Damn blast

I tried, I really did. I had this lined up for what seemed ages before she jumped. But I grabbed at the shutter, instead of depressing gently. I think most of the movement in the image came when I allowed my shutter finger to come up too early.

Drats! However, I just know she will do this again. She is that sort of little black duck.

Assistance when 'wintering' the garden

Sellie

In March 2005, Sellie was born in the cabin of an abandoned table-top truck on a small landholding on the outskirts of Sydney. She came to me five weeks later.

At the age of five, she is slowing down, sleeping more, hunting less. As she ages, she is becoming more affectionate and hungry for my company. She sleeps here, in an A4 wicker tray, beside my keyboard.

Still life with fur

A precedent is a pretty silly thing to set!

Once upon a time, my cats, Sylvie and Sellie, were happy with the odd scratch, maybe every other day. Maybe just an absent-minded scritch behind the left ear. Not anymore. No siree ... Not any more.

Now, they come to me. And if I pay scant notice, they sit on my keyboard and thwack my cheek. Whadda we want? A scritch. When da we wanit? ... you get my drift.

However, I have come to realise there is lots in this for me. Less hair inside, for starters. Less asthmatic reaction, for seconds. And a very healthy, toned pair of cats into the bargain.

Now to the mug of coffee ... I used to make my own each morning. Just Moccona and hot water with a dash of milk. Not any more. Jools has wisened up - past participle of 'to wizen'. She now nips across the bus layby and into the corner shop for a 'large flat white, no sugar' for $3.80. And what a delight it is, and I only need one to keep me going all day!

Finally, here is a bud forming on a segment of the Holiday Succulent that I was given over the weekend. What joy!

Now THIS is the secret cubby house

They LOVE the stairs! They bolt up, eyes like saucers, when they are frightened. They caress them with their backs for that lovely scratchy feel.

And they hang out through the gaps to check out what I am doing ...

A dacha

Somewhere through the years, I have seen a grainy film shot in 1901 which shows Tolstoy walking along, stick in hand, near his country estate outside Moscow. The landed gentry in those pre-revolution days, had a dacha to escape the madness of urban life.


This is my newly acquired dacha.

Alleyway dreaming

Does beauty do cute?

Sellie

That dog is such a big dope

Waiting for the danger to pass: Henry is a dopey Labrador who lives two doors up and likes to lick Sellie. She hides under the miniature Nandina Domestica and, when he gets a whiff of her, she is up and through the partially open front-window-escape. All my doors and windows have grills. I am used to it. But it also means that I can leave three windows open with impunity and still be household-contents-covered. The cats come and go when they please.

The downside is that frequently I can come home to four cats waiting to be fed!