Horizons

I think the poem speaks for itself. And yeees, I'm feeling the "wear and tear" of the carer's life (bluntly: being nailed to the spot while not months but years go by, and one can't help but listen to the steady, relentless "tick-tock" of one's own life rushing by like over-wound clockwork). But we do what we must ... and sometimes we write poems. 

I also have a great fondness for Robert Service, which tends to come out in my poems now and then! Nothing wrong with liking Service, and Kipling, and Patterson, right? Right.

(The image is from one of those wallpaper sites where you slog through ten screens of commercials to get to the picture you want. I don't have a credit for it, but if anyone can provide it, I would be delighted to add it here.)

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty ... Now We Are Three!

Tempus, as the saying goes, don't half fugit! Zolie came home from the RSPCA shelter at Lonsdale in mid-August, two and a half years ago, and as nearly as we can work things out, she was about six months old. So we -- somewhat arbitrarily! -- set her birthday at Valentine's Day ... which comes up on Tuesday. Now --

Since Dave and I are going to be out and DOING STUFF on Valentine's, I didn't want to leave this post till the last nanosecond. Let me get a jump on it, do it now. So here we are:

Most of the images you see here (and all of those above) were taken by Dave -- on his new teeny-tiny smart phone. It's so small, so convenient, he tends to always have it with him and can grab snapshots while I'm thinking about  dragging out the big cameras. Therefore (duh) he gets a lot more shots of Zolie than I do. So thhis time I've ransacked his cache of images, and -- what I've done here is to run the phone pics through some digital enhancement. Nice!

It's a puddy tat's life, eh? And what a life! She has a world of jungles, trees to climb, spaces where she can run full-tilt, fences to scale, benches to sit on (or under), and then of course, they're's the rooftops! And there are three of those she can reach soooo easily. Then, when it's nap-time --

...It's all about 3,000 cat beds, not even including the hidey-holes she's found, and made for herself. Right now, her favorite place is waaay up on top of the storage boxes in the "box room" (Bedroom Five, according to the plans). She jumps up, layer to layer, stretches out on top and bakes in the heat up at the top of the room. But one of her favorites times is Christmas --

In the Silly Season, it's all about the tinsel garlands, and the Christmas trees, and the shiny things, and the CRASH!!! when this weird fake tree thingie the humans put up comes down. Timber!!!! (Nine months and a half to go till the tree goes back up again, ya little hooligan!)

So -- Happy Birthday, Zolie. Now We Are Three.