A third of the way through Winter!

 

I am sitting here at my desk, on a very wet rainy Winter afternoon, going through my list of Hygge activities that I can do to brighten up the day.

I had forgotten about my Hygge list, created 4 years ago, until I went through my old Winter blog posts. It was just what I needed 😊. So, I picked a few activities to do and set to work.

My first activity was to bake an "Easy lime and coconut cake." I found the recipe online on the Taste AU recipe website and luckily had all the ingredients needed to make it. This is the third time I have used my oven to bake something. It turned out nicely despite there being no temperature markings on the oven temperature dial! 

While the cake was cooling and waiting to be iced, I set about doing my second task which was to clean and rearrange my desk. I added one of the miniature cyclamen plants, which I bought a few days ago, for some cheerful colour.

My next Hygge activity was to dig out my favourite Gien filets bleu tea-set and make a large cup of Twining's English Breakfast tea with a slice of lemon in. The tea went perfectly with a slice of the cake I made. A bonus is that the cake was also liked by mum and dad.

As I had my afternoon tea I watched an episode of Gardener's World, which I really enjoy. And then I watched the latest Chateau Diaries vlog post on YouTube. It was lovely seeing the English Summer flowers and also the happenings at the French chateaux de LaLande.

As I looked out of my bedroom window, at the pouring rain, I felt happy and cosy inside and actually enjoyed watching the rain splashing on the deck outside. My cat Otto sat on my knee for ages cuddling and purring. Bliss. Otto then curled up and fell asleep on a chair by my side.

I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to start a jigsaw puzzle...

...But Otto was only pretending to be asleep. As soon as he realised that I was opening a jigsaw puzzle box he was there in an instant to help me!

Supervising me was quite exhausting work for Otto, and after deciding that I was capable of doing the puzzle by myself, he finally found a comfortable place to have a nap.

The last Hygge activity that I chose to do was to use the photos I took yesterday, of the new indoor cyclamen plants we recently bought, to create this blog post. Another thing that I love doing.

We chose a variety of miniature and large cyclamens in different colours, to brighten the house up for Winter. Our old cyclamens are dormant at the moment and are living in the potting shed.

I had a very lovely, relaxing time today. The Hygge things that I chose to do have left me feeling happy and cosy on a cold and wet Winter-day. 

Tomorrow morning I will plan what to do for the rest of the weekend. It is a long 3-day weekend. Matariki, the Maori New Year, is being celebrated here in New Zealand at the moment.

It is now time for me to have a warming cup of hot chocolate before bed.

I hope that this post finds you well and enjoying the season you are in.

Lots of hugs, 

Rose x

An evening walk with Otto and his friend

 

It is still spring and yet it feels like summer has arrived here. The temperature was 27 C yesterday and it is the same today. There is no humidity and not a cloud in the blue sky. We have all the windows open to let the gentle breeze in to cool the house down.

By evening-time yesterday the temperature was very pleasant, so I decided to go out for a walk around the garden with Otto. We were soon joined by Otto's friend, who we think is a neighbour's cat, or maybe a stray.

We call him Ginger or Gin-Gin, but he is very shy and won't come any closer than 5 metres to us. 

I managed to get a long-distance photo of him which I enlarged. It is rather out of focus, but here he is. He is rather a cute cat with a sad face.

The cinerarias and nasturtiums are in full flower now and I love the contrast in colour between the purple and the orange.

The grape vine is creeping over the feijoa bushes again. We let it grow wild and it produces many kilos of red grapes each year. Plenty for the birds and for us. 

We cook the grapes to make juice which we use to make kissel, a Russian dessert, which is quite delicious. Which reminds me that we still have 4.5 L of grape juice in the freezer to use up from last year.

I discovered a patch of comfrey that has planted itself under the grapes. Comfrey is great to use as a fertiliser as it is very high in nitrogen. But I don't fancy the putrid smell of rotting the leaves down in water to make the fertiliser.

Here is Otto. It is very hard to take photos of Otto because he is so lively and doesn't keep still very often. But I managed to take this one of him.

I think Otto and Ginger are about the same age, still quite young. They play together, pouncing on each other and making trilling, purry meows. Then they run up trees together. It is lovely to watch Otto with a companion since we lost Abby.

While I was walking I saw quite a lot of wildlife in the garden. Rabbits, Canada geese, quail, pheasants, rosellas and of course the pukekoes. I wasn't fast enough to get photos of them though. 

It is lovely to be so close to the wildlife. Very enjoyable and relaxing.

Here is a view over the canna leaves towards the orchard where the trees are now green. 

I need to pull out the kikuyu grass which is starting to swamp the cannas. It is a crazy grass that smothers everything in its path. (I always find things that need to be done in my photos!).

The mock orange (philadelphus) is flowering beautifully this year, and the scent it gives off is glorious. I wish the flowers would last longer so that I could pick them to bring into the house.

I shall pick some of our pink roses instead 😊

I shall leave you with another blurry long-distance photo of Otto and Ginger kissing. They do really like each other. 

Mum has just told me that Ginger came into the house and walked past her in the sitting room and then out through the window. He was very scared when he saw mum, but he is being quite brave coming into the house!

I hope that you have a great rest of the week. I will see you again soon.

Hugs, Rose x

Two new lovely cats in the family

It has been a long time since I last posted. I had a tough time last year losing my three cats Oscar, Ginger and Felix due to different serious illnesses. And then my brother-in-law passed away on Christmas Day which was heartbreaking for all the family.

Things started to settle down this year until we had to go into Lockdown, due the Covid-19 virus, 6 weeks ago. It has certainly been a turbulent time for everyone. I am trying to focus on positive things now and things are certainly improving.

I would like to introduce to you two new additions to the family. Abby and Otto. They are both rescue cats which were born a day apart from each other in February last year.

I adopted Abby and Otto after falling in love with them at first sight. Abby is a silver tabby and Otto is an orange tabby. They have settled in well and love each other despite being from different litters. They are very playful and inquisitive and get up to plenty of mischief, keeping me on my toes.

Abby and Otto like snuggling up to sleep together, anywhere that is comfortable, regardless of how much, or little, room there is. I found them squashed into one basket quite happily purring. Then Abby decided to sleep on the cat-scratching toy.

I managed to find another basket for them, so they can sleep one in each, and they are very happy.

See you again soon.

Hugs,

Rose x

My green green vegetable garden

I never tire of looking at the greens of nature. It is very restful for the eyes on hot summer days.

Today they promised thunderstorms, but instead we got a hot, balmy 28 C with just a spot or two of rain. When the clouds started to clear a bit I took the opportunity to venture outside with my camera, accompanied by my cat Oscar.

We went into my vegetable garden to see how things were coming along...

Everything is growing so fast in this weather, it is unbelievable. The cucumber plants are now escaping from the vegetable garden and onto the pathway. I discovered my first cucumbers growing very nicely with not a sign of mildew.

The caigua (pronounced "kai-wa") is growing rampantly over the fence. This is the first time that I have grown caigua. It is a relation of the cucumber family which originated in Peru.

Some people say that caigua tastes a bit like green peppers and asparagus, and some say it is like eating green beans. I wonder what it will taste like for me?

The flower buds have formed and a few have opened into clusters of tiny cream coloured flowers. I can't wait to harvest it. In the meantime I am researching on how to prepare and eat them.

My herb patch is also doing well. There is a good crop of dill and coriander. My parsley and basil are the only things that are being slow this year.

The variegated marjoram has taken over the lemon thyme. I need to take some cuttings of the lemon thyme, or layer it, before it is totally lost.

I never expected my lemongrass to grow so big! It is so exciting that I grew it from a few stalks from the supermarket.

Here is my lettuce which I am growing like mesclun. All I do is pick a few leaves, from each plant, at a time whenever I need it. My perpetual spinach and coloured silverbeet are ready for picking now, also leaf by leaf.

The snow peas have been providing me with another good crop this year. I gather a couple of handfuls each evening. Tomorrow I will need to freeze some because they are piling up in the fridge.

The beans and tomatoes are growing nicely. I picked the grand total of four beans today! The first of the crop.

I wish that the tomatoes would hurry up. There is an abundance of flowers which are keeping the bees very happy, but not much sign of the fruit setting yet.

We have been getting courgettes galore since I came back from my holiday. They grow so fast that if I miss picking one one day, it will have grown the size of a marrow by the next day.

So far we have eaten courgette bread, courgettes sautéed in butter, courgette salad, and stuffed courgettes and we have given some away. I need to find more recipes for some variety before the glut really starts.

Dad trimmed my artichoke plants down, after I had picked the last of the crop, and they are looking really healthy with lots of new leaf growth. Artichokes are one of my favourite vegetables. Cooked by steaming them and served with butter, delicious!

Oscar approves.

See you again soon.

Hugs Rose x

My Cat Guido - Happy Memories (Episode 2)

It didn't take us long to realise what a clever Guido was. That is one of the great things about Siamese cats. He wanted to join in with everything that I was doing and when he thought I wasn't paying enough attention to him, the mischief started!

While I had to spend hours studying, Guido would sit on my desk, in front of me, and walk backwards and forwards over my keyboard. He didn't want to sit quietly on my knee. He wanted to type my assignments for me and do what I was doing. He was very creative with making up new words with a never ending combination of letters. This made studying very interesting indeed!

If this didn't provide enough attention for him, he would hop onto my book case and systematically knock the books off one by one. I thought he had knocked the first couple of books off by accident. But then I watched what he was doing. Guido was poking his paw behind each book and slowly nudging it to the edge of the shelf. He then gave a final nudge and watched over the edge, fascinated, until the book crashed to the floor. Then moved on to the next book. He carried on doing this until I picked him up off the shelf.

That was a mistake...he realised that I would stop whatever I was doing and pick him up if he did this. He soon learnt to climb the book shelves in the sitting room next to my bedroom and did the same thing. So in the middle of studying I would hear...crash...bang...silence...crash...bang, until I got up to investigate.

Then Guido learnt how to open cupboard doors and had a wonderful time exploring. But when he wanted more attention, simple exploration wasn't enough. When I was soaking in the bath he liked to sit on the edge of it. But he soon got bored and found it more fun to open the bathroom cupboards and empty them of all the towels and flannels.

He would also empty the toilet paper out of the toilet cupboard and bat the rolls around the floor. We often found the cupboards empty and the contents in a heap on the floor. Luckily he never discovered the joys of shredding paper!

Guido also developed a fascination with emptying drawers. Even if a drawer was only open enough for him to fit his paw through, he managed to get things out. Socks, underwear, anything he could grab, all ended up on the floor. We had to remember to keep drawers tightly shut.

When ever I played the piano Guido loved it. He would hop up on the stool next to me for a little while and watch and listen. Then, still sitting by my side, he would press the keys down with his paws one at a time. We played some interesting duets. The only thing was that I laughed so much it disturbed his music playing and he would abruptly stop playing looking offended lol.

Sometimes he would then hop onto the piano keys and walk backwards and forwards on them while I was playing. And he also helped me turn the pages of music. At other times he was just happy to sit on top of the piano and watch and listen to me play.

In later years Guido learnt that the quickest way to get attention was to stand on his hind legs and tap me repeatedly on the shoulder. You could almost see him saying "excuse me...but 5 minutes is long enough at the computer...I want you to play with me now...and I mean now...please." He was so cute.

To be continued...

Tomorrow morning I will be hopping on an aeroplane and heading off to Australia's Gold Coast for a week. See you when I get back with a few photos to share.

Big hugs xxx

Oscar my kamikaze cat

Here is Oscar in his favourite spot...up a tree. He loves trees. The higher the better.

When he goes for walks with me and we get near a tree, he gets very excited and runs up as high as he can, really really fast, without thinking. He then runs back down the trunk head first and leaps out from 20 feet up!

When he adopted us, as a stray starving young kitten, he leapt out of a gum tree on our first walk which ended up badly. He landed on a branch poking upwards. My heart stopped...luckily he only had a few broken ribs, but he was sore for months and it stopped him from being able to purr properly.

He is fine now and still stupid about trees. He didn't learn from his accident and still leaps out of them! I don't go near trees when he goes for walks with me now because he just gets too excited. It worries me silly seeing him leap out of them.

He has really short stubby legs. I wouldn't be surprised if this has something to do with his love of leaping out of trees!

My cat Guido - Happy Memories (Episode 1)

After my Ocicat Alexei died, when he was only 6 months old, I decided that I needed another kitten, both for my sake and also to keep his sister Tasha company while I was at work. Tasha and Alexei adored each other and played together like crazy kittens do.

I wanted a Siamese kitten and managed to find a breeder that had some kittens for sale. When I arrived at the cattery I was taken to a little room where the kittens were kept with their mother. All I could see was a haphazard pile of little black and dark brown Oriental kittens climbing all over their dark brown mother.

I was puzzled and said to the breeder that I had come to chose a blue point Siamese kitten. She said yes. At this stage I thought she was going to try to sell an Oriental cat to me. I do like Oriental cats, I lived with two for a while when I was flatting, but I really wanted a Siamese cat.

Then a little white head popped up from the middle of the pile of kittens and I saw my Guido for the first time. The breeder wouldn't let me handle him because of risk of infection and she said he was very timid. But I fell in love with him immediately. I had to wait a month before I could take him home.

When I arrived home with Guido I kept him in his cat carrier while I introduced him to Tasha. Tasha had an absolute fit when she saw him! I thought oh nooooo, what have I done? Guido was safe in his carrier and I took Tasha out of the room for a few hours and let Guido run around. Then I put Tasha into the cat carrier and let Guido inspect her for a short while from the outside. I kept both of them in separate rooms for a few days gradually introducing them to each other like this for longer and longer periods.

After a very stressful week they suddenly became best friends. Washing each other, giving each other hugs, playing together and sleeping on my bed. They became inseperable. It was such a relief.

Then a couple of months later I moved to the countryside and they had a great time being able to run around outside. Guido kept bringing me things that he found; slugs - yummy (not), especially when you wake up to see one lying next to your face on your pillow, dead butterflies - crunchy when you roll over in bed on them, twigs, a huge cutting from a rose bush which I have no idea how he got through the cat door. His favourite was to bring me large V-shaped pine needles. He held the join part in his mouth and watched the pointy bits as he ran along trying to catch the ends until he reached me.

One day I decided it would be fun to show him what he looked like in a mirror. So I took down the long mirror from my wall and put it down on the floor. Guido had a great time trying to figure the mirror out. Looking at his reflection and the other reflections from the room. When he pawed at the side of the mirror I asked him "what's behind the mirror?" a few times, then lifted up the mirror from the floor for him to have a look. That really confused him. We played for ages like this and then I put the mirror back on the wall.

The next day I was in the sitting room and asked Guido what was behind the mirror and he ran into my room, put his paw under the bottom of the mirror and pulled the bottom away from the wall! That was the beginning of another game we often played.

After dad had fixed the television aerial outside, Guido appeared in my room with a 3 foot long piece of black coaxial cabling off-cut that dad had left on the ground. Guido had dragged it through the cat door and through the house to me. He was only a little kitten. I played with the cable with him for ages, then tossed it into the sitting room. Guido hurtled after it, picked it up and brought it back to me! He loved that cable for many years.

When he lost the cable outside somewhere I decided to replace it because he like to play with it so much. So I went off to the hardware store for some more. I asked for 3 feet of black coaxial cable. The assistant asked me which type. I said it didn't matter. He then gave me an incredulous look and asked what I needed it for. So I told him it was for my cat to play with. You can imagine the look on his face then, it was a real picture!

Guido then started to bring anything long and black that he found to me to play with, including shoe laces, elastic, wool and ribbon.

Years later when I was at university I had to spend a lot of time studying at my desk. One day Guido appeared at my side carrying a cyclamen flower and he dropped it at my feet. I laughed and thanked him, giving him big cuddles. But when I picked the cyclamen up the flower fell off the stem. I told Guido not to mind, it was a lovely thought. Guido then dissappeared and returned a little while later with another cyclamen flower for me! I don't know how he managed to pull the flowers off the plant. I thanked him again and put the flower in a glass of water on my desk.

To be continued...xxx

Thank you for your kind thoughts

Thank you for being with me through this difficult time. Your support and kind thoughts, here and in Google+, are such a great help to me.

I am on a bit of an emotional roller coaster at the moment, being very upset one moment, then okay, then very angry at the vets that didn't help Guido when I knew something was wrong. I went back to work today and my colleagues were very supportive. I got through the day, but it was very hard coming home with Guido not waiting on the doorstep for me.

I am trying to keep busy and I am going to write down all my happy memories that I had with Guido. All the clever things that he did. And put all his photos together. The hard drive on my old computer has lots of photos on, so I am going to see if a technician can rescue them for me.

Oscar has decided that he needs to nurse me. He is spending a lot of time with me sitting at my feet purring and looking up at me to be stroked. Hopping on my bed and lying next to me and sleeping with me at night. I went for a little walk with Oscar and Ginger this evening but for some reason Oscar started bullying Ginger and wouldn't let him near me. I think they are a bit mixed up without Guido.

Big hugs...will see you soon xxx

Not a happy birthday for Guido today :(

It is Guido's 17th birthday today. He is my beautiful Siamese cat. I mentioned how special and clever he is in one of my comment replies here.

Guido has not had a good day today. We noticed something wrong with him a few days ago and then on Friday he didn't want to eat. When I got home from work I noticed him going every few minutes to his litter tray without success. Then he started vomitting. I got very worried and phoned the after-hours vet. The vet met me at the clinic within 20 minutes of me phoning. He thought Guido was just constipated, so treated that and sent us away with some medicine. The vet said to phone him on his cell phone if I was worried any time during the weekend.

At 3.00 am this morning I woke up with Guido sleeping at my side and the bed felt a bit wet. I turned on the light and there were patches of blood on the bed. I panicked and checked Guido over and found that some faeces had burst out through a hole near his bottom. Then I really panicked. I woke mum up for help, then phoned the vet again.

The vet said he could meet me at the clinic first thing in the morning at 6.30 am. When I saw him he said he thought that it was a ruptured perineal hernia and that it would need surgery. He gave Guido some intravenous fluids, antibiotic injection, pain killers and a vitamin B shot, then sent us home. He wasn't able to treat Guido any further as it is Sunday and he had no support staff. Plus he said he didn't really know how to fix the problem.

Guido is being referred to a specialist vet hospital tomorrow. I have to wait until 8.00 am tomorrow to make an appointment for him as they aren't open today. Guido is now not allowed to eat anything after 8.00 tonight, in preparation for his operation. He appears comfortable and is sleeping at the moment, but he has been very clingy with me today, more than usual.

I will keep you updated on how he is getting on by adding to the end of this post.

Updates

• Guidos's appointment at the vet hospital has been made for 11.30 this morning. He seems a lot brighter this morning and has been begging for food.
• Guido is staying at the vet hospital for the week on i.v. fluids and food tube with 24 hour nursing care. He is having a series of tests done today. He isn't well enough for exploratory surgery. I am waiting for the specialist to let me know test results this afternoon and she will let me know if anything can be done to help him.

Very Sad News

Guido had to be put down this evening. He had multiple organ failure and extensive cancer throughout his body. He was such a brave little cat. I am going to miss him so much.