Life with cats, and other things…
1517/25th May 2026 At mid-afternoon on Monday came a break in the cloud and temperatures began to moderate toward what is more normal. Signs in the village indicate that another attempt will be made the weekend of June 5th to hold the annual balloon festival which last year I believe amounted to a rendezvous in … Continue reading Spirit-lifters
0758/23rd May 2026 Pigeons flap and flutter! . They are among the largest birds that visit out feeders yet it is they who seem always to panic at the smallest thing. . They make several fly-by passes before committing to land. . "Oh no! Not starlings!" Then they strut and fuss about as if offended … Continue reading Feathered friends
"Glad to see you finally got your clothes back on. You were looking dead scruffy!" When you spend a lot of time in your own head you imagine all sorts of conversations. Your imagination may very well run away with itself. Take, for example, what I said yesterday about being stigmatised when my parents took … Continue reading Better late
1938/15th May 2026 Earlier in the week, warm weather persuaded us to open the air vents and attempt to activate the air conditioner. It wasn't unpleasantly hot, but it is better to find out early on if maintenance is needed. Sure enough, I was soon on the phone to the fix-it folk who penciled us … Continue reading Home
0551/19th May 2026 It turned out that what I had always considered to be a bad personal habit is in fact common enough to have a name, not in English, it's true, but in Japanese: Tsundoku. "Leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other unread books." What brought this to … Continue reading Words
0519/20th May 2026 Wednesday could not make up its mind whether to sulk or shine. In need of a few items, we went out... . To keep its options open, the day extended a finger of cloud into the clear blue sky. In the past, I would have paid no attention to such a benign … Continue reading My view
15th May 2026 Without notification, my email provider last week handed me over to Yahoo. I can hardly complain, since I haven't paid that company since moving to New York, only because they don't offer service here. It would have been better to abandon my old address and use my secondary G mail instead. I … Continue reading Communication
19th May 2026. *Note the purple trees... One of the places our neighbour introduced us to last year was The Georgi, a small privately owned park in nearby Shushan, on the Battenkill River: The Community Park is open from Dawn to Dusk. The Georgi’s 60+ year old Hydrangea trees flower in mid-August, with cascading pink and white … Continue reading Re-visiting The Georgi
17th May 2026 There's another thing that's different this year...the lilac bush. Horrible gardener I may be, but I do appreciate the flora and I am fond of lilac, so when I acquired a property that included a rather splendid bush, I was quite pleased. Sadly, over the first few year's of our residence, I … Continue reading Chapters
0602/17th May 2026 Ever since arriving here in 2018, June has been a month of morning mist and spiderwebs, but so much is changing, who knows what next month will bring? For the past three years or so, June has also brought wildfire smoke, turning the Sun a baleful red. My first experience with this … Continue reading Benefits and drawbacks