Cats sleep anywhere...

I am a lover of blue and white pottery.  Spode 'Blue Italian' is my first love, closely followed by Wood and Sons 'Yuan'.  We were lucky to be given some Yuan pieces and we then started looking out for it, so we have quite a lot now and we use it as everyday china.  

Chris managed to buy a large Yuan bowl at a car boot sale last week.  The bowl would have originally been part of a set for a washstand, with a jug and possibly other small pieces, such as lidded pots.  He brought it home and put it on the table, until we have found a better home for it.

Look what happened!

Yes, you guessed it, the cat who visits us regularly (we have called him quite a few names; Slinky Malinki, Larry the Loafer, etc. but I have now settled on 'Cat', which he seems to respond to) has decided that the bowl is now his bed.  Chris had put some comics in the bowl and I think these will have made it nice and cosy for the cat!  

He has chosen many other places to sit and sleep, most usually my chair, but also the back of the sofa, my lap tray and on top of various papers - quite often what look like fairly uncomfortable places to me.

For now, the bowl is his bed.  Eleanor Farjeon's poem is right!  

"Cats sleep anywhere

Any table, any chair,

Top of piano, window ledge,

In the middle, on the edge,

Open drawer, empty shoe,

Anybody's lap will do.

Fitted in a cardboard box,

In a cupboard, with your frocks -

Anywhere! They don't care! 

Cats sleep anywhere."

Pocket Doodle Book 2019 pages 16 - 22 and new decorations

 I am nearing the end of this very enjoyable little challenge.  Page 16 was rounded rectangles.

Page 17 was lines in black and gold and page 18 was dots of white and gold.  I have tried to make the pages different from the previous ones so that has also been a challenge.

Page 19 was the most Christmassy image with floral and star decorations.  Page 20 was dictated by the eye patterns in the background print.

Page 21 was a mix of lines and circles (bit of a recurring theme, I think) and page 22 was more dots and lines following the spirals, in white and gold. 
In other creative news, I have been making some extra decorations for the Christmas tree, which are also a memorial to our previous and current much loved cats.

 I bought some mdf bauble shapes and painted them in suitably Christmassy colours, adding some gold stencils (oh look, circles again) and some glitter (well, it is nearly Christmas).  Their photos went on the front...

 ...and their names on the back.  Scruffy is our current cat and features on the blog now and again. They were all lovely cats and it will be a happy reminder every Christmas.

Goodbye Ginny

We had to say goodbye to our much beloved elderly cat, Ginny, on Monday evening.  She had various medical issues and we had to let her go.  She had been with us for twenty-one years, but may have been about twenty-two.

 Here she is when she first chose to come and live with us.  She actually belonged to a neighbour, but decided she liked our house better!

 She decided that the nativity scene was missing just one thing - a large ginger and white cat!

 She enjoyed being out in the garden, especially if we were out there too.

 She sometimes thought she was a ninja cat...

...and found lots of places to hide.

 She liked helping with jobs in a supervisory capacity - here she was checking that the patio slabs were being laid correctly.

 She also supervised my planting schedule each year.

She bravely ventured out in the snow (this photo does remind me of illustrations in Beatrix Potter's 'The Tailor of Gloucester').

Simpkin in the snow illustration from The Tailor of Gloucester – 

The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter F. Warne & Co 1989

from http://www.scotiana.com/two-of-beatrix-potters-tales-have-roots-in-scotland/

This large pot was her favourite place to sit in the garden.

She was very photogenic.

Here's the last photo of her that I took, sleeping on her cosy blanket, on her favourite chair.  Sleep well, Ginny and thank you for all the joy and companionship you brought us.  We'll miss you.

Just a little light reading?

 I love reading.  It is one of my favourite things to do.  I do have a Kindle, which is great for work, as it is light, portable and can store lots on it, but nothing can beat the excitement of a book, whether new or just new to me.  However, I have had to have a serious talk with myself.  I have got too many books which I haven't read.  So, after ordering four more over Christmas(!), I have decided not to order any more until I have read all of the ones in the photo above and possibly a few more as well (there are many more yet to be read).  I enjoy many types/genres of books and the selection above encompasses fiction, factual, biography, gardening, art, cats and social history, to name but a few.  Now, which one to start with?

I usually have a few on the go at once, but if one really grabs my interest then it gets my undivided attention.  The ones above have the potential for this, I think.  I bought 'Merry Hall' for my Mum for Christmas as she likes Beverley Nichols and I had a sneaky peek before wrapping it.  I loved it, so had to get a copy for myself and then, as it was a trilogy, what could I do but buy the others as well?  You see my problem...
So these are first on the list and I must admit that 'The Lost Pre-Raphaelite' may be the very first to be read,  as it has intrigued me.  I have been keeping a record of the books I have read over the last couple of years and it is fascinating to look back.  Last year, I read 86 books and many were on my kindle.  I wonder whether I'll read more or fewer in 2015?  I am reading the Mapp and Lucia series on my Kindle at the moment but I am ready to start a real book too, so off I go!

I love hearts swap

 I have recently taken part in the I love hearts swap organised by all4meggymoo and was partnered with the lovely Mirjam over in the Netherlands.  We had to send 5 things all with a heart theme.  My parcel arrived and in it were all these little packages.

When I opened them, here's what I found!  What a lot of gorgeous things.  She had included some flower seeds too which I shall plant in Spring.

There was a little cat folder and some paper heart bunting made by people in Nepal.

Inside the little cat folder were lots of little notebooks and sticky notes.  Mirjam and I both have cats so she knew I would love this!

She had made three felt hearts and two crocheted ones.

This piece of felted fleece she included as a 'bit of fun'.  It is from a fleece she bought last year from a Dutch breed called 'Drents Heideschaap' and the sheep were/are used to maintain the hay fields.

It has really long fibres and is incredibly soft.  She knows I enjoy making felt, so thought I would find this interesting, which I do.  Huge thanks to Mirjam - she has been a delight to be partnered with and has sent me so many wonderful things.  So, what did I send to her, you may be asking?  More in my next post!

A Triptych of Cats

 Although we had some fantastic presents for Christmas, my favourite one just had to be this triptych of our cats; Scruffy, Ginny and Gonga.  The portraits were painted by Rachael, my colleague at work, who is an amazing artist as well as being an excellent singer and an all-round good egg!

 Scruffy was the most difficult to paint, Rachael said, because he is all black.  The portraits are done in watercolour and ink.

 Ginny looks very serene and peaceful, as she does when she's just had a plate of liver or some leftover chicken or turkey. 

Of all the portraits, I think this one is my favourite because Rachael has managed to capture Gonga when he is feeling rather fed up (to say the least). He really does look this grumpy on occasions! 
The only thing is, now that we have these portraits, I rather think we need portraits of the cats we used to have too - Sammy and Mrs Cat.  I think I feel a commission for Rachael coming on...

Our latest inhabitant

Let me introduce our latest guest who decided to make his presence known last week (a really busy week due to us having a new boiler fitted with all the mess and disruption these things cause).  We know that he had been coming in at night, finishing off Ginny and Gonga's food and sleeping on the table and that this had been going on for quite some time.  However, he had always run away from us.  Last week, he ventured up to the back step and then came in for some food.  Since then, he has been in most of the time!

He has a skin problem and suffers from constant itching, so is licking his fur a lot and consequently has not all that much fur on the lower half of his body.  We took him to the vet and were told it was probably a reaction to fleas (nice) and he was given a jab to hopefully counteract the itching.  Even the vet was impressed with him, saying he was a 'nice little cat', about two years old, he had obviously belonged to someone as he had been neutered, and that we have been judged by the cat as 'coming up to the mark' for providing food, warmth, affection and general care. We have called him Scruffy, because he is, and it seems to suit him.  The vet said that cats must talk amongst themselves when they are outside, word has got around about our house and that this is why we seem to keep attracting them!

Introducing our cats

Well, I have mentioned our cats in previous posts, so thought I should give them a starring role in a post of their own. Above, hiding in the undergrowth of our garden is 'Gonga'. He started out as Georgie, but somehow the name just didn't work for him. As a child, I was given a knitted rabbit which I called Gonga and Chris just started to use that name for Georgie. Somehow, it just stuck! As I was saying to Chris this morning, the alternative name for him could have been Bagpuss, because he is an 'old, fat, furry catpuss', but Gonga suits him very nicely. He was a stray, but someone owned him because he used to have a collar (the fur has been rubbed off round his neck). He is a large cat, about eight years old, the vet thought, and very solid! He has been with us now for nearly two years and is very affectionate.

Here is Ginny, dozing on the chair and keeping me company when I am writing my blog (as she does quite often). She is about fifteen years old and is gradually getting a bit more grumpy (like me) and having to cope with arthritis in her joints as she gets older (also like me!). She is very good at communicating her likes and dislikes. Sometimes she tolerates Gonga and at other times will hiss and swipe at him. She can be contrary but she is a lovely cat.