What’s the Story in Dalamory

No sign of the builders after all this week.
Nothing more to say than that.

You can’t win with a cat – they just have a way of coming out on top. Fox, our ginger tom, has a mixed diet of Iams Senior (he is nearly eleven after all) and an allowance of two Whiskas meaty pouches each day. He has taken a liking to the latter and throughout the stand off of the last few weeks he has obviously been planning strategy. He tries demanding pouches every couple of hours and as that hasn’t worked he has taken to catching his own meaty pouches. These he then brings into the house and parades them under the noses of the humans and the dog.

It is nearly war!

Is it global warming or back to basics?

January brings the snow,
Makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.

Well…..we did have half an inch of snow in January, and as ever rain is forecast here today. But the lake never did get frozen, though to be fair the third largest freshwater loch in Scotland is unlikely ever to freeze. The climate sure has gone daft, it was 12 degrees C yesterday – too warm for a raincoat.

A telephone conversation took place last night:
Him Behind the Wheel: So is there any chance we might see you soon?
Builder: Maybe Thursday…..

I was tempted to shout……This year or next year?

Went for a walk in the grounds of Inveraray Castle yesterday, taking my camera with me as I hoped to get a picture of some snowdrops. The weather felt like spring so surely I would be successful. Nope…. only a few daffodils peeking through the leaves beneath the trees. Came home and had a walk round the garden to discover these beauties. There has got to be a parable in there somewhere.

The roller-coaster of Celebrity Big Brother is over. What a year to choose to watch it for the first time! Someone has suggested that it is a deeply theological programme, challenging us to ask questions of how we view God. The contestants who were first and second, reminded us of the importance of peace, patience, compassion, kindness and above all…..forgiveness. A true message of hope.

I am delighted that Shilpa Shetty was the winner, and I applaud her sentiments about forgiving the bullying and so forth. She is a Hindu and her religion is based on kindness and forgiveness. Jermaine Jackson, the runner-up is a Muslim and he too exhibited compassion, calmness and dignity. What better lessons could there be?

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

Jean Paul Sartre

Worth joining in the Garden Birdwatch if you are in the UK and if you have a garden. I get such a lot of pleasure from watching the birds outside that it feels like a good way to repay them.

No – not a new view of eternity…… but a new unreality online. More time-wasting? Or a new way of relaxing? At the moment I am undecided. You have probably already checked it out at www.secondlife.com  Misty would rather walk in the real life and real present…….so it is off to the real countryside we go.

To storm a beach, conduct an embassy, govern a people; these are brilliant actions; to scold, laugh…..and deal gently with one’s family and oneself….that is something rarer, more difficult, and less noticed in the world.

Montaigne