Concerning my cats...
Fluff-Fluff The Cat
Thank you, Minimus, for bringing an early morning mouse inside and playing with it mercilessly. Usually I get Rusty the dog to - ahem - remove the rodent. But Minimus, the tiniest country street-fighting cat supreme, was NOT giving it up.
Tuesday 18th January
All's not so well that ends not so well for this mouse - silly thing climbed into an empty laundry basket. Ha! I pounced and carried it (the basket) out into the driveway, where Fluff-Fluff the Fierce and Histeria the Huntress were prowling. Meanwhile, back in the house, Percy and Tiger were busy checking behind a large box, while young Minimus patrolled the stairs. The Moosey Cat Pack in action...
Piano News
I think I've found the most beautiful piece of piano music in the world for me to play - it's by Albeniz and is called Jerez. It makes me feel small and profoundly insignificant, and I hear it inside my head all the time. I'm actually nervous to play it too much in case I ruin things... How silly!
Kniphofia - Red Hot Poker
Not Too Much Later...
Blast! Out of nowhere it's started raining, which means my gardening day is semi-abandoned. But I have some flowering news to record, before I totally redirect myself. Up to now I've unsuccessfully grown clumps of stylish little Kniphofias, so subtle that they just get lost in space. Then one supposedly robust, taller clump tries to flower early but its impact is zero.
Aha! I know this may be a boring-old common-as plant, but finally I have a decent clump of proper orange Kniphofias, flowering in mid-summer, as unsubtle as the new 75cm garden gnome I'm picking up later today. Hmm... Maybe they'd make good garden partners...
And my friend is giving me some lovely summer phlox, an older variety which came from her mother's garden. Its flowers are clear pink with white eyes.
I've just asked smoochy Fluff-Fluff what he thinks I should do first. Vacuum the downstairs? Take more books out to Pond Cottage (whose hutch dresser arrives today)? Or play my scary Albeniz piece? Forever inscrutable, his cryptic answer is as follows: '8998iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiu'. People might think that FF is an excessively heavy (and loud) cat, but the brevity of his computer keyboard messages (when compared to Percy's) indicate a certain lightness of foot, hee hee...
Later Still...
And the rain is still pouring, pouring, pouring down - great news for my garden, but absolutely not conducive to being active in it. A rather large garden gnome wrapped in a rug fills the back seat of my little car. I've bought more things for Pond Cottage - a stuffed indoor doorstop mouse, a bone china mug with fuchsias on it, and an old English Monopoly set (hmm).
Broom on Mount Grey
Thursday 20th January
Yesterday I went hiking - it was a gentle little day-amble in the foothills, up Mount Grey, not 'up' to my usual standards but challenging never-the-less. There's always something new to experience, and this time it was the wind, buffeting the body and cleansing the mind. And so difficult to take photographs of wind.
Large Lindsay Gnome
My New Garden Gnome
When I got home I went to check on my new gnome (whose name is Lindsay), leaning on a tree by the pond. He's such a startling size that he needs 'softening' visually (hee hee), and the strappy Agapanthus foliage does just that.
Today I'm off swimming and then I have a list of things to buy for Pond Cottage - a soft broom, a waste-paper basket, a kettle... And when I get home I'm going to do some gardening. And then I can write about gardening, as this is supposed to be a Gardening Journal (not a Cats and Homemaking Blog). Garden gnomes, of course, would fit in regardless...
Later...
Oops. But it's been drizzling on and off, and I've taken Rusty the dog for a cycle ride (where I mistook one of my neighbours for a sheep stuck in the fence - must wear my glasses next time). I've done my Albeniz piano practice, worked on my Christmas jigsaw, swept Pond Cottage's floor with the new broom, and bought it a kettle. Honestly! These things may not be newsworthy, but they're positive and happy. Please note - unlike the official radio and press, I have not whipped up today's swarm of aftershocks into a stressful, tizzy, frenzy of uninformed froth. Ha!