We found easy parking along the west wall of the garden, and made our way inside where people were enjoying hot cider and cookies, and dancing to holiday songs sung live to a piano accompaniment. Almost immediately I saw people from my work whom I had no idea would be there. We chatted a while, then Miriam and I went upstairs and browsed the gallery of local art, and took particular interest in the historic photos of Gainesville. This history of this fair city is a special interest of mine.
Then, after some time, we made our way outside where we enjoyed still more refreshment, in the form of hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies. All of the above was completely free. We paid $7 to take a ride in a horse-drawn carriage around the Duckpond, where the streets were lined with luminaries. It was wonderful, and everyone was so nice, though we covet their historic mansions. Then I got to pet horses.
Finally, it was dinner at Big Lou’s before heading home full of food and Christmas cheer. Gainesville really is great.
Oh, Mexico. First you give me the mariachi I love, then you give me child matadors. What am I supposed to think? Read the New York Timesarticle and see the absurd pictures.
Some jackass in Texas is on trial this week, charged with animal cruelty after killing a cat he said was hunting the birds he was studying. (I won’t get graphic in this post, but I am sensitive to the feelings of others, so only continue if you can bear it.)
Spooky may technically belong to Elke, but he has made himself at home with us in recent months. It has been a remarkable transformation, though, since when she brought him from her old neighborhood, which was being razed to make way for the new cancer hospital at Shands, he wouldn’t come near us. Spooky was part of Operation Catnip, a program wherein strays are trapped, spayed or neutered, and released with their ear snipped, to alert Alachua County Animal Control that the cats are fixed. But Spooky has become amazingly affectionate for a stray. Now he greets us when we come home, and when we leave the house, and he tries to run in the house when the door opens. I can pick him up any time I want, and he likes being petted.
Alas, he went missing this week. I was aware that I hadn’t seen him since Sunday when Elke came by on Tuesday night asking about him. He Bela tolerates him, but Mr. Meow picks on him, and other feral cats in the neighborhood give him a hard time. Wednesday and Thursday I searched the yard for hints of a fatal catfight, or, worse, his corpse. But there was no sign of anything amiss. He had simply disappeared.
This morning, though, he was waiting by the front door when I arrived home from grocery shopping. I picked him up and looked him over, and he seems healthy. So, let us be thankful for the return of Spooky, and watch this clip of “Kitty’s Back” from October 30 in Los Angeles.
Last Saturday night, Mrs. Hill and I enjoyed an evening at the historic Thomas Center and Gardens, on the night of the Christmas tree lighting.