Coffee before pie crust

Today is Thanksgiving in the US. I slept in until sunlight leaked around the edges of the curtains, which I never do. Now I’m by the window in the living room, my coffee in the sill, with a cat on my arms as I type this. We got a new chair, and we put it in the prime sitting spot in the house, next to the front window where I like to read and write and look at the garden. The cats also know this is the prime sitting spot, and they are always curled up in the chair, hogging it so nobody else can enjoy it. This morning I kicked Tubbles out, though, and took the chair for myself. She came back immediately and laid across me instead of across the seat of the chair.

I’ll make the cherry pie crust in a few minutes, after I’ve enjoyed my coffee and admired the sun-sparkled dew on our freshly raked lawn. I’ve been traveling a lot, and we’ve hardly been here to take care of basic stuff like cleaning up the oak leaves that carpeted the grass. Yesterday, the sun shone in a blue sky and the air was in the mid-50s, and I finally finished raking after I went for a pre-Thanksgiving run. I raked multiple piles of leaves, dragged them to the top of the hill on a tarp, and then chopped them up with the lawn mower and scattered them down the flower bed hill. They’ll make a decent mulch until my spring delivery of shredded tree-bark mulch, and hopefully they’ll break down a little over the winter to add some nutrients to the soil.

At the butterfly garden at nearby Pandapas Pond, a little sign encouraged gardeners to cut back perennials in the spring instead of fall so that the dried stems and flowerheads would provide protection and food for wildlife all winter. Excellent. Procrastination: check. With permission to put that off, I left the perennials standing. I gave the grass a final trim, and I think the garden is put to bed for the winter.

Now there’s a cat on me and a cat on the floor next to me. Quiet music drifts out from the kitchen where my husband is prepping potatoes. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner stresses me out, and my stress makes everyone in the family miserable, so he has taken over that job. My responsibilities are pies and rolls: the baking. I’m very happy with this setup. I’ll gladly bake, and I’ll gladly clean if I don’t have to cook.

My coffee cup is almost empty. I think Tubbles senses I need to get up soon. She just swatted me with her tail and drooped her head over my arm pitifully. I’ll end this post and snuggle with her a minute before I go make the pie crust. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate it ♥️.