I was just enjoying a pumpkin bread pudding I made when I heard Luther behind run rapidly out of the room. That usually happens when Luther has seen another animal outside.
I went to the window and sure enough, I saw the back of an animal perched on the crest of the small hill my house sits on. It was maybe 20 feet from my front door. It seemed to be surveying the front yard. First I thought it must be a fox but the coloring was all wrong. The foxes here have reddish/tan coats. I did once see a mangy fox with a gray coat, but this animal I was seeing today had thick black and gray hair and tufted ears.
I went to grab my camera and when I returned to the window I saw it running down the lawn out of sight toward a woodsy area along the road.
I think it was a bobcat! Bobcat sightings are not at all unusual in my area, and photos of them pop up regularly in the local papers.
So exciting!
Other weekend news:
Yesterday my friend Dave helped me pack up all my mother's belongings from her assisted living room at Masonicare into his van. It all barely fit. Then we unloaded it. I was looking forward to a relaxing and well deserved lunch with him afterwards, my treat, but I think he was tired and he wanted to head home.
This morning I ran down to Trader Joe's around 8:30 a.m. just so I could grab some frozen julienned root vegetables. I called ahead to make sure they had them. They are a seasonal item and last year I was so disappointed when I had them once but couldn't get them again, so this time I grabbed 6 bags.
I mulched all the leaves on the lawn with my mower and things look fairly tidy, now that most of the leaves are finally off the trees. I also swept leaves and pine needles off my long driveway, filling the wheelbarrow at least 4 times.
I still have a half dozen potted plants on my front stairs, so I put them all in the garage to over winter til next spring. I left the pumpkins out.
I made a double batch of my granola for the coming weeks. I programmed the new remote control for my garage door. Easy peasy. I took a 40-minute walk and stopped to chat with my neighbor, who was walking his dog down the road.
I hung up a few more of my mother's art on the walls to get them off the floor. I did some rearranging in my family room, where, after dragging my sofa out to the sun room with Dave yesterday (I hope to sell it on Facebook for $50 as Make a Home Foundation apparently didn't want it), we moved the twin bed I'd bought for my mother when I thought she'd be living in assisted living place. I put a throw and a bunch of pillows on the bed and it looks like a daybed. It will be really nice when it gets hot next summer and I can sleep downstairs for a change with the breezes from the sunroom coming in.
I have $500 in gift cards burning a hole in my pocket. Aside from about $50 spent at Walmart online today for some new carbon monoxide detectors, oatmeal and hair color, I just haven't had a chance to spend much of it.
I think I saw a BOBCAT in my yard!
November 8th, 2015 at 09:25 pm
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I got it from my mother but I've modified it quite a bit, by reducing the oil, the sweetener and adding the cocoa for antioxidants. If you don't like nuts as much as I do, you could also reduce the nuts, and of course, you can use other nuts besides the walnuts.
4 cups old-fashioned oats
2 t. cinnamon
1/4 cup honey or brown sugar
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
3/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts
1/3 cup ground flax seed
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup raisins and/or chopped dried apricots, apples or other dried fruit
Optional: wheat germ or nutritional yeast
Toss together all the ingredients except the dried fruit. (I leave this out because baking will only dry it out, and I prefer it to be moist/chewy.)
Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. When it's cooled, mix in the dried fruit and store in fridge.
November 12th, 2015 at 12:45 am 1447289131