Monday 26th April - Mostly about our cats

 Just thought I'd let you know in advance about the cat 'events' so you can skip this post - although there is some knitting, and some gardening, and the usual trivial day-to-day rambling...   

Leo and McCavity are the wrong side of about 18 years old now, and feeling their age. Some cats get fatter with old age - ours are going thin and bony. I thought McCavity was looking a bit cold the other evening, and when I stroked her, she felt cold as well. So I wrapped her up in the blanket I started knitting for her this time last year;

I think she appreciated the attention;

But she wasn't so happy when the blanket came too when it was time to go to bed (that's her bed in the bottom of the kitchen trolley behind her)

Today we discovered Leo perched on top of this cushion, on the floor. I'm not sure how this happened; the cushion is usually on top of the wicker basket behind her, which is one of my various hidey holes for storing wool.

 She wasn't very happy about the situation and very pleased to have everything returned to normal. 

This isn't 'normal' either - somehow she has climbed inside the two layers of the cushion...

Leo had an unscheduled adventure this afternoon; she was pestering to have the kitchen door opened so she could go upstairs, not something we encourage because her personal hygiene isn't what it used to be, but I was busy making cake and getting fed up with her meowling.

Himself went to see what she was up to; and found himself doing a cat-rescue. Leo can climb up the ladder to get onto the high sleeper bed (which number 1 son still sleeps in when he comes to stay - 'something will have to be done about that' but we've been saying that for nearly a decade now). However, Leo was stranded, as the windowsill, which is her method of getting down, is now completely covered with my pelargoniums (what used to be called geraniums). Himself was greeted with glad cried, and more meowls of encouragement when he cleared the plants to create sufficient space for Leo to get down.

I went up to assess the state of the bedroom; we were in the early stages of clearing, decluttering, taking stuff to dump and recycle and charity shops after years of just closing the door on it all, when lockdown started last March. We had also just finished clearing my god-mother's house - we still have bags and boxes waiting to be rehomed, and as for the resolution of taking two bags of stuff per month to charity shops - forget it. Another couple of years of just shutting the door on it all looks likely. If anyone comes to stay we still have the tent and the airbeds.

I have taken cuttings of the pelagonigeraniums; one website instructs people to take them in the Autumn, and the other says 'April is the best time'. The bathroom windowsill is now full. That shouldn't incommode Leo - her only use for the bathroom is to demand that the cold tap for the bath be set to a gentle trickle in the mornings while I brush my teeth, partly for entertainment, partly to enjoy drinking from it. (I once set the hot tap going by accident; she was most indignant.)

Today's piano teaching was a hit and miss affair (it was last Monday too). The first student has got all kinds of GCSE stuff over-filling her life and had arranged to miss her lesson this week. The second one (a young child) hid on the windowsill of his bedroom and wouldn't come out - we have rescheduled for tomorrow - but the third student was there, seated, all ready with her music on the stand, and, once we had got her sound working, we had a good lesson.

I'm making steady progress on reviving a Schubert Impromptu I learned over 40 years ago, and a Mozart sonata 331 from 30 years ago, and learning a Bartok rondo, new to me but fun to play. All set for the current Grade 8 syllabus. All I have to do is persuade the student that these would be really good choices...

I also sowed some Marigold seeds today, before lunch. I had a look at them this afternoon but they haven't come up yet. I'll keep you posted...