A Visit to Philipsburg Manor – A Cat

Of course, where you have a lot of corn and flour, you also tend to get lots of rats, mice and other vermin. So you also need something to deal with them: a cat.

This picture is a little misleading. It gives the impression that I was walking around and came across a sleeping cat. That was not at all the case. A small crowd of visitors was milling (get it? milling?) around this millstone while the guide was explaining how it worked. In typical cat fashion the cat walked through all the people, jumped onto the millstone, lay down and fell asleep. You’ve got to love cats and, as a cat owner myself, I certainly do.

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II

Grounds for Sculpture – A bird

Not a sculpture, but a real bird. Anyone reading this blog will know by now that I struggle to get pictures of birds. It’s not that I’m not technically capable of taking the pictures. Rather it’s that I can’t find birds to take pictures of – except for Canada Geese and Mallards. Can it be that these are the only birds that like having their pictures taken?

I’m no expert, but I believe that this is a Grey Catbird:

“The gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), also spelled grey catbird, is a medium-sized North American and Central American perching bird of the mimid family. It is the only member of the “catbird” genus Dumetella. Like the black catbird (Melanoptila glabrirostris), it is among the basal lineages of the Mimidae, probably a closer relative of the Caribbean thrasher and trembler assemblage than of the mockingbirds and Toxostoma thrashers. In some areas it is known as the slate-colored mockingbird.” (Wikipedia)

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II