Tora was to be honest not too enthusiastic about his reindeer themed Christmas jumper. I managed to get the main part over his head, but when I tried to insert his legs into it, loud growls and meows started and I had to give up. Can’t say that R was of any great help either. […]

There is going to be a food bank for the Cowal area with some pickup points around Lochgoilhead. I think it is a crying shame that people would not have enough to eat at Christmas. Although I am pretty well off now, I went through a bad patch about 30 years ago and ended up […]

I’ll take a poll on the worst way to wake up. I’m not counting things like hearing bombers overhead or seeing a man in a hockey mask standing over you with a blood stained knife – but just ordinary moderately bad things. Friday 4:30am – freezing cold cat comes into bedroom, goes under the duvet […]

Bitterly cold today at -5 first thing this morning. I am reminded of the Christmas Carol “earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone” as I had to run the birds’ bowl of water under the hot tap for ten minutes as it had frozen solid overnight. I refilled it with warm water at […]

Thank God for being finished with that. The floor is complete, but has taken me twice as long as I expected, partially because my back and knees are not up for more than an hour or two at a time, partially because the light fades at 4pm, and partially because of the activities of Tora, […]

We have at least one pair of tawny owls in the garden at the moment. I am often wakened early in the morning by the “twit-twoo” of the courting couple and sitting here at 7:30pm I can hear them loud and clear. I love owls and wish we could see our residents but unfortunately it […]

My mum and dad bought me flooring to put down in my dining room as an early Christmas present. I am coming round to the idea that it is much better to have practical things that you actually do want for presents rather than ending up with a whole load of tat that clutters up […]

We got this bench designed by Chainsaw Craft near Dunoon for a Christmas present to go on my parents’ patio. On one arm is a cat, which I thought looked a bit like poor old Schrodi, and on the other arm is a mouse or vole. The original idea had been to bring it in […]

No one loves animals more than I do. I have to say though, that unless you are actually a vegan (as I have stated before, not an ethos I agree with), having a policy of banning fur, whilst allowing other animal products such as meat and leather is highly hypocritical and in fact just a […]

Sad to say I have started my Christmas preparations with all my presents either arrived or on order. I just made my first Christmas cake and gave it a big feed of brandy as it seemed to have dried out at the edges a bit. To be honest, I am not fond of either Christmas […]