The calm of a cat

These are old photos of Mo when he was quite young.
Just looking at a sleepy cat seems to calm my brain and slow my heart rate
(in a good way). Hope it can do the same for you.

Some old photo's for Liz

Magnolia flower and Bali when she was younger

East and West coasts of Scotland

A couple of college pieces: 1992 and a screenprint from 1990(or '91?)

Book jacket cover design which I messed up, but it made it look like this mashed up fishing net in Dunbar

Different kind of light I notice with camera in hand.

I was looking through some of my old photos and put a few together for you Liz. You've had too many words to take in this week - I thought some images might be in order.

Sleepy Hedgehog

I am not the only one round here who sleeps through rare sunny days...



We call him Heath (get it, Heath Hedger). I nearly stepped on him last month as he snoozed on a wee sunny patch on the narrow path. You can see more of the wildlife in my garden on my Folia pages.

Clouds, again...

Still too tired to blog but always watching the sky and snapping it when I can. That big black cloud dropped 10 minutes of the heaviest rain then the sun came out. We've had two really summery days and tomorrow also meant to be good. The cat is loving it, and is recovering well with lots of sunny places to sleep in our gardens. I went to check on him yesterday (has to be watched as his medication gets reduced) and instead found a sunbathing hedgehog! I took some pics but not uploaded them yet.

Much thanks to everyone who is commenting and visiting even though I've not been doing many or varied posts. I've not been completely useless, 2.5 years late I've finally started trying to edit my Swedish holiday / Ice Hotel photo's. So many images, they are quite refreshing during these few hot days. When I get to blogging more I'll start showing some of them, until then you can see previous photo's I blogged of the Ice Chapel, the Kiruna Snöfestival, and the Ice Hotel.

Hectic days, sleepless nights

Sun, wind, showers, the gulls are loving it

Once again, I've neglected my blog. I've not even been checking comments, but I am trying to go through them today. And goodness only knows how many emails I've missed. I'll try and catch up a bit this week. For anyone wondering why I've been blog absent read on, for everyone else, some pictures from June.


Thalictrum at Malleny Gardens


Remnants of June

On the day I started to recover from my own infection, the cat began to succumb to one of his own and nearly died. It was awful, and with Mr P away for a week I had to manage all the vet trips myself. Given that I can't even get to the shops to buy my own food, this was somewhat of a challenge. Fortunately my stress levels got high enough that the adrenalin kicked in and helped me handle the travel, after a fashion. The vets got his temperature down after a few days and he finally ate and drank one week after stopping and he was able to come home before Mr P returned. He's still weak and has lost a lot of weight, but he can walk again and seems keen to keep an eye on his territory, though god forbid he gets into any fights at this stage. I bloody love that cat.


My tall Hebes are bursting with flowers for the bees

The nights when he wasn't here were awful, I couldn't sleep at all, and then when he was here I still couldn't sleep as I was so worried about him dying. Lots of tears, then lots of joy. Now that it's all over I'm completely wiped out and have had no oomph for blogging at all. Plus I seem to be having serious problems with my eyes. I'm a bit shocked how fast my sight has deteriorated in just 2 weeks so I'm guessing I'll have to get my eyes tested and start wearing specs. Hopefully that will sort things out. In my darker moments when the cat wasn't here I was planning what kind of art I would make if I went blind! I do get carried away with my thoughts, good or bad. Lucy also got the all clear from the vet, her lump was just a fatty cyst, nothing to worry about, and her wound is healing well.


Such a lovely background for wild flowers.

After the rain...

Dramatic skies at 10pm last week after yet another torrential downpour. It was a bit like being under a stormy sea full of undulating waves, really quite beautiful, and these photo's don't do justice to the intensity of the clouds. The dark bits were so dark, you could almost feel them sagging from the weight of water inside them. We haven't had any consistently dry weather yet, and the forecast for the week is grey skies, rain and an average temp of 12-13º, an echo of last July. The extra wool blanket is back on the bed and I needed a hot water vottle on my feet last night (the cat agreed and spent the night on the bottle too, instead of tucking into my cold arms. He is very unimpressed by all this wet weather and spends a lot of time sheltered under a conifer.

In the grass

Lucy yawning 2 weeks ago, before the vet visit
She likes to sniff around the field. Since I have to sit a lot while she does her sniffing I took my camera one day and decided to see what was right beneath my nose as I waited for her...




Here she is with all her hair intact...

Ouch

Lucy had a suspicious lump removed. about 10 days ago. Still waiting on the results but the vet seemed to think it should be ok. But look at the enormous patch they shaved off her, I'm glad it's not winter as she'd be really cold. She's not allowed to hop skip jump (or run) and has to be kept on the lead until at least Friday.

I'm sorry to have been off the blog for over a week. I seem to be having a lot of trouble with my eyes, and looking at the screen is really painful. Do any of you with M.E./Chronic Fatigue have eye trouble? I never did the 1st time I had this, so it may just be age related. In fact, I'm getting eye ache already so I better send this before I have to stop.

I hope you are all well, and that those of you with gardens are enjoying the fruits of your labours. I'll try and post a picture of a nice corner of my garden soon, when the downpour stops and the sun shines.

Grey thoughts clouding my mind

Old Dairy (as seen last week)

Have you noticed all the grey on my blog recently? Partly it's all the rain we're having (but interspersed with sun so the gardens are very happy). Partly it's my glum feelings after the family visit. 5 days of trying to fake being well. I don't know why I bother, in all the time I've been ill (15 months for this recent bout of M.E.) my family has never once asked how I am. I think that's pretty weird and I'm finding it more upsetting than usual this month. I'm not sure why. More on this in the comments for this post.


Lucy by a farm door

Melted cat

On that really hot day (7th May) the cat, who had been rolling around baking in the dust outside, came in looking dazed and melted onto the bed in the shade. He was more asleep than I have ever known and didn't wake or even move his ears as I spent 20 minutes crawling around him taking photo's. He stayed like that, without moving for at least 1 hour. Hot happy cat.





The weather turned colder this week and today it's raining, but as always, I'm happy for the plants that will enjoy the water. I'm wondering how many of you are gardeners? I love how even a few pots or a window box with the right plants can bring as much pleasure as a large garden. I've still never found anyone willing to break up the vast areas of poured concrete in my garden so a lot of my plants have been surviving in pots, or carrier bags (now disintegrating) for 5 years. The hostas seem best adapted to bag life and never fail to perform, in spite of mass attack from slugs. What pests do you wrestle with? I know many of you live outside the UK so your pests could be very very different from mine.

A shady place to sleep outside

I was wrong, it's not Spring, it's SUMMER!
26ºC yesterday. Today, it's 24.5 in the shade with the North breeze cooling in a nice way. Heavenly. Lucy is having a tail wagging dream just now and making whuffy noises, I bet she's dreaming that she's been left alone in the house with all the cat food. She's stolen his food twice recently, wee bizum.

22º c in the garden

Biplane over LA


Roadside plants, maybe wildflowers, as we drove through Malibu

Meanwhile back here in Scotland, it's 22ºc and it's not even lunchtime!
I got back on the bike today. First time in ages because my wrists and my balance were both bad for a few months there. I'm only doing 10 minutes by the house but it means I can give Lucy a really good fast run before the day heats up and then walk her more gently in late afternoon when it's cooling a little. Gave her a cold water rub soak when we got back because she was so hot from the run. She's outside drying off and completely fast asleep in the shade. I'm going to join her and do a bit more yoga. Mr P returns late tonight so I'll get my camera back for some Spring photo's.

I'm still not visiting blogs just now, I need to make the most of the sun to recharge my body after last year's non-summer. They say we will have a summer this year, but they said that last year. I'm taking no chances. There is rain due at the weekend so I'll do some blog reading then if I get the chance (Mr P may want to use my - ahem - I mean, his computer!). Happy days to you all. xxx

And this...

What you don't see is the cat trying to eat these while I took the pictures. He was very persistent- those ends were not frayed till he gummed them (poor bugger only has 2 teeth so everything gets gummed, like a lizard).

My work - net experiments 1990-92

Once I they were covered in cat hair from the blanket I became less precious about some of my old net pieces...


Thanks for the encouraging words on that last post. I've been really wanting to visit you all on your blogs but things have been hectic here trying to get ready for my week away, which begins today. I'm supposed to be getting up in 3hrs, but it looks like I'm not even going to get to bed. My brother couldn't fit a tripod in his luggage so I'm ditching 1/3 of my packing to take one in mine - it's the least I can do since he's paying for my trip. I warned him that it means I'll look really scuzzy (having to leave behind nice clothes) to which he responded "that's ok, I'm used to that". Well, really! But it's true.

The weather is calming a little for travelling, what a relief. We are quite high up and don't have the protection of any high buildings or trees, and what trees there are were bending over like palm trees in a hurricane, except it was gale force sleet/hail that was hitting them. The noise was SO loud, like steel balls hitting the fragile shell of the mobile home. We're not used to this kind of weather here Last week there was an earthquake in England, big enough to be felt in Scotland. Crazy crazy weather. It can change in as little as 4 minutes, becoming a beautiful bright sunny day... then flip again just as fast.

I hope to blog a little while I'm gone, a bit of a 'guess where I am' thing, but I don't know if I'll have time to get on a computer, if I'm not on the road I'll most likely be trying to get some rest, I'm already exhausted and just trying to get ready. Fingers crossed the adrenalin gets me through. I hope you all have a brilliant week!

Now you see it...

Now you see it...


now you don't...


Thank you all for your birthday wishes on the previous post, they made up for not having a meal or a cake or even a present from my best friend (it's sitting there in a bag but Mr P is so scatty he still hasn't actually given it to me!). My birthday cake arrived belatedly today. It was part of the vegetarian selection pack from Droppa and Droppa, £19.99. It's all wheat and dairy free so I can munch without trouble. So far I have only eaten the mini carrot cake, and OH what a moist DELICIOUS cake it was, and not as mini as the name implies. Incredibly good, I'd never have guessed it was wheat free. The pack includes a little chocolate cake, bread, rolls, teacakes, a spanish tart, a vegetable pasty and a 'cheezy' leek and potato pie.

The cake is not the only thing that was here one minute and gone the next. Yesterday Mr P had a cancellation so was free to take us for a drive to the hill to walk Lucy. We were only away for an hour but when we got back the trellis that stops Lucy escaping out of Mr P's garden was stolen!

::I've moved the details to the comments section of this post, but here is the picture of the missing trellis which has been spotted in the garden of our new neighbours!!!!


Left: in my garden 2007
Right: in neighbour's garden today!

Mr P plans to talk to the neighbours at the weeekend so I will let you know you next week about the outcome. Till then, I shall control my frenzied thoughts with that veggie pasty.


Wheat & dairy free veggie pasty from Droppa and Droppa

Update - the pasty was really nice as was the 1/2 toasted teacake I tried and the 1/2 of chocolate cake! What a pig. What a happy pig.

PS for those who showed an interest in my mention of Cesar Milan I can wholeheartedly recommend watching his Tv show The Dog Whisperer :: the rest of this section has been moved to the comments for this post


Lucy at Flotterstone


Lucy at Flotterstone

37 - images from today

Good morning pussy cat, or rather, good afternoon (I slept late)

One year older, finally the age I've been thinking I was for the last year. I woke to sunshine and snowflakes. When I took Lucy out this afternoon the wind was so cold it froze my face. I felt like I'd been at the dentist, no feeling in my cheeks and jaw but oh my goodness, everything looked so beautifully bleached in the sunlight...





I had an exhausting but wonderful weekend at my parents with Lucy. I was in my element using all the knowledge gleaned from obsessive watching of Cesar Milan and succesfully controlled a pack of 4 large dogs. It was hard work but at the time the adrenalin carried me through. Today I can't move my arms - ouch, lactic acid overload in the old muscles. But I feel like I achieved something, and that feels really good. Mum and dad couldn't believe I got all the dogs fed in the same room at the same time without raucous barking and general insanity. They even video'd me feeding them all their breakfast.

We stayed over because Sunday was Mother's Day. Mum was a bit worried about leaving Lucy at home with the others (though they all got on fine) so instead of us taking her for a meal, she cooked up a feast. SO tasty and included lots of things I could eat. Oh, my mouth is still watering at the thought of the tastiness.

The nice thing about going there is that the fields are right behind the garden so I don't have to walk on any concrete to walk the dogs. I don't think I limped all weekend. Not that I was running around, I only wen a little way into the field but the others went further and then the dogs ran like wild happy creatures between us all. I loved it, the dogs loved it and I think the family did too. My brother came on the Sunday and we were doing some planning for our trip in 10 days - totally exciting. I'm thinking of blogging when I get there and you can guess where I am.