Our Siamese Cats

I had always intended to do some posts on our Siamese cats and having shown a calligraphy version of a poem written for our cat Sandy, my daughter Janie suggested I post a picture of her. So here goes, the first in a couple of cat posts.

This is Sandy on the right, her pedigree name Zarabelle Zavita ( a Seal Point) shown here in a pastel drawing by John Purday, the son of a friend of ours. Here she is with her Mother Misty, pedigree name Anabelle Stasia ( a Blue Point). Sandy, the daughter died first aged 13 and the poem I wrote was part of my grieving for her. It was amazing how much I loved and missed this cat considering my previous life long hate of such animals.

The story began in an unusual way. It was 1978 and my children who were then aged 10 and 8 had been asking for another pet (they already had rabbits and guinea pigs) preferably a cat. A cat was the last thing I wanted in my home as I saw them as smelly and unpleasant.



Then one day we received a telephone call from a friend saying she had a cat for us as she knew that Peter and Jane (our children) had been praying for one in Sunday School. This was the first we had heard of the praying and although we did not want a cat we felt we could not deny our children's answer to prayer. So, we reluctantly agreed to have Misty, a beautiful blue point Siamese cat. The reason she was available was because she had been a present to her owner but with a baby in the house at crawling stage, our friend felt unable to cope with this new cat.

So Misty at 7 months old was delivered to our home. Rules were quickly made. This cat would never go upstairs and certainly not into the bedrooms. What would we do with her at night? My first thought was to make her comfortable in our garage cum store room. This is integral and is not used for a car so has a carpet on the floor and seemed the ideal solution. We supplied Misty with a comfortable basket, with a hot water bottle, a litter tray and water. What more could a cat want? At bedtime, in she went and the door was closed. Remember that at this time I am a novice as far as keeping cats is concerned and I still don't like the idea of one prowling around my home.

The next morning on opening the door she had vomited in one corner, pooed in another and wet in another. This confirmed my feelings about cats. Seeing my children's distress I decided to quickly get hold of some information on the behaviour of cats (no internet then). I found out that this was typical behaviour of a distressed cat. So what do we do now? That night I allowed Misty her freedom as long as all bedroom doors were closed. In the early hours of the morning we were woken by a commotion outside our bedroom door. There stood our children upset because Sandy was 'crying' and trying to get into their rooms! So, that was the beginning of giving the cat freedom of the house including the children's bedrooms.

Needless to say, within a week I had fallen in love with this cat. She was beautiful, loving, had a very pleasant perfume and loved to sit on my knee and purr. I was smitten and Misty became a very important member of our household.

There will be more cat stories of Misty and her 7 kittens when we decided to mate her in the next post.

A Walk Amongst The Bluebells

It's Bluebell time in England and I did not want to miss the flowers now that they are fully out so decided to have a walk in the woods before lunch this morning. I remember as a child picking armfuls of them and taking them home but they are now an endangered species so picking them is against the law.

I invite you to acompany me on this walk - you won't be disappointed. I just wish I could capture the delicately scented perfume that surrounds us as we walk through the flowers.

We arrive at Westleigh Heights and stop to capture the River Thames which is looking very hazy in the morning sun.

We are going to walk across this field on the left which usually has cows in but none there today.

We enter the woods

and our senses are immediately heightened

by the beautiful perfume

We walk the many different paths

Yours truly, wishing she could pick just one

Where the sun catches them they

look like a haze in the distance

Mixed with Pink Campion

and White Vetch

We have now left the woods behind

and on our way back to the car

pass fields of yellow Buttercups

Hope you enjoyed

More Of My Artwork

While on the subject of my art work around the house, here's a few of a different kind.

Illuminated Lettering on this paper weight

The gold is done with gold leaf

Combination of watercolour and calligraphy

A poem I wrote when my cat died

done in calligraphy and illuminated lettering

An interesting composition of the word PEACE

Calligraphy and illuminated design

A prophetic banner

painted on silk with silk paints for our House of Prayer

A charcoal sketch

Calligraphy was an art form that I really did enjoy - so relaxing, but I did eventually give this up too and passed on all my equipment. One needs a very steady hand for this lettering and as there are so many different alphabets and strokes it is essential to practice every day.

My teacher was a Master Calligrapher who often did work for Buckingham Palace and even at her level of expertise said that she MUST practice every day and that it took about half an hour to get settled and relaxed enough to produce good lettering.

I have too many interests and hobbies for that level of committment so again it was something I enjoyed for a season.

My Watercolours

Thought I would indulge myself and post some of my recent watercolours. By recent I mean in the last 10 years or so. Just over a year ago I decided to give up painting and gave away all of my equipment. Now before anyone wonders why, I always seem to have seasons for my hobbies and card making took over from my painting. For me painting was time consuming and I did not enjoy it enough to want to give the needed time to it. However I can still enjoy these lasting images that I did produce. Hope you do to and for the professionals out there, I am very much an amateur.

Angles Sur L'anglin in France

The church in Essex where my daughter Janie was married

Entering the Old Town at Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

with some artistic licence thrown in

Leigh-on-Sea from the other side

Sedona, Arizona

copied from one of my son Peter's photos

Lower Slaughter, The Cotswolds

Wendens Ambo, Essex

http://www.geocities.com/wendensambo/wenden.htm

Interesting history at this link

A Cotswold Scene

Another Cotswold Scene

Danbury Church, Essex

A Poppy Field

Garden Images Today

I am so enjoying seeing the leaves and blossom appear as the garden takes shape for another year.We have just had a week of beautiful warm weather with the temperature hitting 70f but it is about to change for next week. Not having had the opportunity this week to be out working in the garden as there has been too many other things to do, I am off now to put in a few hours work there. Will be looking after Oliver for 2 days this coming week while Janie recovers from her C-Section and takes care of Rebekah. We are also in the middle of decorating another bedroom. No surprises this time though!! I have also been enjoying using my new electric carpet and upholstery shampooer. So, this is where I am off to now to continue trimming and tidying.

This will probably be my last post featuring knitting. Although I had decided to give knitting up for good, I saw this yarn in Ho*bby*craft and just knew that the colour was right for a blogging friend so took the needles out of retirement to knit a scarf. The second photo is a scarf I knitted for Alan a little while ago but did not post on it.