Blue

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.

The Pack

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

Today we took the three dogs to Treen and walked across the fields towards Logan Rock.
Duna is watching the others all the time – learning how to be a member of a pack. Always an only dog, she hasn’t had much experience with other dogs but is picking things up quickly.
Some things she has noticed – like barking when the leads and harnesses appear, and lying on the sofa – are being discouraged but here she is, finally accepting that walking behind the leader is the best way to go!  Blue clambered over three cornish stiles in spite of her arthritic joints, and enjoyed the sea breeze through her thick black fur.

Two homes – one heart

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

My last night. Cleaning the house. Saying goodbye to the dogs – yet again. A visit from Dandelion my beautiful ginger cat, he now lives next door but must have known that I am leaving soon.
Thinking back over the long list of things that I have done in the last two weeks all I regret is that I didn’t go for more walks with Bonnie on the coast path or lie down more doing nothing with Blue who has been too wobbly to go further than the bottom of the lane.
Except when we went to the vet!
After we came out she took off down to the promenade and insisted on a long walk beside the sea

The Jubilee Pool has beautiful flags this year

Let’s go then!

I’m off!

Shall we stop here for a bit?

I will be back soon but two and a half months is a long time in the life of a dog, especially when you are almost 15. And a long time for me too.

The First Day of Spring

~ Kate Wilson ~ 5 Comments

Lamorna is famous for daffodils. Early ones, late ones, yellow and creamy ones. Small meadows are full of them and a lovely path edged with them, winds back from the coast taking you past the granite quarries and down to the stream. There are always places to buy a bunch with an honest box for money.  Friends from Barcelona were amazed that here in Cornwall you are trusted to leave your money in a tin by the side of the road. I suppose sometimes people steal it but it’s not common and I like that feeling of being presumed to be honest, unlike in some shops in Granollers where you must leave your bag at the door in case you get a sudden desire to shoplifter.

What luck to be here in Spring, with time to think about future plans and to let go of the stresses and strains of the past months. I still don’t have a clear idea of how I will resolve the split I feel between two homes but I feel more trusting that the answer will come by itself. We will find the right path.

 The end of my time here is fast approaching and I am dreading the day of goodbyes with my dogs while trying to savour every moment that remains. Tomorrow I go to two different vets with two different pets. Both Blue my black collie and Mazey my black cat need to have teeth extracted urgently so it will be an anxious day of waiting and worrying.  Then hopefully a happy and painfree homecoming