Sylvestris and Felis, Fall Creek Edition

Franklin, felis sylvestris catus, office assistant

Sylvestris is said to have several meanings; the one I see most often is “of the forest”. But for this photo essay it will designate “forest”, and felis will designate “cats”.

Reflections of the forest in a steam

Many creeks run through sylvestris; this one is closest to us.

Leaves pause at the rocks

Boss and Lynx

Felis can’t live in sylvestris anymore. It just isn’t safe for kitties there, or in any of those former forests now modified to be cities, suburbs, and other places. (We do have to make an exception for those cats who are feral and cannot live indoors with humans.) Sylvestris became attached to the name felis. My own feeling as to why that fits is because of the unusual way in which humans and felis became acquainted. We didn’t deliberately breed them for domestication like we did other animals, they stepped out of wild spaces and came to us, drawn by the rodents around our stored foods. Both species adapted to each other. Lynx really looks like a small wild felid, I think!

Colors sneak into view

Expanse

Spooky

Sun and trees painting water

Autumn seeps

Sweet little Moonpie

Momentary unstillness

Casual  gathering

There aren’t a lot of leaves gathered in the creek now, like there were on the last trek down there. Rain washed those away. There also aren’t any fully turned trees all red, all orange, or all yellow. The sweetgum and oak trees are just now getting going so maybe? in a week or so? Maybe more leaf patches in the creek too? Our weather doesn’t know what to do with itself.

Stripey the performer!

Stripey doesn’t do windows often. He loves to roll around and play! He’s a big show-off, sort of like Sylvestris in autumn.

Dense yet patchy

I like the color mixes of the slow fall, myself.

Reflections reach the depths

Magnolia float

About four of those broad-leaf magnolia trees are part of this jammed up leaf bunch.

Y’all, I have so many pictures already of the creek, the trees, and all the cats; enough to likely keep going all through the winter, and with more in the camera. So here’s our friend’s cat, Shelley, for her cameo; it’s sunset, the light is low, so her pupils are wide to gather in more light:

Evening Shelley

And, here’s Boss again, pretending to ignore my book, Catwoods (another way of saying felis sylvestris), which would make a great holiday gift. That silver decal is a nifty MUSE Award Winner sticker! And, it’s a long book, about 363 pages, for long winter reading ahead. Boss won’t be impressed unless we can publish the second book, where he comes along!

Boss and Catwoods book

There will be more pictures, I just work slowly. I may be slow to respond to comments, too.