That’s what I wanted!
See, this is what the whole exercise was about: cat buddies. They’ve been playfighting and rough-housing, but this is the first time I’ve caught them having a snooze together.
Something about not usually being allowed to sleep on the bed that will do that.
‘Twas a glorious sunny day in the garden today, but another near freezing one tonight – a pattern that will be repeated for some time.
Off for a bath!
March 25, 2020 — 7:36 pm
Comments: 8
Last trip for a while…
We were non-compliant today! We left the house!
We’ve had Wellington’s last shots scheduled for weeks. This morning, we called the vet and they counselled us to come in as planned as this was their last day for who knows how long. They’re shutting it down. We didn’t get to go in, though. You wait in your car, someone comes out and takes the cat carrier, vanishes inside and returns a little while later with your cat.
Nice young lady vet came out and said, “I know this one! I did his castration!”
How nice.
Afterwards, we swung by the gas station and got some bread and toilet paper, as you do.
And that’s it. Now we’re locked down tight.
*sighs* *looks around the room* *sighs again*
March 24, 2020 — 8:34 pm
Comments: 14
Won’t anyone think of Wellington’s balls?
I think we’ve settled on Wellington. He’s down on the vet’s register as that, so it’s a done deal. We took him in late this afternoon for a neutering early tomorrow morning.
I hate to think how scared he must be tonight, in the dark in a cage with the bad smells and the scary sounds.
You may remember I sought him out as company for our two-year-old cat, who’s a sociable little chap. Of course, being a kitten, Wellington has driven Boo nuts. Playfighting too hard, giving him no peace. It will settle down when he grows up a little, but he’s driven Boo out of the house many’s a time.
And now that Wellington has inexplicably vanished, Boo is beside himself. He’s gone all around the house to the places the little one liked to hide. I’ve never seen a cat do this.
Now he’s gone outside. I hope he isn’t looking for Welly out there in the dark.
Virus update: as predicted, now they’re taking testing seriously in the US, the confirmed cases are swelling. From under 200 a week ago to almost 800 tonight. Still too lackadaisical in the UK, though – including my employer, who was shocked when I suggested cancelling a large gathering later this week.
March 10, 2020 — 9:18 pm
Comments: 17
I think he’s settled in
What he doesn’t know is, he’ll be neutered Wednesday. Or, as the vet bluntly called it, castrated.
But after that, he can go out into the world and he wants that more than anything. We’re still in contact with the woman we got him from. She confirmed to me that her living room was the only place he’d ever been.
She’s a very nice lady, but that was never going to work. I think this guy is going to be a bruiser.
If only he would tell us his name.
Have a good weekend, everyone. Remember your clocks change on Sunday (we have another couple of weeks). The sun had some real strength and virtue in it today, and no rain. Hold on!
p.s. does the pope coronavirus?
March 6, 2020 — 9:34 pm
Comments: 22
I couldn’t resist…
The lamb from yesterday’s adventure. There aren’t many speckled flocks around. Incidentally, the lambing starts in earnest in about three weeks. Spring is coming!
I had some elderly bananas hanging around, so I have just made banana bread. This is one of those American foods that confuses Brits. For one thing, it’s clearly a cake, not a bread. They have banana cake here, but it’s light and fluffy not heavy and dense. At least, all my banana bread recipes are heavy and dense. And very rich.
I think they’re just being polite when they compliment it. They’re embarrassed for me and my inability to bake a light cake. If I called it a ‘heavy banana loaf’ or something, I bet it would go over better.
They have a thing called Soreen, which is denser even than banana bread, so it’s not outside the realm of British foods. There’s even a banana flavored Soreen.
It’s all in the marketing.
I would like British bacon 100% more if they relinquished the holy name of bacon and called it ‘chewy pork slices’ instead.
March 4, 2020 — 8:15 pm
Comments: 13
My dinosaurs are cranky
Happy Leap Day!
I ran across a neat article about a dinosaur exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. I looked up the show only to find out it closed in January of 2017.
I hate the Internet sometimes.
Screw it. Still a neat article. It’s a NatGeo about feathered dinosaurs. I mean, we’ve known some had feathers for a long while, but the article went into more detail.
T. Rex was definitely feathered, apparently, because they fossils of his cousin, Yutyrannus Huali, have plumage.
I remind you that a chicken is a living dinosaur, and I wish to inform you my dinosaurs are very unhappy at the moment. It has not ceased to rain. I can recall on one hand the days without rain in the last six months. The lawn around the chicken run is mud, and the mud is now the consistency of chocolate pudding.
Three times a day, I pull on my wellies and squish out to feed wet, unhappy birds. The straw of their bedding just seems to suck moisture from the air. I can’t tell what’s mud and what’s chicken shit, I just know I come in covered in it. I’m sneaking heavy bags of wet straw and chicken shit into the household trash hoping I don’t get done for industrial waste.
I’m amazed none of the birds has gotten sick.
And tomorrow, we’re getting tropical storm Jorge (the Spanish named this one). High winds, rain and hail. I’m so utterly beyond sick of it, Oh My God.
But, hey, at least I didn’t mention the flu! Good weekend, everyone.
February 28, 2020 — 9:18 pm
Comments: 10
Zen Poultry
I got a message from YouTube today; somebody asking to use a sample from this chicken video of mine.
I’ve rewatched in like a bajillion times since then. My first two chooks pecking around in the sunshine. I could watch it all day.
I hope he doesn’t use my nice chooks in chicken porn.
February 18, 2020 — 8:43 pm
Comments: 7
Goose Xing
A village near us is famous for this: its flock of town geese. The picture is from Twitter. The occasion is the policeman erecting the ’20 MPH’ sign in the background, for protecting of the geese.
I don’t know if one has ever been hit by a car, but I do wonder about the fox. Hm. Must ask someone I know in the village where they go at night.
Every time we drive through, the flock is milling around the green happily. Always about the same number. I wonder if they ever import stock to strengthen the bloodline?
I’ve posted about them before. During the village fete, the goosemaster borrows one for Goose Shit Bingo.
Coronavirus update: cases jumped by almost 4,000 yesterday. Total 24,631 today, of which 24,405 in Mainland China. This is very peculiar. From rumor and leaks, the damn thing seems very contagious where it’s hot, but it has hardly spread at all elsewhere. This argues for a longer asymptomatic time (very not good) or an Asian racial vulnerability (less not good, for us non-Asians, anyway).
February 5, 2020 — 7:26 pm
Comments: 14
Positively Lovecraftian
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one of these in the wild, just in displays. Sinister looking thing. They call it a mermaid’s purse, but it is in fact a skate or ray eggcase.
You probably knew that. I grew up a thousand miles from the sea, which catches me out a lot here. There is no spot in Britain that is farther than 100 miles from the ocean. True phact.
Anyway, here’s a handy pdf chart for identifying various eggcases. In it, you will discover there are such creatures as catsharks and nursehounds in the briny deep.
The ocean is weird.
February 3, 2020 — 9:26 pm
Comments: 8
Landshark, for reals
Scientists have discovered nine species of walking sharks. They mostly ‘walk’ along the sea floor, but they’re capable of walking over the tops of coral reefs, out of the water, to reach new feeding grounds. Only a matter of time.
I was going to use the picture from the NatGeo article, but when I right-clicked to copy I got a pop-up warning me to be respectful of copyright. I don’t think that’s right — once you’ve put an image in a tweet, I believe you lose exclusivity per the TOS. Otherwise, you could sue people for retweeting stuff.
Eh. I’ll be honest. I’m just sitting on Twitter following the #coronavirus hashtag again.
Have a good weekend, y’all!
January 24, 2020 — 9:29 pm
Comments: 9