Look at it This Way

So here's how I really feel.......Most of the time.I got used to this position during my Catholic girlhood when, every Sunday like clockwork, I fainted in church."Put her head between her knees!" the grownups  were always shouting. (Adults were cruel in those days.)"Turn her upside down!"I knew better than anyone in the congregation how much gum there really IS stuck under those pews.Now of course we all feel this way.Especially in the month of December at whose rag-tag end we now find ourselves.This squirrel was in our hawthorn tree all day, even doing the Houdini move to get at the last of the berries.Can't blame him.After the first he too will probably be joining Weight Watchers.Don't scoff, yo. It works if you work it. :-)

The Squirrels Know

I feel for this guy, who I found trying to raid the hawthorn tree for berries before the poor birds could get to any.They’re running out of food out there!It’s been mighty mild for these parts but still: The critters know what's coming.I hung around in my bedroom for almost an hour to get this shot. (I have 20 lousy shots.)There were four squirrels in the tree at the time but this guy seemed the perkiest. And then he turned and gave me his handsome profile.And I was just close enough, my breath fogging the cold windowpane  - though if you click on the picture to enlarge it you'll see the mesh of screening.Just look at him, shoveling it in with those slim little fingers.  I suppose he’s offering a lesson to us all, but with the holiday aftershocks still bouncing against me, I’m still too fried to figure out what it is.