Garden pics

A few signs of spring.

Hermes is growing up

Hermes has just discovered the sink!

He also has a habit of climbing into any open cupboard, or even the washing machine.

Arty curls up

This is Arty curled up in the lid of my daughters sewing basket. He must have seen it every day for years, but he has never slept in it before!

Sorry that we've been absent for so long - with the nicer weather gardening will resume and so will this blog.

More details to follow.....

Velvet in the sun

Velvet enjoys a patch of late summer sun.

Please don't forget The Carnival of the Cats at Pets Garden

A reassembled compost heap - complete with carpet - this has become a favourite sleeping place for the cats! 

A new waterbutt - ordered in about June - but never mind - it'll be useful next summer 

Pretty pink geraniums 

One of four sunflowers 

My hebe continues to flower beautifully 

Late pink roses 

A lovely orange dahlia. 

Hermes - a growing kitten

Close encounter with a dog in the garden.



Upside down play!



This photography stuff is complicated.





King of the castle!

Please have a look at Friday Ark at The Modulator

Catblogging - new look cat beds

Oh - a neatly folder pile of clean towels. What an excellent bed. 


Aren't I handsome?


Two tier cat beds!

Please have a look at Friday Ark at The Modulator

And of course don't forget The Carnival of the Cats at Justin's Random Thoughts and Weekend Catblogging at Eatstuff.net

Sorry - but I am back now!

Sorry that blogging has been non-existent for a couple of weeks. So here is a text-only blog entry to catch up with the news.

On Thurs 24th August my daughter, K, got her GCSE results - and we are all so proud of her - she has 8 and a half A*'s and 2 A's (the half was from short-course RE taken in year 10). Her friends also did amazingly well - which bodes well for their entry into the 6th form at the start of the new term.

Her school have decided that the 6th form will wear 'office clothes' so they have to wear black suits (skirts of trousers) and white blouses. So we had a shopping trip - all I need to do now is to turn up 2 pairs of trousers.

On Friday 25th we had a nice Chinese meal with my mom and dad to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary.

Last Wednesday K and her dad went to London and saw the new Tom Stoppard play Rock 'N Roll, and they got his autograph and also autographs of several other members of the cast.

Last week I did 4 days invigilation for ICAS (The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland). This was my first paid employment out of the house for about 18 months, and so was quite scary at first. But there were 2 other invigilators who were great fun - both had connections with my old secondary school so we reminisced a lot. There was quite a lot of admin (which I enjoy) and it wasn't as boring as I thought it might be - and the candidates were great - very mature and polite.

I travelled into Birmingham on the train - with about a 10 minute walk each end - and even that was fun. And R took charge of all the cooking - so it was a nice role-reversal.

The cats were funny as well - they were SO pleased to see me when I got home - and ate their food with great relish! (it didn't seem to occur to either of them that they could 'ask' for food from R or K!) Also, as the weather has been quite Autumnal they are staying inside more and spending a lot of evenings on my lap.

Then yesterday I had the final tutorial for one of my OU courses, and next weekend is a revision weekend (more of that later).

So now it's 'back to school' week. R goes back tomorrow (with 2 days for the staff only), and K is back on Wednesday. I've got lots of OU work to do - and mega-plans in terms of house-tidying. I'll let you know if I stick to my plans!

I will also track down the camera and take some pics of the cats and the garden!

Tagged

We have been tagged by Fat Eric - so here goes:

5 weird things about us:

1. Velvet loves human food - he comes running whenever the fridge door is opened. Arty will only eat catfood! Neither will eat cat treats.
   
   
2. Neither Velvet or Arty will drink water from a bowl - maybe a dripping tap - maybe the toilet (yuk) but usually the pond in the garden.
   
   
3. Velvet distrusts the catflap. Somedays he has to open it with his paw many, many times just to check it still works.
   
   
4. Velvet loves to lie on top of me with his head on my shoulder. The only trouble is he then tries to bite my chin!
   
   
5. Velvet and Arty are 'trained' to come when I click by tongue and call 'kittens'. This may seem odd as they are fully grown cats - but means I get both to come running.
   

5 weird things about me

1. I prefer maths to housework. But actually I prefer most things to housework, so maybe that isn't totally weird.
   
   
2. I like cold chinese or indian food.
   
   
3. I rarely listen to music. Occasionally Classic FM radio (as background sound) or Beautiful South. I listen to BBC Radio 4 a lot.
   
   
4. On the music theme - I hate any music first thing in the morning. I mean really hate it!
   
   
5. I don't like shopping and neither does my daughter, K.
   

I'm not sure if those are weird or not - let me know!

Sorry that blogging has been light

We spent last week in Seahouses in Northumberland. Rather mixed weather - but a nice relaxing time. I've posted a few photos. I hope that I can return to regular blogging soon. The garden is looking a little untidy but plenty of vegetables to pick. The cats are fine - they are really pleased to see us!

Torrential rain on Thurssday led to some interesting scenes outside our window. 

The view from our flat in Seahouses 

Seals on the Farne islands 

Kittiwakes on Inner Farne 

Inner Farne 

Longstone Lighthouse in the Farne Islands