This week

It's official ! And clear for anyone to see...when I returned recently from Arizona and was disappointed with my photographs D told me my poor results were due to the fact that I have been building up pictures on a small memory card ( 700 plus designed for 200 photographs). However these have now been removed and the results are still poor .
Compare the picture above of a sunflower which was one of the very first pictures I took with this camera , and the toadstools of last Friday taken at Goats on the Roof. There is just no comparison.
I'm now not sure what's going on . Whether the memory card has been compromised by being overloaded? Or whether the camera has had its day?
Any ideas gratefully received if you or anyone you know knows anything about cameras and their technology let me know .

I've been having some very odd comments left on the blog but as theyre been anonymous and many of them not making a whole lot of sense and containing within the garbled messages the odd giveaway words like viagra and so forth I've decided to junk them. Seems an odd way of going about implanting ideas onto a blog but there must be some kind of method in the madness. Either way I'm not co-operating if I can help it , amusing though some of them are .

All in all this has been an odd kind of week .  Friday and Saturday were Teen party nights which ended very differently . Say no more. Suffice to say by Sunday I was glad the weekend was over and I could have a Quiet Day at home Cooking Like Nigella Does. Banoffee Cheesecakes were produced and  her recipe for one cheesecake produced four ....say no more....she's a substantial eater I guess.

No CatMinding this week as two families were forced to cancel ... though I have some duties this weekend which I'm looking forward to .
Hectic DayJob commitments which went well but left me glad it was Thursday and time to catch up with friend Deb in the local bistro/ coffeeshop - having been away it seemed like weeks since we had caught up on news so I left the dog snoozing on the sofa while we whiled away a good two hours over hot chocolate. Lui s in Tynemouth offers Dark Milk or White hot chocolate . How about that?
Nothing more exciting to report at this end ... but any camera advice would be gratefully received!

Goats on the Roof , Fontburn, Rothbury

A couple of months ago the notion of a day out once a month was born, and given the rather grand title " the Elders Day Out " was subsequently attached .
Last month's outing was to Haworth in Yorkshire to visit the birthplace of the Brontes so this month a somewhat less grand but no less enjoyable day was planned - to see the Goats on the Roof at Fontburn .
As we guessed might be the case the goats were not indeed quite on the roof and in fact showed no signs of climbing the ladders to the roof during our visit to the coffee shop , so we took photos of them lurking in their downstairs quarters near the piggies who seemed keen to show off their large bottoms and even larger and quite disproportionate testicles ( possibly not visible on the photos - despite clearing off hundreds of old pictures my camera is still not performing well ) . There were also hens , a fancy cockerel , and some sheep.
We took the one and a half hour walk by the lake despite our misgivings about the map, and spotted all sorts of interesting flora and fauna , including some big red toadstools , a fisherman relaxing by his rod and a cormorant making a display on the water.
All the while catching up on news of the past month .... Elders Days Out are a great thing .
Then on to Rothbury where we parked up and had a wander round the town spotting local landmarks now made famous - or infamous - by Raoul Moat , and finally back to Kirkharle where we met this morning and abandoned one of the cars. Fnally home to a house full of Teens getting ready for a party ...... I must get ready with the camera again .....

Phoenix Arizona . Visit to the Heard Museum

As I said yesterday not knowing how to switch the flash off on my camera was a major stumbling block at the Heard museum .
Consequently I have only three pictures to show you , of writing which struck me particularly up in the section called " The Boarding School Experience". Having looked at some of the beautiful artefacts downstairs , I had a feeling that this wasnt going to be such a good hour we were going to be experiencing next , as nothing compared to the years of lives suffered by the young children who were torn from their homes and families often with armed soldiers standing by in case of protest or problem , whilst the children were taken and placed in alien boarding schools to "civilise and educate" them according to the (white) ways of the world . We saw a barber's chair where their long plaits were shorn off. Black and white photos depicting their clothes being removed and showing children later wearing uniforms. Poignant pictures of native Americans with faces so dignified when they arrived looking ...what is the word... less.....faraway ... lost and alone and like stolen beings after the "boarding school experience".
Many of the children didn't survive and succumbed to TB , a source of some interest to me due to my friend's recent experience with that disease and my visit to her in the " isolation" of the local hospital .
The pictures I took , not knowing whether any of them would come out , reflected those interests.
There were many more I could have taken but it seemed wrong to be furiously snapping rather than just walking around trying to imagine the things that happened in the world , and are still happening , in different guises.

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 .