had his little head scratched or purred in contentment on a soft quilt. He won't allow me to come near him.
Two bluebirds glide past my view, one holds a fluffy white goosefeather in his beak, he drops it and it begins to softly fall to the ground, but his mate sails by and grabs the feather in Her beak... SHE drops it too and the male retrieves the feather again on his pass through the air, before it reaches the ground .... This happens two more times before the feather is firmly gripped in a beak! The mates soar off to the meadow heading toward the huge old Oaks. Doubtless the treasured feather will line the nest they must be building.
The sheep Baaa and the goats Maaa and the flower faces smile at the morning sun from the garden bed. It is a good way to start the day, here, in Hopalong Hollow.


  "Bushky Bushybottom" won a Silver "Benjamin Franklin" Award and a Bronze "IPPY" on his trip to NYC, but he is ever so glad to be back home in his treetop!