Author: Kate Wilson

15 things to remember about old dogs….

~ Kate Wilson ~ 6 Comments
 Old Dogs….
1.   Bark loudly because they are deaf and think you are too

2.   Teach you patience on a walk as they stop to savour a smell for….. a   l o   n g  t  i m e….. and then a little longer
3.   Still pull on the lead but now they pull you back where they used to pull you forward
4.    Have trouble with the front end knowing what the back end is doing
5.    Can’t see too well either…..but use the sense of smell to get about without knocking into things


6.    Are happy with the simple things in life
7.    Come upstairs and then can’t remember what they came up for so go downstairs again

8.       Prefer the beach to the countyside – it’s so much softer on the paws
9.       But still love to get up high and look out over the world – if there’s a handy car park

10.      Like bones even after losing most of their teeth

11.       Know how to open a birthday present – after 15 years of practice
12.       Let things go which in the past would have led to an unpleasantness

13.     Were once young

14.      Are still learning new tricks

15.      Are willing to follow you to the end of the world if it means you can be together

Virtual Vermut

~ Kate Wilson ~ 6 Comments

It’s blowing a gale outside and is definitely the night to sit in front of the fire and have a drink and a chat with a friend.   I am here with the fire and the vermut – actually red wine –  I can even offer you mince pies…… and hopefully you are here too for the chat?   (Thank you Bodhi Chicklet for keeping the glasses full in my absence!)

The room is quite empty now as you can see. I have brought in a garden table and on the top you can see two envelopes full of old postcards which sold on ebay today anda spiral notepad containing everything I need to remember while organising the move
.
If you were here I could show you Blue’s new ramp which arrived this morning and which thankfully seems to be all that was promised in the advertisment

Light, strong, wide, non slip and most important of all, acceptable to Blue. It is a Solvit ultralite bought from Easy Animal who have a freephone advice service and I would highly recommend them.
I could also take you outside when the rain stops to show you the cabin we were working on all summer

I’ve been up there today trying to sort out old diaries and deciding which ones to burn.  I never thought I would do this but actually I am tired of heaving them around with me and am not sure I would want anyone else to read them.  Along the outside wall are a selection of my sculptures. I am amazed at how many there are and how small they seem when put outside.

I went to an auction today to watch some of my things flying out of the room for very low prices – it could be disheartening but I am well beyond the point of caring. All I want to do is get this house empty and I am still fighting with the little stuff which I neither want to keep nor throw away.
I stare at it and wish it would just dissolve. If you were here perhaps you could take it away?

Two very good friends came all the way down to Cornwall from Suffolk last weekend. They even brought their own bed!  Both the dogs loved having familiar people staying and spent the nights guarding their room to make sure they too didn’t disappear

But sadly on Sunday they did and so we three are here again, listening to the wind rattling the letterbox and counting the days till next Monday when we set off.
My old house is changing – it still feels like a safe cocoon but the time is coming to let it go for a while and stretch my wings and fly. Think of the swallows who were born this year in my garage – one day they flew around and around the field and then….they climbed higher and higher, set their compass to south and trusted themselves to the air.

Awake

~ Kate Wilson ~ 5 Comments

My new habit is to wake up at 5.30am. It is still dark and far too early to get up and start the day – in my opinion anyway!  So I usually get a cup of tea and return to bed to read. I switch on R4 and hear interesting programmes like Farming Today and think of all the other people who are doing the same. It feels like I have joined a secret society of early wakers, non sleepers, worriers.
Over the past three months my early morning worries have closely tracked what was happening in life. First the journey to Cornwall, then the meeting of the three dogs and how they would get on, then the renovation work here in Dolphin Cottage, the packing, various worries over changing relationships in the wake of my moving to another country……and now my thoughts have turned to the trip back to Catalunya.  It’s quite interesting – I don’t worry much at all during the day but in these early hours a switch flicks on and I just have to accept the twittering of a restless mind. Early morning worries don’t tend towards problem solving – they just like to swim around and around in circles. You think  you have settled some tricky question and then a few moments later find you are thinking about it all over again.
I thought yesterdays gym and swimming might help – but clearly not.
So the best thing is to have the cup of tea, read Alexander McCall Smith’s Bertie books, listen to interesting programmes on sheep farming and border collies and eventually drift back to sleep till Blue wakes me with her insistent barking to go out.
And the other best thing is to determine to be positive.
We will travel from Cornwall to Folkstone and through the tunnel to France. Then there will be a beautiful drive down through France, avoiding the Central Massif and the possibilities of snow. We will either sleep in the camper van or in roadside motels which take dogs. A few days later we will cross the border into Catalunya on the Mediterranean coast and then it is all downhill to Granollers.
That’s all!

November 30th – a little bit mystical

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

I went to the gym!  At last!
I have been planning to go ever since arriving in Cornwall and today finally made it there  for the first time. Then I went for a swim in the pool.
I thought I needed to relax a bit as this intense time here draws to a close and I need to find a way to sleep for more than 5 hours a night.
We’ll see how it worked tomorrow.

I forgot to take my ipod so was left with my thoughts as I ran and cycled and cross-trained. Mostly my brain was leaping around from one subject to the next without pausing to breath. But what I love about training is the way it sends waves of energy throughout your being which sometimes result in problem solving or interesting ideas.
So…..
I realised that on Christmas day I don’t have to leave the dogs alone in a strange house only one week after arriving in Catalunya. We will go to eat with the family and it means a minimum of two but more likely three hours away. Suddenly on the running machine I realised I can take them along in my van and go out to check on them every hour.  They will be happy sleeping in the familiar smells of my camper and I can relax eating dinner.
Then……in the swimming pool…….
I was thinking about 11.11 again and how since that date I have been noticing these numbers more and more. In the van the milometer was on 1111xx for all the period around the 11th November 2011. The clock is often just clicking onto 11.11 when I look at it. And when I was running I decided to check my heart rate and it was 111. It stayed there exactly on that number for a few minutes.
I grabbed the only empty locker by my cubicle by the pool and when I looked at the key it was 222. I know that is stretching it a bit but it was still interesting.
Anyway, by now you must be thinking I am crazy but when I was swimming I thought about how strange it is when predictions come true. It reminded me of the concept of ‘proof of existence’ which I think means just that something proves to you that there is more to life than meets the eye.  I think my mother first told me about ‘proof of existence’ as she had an uncle who was a spiritualist and who was always seeking out proof that there is more to life than what we see on the surface.  If you go to see a medium they don’t need to tell you something new – it is more important that they tell you something you know to be true but you can’t find an explanation for how THEY know it. This gives you proof of existence.
Anyway, in a long roundabout way this led me to thinking about two predictions I’ve had about my life. The first was that I would live in a foreign country ……..and the second was that the second half of my life would be happier than the first.
So, for me this is proof of something and even if it is just that if you believe something then it will be more likely to happen, then, let’s believe in miracles!
Does anyone else notice 11.11 or have you had predictions that came true?

Goodbye

~ Kate Wilson ~ 6 Comments

Today is a very sad day. My old cat – a beautiful ginger angel called Dandelion – died. It was sudden, or rather it wasn’t expected. He was over 17 but a gentle giant with a huge heart and still totally in charge of the house and gardens. Only last week he saw off a neighbours cat with fierce yowls and a commanding presence. He died today after only 24 hours of seeming poorly. He had rarely been off the land, always protecting his family and his patch and perhaps twice taking the trip to Penzance to the vet where he behaved with impeccable manners as always. He was the sort of cat who would open his mouth for pills if they were deemed necessary. He never used a litter tray in his life preferring to go outside whatever the weather and however he might be feeling.
He arrived here 15 years ago on a stormy night in November. Blue was a puppy and she sounded the alarm – CAT IN DISTRESS!!!   Outside high in the branches of a hawthorn tree was perched a ginger cat meowing for help. Once inside the house he quickly settled down to eat and sleep and never left again.
Many people have known and loved him, seen him for the special soul that he was and come to pay homage. One friend named him the Dalai De Mandolin. Like all beloved creatures he had many secret names, whispered into his soft red fur as he purred his pleasure and gave back love.
He never scratched or hurt a human. He could attack an invading dog or cat but when two new kittens joined the household 12 years ago he allowed himself one soft growl and then took them under his wing. He had always been a rabbit hunter and with two more mouths to feed and young ones to initiate, his daily kills trebled in number. We had to fit new doors to the porch to avoid waking every morning to more gory gifts.
Today he lay in peaceful calm and took his last journey asking only for our companionship. He didn’t need help – he knew what to do and a couple of hours after padding into a dark and cool clothes cupboard, he was gone.
A writer called Derek Tangye used to live near my house in Cornwall and he once told me that when big changes are happening in your life, sometimes your animals chose not to come with you along the new road. He believed that they know when is the time to arrive and when to leave. and if we trust them and don’t get in their way, they will follow their instincts quite naturally.

So here I am, in my empty zen house, preparing to move my life south to Catalunya, and saying goodbye and thank you to a great lion of a cat whose spirit is now roaming free.  Who knows where he will turn up next or who he will be? Dandelion – I will be looking out for you.