New Year's Oz

WHOOOT-WHOOOT-WHOOOT-WHOOOORRRRRLLLL

It was a beautifully clear and frosty night last night. Here are my toes in the creeping thyme to show you the crunchy fun this morning. Harriet thinks frozen catmint is just as good as any other kind:

And here is Harriet showing you who-who-who woke us up at 3am:

Her impression doesn't do the voice justice. It was so deep and resonant, I thought it had to be a four-footed creature of some sort - coyote maybe?  Especially the WHOOOOORRRRRRRLLLLLLL part. I leapt out of bed, threw on a fleecy, and rushed downstairs to go out and see what it was. And was intercepted by the geek, still awake in his study playing with his new vinyl-cutting machine, who said, "what is that animal? sounds like an owl." OK, so the geek can't tell the difference between dead mice, rats, or sparrows (he calls them all "that mouse your cat left you"), but he got the live raptor ID in one! It was in our big oak tree, and it was HUGE. It flapped from one branch to another and hooted a few more times (now that I could see it, my ear decided to believe it was an owl hooting), and then got tired of me marching around under the tree in my jammies, and took off.

Winter solstice magic!

And this morning seems sort of magical too.  Mainly because the sun is shining and I have no meetings today. The cotoneaster is doing its Christmas show:

 And the "David" viburnum is not too shabby either:

And SUCH a handsome kitty!