You know you want a Crooked Acres holiday postcard. YOU KNOW YOU DO. You better hurry up! (And yes, of course I’m happy to send cards to other countries!) Send your name and mailing address to hollydays@gmail.com .
I’ll take names and addresses until December 20th.
If you’d like to send me a card as well (never ever required, but always appreciated – I don’t keep track of who does and doesn’t send a card, I promise!), send it to: Robyn Anderson, PO Box 461, Athens, AL 35612 USA.
On one of the cards I got when I went to the post office yesterday, Yunlin asked a question that maybe not everyone who reads here knows the answer to: why do we call it Crooked Acres?
It’s a pretty simple answer, actually. This house is 81 years old, and over time, the house has settled, and everything isn’t as square as it was when it was built. It was while we were renovating the house (we spent seven months renovating the house before we moved in, and wasn’t THAT a lot of fun!) that I realized just how crooked some areas of the house are, and I said in frustration “God, everything in this house is crooked. Even the property line isn’t straight. Everything is crooked!”
A minute later, I said “Crooked Acres! That’s what I’m calling this place!”, and it’s stuck ever since.
(If you’re interested, you can see a room by room comparison of the house, before and after, here. The majority of the renovation consisted of painting, putting up molding around the ceilings, and having the floors done.)
Sights from around Crooked Acres.
We haven’t decorated for Christmas in three or four years – at least, not in the house, I decorated the front porch a couple of years ago – but I really love Christmas lights, and so this year I bought a small tree to hang on the wall! I need to do something about hiding the cords, and the tree is shaped oddly (needs to be floofed, I think), but walking down the hallway and seeing the reflection of the tree lights in the picture hanging near the front door makes me happy.
Catie made a set of these, and I love them.
I was stumped for a tree topper, didn’t like any of the ones in the store, and then I was looking through my ornaments and found this. Cat angel – please, is there anything more perfect for us?
This is my hands-down favorite ornament of all. I think I bought about 10 of them, several years ago.
Santa-hat bumblebee.
Another fisherman-with-lobster ornament.
Made by a reader. Aren’t they adorable?
That’s right, a nativity in my house, and lightning did not strike me dead!
I love this floppy-legged cow. I’m actually not quite sure why it’s considered a Christmas decoration, except that I bought it at Christmas time, and it’s wearing a bright red sweater, so there you go.
I know these are cheesy, but I just love to turn them on at bedtime and lay and watch the lights change. Don’t judge me.
Cardinal with a mouth full of seeds.
Tufted Titmouse.
Tufted Titmouse and… Sparrow, maybe?
Sparrows, perhaps.
Woodpecker.
Angry Muppet is annoyed. You’d know that if you could see her face.
The rooster with, as someone so aptly termed it yesterday, the feather leggings. We have other feather-legged chickens, but this guy’s legs are especially feathered.
The head rooster, on his way to do something important, apparently.
Chickens love pasta.
Featherhead.
Head rooster, keeping an eye on Angry Muppet.
Chickens are good for taking care of the leftover junk food.
Panoramic shot of the chickens.
Zombie hen is purty (as Mary Ellen pointed out, Zombie hen wants graaaaaaaains. Graaaaaains.)
According to Fred, this is a kestrel. Whatever it is, he was eyeballing the chickens. Edited to add: apparently it’s a Red-tailed Hawk (thanks, Nevermind!)
(It wasn’t as low as it looks in this picture. I had the long lens aimed at it.)
No chickens for you, Mister Kestrel Red-tailed Hawk!
We put straw in and around the cat house in the back yard. The cats weren’t sure what they thought about it at first, but if you look closely, you’ll see Tom Cullen’s green eyes peering out from the back of the cat house.
OldCat has an interesting post up about tails, go check it out here.
Finally, a shot of all four of them! That’s Clay in the front, and of course y’all know the gorgeous Jax. Next to Jax is Opie, and in the scratcher is Tig.
I don’t know what’s going on over there, but Opie clearly finds it interesting.
Tig gives us his smoldering look.
The gorgeous Jax with water on his chin.
Opie (front) and Tig (glaring in the background).
His eyes have mostly changed, but I love that you can still see just a bit of blue around the edges.
Joe Bob is a shoe hoarder, obviously.
“What? I’ve got four feet. I need a lot of shoes!”
Previously
2010: “My nose is dirty and I DON’T LIKE IT.”
2008: It’s not been a good time to be a finger on the hand of Robyn And3rson lately.
2007: When one has to peck the ground for bugs and worms, one gets mud on one’s beak.
2006: So that’s the story of my search for the perfect bra, and how I found it.
2005: I probably have a brain tumor.
2004: I swear, my Grinchly heart grew three sizes right then and there.
2003: A tree with glass ornaments? In a house with five cats?
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: I told Fred we should hire her out to the local police agencies and she could tell them when someone looks like a “drug person.”
1999: Fred and I came to an agreement last night. The end of March, I’m going off the birth control, and we’re going to start trying to get pregnant. (HahahahahahaHAHA! My, how times have changed!)
I am going to have to disagree with Fred. That is atleast a two year old Red tail hawk ( they get their red tail feathers in their second year molt). In my area they are sometimes called chicken hawks by the old folks. A Kestrel, also called a sparrow hawk, is about the size of a Blue Jay. Sorry for the bird watcher coming out of me. I wish I could take such great pictures.
Then I am vindicated, because I call anything that hovers over the back forty looking at the chickens a hawk, whether it is or not.
In my defense, I was not nearly as sure as SOMEONE made me sound in that entry. I said, “It’s either a hawk or a kestrel, but I think it’s more likely a kestrel” because the LAST time I called something like that a hawk, I got schooled by someone on how it was a kestrel.
Damn birds.
You always take great pictures, Robyn, and these are fantastic.
I love the ornament Catie made you. And I’m gonna go shopping for a tree to hang on the wall. Although, dammit, I don’t have a lot of wall space in my home (open floor plan).
If you ever have too much time on your hands, you can start knitting sweaters for your chickens!
http://pinterest.com/pin/189080884325042541/
Saw that on pinterest and it made me think of you!
That’s as good a reason to take up knitting as I can think of!
Crooked Acres sounds so much nicer than my House that Jack Built, where nothing is level! (File under: things a first-time buyer wouldn’t think to check)
None of the cats have tried to swing from the cord? I can’t run my cuckoo clock because MaryAnne wants to play with the weights.
It looks very cool, and I love all your cat ornaments. We haven’t put up a full sized tree for several years, our late cat Misti used to like to sit on the bottom branches and break them, and then they would need to be wired up, so perhaps a wall tree is a good idea.
Surprisingly, they haven’t touched the cord – Alice did bat at one of the lower hanging ornaments, so Fred moved it. I’m thinking I’m going to put a hook behind the bookcase (next to the tree) to hang the cord from, so it’s out of the way. Just ’cause they haven’t touched it yet doesn’t mean they won’t, the little brats.
Robyn, you have some beautiful ‘chicks’ on your farm. Those are great shots of the hawk,they are beautiful birds. You have the same type of birds that I have and even the same type of feeders. Thanks for showing us all your critters.
Thanks, Shirley!
Wow, that’s a great shot of the red-tailed hawk. You just held the camera, no tripod? I carry a Nikon S9100 pocket camera with an 18X zoom when I walk by the local river, which is pretty often, but I never get good shots of flying birds. Moving bird + not-quite-steady hands + camera all the way zoomed out = slight blur at the best of times.
If that hawk banked you would see the gorgeous red tail that gives it the name. We have them by the river. Took me forever to identify the harrier hawk I saw half a dozen times, and of course after I was finally sure what he was I never saw him again.
Love your cardinal too. No cardinals where I live.
Yeah, just held it and shot. I had it set on the “action” setting, I believe, and took about 20 pictures to get those three. I just love the hell out of my camera.
Forget the hawk, I like the photo of the cardinal. When my daughter was around 20, she moved to Virginia for a job. I got an excited call from her to tell me cardinals really are red! Being west coast people, we’d only seen them on Christmas cards and she thought they were colored that way because, you know, Christmas=red.
It’s kind of amazing how bright they are, especially in the winter when everything else is drab and gray!
Before you got the house, weren’t you planning on naming it Horseshit Alley? If I’m wrong, I have no idea how I came up with that. And if I’m right, how on earth do I remember these things?!
Did that Nativity come from my house? if it didn’t, it is exactly like the one I had. I hd forgotten I had given it to you!!!
Hi, Grammy!
Yep, that’s the one!
Hey Mum, why do they call them Titmouses? Also, that cat angel should have horns, not a halo!
why is it called a “titmouse”, anyway? Well, here’s what my etymology dictionary says: (1) tittr was Old Icelandic for Titmouse (do they have titmice in Iceland, for all love?); “tit” means “something small” in Old English — dictionary doesn’t say if they got it from Icelandic or vice versa — and “mouse” is from “mose” which is from proto-Germanic “maisa”, meaning “little or tiny” (whence Norwegian dialect got “meis” for a weak, thin person). In short: tit means small, mose means small, so a titmouse is a small-small. Now we know.
From here
I love that wall tree and the ornaments! For about five seconds, I thought about putting my big Christmas tree up this year. Then I imagined what it would look like after 11 cats were done climbing it it, fighting in it, and dragging off the ornaments one by one. Annnnd I decided against it. But I do miss the christmas lights, so perhaps I will try a wall tree next year.
Sorry if someone mentioned it before but little Opie looks so much like dear Tubby with the splotch on his nose. We are fighting over Jax here, just so you know.
Someone did mention it earlier this week! I’ll have to work up a side by side comparison (I definitely see the resemblance!)
I just knew those little battery powered changy lights things would make me happy! Thank you for giving me permission to indulge in my inner cheesiness!
Your wall tree is so sweet!
My pleasure, Erin.
That photo (#22) of the struttin’ rooster makes me think of the “haters gonna hate” pics!
LOL – yes indeed!!!
Thanks for the idea, Terri.
Love your Christmas tree on the wall. There’s just something so festive about Christmas tree lights! They make me happy too! Love all your bird shots. Great pics. Merry, Merry!!