Mertz Manor

Le chateau de Frédérique et Ethel: Mertz Manor.

Mertz Manor is coming along and the cats seem to enjoy it. While I worked on it yesterday, they were going in and out of it the whole time. I have a long, long way to go and I’m doing it without glue. I can’t find any so I’m using flour and water. I'm starting the roofs today and I'm excited about the idea I have for them. It’s such a nice way to spend the cool, dull short days of winter while watchingNetflix and with the fire roaring.

Christmas was fine. I lit a huge fire and it got toasty warm in the cabin. The sky was bright and the snow on the ground reflected lots of light into the house. But one thing was wrong: There were no birds at all on the fence, in the trees or at the feeder. I’d let the feeders run dry so I filled them and soon my avian buddies returned en masse.

They are a wonderful presence. Having them around, wild and independent, gives me the same pleasure I got from my beautiful aquarium and all my fish. I find it very easy to form a bond with creatures so lovely as fish and birds. I love their collective presence.

In the afternoon it warmed up. The snow started melting and everything felt wet, wet, wet. Sheba and I went for a walk on our trail and she is much more confident now and I’m thrilled about that because I love to walk with her.

Fred kills me. His favourite thing is the ladder I have up in the kitchen and this afternoon I was involved with Mertz Manor when something happened and Sheba came running and whimpering to my side. I calmed her and went back to work.

Fifteen minutes or so later, I came into the kitchen. Anticipating food, Sheba hurried ahead of me and suddenly WHAM! Fred lunged off the ladder onto Sheba’s back. Sheba freaked out again and ran to me and Fred took off into my bedroom. Minutes later, Fred was climbing the ladder again to reclaim his pounce position.

For Christmas Sheba gave me a nice evening. She did not crash as usual; she stayed awake playing and it meant I could stay up later than I have for ages and go to bed believing I can actually sleep in.

But I didn’t. I was up at four this morning and happy to start another day. The Humphrey family comes for a visit and I will do more work on Mertz Manor.

And it is over for another year.