Just back from Phoenix Arizona

 Its August since I last wrote my blog !!
I think it had more of an impact than I knew having to change the name and becoming Catminders rather than CatCalls and losing my old identity , daft though that may seem .
Ive been fiddling about on Twitter and enjoying that but Ive been missing the blog so here I am back again , fresh back from a dayjob conference in Phoenix which was quite stunning .
Hey , I wish I could say the same for my photos!
I know -theyre rubbish !
Not really the camera's fault either . It has been pointed out ( D) , that it doesnt help a digital camera to store over seven hundred ( or was it nine hundred ) images , on a camera meant to store two hundred max . After which quality starts to deteriorate. Well , as you can see , and I can confrm , having seen those red rocks at their best , and a truly amazing experience that was . To see the real thing , shot with real cameras , probably best to have a look at Sedona on an internet site .

On the first day of the trip we also visited the Heard museum . I didnt dare take any pictures there as you have to turn your flash off . Guess what ? I havent yet learned that particular skill , though I do intend to . I did though take a couple of shots on my phone which I will download in due course .
Our guide at the museum who was an amazingly exciteable woman who seemed to know everything , told us that Sedona was the place to go and that when she saw the red rocks she started to cry and it was even more spectacular than the Grand Canyon . I didn't cry , except some tears of laughter at the dynamics between my colleagues in the car we hired to make the trip . Suffice to say it was a long hot day and at the outset we predicted there would be tears before bedtime . There was wrestling over the map . There was  a degree of car sickness. Pedantic quibbling . Interior lights flicking on and off ad nauseum . The driver had the patience of a saint .


Anyway enough of that !
Ive erased a lot of photos so any future pictures should be better .
I hope to attract new followers , though I no longer know how this is done ? How did I have such an initial following way back when ? Presumably that was in the ways before I lost my marbles to medication?

Any ideas let me know !

Ms Catminder gets a strange Call

Back from CatMinding ... two old friends in the fairytale garden and two other old friends where the trick is to try to time visits when the DogWalker is out with the dogs otherwise we are battling against the odds with two huge dogs looking for attention and pushing and shoving as I try to go about my business. These two are gorgeous but strong enough to knock me flying .. they havent .. yet .. but mainly because I'm good at hanging onto things when the onslaught begins . ( I do love them really) . The male cat at this house climbs up alongside me on the bench and nips my elbow companionably .
At the first house one of the elderly cats is missing in action but soon emerges gingerly from the bushes when I call ...picks her way across the damp lawn and follows me into the house. Her family think she may be losing her sight and I'm inclined to agree but she is doing very well . After breakfast she returns to the sun and allows me to pet her for a while before settling herself on a bench .

Anyway back from CatMinding and a teentrip to the dentist to pick up mouthguard and get a filling . New dentist - who is a delight after the last one - thought she had done the filling at the check up appointment so did the scale and polish and handed over the mouthguard then waved us off. N was giving me frantic signals about the filling . I mentioned it and ... action stations ... it had been marked on the computer as done ! Poor N had to jump back in the chair , tip back , bib on , glasses back on and injection and filllin done in a couple of minutes . Phew! Glad we didnt just slope out as that tooth would have started playing up inn a few weeks and we would have wished we hadnt . Tempting though it was .

So , back from all that . Phone rings .
Young woman on phone who must have mistaken me for some kind of super-duper cat person who knows everything there is to know about cats .
She tells me she has an eight week old kitten and it has got into the wall cavity behind her washing machine and has been trapped there for twenty four hours . I tell her I am a cat minding service but ask what she has done to try to coax it out . She has called the RSPCA and they have suggested she warms up some tuna and wafts it about . She has tried this but the kitten is too scared to come out . "Its a very nervous kitten" . She has somehow set a camera up and can see its still moving just beyond the reach of her arm .
I suggest the fire brigade may help and offer to get a number for her from my neighbour who works for the Fire Service . I take her number and go along to find my neighbour who has taken another neighbour's dog out  , as she has hurt her ankle . A third neighbour B is in the gardens and says she will send S along on her return .
Soon S arrives and rings the local service to the address given by the caller . She manages to arrange for a fire engine to call out .
We are still waiting to hear the results .
Fingers crossed  that the Kitten was saved in time .

Visit to Cragside Rothbury

After a wonderful day in Ambleside on Monday ( still on holiday) I took off to Cragside near Rothbury on Tuesday and to make up for the lack of lakes photos took hundreds of the bathrooms inside Cragside . Its forbidden to use flash and I think I may have broken the rules as though I thought I had turned the flash off but apparently not .
Hope you enjoy the pictures .

Abbi is leaving :-(

Nat met her childhood friend Abbi at nursery , I assume on their first day there though I can't remember that far back and it seems a lifetime away to me . Probably does to them too .

A year at nursery and we still have the teatowel with their little drawings on depicting their childhood selves, Abbi and Nathalia aged three.

Then on to primary school and many an after school outing and party . Abbi lived in the next street and like Nat loved animals . When Nat got her first hamster it was Abbi who helped us get Daisy out of the cage and scooped her up off the floor when she shot off and escaped ; we were a bit nervous at first but Abbi was fearless having had two of her own for ages and knowing just  how to handle them . She loved our cats and especially when our Pearl had her kittens Abbi would be along early before school to play with them and try to decide which one she liked best .

Later , just before the move to Senior School when complications came on the scene Abbi and her family where there for Nat and Nat was never to forget Abbi's support at that time .

Which  is what has made it so tough, this news of Abbi's departure for Scotland now that she is sixteen and heading for college and a new life with her family.  

A really tough few weeks anticipating the move , saying Goodbyes and finally today sending Abbi off with a box of our signature Brownies and wishing her well and knowing that she will be back in a couple of weeks to see her dad and keep in touch with her friends back her .

Abbi , we will miss you .

We won't forget you .

Enjoy the brownies on your journey north won't you

Have a great time at college !

And don't forget us .

Why Tweet? Why Twitter?

Why Indeed?
In my case its to do with the trickiness of Blogging these days .
I just can't find the words. I don't think its me- I put it down to the medication and the fact that the increased dose I have to take to take migraine at bay results in aphasia and means I just find finding words harder. Literally . Writing and Speaking . So I both say and write less. And when I do both I find it harder to locate the right words and everything takes me longer.
Writing the blog used to be a delight which took me minutes each day . In fact I used to often have ideas for new things I wanted to write minutes after I had finished the last blog post and would often find myself picking up the laptop again and producing a second post or sometimes even a third in one day . Now I find it hard to come up with anything much in a week or even a fortnight . Its not that less happens. In some ways life is as busy with as much if not more going on . Its just finding the words.
And then along came Twitter. I looked at it askance at first , finding it both inane and somehow missing the point ( of anything much ) . Then my sister showed me how she used it . I logged in and started following a few of the same people she followed and saw how easy it was to become involved in a little mini community ( yes , a bit like blogging really) , and the bonus for me was that you didnt have to find many words. In fact the maximum per tweet being one hundred and forty could count as a bonus. And , if you preferred , once you worked out how to post pictures from your mobile, you could instead post a few photos and forget about saying anything very much . Lurking was quite fine. No one seemed to object.
I live in hope that I'm going to be off this stuff soon and that all my words are going to come flooding back . Then my word count will improve again and there will be a blog revival .
In the meantime I keep on minding cats ( some recent changes in clientele with old favourites moving away. They know who they are and will be sadly missed :-(    And some new families contacting me and coming onto the books which is always good.

Ive had to turn some people away as they are a bit too far away - it seems there are less people out there cat minding at the minute and I'm getting calls from further afield which I can't always respond to due to other pressures.

SisterBirthday

I am so excited about my sister's forthcoming birthday!
Its not so much fun having one of those landmark occasions yourself when no one quite knows what to do , whether to make a big song and dance about it , to get a card with the numbers on , buy balloons or fix up a party . If you really dont want any of those things you have to clearly spell it out or surely someone is going to organise something for you that is going to be torture.
But its much more fun when you can get into the spirit on behalf of someone else.
I don't think my sister is terribly keen on surprises. Or parties. She's not a traveller ( much ) . Or maybe she's all right with surprises but doesnt like things being organised for her without some prior  consultation. Anyway , having consulted a bit , I have something in mind that I like . Its not majorly exciting but its good to have something to look forward to .
And then last Friday there  was a bit of a plotting going on . And I quite got into the mood .

My first memory ( I think ) was of when she was born . I say I think because you never know for sure whether these are real memories or ideas that have been suggested . But in my head we were staying at the farmhouse where my grandparents lived . And which was where my sister was born "at home" though of course it wasnt her home or mine . Though maybe we came to regard it as a second home in a way . Anyway in my mind's eye someone , I suppose my dad , was holding me up in the air over a marble washstand to look into a crib of sorts and in there was a tiny wizened monkey with black hair. Surely I can't have remembered this , at twenty months old , it has to have been what I've been told . Yet I do seem to have a picture of a little brown  wrinkled face , not terribly enamoured with the world and me not sure what to make of it I suppose. I have no recollection of the adults around me or of what they said or of what happened next .
SisterBirthday !! Coming up soon . Hope its a happy one !

Sunday morning seems to be taking care of itself whilst I sit staring into space , wondering whether I should be taking action . I have plans. A swim at lunchtime, when the pool should be clearer. I am half heartedly awaiting the delivery of some CatMinding keys , though it is half-hearted and if I went out they would arrive just the same through the door. As I sit here , the To Do list grows slowly but surely . I have a birthday present to buy. A once a year post Summer Holiday ironing pile to do ( and put away till next year probably , as rain is forecast for the rest of the week). Ironing is not really my thing, generally .
I have photos to upload.
A cake to bake , maybe , who knows. A dog to walk .
Outside all is still and peaceful . After a fairly frenetic week , its calming to sit here in one place and reflect . My insomnia seems to have deserted me . I'm not sure if thats something to be happy about . Fewer hours in the day for reading , but I am yawning less at four pm .
I have been on the go since seven am but time to get started for real ....