Private: Please enjoy these photographs of the Maud household’s backyard as I dig my way out of a backlog of work, school, and personal obligations

by Maud Newton |

Friday night. Beneath the table is the outline of a stray gray cat that I've been feeding and fretting about and building shelters for over the past several months. I want to take him to a no-kill shelter, but I haven't been able to catch him. Photo (c) 2003 Mr. Maud
Saturday morning. Mr. Maud and I share the backyard with neighbors in the apartment across the hall. One of them kept trying to build this snowman, but the snow fell so fast and hard that the contours were always blurred. The poor guy was out there every few hours, gathering snow, rolling it into balls. Mr. Maud and I vaguely promised to help, but we never did more than pat a handful each onto the existing structure. Today the snowman partially collapsed as the snow began to melt and then hardened into ice. I almost took the neighbor some soup to fortify him during his bereavement. Photo (c) 2003 Mr. Maud.