Escaped cat!

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Last night my cheeky little cat got out. We think it was when my partner went out to check on his bike. I went to bed quite late thinking she was upstairs curled up in a cupboard on some blankets.

6am, I came downstairs for a coffee. The male cat was being friendly, but the female was missing, which is unusual because she usually gets up and has a drink of water if I’m up. I called her. No response. She didn’t come to me. I thought has she got out? I shouted by the back door, nothing, I shouted by the back door again. I closed the door then heard a miaow. Was it inside or out? Outside!

Poor cat ran in soaking wet. It had been raining cold rain all night. First she went for food. Then water. Lots of cuddles later she is back upstairs curled up in the cupboard.

My worry is she only got half her vaccination last year. I’ve been trying to get her to the vets. But she sees the pet carrier and runs. I really hope she hasn’t picked anything up while she was out. I will have to and get her there again.

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Vinca

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A scrambling, ground cover plant with pointed shiny green leaves and striking purple flowers. They have five petals that seem to spiral down to the pentagram at the centre. I think you can also get white and also blue versions with variegated leaves.

We just got this plant for the garden where I’m hoping it will take over from the ivy that is covering a large section of ground.

Ducks

DSC_1835it’s not often that you walk down the road in your local town and see a duck and a drake walking down the road in front of us. Crossing by a taxi rank. There is a river called the Trent that runs through the town, but it is in a culvert until it comes out near our local football ground.

When people say hello to each other in Stoke they say “hello duck” where in other places it might be “hello chick, or hello dearie”.

So we hope the ducks found the river or flew off to a park. I didn’t know who to contact and neither of them were injured. Just taking a walk….

Titchy theatre

Today we went to the Harpers Titchy Theatreup at the village hall. We went to listen to short plays written by about 17 people (including my partner and myself). The stories were varied and ranged from subjects about flying a plane to Lancashire in 1963. The name was chosen for a gentleman who passed away last year.

The idea was to write on about two pages of a4 paper. A play or poem to be read by up to 3 or 4 people.

My stories were about monsters and overhearing a conversation. My partners was about childhood memories.

I don’t have the originals because they were hand written and had to be typed up. When I get them back I will copy them to this site.

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Helibores

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Another plant I love in the spring are Helibores. The flowers range from bright white, pale green, pink and green and deeper pink. Sometimes the flowers are upright and you can get double species, but mainly their flower heads droop down and you need to lift up the flower to see its true beauty. There are sometimes dappled patterns and flecks of darker colours. The centre of the flower is quite prominent, backed by a slightly darker centre.

The leaves are deep green and shiny, sometimes five lobed. The borders are sometimes slightly serrated. I don’t know all the types of Hellibores there are but if you want an unusual plant that flowers early in the year and keeps flowering into April then they are worth getting. They offer some food for early insects. If you like your tulips and daffodils you could also try these. They are easy to keep and I grow mine  with pulmonaria which come up a little bit later.

Daffodils

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These are from our garden. The reason why they are not still in the garden? We had to have a tree cut down and they were likely to be squashed underneath its limbs. And so they are now in a vase in the kitchen.

In fact we have had a lot of work done over the last couple of months so plants have been squished a bit. We also need rain to bring the perennials that are still dormant underground into leaf and flower. Hopefully we will have some more significant rain in the next couple of weeks.

I particularly love the tulip flowers. I go for dark rich colours….. If we ever get the garden done I will post some photos.

A handsome dog

A friend was doing some work on our garden today and he bought his dog with him. This is him sitting in the Land rover. He enjoyed coming out and seeing us working along the alleyway.

He has such a nice friendly nature, he put his paw up and wanted his chest rubbing. Then he let me scratch him behind his ears. I loved him pushing his head into my hand. He even licked my nose.

I know he’s a collie dog and he should be herding sheep probably. But it was just nice to meet a friendly animal. He only barked when the Land rover left, because he didn’t want to go!

Sore throat

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Over the last couple of months I’ve had a sore throat every few days. I don’t know why. I think it’s to do with the weather. We have warm weather, then cold. I feel fed up because I have things I want and need to do but I don’t feel up to it. Even my ears are aching. I guess I’m moaning about something that is very minor and trivial in comparison with serious illnesses.

I will take some tablets and get some throat lozenges…. If I’m quiet here (pun intended) you know why.

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Talking

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The world is full of words

Talk is cheap

Grey green gold gossip

Muddy, murky muttering

Sharp staccato shouting.

Pink pretty pouting purring,

Cracked cramped cackles.

Light lilting, laughing lullabies…

Singing or sonorous sound scapes

Violent verbosity

Quiet qualities of queen’s English.

Extravagant evangelising.

Whispered wailing.

Yes words are cheap and cheerful or cheerless.