What's been going on around here

I didn't realise that squirrels are fond of sunflower seeds as well as peanuts. This feeder usually has mixed seeds in it, which Mr Squirrel has never shown any interest in, but now that it's filled with sunflower seeds he sits there and stuffs himself for minutes at a time. There's a little gap at the bottom of the feeder, which makes it nice and easy for him to shovel the seeds in with both hands.

Here he is on the fence afterwards. I'm surprised that he could heave himself up on it with his tummy full of seeds. The birds were pleased to see him go.

Grandson and Granddaughter are beginning to play together, which is SO CUTE.

And I've started to cut out bits of material for my next projected quilt.

Maybe woodworking would be easier. Fabric stretches; and what I've measured ever so carefully can become not quite so perfectly right after I've cut it. Still, you don't get wood with pretty little patterns of butterflies on it. Life's not perfect.

Nothing has happened

 

All of our children are in England at the moment. Daughter 1 is visiting Daughter 2, who lives in London these days (bloggy friends know how I feel about that) and Son and DIL are holidaying in Yorkshire. Yorkshire in November may not sound the most exotic of experiences but that's when they got their week off and I'm sure it's very nice. Anyway, what with that and my mother not being around any more, Mr Life and I don't quite know what to do with ourselves. So I have nothing to say. This may be an advantage to any of you who are following my attempt to do Nawhatever it's called, posting every day in November.

 

So... I went to the dentist today. This is Ainslie Place, a minute from the dentist's front door.

 

 

 

This is Sirius, licking Cassie's face. It's always that way round. She never licks him. She has more dignity.

 

 

And these are doggy footprints on the beach yesterday, samples of the many left by the large numbers of gambolling dogs. They were having lots of fun but you couldn't have described them as dignified.

 

Would you rather be a cat or a dog? I only ask because... well... I have nothing to say, really. I'd rather be a cat but it would have to be a vegetarian one. But we're not talking realism here, so that's it: a vegetarian cat. Who eats dark chocolate.

Dog

Well, I'm happy to say that Mum is considerably better today, thank goodness. Thanks for all your good wishes.




Also we had a visit from Daughter 1 and Grandson, which improves any day.

He's coming up for ten months; she'll be ninety on Wednesday.

When I took him and Daughter 1 home, I picked him up from his car seat, shifted him to my left arm and turned back to the right to pick up the seat with the other hand. About ten seconds, at most, had passed since I'd last looked in that direction but now there was a large dog comfortably settled in the footwell of the seat where Grandson had been sitting. I was somewhat surprised. The dog must have come along the street towards the front of the car and ducked under the open door while I was transferring Grandson from arm to arm. I looked at the dog. He was a fluffy sort of Lassie-sized, black and white chap. "Where are we going now?" he enquired.

I looked about for his owner. The street was empty apart from us.

"I've got a dog!" I said to Daughter 1 and Son-in-Law. They came and inspected him. They're both allergic to dogs. "You can't stay there," said Daughter 1 to the dog.

"Can't see why not," replied the dog, settling more firmly down.

He looked friendly enough but I couldn't see myself hauling him bodily out.

"Come on, boy," I said in my teacher's voice - firm but fair. "Out you get."

The dog shrugged. "Oh, all right then." He climbed out and then spied a large plastic bottle top, which he brought to Daughter 1, wagging his tail expectantly.

We didn't feel we could just go inside and leave him, so we spent some minutes throwing the bottle top (us) and fetching it (him). We hoped that someone would come looking for him. After a while we noticed a collar and disc among his fluff: Patch and a phone number. Daughter 1 phoned the number. No reply. More throwing and fetching. Then, thank goodness, a woman with a similarly large fluffy dog appeared round the corner, calling "Patch!" Relief all round. She'd been walking the dogs in the nearby park when a motor bike had startled him - he was knocked down by a motor bike last year - and he'd run away.

He was a very jolly dog but I can just imagine the cats' faces if he'd come home with me. Which he almost did - I could easily have shut the car door without noticing him happily reclining on the floor.

Panda

If you haven't seen this video of a sneezing panda, then you really need to do so. You will like it. Guaranteed to cheer anyone up, I'd say. I was feeling a bit in need of cheering up before my boy showed me it.

He did the link thing. He's cleverer than me, though not quite clever enough to make the wee tv screen appear on my blog. Still, no one's perfect (though he's nearly so. I'm his mother, so this is an unbiased opinion).

Enjoy!