What a difference a day makes

The sun is shining today and its warm rays have melted the snow into a thousand rivulets of ice water that streams from the eaves of roofs and pipes and down the remembered canyons of the neighborhood roads.

What a difference a day makes.

Yesterday my yard was covered in snow and the whole neighborhood was white.

I sat in the sunshine on the veranda this morning and watched colors emerge from beneath the melting snow and listened to the symphony of melting sounds in my yard.

I asked the tall person if winter is over and he smiled and said no.

Good. I want more snow!

I returned to the yard to watch the sky and wait for the soft white flakes to fall again.

A Christmas surprise!

Tall person is not well so we didn’t go for our walks today. He needs to rest in the warm and get better. Don’t worry, I am looking after him.

I do get some time off when he is sleeping and have been playing in the snow in the yard. Snow tastes so good!

I am continuing to decorate the floors with my Christmas paw print stencil design but De keeps wiping it away. I’m beginning to think that she does not appreciate Christmas as much as I do!

After much deliberation I have identified a suitable Christmas tree for the house. It’s not actually a tree. I think it is a bush but I’m sure it will look great when it’s decorated.

I shall dig it up and bring it into the house and surprise everyone!

Christmas decoration

I know it’s early but I have started decorating the house for Christmas.

This is my Christmas paw print stencil design applied to the Indian room floor in my house.

It may appear haphazard but was actually carefully planned!

It is not too late to book an appointment for me to come to your house and help you decorate.

I specialize in floors but can also apply my unique Christmas paw print stencil design to walls (up to 2 metres) and your furniture.

Book early to avoid disappointment!

A winter wonderland

It was dark when I woke up but somehow I knew that there had been been more snow overnight.

I knew the yard would be covered with a soft blanket of the fluffy white stuff.

It beckoned me, so I beckoned the tall person with several alarm barks and he emerged from the bedroom, still half asleep and let me out into the yard.

Let’s play in the snow tall person! Which, with hindsight was a little presumptious as he was half dressed, was wearing slippers and clearly in a fragile pre-coffee condition.

I left him in the kitchen to perform his sacred coffee ritual and bounded back out to the yard to frolic in the snow. I like the word ‘frolic’. The tall person taught me it. He told me that it means to behave playfully and uninhibitedly.

And that’s what I did – I frolicked joyfully in the fluffy white stuff as dawn began to lighten the sky.

Once his coffee ritual was complete the tall person called me to the toy room balcony to look at the neighborhood and we stood in companionable silence and watched the snow fall on our beautiful winter wonderland.

The tall person smiled. I know what you are thinking tall person.

It’s beginning to feel like Christmas.

I hope the little kitty finds some breakfast

It was cold again today and although small flecks of snow were in the air they didn’t settle thickly as they did yesterday. Perfect weather for a walk around the neighborhood!

The tall person wrapped up warm and I shook myself to fluff up my winter coat and we set off to see what was new and what was the same but slightly different.

There is always something to see because nothing ever really stays the same, it changes with the light and the seasons and your own perspective.

The tall person told me that he likes the ‘still life’ pictures painted by the Old Masters. He said that they capture moments in Time whilst everything else changes and eventually becomes something else.

We walked by the little house that reminds me of a long forgotten carcass. Its bones were bleached white by the snow. The tall person said it was a perfect example of ‘still life’ and took a photograph.

The neighborhood was quite today. Everyone was inside warming themselves around their wood burning stoves.

The air was heavy with the scent of wood smoke.

We did see one hardy inhabitant of our winter neighborhood. He had no wood burning stove to warm him, or someone to feed him.

He was looking for his breakfast.

I didn’t disturb him as we walked quietly by.

Another moment captured in Time tall person?

“Yes” he replied, “one of thousands that we capture each day and keep in our gallery of Time.”

Hmm, that is profound tall person but on a slightly less esoteric level I hope the little kitty finds some breakfast.

Too cold for tennis!

It snowed during the night and my yard was covered when I woke up.

I stayed out there whilst the tall person drank his coffee and De helped the little person to get ready for school. I like the snow.

When it was time for the little person to meet the school bus I sat on the veranda to say goodbye.

See you at 6.00 o’clock little person!

You may not be able to see me in this picture as I am wearing my urban winter camouflage!

In the background you can see the big tree that the tall person uses to navigate his way around the neighborhood.

It was so cold that water froze! The tall person took a photograph of this perfect row of icicles hanging from a neighbor’s roof .

Hmm, I think that is a warning to all animals prone to dribbling.

I shall try not to dribble or I will have icicles hanging from my mouth!

It was obviously too cold for games.

On our walk we saw this racquet sheltering from the snow behind a withered bush.

Find somewhere warmer little racquet. Someone will play with you in the Spring!

Wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving

The tall person told me that it is a Thanksgiving holiday in the United States today.

He said the tradition traces its origins to a feast and thanksgiving prompted by a good harvest at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts in 1621.

He told me that when the colony was established at Plymouth they did not have enough food but the Wampanoag Native Americans helped them by providing seeds and teaching them to fish. I think that was a very nice thing to do.

I asked the tall person to tell me about the food they ate at the 1621 feast and he said it comprised of turkey, waterfowl, swan, venison, fish, lobster, seal, clams, berries, fruit, watercress, pumpkin and squash. Mmmm, I would have liked to have been part of that celebration!

For everyone celebrating Thanksgiving I wish you a very happy day. Enjoy your turkey (or turkey substitute if you are vegetarian).

Today is Giorgoba and the anniversary of the Rose Revolution

Today is Giorgoba in Georgia – St. George’s Day. It is also the anniversary of the Rose Revolution.

The Rose Revolution is the most famous event in recent Georgian history and was sparked by disputed parliamentary election results in November 2003.

Massive anti-government demonstrations started in the streets of Tbilisi and spread to almost all other cities and towns of Georgia.

On November 22, President Shevardnadze attempted to open the new session of parliament but supporters of the major opposition parties, led by Mikheil Saakashvili, burst into the session with roses in their hands (hence the name Rose Revolution), forcing the president to flee. Mikheil Saakashvili walked to the podium, faced the cameras, and drank the departed president’s glass of green tea!

That was the Rose Revolution. Not one person was injured, not a drop of blood was spilled.

Shevardnadze resigned the next day. Two months later, in January 2004, Mikheil Saakashvili, 36, was elected the country’s new president with 96 percent of the vote.

The tall person is a great admirer of Mikheil Saakashvili, who is affectionately known as Mischa. He says that he is a man of vision and determination who has worked hard to reform and modernise Georgia.

Where ancestors rest (part 3)

In a recent post about the 11th century church in the tall person’s ancestral village of Stogursey in the County of Somerset, England, I mentioned that there is also a castle.

The castle was built by the De Courcy family in the late 11th century and is surrounded by a water-filled moat.

The castle was largely destroyed in the mid-fifteenth century during the War of the Roses and only parts of the outer walls remain today.

In the early seventeenth century a house was built on the site of the castle gatehouse.

The house, which has a thatched roof, was restored in the 1980s and is now used as holiday accommodation.

What a beautiful place to stay!