Spend more time with my cats

What do you wish you could do more every day?

Get up in the morning with my cats

They are running around like bats

I mean silly rushing

Each one pushing

The boundaries of reason

But it’s the spring season

Jumping about then resting

And they’re always questing

To find a nook and cranny

To hide in like a canny

Cat, ready to pounce

Or at least flounce

Off in a huff

Which can be rough

To their friendly mate

Who’s left in a state

Of shock

After a sock

In the face with a paw

When they were calm before

Getting all het up

When they meet up

On the bed

They sort of see red

And chase

Yes that’s the case!

Hi jinks

When a claw sinks

In your nose

But it’s fun I suppose!

Phone alarm

Somewhere downstairs my sisters phone alarm is going off. She must still be asleep, but the high pitched tinkling music woke me up and my cats too! I am quite a light sleeper and I have good hearing which doesn’t help. Then on this grey and tinkly morning one of my cats has decided to tunnel down the bed next to me and stick her claws in my knees in order to get a bit of love. Chin and belly rub over she leaps back out of bed. Now I’m awake so I decided to let you know. Perhaps your phone will tinkle or beep and wake you up? X Morning X

Friendship paw

Morning all, I just woke up and my cat decided to say hello. He puts his paw out to greet me and I stroke it, he is very sweet, it’s almost turned into a ritual as I’m still sleeping on the settee which I think he sees as his territory. I might go back to sleep, I woke up cold and shivering in the night, the temperature is definitely becoming autumnal.

Time management!

Not my artwork!

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

I need to start going to bed earlier. I’m always up late and it’s not good, then I get insomnia and I get up late. It’s a real dilemma to face. Not working also means I don’t have a routine to follow, and recent events have made me worse. I need to get out in the sunshine and boost my vitamin D but it’s easier to sit and feel anxious.

How do I do one thing to get me going again? Perhaps I should set my alarm every morning? Yes I could sleep through it, but at least it might give me the incentive to do things. Normally by the time I get up its after noon….

Why? Social media to some extent, and a constant need to watch the news. I’m caught in that dopamine trap of wanting to keep checking my phone, and yet I want to break away from it. I don’t read click bait but I do look at sites about politics a lot. I’m well informed. But why? it just ups the anxiety levels..

STOP!

A struggle

What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?

Get up and make a brew so I can take my medication. Have a wash. Feed the cats, make breakfast, eat it, stick porridge bowl in the sink to soak. Clean teeth, put on clothes, struggle with that because my arm shakes and my balance is bad and its difficult with a frozen shoulder. Struggle to pull on my shoes, sit down in my chair and probably go back to sleep for a bit. Put the radio on to a talk station. Try and decide what I need to do, start watching daytime TV to avoid the world for another day!

Sounds really boring! I don’t really have rituals, my mornings are quite mundane.

Milk on the pavement?

My arrangement with the milkman is to put the milk in the basket over our gate. It means it is safe and doesn’t disappear ( sometimes one bottle gets taken, other times more). But for the last week it’s been left on the pavement (it’s delivered every other day), so I’ve been trying to get up early to bring it in. Today I was late (eight am). There it was, not on our step, but a foot away on the pavement. I’ve left a note, asking them to put it over the gate, which was ignored. I think I need to email the dairy, but I’ve lost my password. Maybe our regular milkman is on holiday? We will see. I like having it delivered in glass bottles because they are reused and recycled and are not plastic!

Red sky this morning

This photo doesn’t do it justice. I don’t have a great view of the horizon because its obscured by trees and buildings, and the window needs clearing of ivy that is growing around it. There was a yellowish gap in the clouds where the sky was visible, then bars of orange/red clouds lay across it, like sand bars in a shallow sea. Have you ever looked up at the sky and thought it was mimicking an ocean view? It was like that. The best time I ever saw that illusion was when we were driving down to Dorset. We were climbing a big hill and the sunset appeared over the peak of the hill. It looked like the sea with land protruding into it. As we reached the summit the real sea became visible and the sky looked as if the sea was reflected in it. All pinks and golds and bars of lavender grey. We had a lovely week away.

Pink cat!

Sunlight reflecting off her fur, on the windowledge at the top of the stairs, she looks out to check on what’s going on in the garden. Not long now to the winter equinox when the days will slowly start to get longer again. She’s so soft and sweet.

Cats know how to keep warm. The heat rises up the stairs so she is happy up there. This afternoon she’s gone out for a little walk round the garden, I think she will be back in again soon. Then she will either go back upstairs or sit on the cat tree by the radiator in the living room.