Virtual Vermut

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
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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.

Goodbye

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.

A mixture

My furniture arrived.

Safely.

It took several hours to unload as they had only sent ONE MAN!   Luckily we were able to supply another!

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The police were also in evidence due to traffic control. When all was unpacked the van wouldn’t start and the first police had to call for back up to come with jump leads!  Tea was served. And now the piano is sitting in place waiting to be retuned. What a change from the damp atmosphere of Cornwall.

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Meanwhile here is a picture of the walk I took with Bonnie yesterday in the beautiful sunshine down by Lamorna Cove. It was a great distraction from all the worries of moving house.

……..and another of the cows crossing the road from dairy to field on my way down to Lamorna.  Never forget the life of these dairy cattle – their fully stretched udders from over production of milk and their lameness as they slowly and painfully walk the short distance from the yard to the grass. This herd is very well looked after – the farmers don’t shout or hit them, they walk beside them with a gentle hand resting on the back of the last and most crippled one to cross the road. But it is not an easy life for these animals as they provide us with our milk.
I always watch with sadness at the same time as pleasure at the old fashioned scene.

Old Birds

It was a misty Cornish day when he arrived

I knew something was wrong but he wouldn’t let me get close.
It was good to see him keeping company with one of my birds.

I hoped he was taking comfort

The next day his body was in the field.   He didn’t seem seemed injured – just old.

He just died and I was a witness.

Duna the seasoned traveller

Duna has left Cornwall and is much missed by me, less so by Blue and not at all by Bonnie!
She arrived safely in Roscoff early this morning after sailing across from Plymouth and she would like to say that it was not the best way to travel. Brittany Ferries have several options for dogs going abroad – kennels, cabin or car. It depends which route you take and as the Plymouth – Santander route stops at the end of October, Duna went to Roscoff on the night ferry. She passed through the check-in easily with only a quick scan of her microchip, and then had to spend the ten hour trip in the car on the car deck. She could have slept through most of it except for the idiots who had forgotten to switch off their car alarms so the night was one long neek-neek, bee-bah bee-bah, nyang nyang nyang nyang.
But she is a seasoned traveller now and emerged this morning to have a pee and a potter on French soil before setting off on the long trip south.

Meanwhile back in Dolphin Cottage – floors and windows to varnish, boxes to pack, things to sort and furniture to move. Hoping that the log book of the van will come back in time for us to set off well before Christmas. The house still looks pretty full of STUFF !
I am missing my companions and now must seriously get on with the move.