Twilight arrives, the streets come alive

Stopped to chat to a nice bloke in a wheelchair, in the shopping centre car park on the way to Grimmauld Place. He liked the dogs and he actually identified Squish's breed. As I told him, if I had a pound for every time that had happened, I'd have three pounds. If I had a pound for every time he'd been called a Dalmatian I'd have a healthy budget for my new production of 101 German Shorthaired Pointers by now.

Spike was doing his usual attention whore routine, and Squish was scanning the horizon for wildlife, as he does whenever he's not in the house, when I felt him freeze from scan mode to THERE IT IS!!!

I followed his nose like a compass needle and there, maybe twenty feet away was a fox. Staring at us with a faintly amused expression. The dogs lost it and started yapping and singing, and the fox still didn't move. I took a few steps towards him and he retreated another five feet, licked his nose and carried on staring. In the end it was me who ran away; I was afraid the dogs' heads might explode. Go fox!

Twilight arrives, the streets come alive

Stopped to chat to a nice bloke in a wheelchair, in the shopping centre car park on the way to Grimmauld Place. He liked the dogs and he actually identified Squish's breed. As I told him, if I had a pound for every time that had happened, I'd have three pounds. If I had a pound for every time he'd been called a Dalmatian I'd have a healthy budget for my new production of 101 German Shorthaired Pointers by now.

Spike was doing his usual attention whore routine, and Squish was scanning the horizon for wildlife, as he does whenever he's not in the house, when I felt him freeze from scan mode to THERE IT IS!!!

I followed his nose like a compass needle and there, maybe twenty feet away was a fox. Staring at us with a faintly amused expression. The dogs lost it and started yapping and singing, and the fox still didn't move. I took a few steps towards him and he retreated another five feet, licked his nose and carried on staring. In the end it was me who ran away; I was afraid the dogs' heads might explode. Go fox!

The heat and the dust

*sigh* Unforeseen drawback to having a cat - I can't open my windows properly any more, and the place is like a fucking greenhouse in the mornings. Fortunately the windows here have safety catches, which means I can at least have them all open two inches, but I can't disengage the catches. I wouldn't put it past Cassie to forget she couldn't fly and take a leap - or Spike either, which is why I've never fully opened his lookout window even on the hottest days.

At some point I'll have to look into making screens of some sort. I have a picture in my mind of a wooden frame with vertical bamboo or dowelling bars, the way we used to have in the hawk-house. Actually, the bars would look coolest on the diagonal but that'd be tricky to make. I watched John do enough woodworking over the years (and helped make the hawk-house windows) that I can see exactly how I'd build them. I'm just not sure I have the manual strength/dexterity to actually do the work.

The ornamental palm trees in the flowerbeds in the Castlepoint car park are in bloom. I took a picture of the flower buds a while ago, because their grainy cauliflower-like forms pleased me:

( The song that was playing reminded me to post it )

They look like big pale-green feather dusters now.

I need to readjust Spike's harness every morning. He's a wriggler and he always seems to work it loose. Luckily it's not too awkward because the medium-size harness fits him best with all its fittings cinched as small as they can go. He's such a big bouncy personality that it always startles me to be reminded how little of him there actually is. He's 23" at the shoulder but he's never gone above 40lbs - he's all legs, ears and teeth, bless his heart.

Day off from hospital visiting, not going to Grimmauld Place till after dark, elbow a bit too stiff for IM; I'm too hot and sleepy to be really bored but yeah, I'm at a bit of a loose end. Can you tell?

The heat and the dust

*sigh* Unforeseen drawback to having a cat - I can't open my windows properly any more, and the place is like a fucking greenhouse in the mornings. Fortunately the windows here have safety catches, which means I can at least have them all open two inches, but I can't disengage the catches. I wouldn't put it past Cassie to forget she couldn't fly and take a leap - or Spike either, which is why I've never fully opened his lookout window even on the hottest days.

At some point I'll have to look into making screens of some sort. I have a picture in my mind of a wooden frame with vertical bamboo or dowelling bars, the way we used to have in the hawk-house. Actually, the bars would look coolest on the diagonal but that'd be tricky to make. I watched John do enough woodworking over the years (and helped make the hawk-house windows) that I can see exactly how I'd build them. I'm just not sure I have the manual strength/dexterity to actually do the work.

The ornamental palm trees in the flowerbeds in the Castlepoint car park are in bloom. I took a picture of the flower buds a while ago, because their grainy cauliflower-like forms pleased me:

( The song that was playing reminded me to post it )

They look like big pale-green feather dusters now.

I need to readjust Spike's harness every morning. He's a wriggler and he always seems to work it loose. Luckily it's not too awkward because the medium-size harness fits him best with all its fittings cinched as small as they can go. He's such a big bouncy personality that it always startles me to be reminded how little of him there actually is. He's 23" at the shoulder but he's never gone above 40lbs - he's all legs, ears and teeth, bless his heart.

Day off from hospital visiting, not going to Grimmauld Place till after dark, elbow a bit too stiff for IM; I'm too hot and sleepy to be really bored but yeah, I'm at a bit of a loose end. Can you tell?

All I see are dark eyes

I made a journal for Spike, Squish and Cassie. It'll be partly for odd moments when I can see what they're thinking and feel moved to write it down, and partly to join communities like petchat with, but mostly it's because I'm a dork.

Friend the monochrome_mob if you like. I'll try and keep it fun and I promise I won't let it get annoyingly cutesy.

All I see are dark eyes

I made a journal for Spike, Squish and Cassie. It'll be partly for odd moments when I can see what they're thinking and feel moved to write it down, and partly to join communities like petchat with, but mostly it's because I'm a dork.

Friend the monochrome_mob if you like. I'll try and keep it fun and I promise I won't let it get annoyingly cutesy.