And then there were three

Hullo ma wee blog,

Sadly Bailey had to be put to sleep this afternoon after blood tests showed that her treatment had failed and her immune system had crashed due to a viral infection which she just could not fight in her frail condition. I left the vet with a heavy heart and an empty cat box, but with the consolation that I had held her at the last and she had nuzzled me gently as if to say 'let me go'. I cant believe it.

Having come for some short term temporary accommodation she and Jess had stayed with us for 9 years and we all got along just fine.

I'll miss her serene, know it all look, her heavy weight on our spot on the sofa, eager nuzzles and the face at the patio door staring at me with her Jedi mind tricks to let her in. I'll want to give a whistle across the garden and expect her to come charging in at a hundred miles an hour with an accusatory 'MEH' before heading to the utility room and a double portion of whatever is on offer. I'll miss her heavy purr whenever she was near me.

Like many cats she was a personality. Like a few, she was a star.

I'm glad she came to stay..........

And the lovely G and Jess and I will miss her.

On Biting Off More Than You Can Chew.

Hullo ma wee blog,

Having decided to do this blog on Dads wartime Sqn during the last few months of the war I find myself immersed in huge amounts of information and currently being at the overwhelmed stage. Partly its just me, loving history and becoming involved in the subject, having a determination to understand as much as I can about the story at hand, especially since it in many ways involves Dad directly or indirectly and partly trying to decide just how much of this should be published through the blog without it becoming completely devoted to the subject. Its not after all what the blog is about or is SUPPOSED to be about.

Since that first post though I have found myself sneaking off at odd times to go hunt some bit of info that has occurred to me or even sitting with the lovely G at the table thinking about the story, the format, the inclusions, exclusions and the level of detail - when actually I should be just being with her, having a bit of us time.

And of course I'm supposed to be looking for a job here. No 1 priority, lets not forget!.

On the plus side though I'm not at too much of a loss for something to do in my insomniac night times spent at the kitchen table, but the danger is that I get so involved that sleep becomes the secondary consideration, like two nights ago when I didn't go to bed until 2am, couldn't sleep and got back up at 2.45 to be up for the rest of the night. At least that too allowed me to keep a close eye on our Bailey cat who is really not well and not responding to medication. I'm leaving in about 15 mins to take her back to the vet for the third time in a fortnight, and to be honest I'm really worried about her, poor wee thing. She has suddenly turned into a bundle of bones and spent last night curled in the crook of my arm on the sofa, safe and warm but really not moving, nose just touching my hand for hours. Its not good.

got to go.

see you later.

listening to Eagles 'Hotel California'

"And are there two G's in 'Bugger Off'! "

Well thank you very much, RAF flyboys.

The tranquility of the garden, a perfect cup of tea and a great roll and sausage is spoiled, and almost dropped, by you pair of numpty school bairns coming from absolutely nowhere, screaming over the garden at about 200ft going full pelt in your bloomin jets with afterburners glowin'.

I nearly had a heart attack, Bailey has done a runner and Jess is up the apple tree completely terrified and tangled in her harness, claws dug deeply into the bark and any chance of gettin her calmed down in the next half hour is some work away . My roll - Aw man, if only you knew how much patience had gone into that, and how much expectation - is cold now and I can still hear you in the distance circling round for another low level pass.

Swines!

Bugger off up tae the Highlands where all you will scare are some tourists, a few sheep and some deer.................JESUS!

How much do you get to the gallon with one of them things anyway.

listening to - you pair in the distance creating mayhem for some other poor sod nae doot.

There are people who work night shift you know!!!!

The Sacred Art of Sausage

Hullo there ma wee blog.

Good Morning, what an absolute stoater of a day! Clear blue skies and the gentlest of breezes barely stirring the leaves of the apple trees at the back of the house. A complete change from the rainy, grey and windy day that was yesterday.

The lovely G has been chauffeured to the local station and departed in a work wise direction. I made and packed her lunchtime sandwich and a yogurt before we left slightly late which made the journey with its challenges of slow moving lorries and the harvesting farm machinery a mild 10 minute challenge, enough to make sure I was fully awake and not on auto pilot as I can be sometimes. The return journey was more leisurely and gave me time to appreciate what a great morning it is.

The cats have been fed and stroked and have now abandoned me for the garden, Jess harnessed to the anchor of the closest apple tree { see previous posts }. I walked her out barefoot, the cold and slightly damp grass - I wouldn't dignify it by calling it a lawn, which is more an English expression any way - was beautifully soft underfoot thanks to the mosses, to such an extent that it felt like THE most luxurious foot massage and caused me to pad smilingly and almost purring, around the rest of the garden for several contented minutes before coming back to my usual place at the kitchen table and the first dense, delicious coffee of the day.

And so now, my day ahead organised - I have to be at Edinburgh airport later to pick up our Dutch friends - and understood, I am patiently waiting for the pair of plump sausages, links, bangers, snags or snorkers - call them whatever you like - which are sitting murmuring, not quite a sizzle anyway , at me from the other side of the kitchen where they have been cooking for the best part of 40 minutes.

Now you might think that 40 minutes to cook a couple of sausages is a long time, but trust me, I know what I am doing here. The perfect sausage takes some time to do properly and, as they should be a - fairly - rare treat { this mornings guilty pleasure} that its got to be worth getting them as near perfect as possible.

Vegetarian readers should perhaps look away now as they say , or at least skip the next couple of paragraphs which may be unpleasantly graphic for you......

Firstly they are pork, not that beef is out of the question but pork is just a bit better I think. Secondly they are the right size, neither large enough to make you feel bloated and like you really shouldn't have eaten that first thing, or so small that cooking them is going to leave them dry, dusty and disappointing in the mouth or having gone to all that effort that you are still hungry. Decision time therefore - is it two or is it four?

Next, they are the right pork sausage, with a high meat content and not a miserly amount of poor quality meat padded out with rusk and God knows what else, and they are bright, glistening and packed tightly in their skins, not flopping sadly at the bottom of a pack. There is enough fat content to ensure that carefully slow cooked they are going to come from the pan moist and unctuous, tender and toothsome and with the critically important sticky chewable crust from prolonged contact with hot metal. They have been carefully lifted into a pan prepared with the absolute minimum of oil, not butter for this as the long cooking will cause it to burn and become bitter, but a nice neutral oil. Lets say sunflower as its whats to hand here in the kitchen. Again I ignore the olive oil as that too is too flavoured and I don't want anything to detract from the taste of the main event.

I don't think you should ever prick a sausage either. Leave it alone for goodness sake. In time the skin will split naturally or at the very least any excess juices will find their own way out and the fat will run free into the pan leaving the finished article hot and succulent, neither soggy or dry but with just the right amount of resistance when you bite in.

Finally take them from the pan and leave somewhere hot for just a moment or two while you get the rest of your breakfast together. This morning its just a scots morning roll, light and pale and dusted with flour. Oh, and a cup of tea. Serve them after a cooling moment - tongue juggling a mouth full blistering hot sausage is no fun and doesn't do the flavour any justice.

I intend to eat mine slowly and reflectively at the patio table in the garden.

While I have been speaking to you they have finished cooking. So, got to go as I don't want them to be past it after all that effort and the garden is calling with the promise of another foot massage...

see you later...........

Listening to Queen, 'Its a kind of magic' Seems appropriate!

A few whiskers short of the full kitty!

As usual I am sitting in the kitchen while I blog this. I have just let the cats out. We have two, sisters, which we took to look after for a couple of weeks a few years ago. As you will recognise they never did go back to their owner, a colleague of the lovely G who was recovering from divorce or something and had moved into temporary rented accomodation for a few weeks while he looked for something better. I can't remember now what happened but he moved office or something and never got in touch. Whatever. The "Girls" as we call them settled in very easily and we grew to see them as ours very quickly - we were getting over the fact that our cat had died {old age} recently.

Jess and Bailey are very alike, white with some brown markings. Jess' main distinguishing feature is that she has a smudge on her chin and is smaller than Bailey who to be honest is a greedy guts. They are more recognisable by their behaviours. Bailey as becomes a cat who has just scoffed for Scotland and won is usually very sedate and when she goes out she is usually back at the door in less than ten minutes looking for some more food and a cosy corner. She is quite affectionate and loves a good petting session and to snuggle up with me on the couch. She is definitely MY cat and she knows she can twist me around her little claw. She loves to go out after a good meal and waddle around the garden for a while pretending to the local birds that she is a lethal hunter on the prowl when actually, although she does have some ability in that direction, she is much more likely to be just sitting in front of the hedge and watching the birds come and go. More an aid to digestion than anything else. One of her favourite tricks is to come back after a visit to the garden and do an enormous crap in the litter tray which I have just cleaned out.

As I speak she is sitting at the patio door practising her Jedi mind tricks on me, trying to convince me through the glass that I did not feed her an hour ago and that I should let her in so she can rub around my trouser leg while mewling pitifully until I cave in and feed her for the first time in weeks thank you very much.

Jess on the other hand is G's cat and will usually only deign to darken my door if G is absent from the household or she has just had a scolding or something and feels she needs to get in my good books. Of course also if G isn't around I can provide and fairly adequate cat massage although clearly not in the same league as G. And so, I am suffered and allowed to approach and scratch the ears or the back. Jess is a few whiskers short of being the full kitty if you catch my drift and there are times when you look at her that you can see the lights on but nobody is in or that she is going to kick off on one of her daft half hours shortly where she will tear about the house and bounce off the furniture {if she gets a chance that is} G will often cradle her in her arms like a baby while sitting in the lounge and Jess will sit there contendedly hour after hour while staring gently at me to remind me that although I get to go to bed with G at the end of the evening thats just so I can warm the bed and that I should never NEVER forget that G clearly knows who comes first and its not you mate!!!

Bailey as I said is always around and will come racing across like a rocket from the other side of the garden when I whistle. As she weighs a bit its advisable to look out carefully for this phenomenon and keep feet, legs and assorted other bits of human anatomy well out of the way until she comes to a halt and reverses back towards you to find out why the utility room door isn't open and food piled meaningfully up in bowls already.

Jess is a house cat. Not something she has actually signed up for mind you, just that she disappeared for 5 days the last time she was officially let out. There have been a couple of escapes since then, which of course I am totally to blame for { so I 'm told } but I wont go into that just now in case G ever reads this and I get pounded!. We bought a cat harness and one of those extending leads and G will occasionally take her out and drag her, sometimes almost literally around the garden. Over time though Jess has got used to this set up and now I can take her out to the garden and using the extending lead tie her safely to one of the apple trees and she has learned that she:

A} is safe

B} can't get away even if she wants to.

C} still can get to most of the interesting bits of the garden nearby

This has brought an new equilibrium to our relationship as she now recognises that I am at home every day and have control over whether she gets out or not and, being a smart little kitty, she will now quite happy suck up to me for garden access rights as long as its not raining or too windy and therefore she can get to many interesting little bits of the garden. She can also play "untangle me" by crawling up and around through the branches of aforementioned apple tree and jumping down on the other side before walking back around and lying down facing the patio doors where I most often am sitting as I still need to keep an eye on her. { I WILL die if she gets away from me again and she knows it the bugger that she is} Once she sees that I have noticed, she will do that appealing little cat roll onto her back so her head is upside down and she looks as cute as possible and as innocent as sin. Little sod!

So, thats a thumbnail sketch of "The Girls".

Must go now. I have a cat to feed, a litter tray to empty and I'm on untangling duty in 10 mins.

Thank goodness we don't have kids as well......

see you later......................

listening to John Barrys' theme to "Somewhere in time".