Day to day musings of a cat minder/ sitter in North Tyneside and Newcastle upon Tyne . For details of services go to http://www.catminders.biz

Welcome to CatMinders

Welcome to CatMinders


Thursday, 9 August 2007

Keswick , Cumbria


Keswick this morning . We packed up and left Lamplugh early and drove to Keswick and found a coffee place which just opened yesterday . Consequently they didnt know how to operate the tills and had not worked out the difference between a carrot cake and a cheeesecake and kept trying to deliver us the wrong order . But when it arrived it was delicious and the ambience was just what we needed for leaving the Lakes and the return home , which was traumatic for various reasons .
The one I' m struggling with most is the broken laptop. There seems to be a loose connection between the top and the bottom ( base ? keyboard , not sure what its called ) and every few minutes the screen loses all definition and cant be used . When it is working , and I'm assuming this is connected , its almost impossible to get upper case . Im worried because I want to get back to blogging but also once the Day Job is operational again , I shall need it urgently as I have four days report writing mostly for court deadlines .
Three CatCalls tomorrow to look foreward to, and one of them involves Kittens . Bliss.
Auntie Laura is still here , and is watching Big Brother with two Guineas on her lap . They chunter quite happily , though they are less than impressed with Carol's moaning ( apparently ) .

windermere...and broken laptop



one of the places we spent the last few days . .... great weather , only one splash of rain just as we set off to walk round Buttermere . So wierd to be back in a full sized house , (with full sized cats and guinea pigs ). But , and tragic this for blogging , my laptop is unwell .
If i disappear temporarily , thats why . Argh ......

Monday, 6 August 2007

almost too late


As we left there were two people still daring each other to paddle through the sea to get off the island .
When I enlarge this picture ( click ) I can amost feel the heat still in the air

N's "eightes reject hair "


I post this picture from yesterday and these thoughts at 8 30 am on Monday morning when I should be packing to go away as so far all I have done is get breakfast and put out my phone charger and the camera . The duvet cover will be next on my list . D meanwhile is doing all the mundane stuff that I would forget ....I would be thinking of food but I see he has started that particular collection whilst I was still asleep . This probably says something about me , that my phone and camera are the things I want with me the most ... and my pile of books of course was done last night .
CatCalls keys are handed over to Laura who is taking over here and will be looking after Deb's cats and attending to the watering of their fabulous cottage style garden . Hoping there will be no dead baby mice brought in by the cat-who-looks-like-an-owl . Mr Upstairs was at home yesterday( relief) but was not amused by us and our attempts to ingratiate ourselves . Sitting hugely on a sheepskin rug he stared blankly at us and refused to engage . He is not a cat who humours cat sitters , and I've found in previous times that if I try too hard he simply moves out for the duration and goes to a neighbour who feeds him cat crunch ( not permitted as he has kidney troubles ).
I post this picture of N and Harvey yesterday though I fear N will make me take it down as she looks so unlike herself when her hair is naturally curly like this . Laura and I are completely struck by how like my sister she looks . Laura also has dark hair ( N s is much lighter than this before the hairdyeing phase took hold ) and though N doesnt have our bone structure there is something about her that is so like my sister when we were younger .
Odd experience yesterday morning . Laura and I had been out to Deb's and were walking back in the sunshine deep in conversation when we saw a girl walking towards our house . Not realising who it was till she spoke " Hi Mum " ....a shock to realise I had not recognised my own daughter and a growing recognition that she is no longer completely a part of me , but that she has a whole other life elsewhere . If I'm lucky I get to peep into that world sometimes , when she tells me things she does with her friends or she has a rant about the things that get to her , or just evenings like last night when she got into the car with us all so full of everything that she talked nonstop half the way to Seaton Delavel . When I turned to D at one point and said " youre very quiet " and he said , simply , yes , then a few minutes on added " It would be hard to get a word in really " and I realised what he's up against with me , Laura and N and H all talking loudly and often at cross purposes and in counter conversations against the noise of the radio vying for air space against N's mobile phone being used as MP3 player .
It will be strange being away from it all .....
To the packing .....

Sunday, 5 August 2007

just before the seal .....


Harvey , Laura and Nat just before the seal appeared
Spot the family likeness

water almost across ... last to escape


Everyone leaving all at once ..... just in time

Early evening at the lighthouse


After the trip to the island yesterday when the causeway was clear of water , we checked the tide times and decided it would be fun to return when the tide was due in and escape just in time as we had heard that the water comes across fast once it starts .
We drove first to Seaton Delavel for the famous ice cream that tastes like Ambrosia creamed rice , then more clambering about on the rocks near the lighthouse .
Laura thought she saw a seal in the water and after a few minutes of staring out to sea and seeing nothing , we began messing about and posing for silly photos . At the point the seal re appeared , and we all saw it several times as it bobbed about off shore its round head well out of the water . We were all over excited and I took several pictures of the water but sadly the seal bobbed down each time it saw the lens . Finally we took thirty or forty pictures of us pratting about and then various shots of the waves swirling fast across the causeway . Probably sounds daft but we had a great time imagining we could have been trapped on the island and leaving it till the last possible moment to leave .
A future plan is to take a picnic and some towels and stay there whilst the tide comes in . According to the tides timetable we would only be there around three hours before the tide goes out again .

Migraine Days

Migraine Days

Flower and Bee on a Sunday

Flower and Bee on a Sunday

art on a sunday

art on a sunday