Thursday...

Still here - just preoccupied with this and that...

New cat picture: it was a cool gray day... Guess who arrived second?



-GRG

Tuesday...

It feels strange not to be writing or proofreading; I'll have to start another project soon. In the meantime, I'm looking for reviewers, and cleaning house (long overdue), and doing autumn cleanup in the garden. We've been having another run of warm weather, common this time of year, but it probably won't last much longer.

A cat picture today: Titus waiting by the cold frame for his fresh catnip (inside the wire cage you can see next to him).



-GRG

Wednesday...

Wildlife in the coldframe:



...and Titus begging for catnip (the plant inside the chicken wire):



-GRG

Saturday...

Just a brief post today to share another picture I took of Titus yesterday in the garage:



-GRG

Tuesday...

Well, it's been a while - party I've been busy writing, and partly with other things. The book's coming along well - over 44,000 words now. I think this one will be significant bigger than Ash Spear - possibly around 150,000 words.

After a nice day outside today, Titus found a sunny south window for a nap:



More tomorrow, perhaps...

-GRG

Tuesday...

I don't usually post on Tuesday, but I got some photos yesterday I'd like to share...

Ever had a day like this?



Or found yourself in this position?



Or this?



As far as I'm aware, the mouse survived. He (yes, I checked) was very good at getting down under the grass, and creeping along or holding still. I think the cats eventually lost interest, and he escaped.

There are a few more shots on Flickr from this sequence - just click on one of the above and you'll see them all.

-GRG

Saturday...

Where did the week go? Snow shoveling on Tuesday and Wednesday, writing on Wednesday and Thursday... sometimes one thing crowds another out. In this case, it was blogging which got displaced. However, chapter 9 is more or less finished at last.



Nicer weather yesterday made it hard to stay inside, especially after some of the record cold weather lately.

-GRG

Friday...

Making good progress on chapter 8. More writing to do today, but I wanted to share this picture of Titus in the cold frame that I took yesterday. The pot he's sitting on contains catmint and grass; the mint hasn't started growing again, but obviously he thinks the dried plant smells good! I had the lid up to rearrange some pots and he hopped in.



Back to work!

-GRG

Sunday...

I've done a little writing today, but it's coming slow. Weather's about like yesterday - 40s and partly to mostly cloudy. Looking out a little while ago, I caught this shot of Titus getting a drink...



Back to work...

-GRG

... and Friday.

A late post - having taken the day off, I forgot it was Friday. I was also busy this morning sending out coupon codes for my giveaway of the e-book version of King Arthur's Raid on Hell, which just ended on LibrayThing. The next giveaway is for my second volume of poetry, Pryderi's Pigs, which will be running for two weeks. After that I have one more planned before Christmas, an e-book giveaway of Storyteller for non-US residents only. I'll put the details up when it starts.

It looks like my mouse problems are over for the moment, although the cats are convinced there's one or more living just outside the garage. It's a good bit warmer today than yesterday, and Titus found himself a warm spot for a nap:



-GRG

...and Wednesday...

Brief post today as nothing much is new. I think I have the mouse situation under control, as no more have been caught since Sunday and nothing more seems to have been eaten. On the topic of cat and mouse, however, a cute picture from several years ago when Falco was young and first encountered the concept. I think I actually caught the mouse (which is in the jar) myself.



A happy thanksgiving to those of you in places that celebrate it!

-GRG

Binary weather

Spring in Denver is binary: winter/summer/winter/summer/winter/summer... Snow Monday morning, nice weather Tuesday, snow (with lightning and thunder!) Wednesday evening, nice weather yesterday and today, winter storm warning for tonight and tomorrow... The picture's from last Sunday, one of the nice days.

More coldframe...

Titus has discovered the catmint in the coldframe. He really likes it... Yes, he's sitting in the pot. Fortunately catmint is tough!

The water bottles are there as a temperature regulator, btw.

Writing again...

A little update on the "progress" box on the sidebar. I got about half a chapter done this last weekend between gardening, puttering with books (yes, still adding stuff to LibraryThing), and breaking up cat fights. The fights were not between my two, but a case of them defending our yard from intruders.

Then there was the great mouse expulsion... but more of that later.

-GRG

Cats...

The picture at the left is of my two cats (Falco and Titus) four years ago, when they were half-grown. Basic tabbies, they are the type of cat which would have been around in Gwernin's day. We're not sure just when domestic cats arrived in Britain - the European wild cat, of course, was already there - but it seems certain that the Romans brought more with them.

They were valued for their mousing, as the Law of Hywel shows: "The value of a cat, fourpence. The value of a kitten from the night it is born until it opens its eyes, a legal penny; and from then until it kills mice, two legal pence; and after it kills mice, four legal pence, and at that it remains for ever. Her properties are to see and hear and kill mice, and that her claws are not broken, and to rear kittens; and if she is bought, and any of those is wanting, a third of her value is to be returned ... The value of a cat which guards a king's barn, if killed ... her head is set down on a clean level floor, and her tail is raised up, and wheat grains are poured over her until they hide the end of her tail. That will be her value; if the grain is not obtained, a milking ewe with her lamb and her wool." If a couple divorces, "the man is entitled to all the hens, and to one of the cats, with the rest for the woman."

Cats are also mentioned in one of the Arthurian poems in the Black Book of Caermyrddin, "Pa Gwr",where Kay, Arthur's foster-brother, goes to Ynys Mon to destroy a monster called Cath Paluc (Paluc's Cat). Possibly she was an early version of the mysterious black cats still being observed in western Britain today!

Did I mention that my sister and I saw one once? Well, that's a story for another day...