Tree rainbow on parade, everything but blue. Low sun, autumn sunshine shadows, early morning mist and magpies on the roadside. Dewdropped spiderwebs like liquid lace. A bank of lavender and cotton clouds low on the horizon pretending to be mountains. I’m fall-struck.
Lots of people in Flyinge have outdoor cats as we’re “out in the country” and there are regulars along the street that leads to the daycare and school parking lot. It’s only 30 KPH on the street and that’s a good thing, as there are always children and kittens to watch out for. I regularly see black and white or tabby kittens in the spring and summer peeking from under bushes and darting across the asphalt as I drive by in the car. The cats are wary, but not particularly scared by the cars that drive through their little kingdoms.
Some time ago, after I had dropped the kids off and was headed back up the street, on my way to work, a kitten challenged my car. Talk about tilting at windmills! I was driving very slowly as I saw him and a little furry friend sitting in the middle of my side of the road a bit ahead of me. As the car approached, the friend took off under the bushes, but Don Quixote stood his ground. Then he reared up his head and shook it back and forth at the car, as if daring it to come on already, I can take you, you talking to ME?
I drove quite carefully around him, and he never budged from his spot in the center of the road. We (my car and I) slunk away with our tail between our legs, cowed by a cat. It still makes me smile, weeks later.