SAID THE CAT: Thanksgiving Isn't Just in the Fall

A week ago yesterday, last Tuesday to be exact, Sandy and I got on the train and went to Center City...

Sandy at Pennbrook SEPTA Station.

Another waiting passenger helped with the "selfie".

Taking the train still is an adventure for me and this time it was a first for Sandy. She wasn't born yet when the family moved from St.Louis to Houston and back during the high tide of passenger railroad travel. SEPTA is a commuter train and definitely neither driven by steam nor coal nor diesel as during the mid-40s. SEPTA has no amenities whatsoever. Yet, it is astonishing to me that we have this transportation available. Oh, would that we could travel on trains as often and as distant as we did then! One of my great pleasures in Europe during brief visits there.

But back to our visit in Philly. We took in the Art Museum...

...and, a tremendous watercolor show...plus we took in some Van Gogh and Monet...

...Sandy checking on the view Rocky Balboa had.

Reading Terminal Market was our lunch choice. Noisy, busy, myriad booths, myriad choices. It sustained us well for the afternoon of touring. The next most important, "The bell!" as Sandy told the cab driver...

Like all visiting, we got pictures to show we'd been by Freedom's Bell.

And all us tourists helped each other with group pictures.

The sun was getting low and the hours for Independence Hall were over. So we headed back.

Two days later our plan was to take Amtrak to Washington, D.C., not knowing that is where my good friends Paula and Carl from Tucson were visiting his mother. Paula sent along drawings she made while there inspired by springtime...

Thursday, we stopped off at the farm to see how Wendy's midwifery was faring after doe Jasmine struggled with her labor the day before having caught pneumonia. (She is fine now.) We forgot Washington...

Wendy, Jasmine, and "P". Jasmin had just birthed "O" and "P".

Ella is the one on the floor still resting while Jasmine helps clean up just birthed "Q".

Sandy is well-acquainted with barns having been around more than one during her lifetime. But baby goat midwifery was a new wrinkle watching Ella birth (oof!) a really big boy--Wendy helping pull, and the actions she took. Then, Wendy went out to fetch something from the house and suddenly another baby slid out. Sandy grabbed that towel and wiped away placental tissue becoming a goat midwife in seconds.

Ella with "Q" and "R".

In no particular order and from different iPhones (I lost track) are more baby goat appreciation photos and video...

Both mamas cleaned all the babies.

Brother and sister--Q and R.

R. "Hello World." There is no doubt in anyone's mind, R will stand for "Rule". This little goat was up and at 'em in no time at all after her surprise landing. She will, no doubt, be a lead goat.

Five days later--Aidan with R--now Rose of Sharon.

Preceding "O"-"R" were "A"- "N", the first in the sequences born in Tucson, the rest in Pennsylvania up until last Thursday when "O"-"R" were added to the alphabet and the farm. There was much texting and the family decided on:

Jasmine's--
O for Ophelia
P for Pascal
Ella's--
Q for Quincy
R for Rose of Sharon

I voted for Rosasharn who is a character in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Vernacular for Rose of Sharon Wendy says.

Shoutout to Trivia: All Wendy's goat births have been on Thursdays.

In the next stall...