Christmas Kittens...
Christmas Kittens
Ho ho ho! Two Christmas kittens have arrived, identical striped boys, so much alike that I can't tell them apart. Names - Fred and Fred? Not sure this is quite the done thing. At the moment the Freds are busy exploring the family room. The other house animals are a bit put-out...
Pebbles, our younger Border Collie dog, is scared of them and refuses to come in. Winnie is semi-sulking. Buster has gone outside in a cat huff, nothing too serious, while Tiger the old cat noticed them, stared for a wee while, then wandered off.
I'd loosely mentioned to our vet a couple of months ago that we'd like to offer a home to two sibling kittens. No colour or gender preference. I'd then forgotten completely about it. What a lovely surprise!
My Self-Affirmation Programme
Red and Pink Flowers
I'd like to take the time now to reaffirm how well my self-affirmation programme is going. To recap, each day I have to do five things - music, gardening, socialising, information seeking, and spending quality time with my cats and dogs. Well, I have been super good every day, and I have lots of ticks on my wall chart.
My music is going particularly well. I've now had two sessions with my lovely flautist friend (playing Bach, Rutter and Poulenc). I practice piano sight-reading each day, as well as my own solo favourites (and so Albeniz 'Iberia' resurfaces for another summer). Now I just have to get Non-Gardening Partner sorted. My summer holiday plan for him is lawn mowing, chain-sawing, and Brahms and Bach. I suspect his plan is to snooze on the dog couch.
And the garden?
The garden is - ahem - interesting, having absorbed so much summer rain.
Blue Campanula - Drenched
Today I spent a couple of hours clearing by the Glasshouse. There is soooooooooo much growth. It's never been quite like this before. Nature's watering system is far superior to the whooshy irrigation. And now it's raining again - what a month! Normally this close to Christmas Day I'd trim a few lawn edges, snip a few rose dead-heads and the garden would be 'sweet as', ready for the big day. Not so, this year.
One of the Freds by the Piano
Saturday 22nd December
The Freds are settling in well. The dogs are still slightly circumspect, and Buster is still sulking a bit. But no cat or kitten hissing today. And Tiger the cat just goes about her daily business - eating and sleeping (and peeing on the kitchen counter, if anything remotely important is left there). My crocheted owl tea-cosy has been well-washed as a result of Tiger's laziness.
There is so much for the new kittens to explore. Of course, having two makes life happy and social, as they play (and sleep) together. And naturally I've explained that D for Dog actually should be 'D for Daft'.
Later...
I opened the patio doors, but the kittens chose to stay inside - fair enough. I've tried to spot any differences in their markings and faces, but I can't. So I'll buy them each a lightweight kitten collar, different colours. Now I'm thinking Red Fred and Blue Fred for modified names...
The Fred Kittens
Success...
My Self-Affirmation Programme is again a success, though today's gardening effort consisted only of digging up some potatoes. It has, however, been raining again (what a surprise) so this can count as a tick.
This afternoon Non-Gardening Partner and I played our Bach and Brahms. I sight-read some Schubert and practiced the Bartok Dances in Hungarian rhythm from Mikrokosmos Volume 6 (they're wonderful).
Hope you enjoy the first of the Christmas kitten photos (taken indoors, so they might be a bit fuzzy). Naturally here will be sqillions more in the coming days. Awwwwww. Soooooo gorgeous...