I have been preoccupied of late with working online, teaching folk how to talk proper English like, and also working on the ground floor apartment in preparation of Sanja’s imminent return with her cats. Here are the photo’s I did have time to take….
Nice eh!?Love the way the sun caught these grasses on a winter evening half way down my field.Just who is that grumpy old git reading his newspaper out in the garden?It was a beautiful day, chilly but bright and I had to try sitting out in the aftenoon sun and reading another fascinating issue of the London Review of Books – thanx Jane! – The copies I have are well out of date now but just as engrossing, except for the occasional article about poetry that just goes straight over my head!Sanja’s studio apartment has been taking up most of my free time of late (its the main reason why I have been failing to post here, soz!) there have been heaters and shelves installed, tiles regrouted, tiles replaced, tiles, a bath, a sink and a toilet thoroughly scrubbed. Laminiate flooring installed, curtains cut and hung, furniture refurbished and viewing platforms for cats added to otherwise too thin window sills. Vintage punk artwork has undergone cat protection measures, wooden chests have been cleaned, fixed and lined, cat boxes prepared and beds prepared – we can’t leave the little buggers alone at night apparently! All in all its been fun and some times tricky job for one, but being a total amateur its’ probably bes no one was watching!Sanjas’ studio might also get called the Cat House as that’s where her two cats will be imprisoned for the first few weeks after they arrive -soon – untill they have acclimatised to the fresh air and sudden sense of ‘space”.Certain ungrateful Polish readers of this blog complained about all the pictures of nature etc. Well this is for them, a panorama shot from my bedroom window of nature and snow, bet they’ve never seen the like….When it snows you are meant to get straight out there and clear all the paths you can before the snow hardens or gets squashed in to ice. I did one path across to my tool shed and decided taht would suffice! Snow fun without someone to through snowballs at !I love how my little post box has a proper wedge of snow on top just like all the surrounding roofs!I bought a bird feeder, and put it up on my fave tree. Everytime I walk round the corner of the house or come out of the kitchen door I see birds fly away from it but you can just make out one hanging one to it in this photo carefully taken whilst standing very still!I wandered in to the kitchen one morning and noticed the little white cat sittng out in the snow waiting for some poor creature to stick its head out of a hole in the ground. I mused on how the local cats will deal with Sanjas pussies arriving on the scene. After breakfast Ilooked out again and thought how strange that the little white cat had been replaced by a big ginger one! When the cat stood up I realised it was a fox! Which is the first time I,ve seen a live one since leaving London where you see them literally every other day! Quite exciting. I tried creeping out to get a better shot but it must have heard or smelt me and legged it. Interesingly as I scanned the horizon to see if I could see where the fox had gone the little white cat stalked back across the scene obviously determined to show she wasnt that scared really! Look carefully and you can see the fox hidden amongst the grass.I love these two ageing trees.The view through the kitchen window, the one with the mosquito grill still on, on a snowy morning, black n white and grey in between!I dunno what these little flowers are but I do wonder if they realise its early January and way too early for coming out so bright and bushy tailed!Here is another of the terribly tame stinky martin bugs that fly wobbly around in my warm room instead of hibernating as they should be. This one spent a long time sitting in my mandarine until I remembered that they eat fruit! On closer inspection its proboscis was stuck in my mandarine and the two were then banished to the cold outdoors.It’s been on my “to do’ list for ages, Peanut Cookies and biscuit making in general, I gotta stop buying biscuits just cos “they’re new and vegan!” and this seemed like a good ‘compromise’! It would have been if I hadn’t gone and baked so many I had to use a bigger bowl than this and I didn’t manange to eat them all before got too old and needed rescuing by being soaked in custard! What a terrible chore it was to eat that, peanut cookies soaked in custard mmmmmmm….
