Mickey Marco Polo.

Our once inside-cat Mickey is now an inside-outside cat. I'm not crazy about that, but his behavior once the cold weather finally went elsewhere made us decide to let him go out onto the property. And out he went..... like he was shot out of a cannon. I know that little cat missed his old screen porch, but the way he catapulted himself outside you would think he was being chased by the vacuum cleaner in here.

Mickey Kitty loves the outside. He has been all over every inch of this property, and when there was nothing new to explore here, he went into the neighboring pastures. The other day, I looked out the window and there was Mickey, in the neighbor's field-- with his cows and Longhorns. The cows didn't seem to mind, but it bothered me to see that small black cat in the same field with huge livestock.

Mickey will come when I call him-- either right that second, or he will take a long winding path from there to here. That day, he took a winding path that would make the little kid in the "Family Circus" comic strip look like he was taking a short-cut.

My husband says to "let nature take its course" with Mickey. If he intends to explore and discover every bit of these hills, there's no way we can stop him unless we keep him in the house again. And just how do you do that? After you've let him run free? No way, Mickey would tell us. One of these days, Mickey is bound to roam too far, or get lost on someone else's hill, or meet up with un-friendly wildlife. "So be it," says my husband. I'm trying not to think about it.

The wildflowers are up and blooming and every day there is another explosion of yellow, red, or blue. Mostly blue now, as the bluebonnets come into their best couple of weeks. The yellow flowers look like miniature daisies, with just five leaves. Millions of them all over the hills here, and they remind us of the endless fields of the "butter-blooms" we saw in Germany. We haven't heard the sound of lawn-mowers and tractors lately-- no one dares to mow till all the wildflowers have gone to seed. For the next few weeks, driving anywhere will be a treat for both the eyes and the soul.

The barn swallows that had nested on our front porch last Spring are back again. There were two adults and five babies last year. Five tiny babies in that little nest last Spring, and we watched them every day and got to see their first flights out of the nest. This time, there are three barn swallows. At first, they were using the old nest from last year. Now they have begun to build a new nest not far from the old one. Both Mickey and Sweet Pea are watching the swallows going back and forth with grasses and weeds for the nest. The cats can't reach the nest-- it's way too high, but the birds are keeping an eye on the cats as they fly back and forth.

The bats are gone..... haven't seen any lately, either inside (thankfully) or outside. I'm sure they're out there somewhere at night. Maybe the barn... but there's no way I would go in there after dark anyway, so if the bats have found a new home in there, that's just fine.

Easter weekend already. I've begun to get the dining room table ready for company..... we invited J and J over for Easter Sunday. We'll make some food, they will make some food, and just like Valentine's Day, we will have way too much food and then we'll share the left-overs.

Scarlett is still sitting on the fake egg in her nesting box. It has been 23 days now since she began sitting on that egg and waiting for it to hatch. She has come down out of the nesting box on her own a couple of times, to eat and drink, but for the most part, she's just in that box and on top of that egg. What on earth does she think of all day long?