Black Cats, Burra Burra, & Blackberries

I have a picture laden post today. Josh & I have had a lot of fun on our day off from work, and I had my camera with me the whole time. I apologize because they are out of order. I haven't quite mastered downloading all the pictures in the appropriate order, and it is a bit of a headache putting them in order, especially at 10:30 at night. I'm going to start at the end of the day and go forward.


This picture is from Memorial Day 2008. It was my parents' first trip up to the cabin, and we planted a cedar tree that I had potted from their house back when I was in college. I wanted to bring that tree with me when I got married.

I showed you the above picture so that I could show you this one. My cedar tree is flourishing one year later.

The next three pictures are our kitties. Isis & Athena enjoy the outdoors, so I took one of Isis, & Josh got a picture of Athena. That's the only one Homer would let me get of him. He's so skittish that he doesn't go outside much. In fact, he decided to hide most of the day

Josh also took over the camera as I went berry picking. I have mentioned the wild blackberries in our yard before, and I had a fun, but thorny, time picking them. Yes, they have been ripening, and we are reaping the benefits!

Athena & Isis both joined me while I was picking. They follow me around meowing for attention. I got fairly deep into the berry patches, and at one point Isis had been on the porch, and she came bounding through thorns & thickets to reach me. Athena had already followed me down there. I think they're protective but also very curious.
Here's what a lot of our bushes look like now. Some of them are laden with blackberries, but most have only ripened halfway.

I am quite proud of this picture. The berries are in a translucent white bowl, and I wanted to get a picture of them. I probably picked close to 100, and there are still more. I didn't even reach one half of the yard. The picture turned out fantastic. Don't they look delicious?

Berry picking was the second half of my day. The first part involved Josh & me going on a van tour of the Copperhill & Ducktown mines. It was really neat to see the reclamation of the areas that were devastated by the mining industry.

There are some pictures of some mines, roast yards, areas where they have planted & worked on water treatment, and then some from the Ducktown Museum as well.

This is a view of an area that they have left as it was to show what happened to the environment. God's awesome in that even without people making efforts to fix this area, nature is still running it's natural course to heal the land. The water in the "lake" is actually filling an old mine that collapsed years ago.

We've had a great day. Besides the tour & the time outdoors we took time to go to the dump, IGA, Piggly Wiggly, & spent some time watching our usual evening shows. I took a nap during Knight Rider this evening. I must have worn myself out.

I'm sure there is much more I could write about, but I'm starting to get tired, and there is always tomorrow. We have plans to eat at Red Lobster, go to Josh's old church for fellowship & fireworks, then we'll rest up for a "short" day at church Sunday. There's only one morning service.

Hope you have a great 4th of July weekend!

If you are interested in more information about the Copper Basin project, visit the following websites. It's really neat what they are able to do by planting trees & grasses and creating natural wetlands that will naturally clean the watershed.

www.glennsprings-copperbasinproject.com and www.epa.gov/Region4/waste/copper

Introducing Homer

Spot the kitty!

What's that?

Yes, I really am that big.

*yawn*

I got home too late to blog, but I thought I would leave you with a few pictures of Homer, our third cat who has yet to be officially shown on bearcatfeet. One day I'll sit down and introduce you better to our kitties & their personalities.

It's about time . . .

Finally, I get the chance to curl up on the love seat with my laptop, a warm blanket, & the bearcatfeet blog. Sorry I abandoned writing for a week. It's been busy, and I'll attempt to play catchup.

Last week was a very long week at work. It wasn't physically tiring so much as it was emotionally exhausting. Satan was working last week to cause dissension among the daycare workers & on top of it there was a flood of bad news that came in about several good Christian people in our community. It was a very discouraging week for me, so I was relieved to see Friday come around.

I taught a class about scrapbooking to some teens at our local library Thursday afternoon. My sister heads up the teen program there, and she asked to me to help out. After that Josh & I headed home, and I spent the night resting from my week.

Friday was spent cleaning, because we had a shindig at the cabin on Saturday. Thursday comprised of laundry, dusting, dish washing, mail sorting, book sorting, vacuuming, & mopping. By that evening Jenny & Jud (Josh's sister & her husband) came up for the evening. Josh made a fantastic buttery spicy shrimp dish (I wouldn't know since I don't eat shrimp, but everyone else loved it), and I ate a peanut butter & jelly sandwich (Mmmm!). Jenny had brought some cheesy garlic mashed potatoes which were also very yummy. We stayed up late talking & enjoying fellowship together. I also made some Jello, Raspberry Sweet Tea, & Lemonade for the next day.

Saturday also held a little bit of cleaning before we started having friends arrive at noon. We had a great time & hung out all day. Here are some pictures:

As you can tell, we had a great time talking, laughing, & eating good food. It was Jared's 29th birthday and Jenny baked him a cake & decorated it. I helped by putting the JM initials & candles on it. In the picture of me, I'm wearing earrings that Josh's parents brought back for me from their recent vacation. I call them my "wind chimes" since they make noise when I move my head around.

Sunday was a pretty normal day, complete with good food at Mamaw's, a Sunday afternoon nap, & two great sermon's from the pastor. Today was a surprisingly quiet Monday, and I had the opportunity to go grab some chicken salad & pasta salad from Jenkins. Josh & I have enjoyed a night of watching Knight Rider, A-Team, & Magnum PI. He is always a wonderful husband, but he has been even nicer to me tonight by making me a chocolate milkshake & washing the dishes while I blog. After that he spent some time out on the front porch enjoying a cool, clear evening. I joined him and looked at the mountains for a while, listening to the chorus of birds outside, and then I went back inside to blog more. ;)

Keep our childcare in your prayers this week. I've been seeking wisdom on how to lead & how to help boost our low enrollment numbers. God has given me some ideas involving weekly encouragement for teachers & a daily prayer time in the sanctuary. I am hoping that through my going to Him in prayer & inviting the teachers to join me, then we'll grow together as a team.

I'm going to rest now before going to bed & starting it all over again.