ALFIE - just the best cat - 1998-2012

For me, today is one of the saddest days.  My beautiful Alfie, the best cat in the world with such a lovely temperament, has just taken his last journey to the vet.

He joined my family in June 1998 with his brother Oscar and has been a treasure.  This is him when he was young and before he filled out to be the big cat he became.

  

In May last year I took a photograph of him on the stairs and when I loaded it onto the laptop and looked at it properly his right eye was like a solid emerald stone – his left eye was the yellowy golden colour that was his norm.  Apparently it is the lens which becomes detached and creates this effect.  

I took him to the vet in Corlay and they operated on 30 May last year to find that he had a tumour and had to remove his right eye.  They were unable to remove all of the tumour because of the restrictions of space in that area.  After a little problem with an infection everything healed up and he had just over another year of good life with us.  Here he is with the other two after his wound had healed.

Yesterday when I arrived home he was walking very slowly and I picked him up and took him to his food.  His miaow had also changed last week from a normal cry to a guttural sound – I thought he must have a bit of a cold.  In the early evening he sat on my lap for about half an hour and when I turned him round to face me I suddenly saw that his left eye had also turned to emerald stone.  I was devastated and just couldn’t stop crying.  My lovely Alfie, who has been with me for just over fourteen years was going to have to go to the vet for the last time.  

Here he is with Daisy on the left and Purrdy on the right all sleeping together on the windowsill.

Alfie has seen countless kittens and cats come and go and has never ever fought with any of them.  He had such a lovely nature, even the vet says she has never known such a placid and easy cat to treat – quite different from my other cats.  He has never been much of a hunter far too laid back for that.  He just liked lying in the sun and then the shade, being combed, stroked and loved and getting close to the woodburner in the winter months.  

Thank you for bringing such joy into my life, Alfie, it will be the poorer now you are no longer here with me.

A Camel in St Nicolas du Pélem and life

Last week I received a letter from Adec Amor who seem to be responsible for encouraging people to do health checks for bowel and breast cancer.  I can’t believe it’s two years since my last mammogram but apparently it is.  In the 90s I had a friend in Cornwall who had breast cancer picked up at a mammogram session and since then I’ve tried to remember to do it regularly.  Now I don’t have to remember as Adec Amor send out letters to remind you.  My next one is going to be on 21 August.  They enclose a long list of places to have it done and my nearest appears to be Guingamp so I’ve booked there.  A very good friend of mine in Cornwall has just had breast lumps removed and is waiting for possible radiotherapy, so  having been thinking about her it’s been very much in my mind.

I awoke on Sunday with the sun shining and just knowing that it would be wall to wall sunshine all day.  Here is my lane early in the morning as I came back from doing the animals.  You can see my house at the furthest point of the lane with the Discovery parked outside. 

I had downloaded the Archers omnibus from the previous week and sat outside listening to that with a mug of black coffee.  Then my worker and family arrived to deliver the concrete mixer that he will need later this week to do the mortar between the slabs on my terrace and they caught a brief glimpse of new cat, Harry, who was at the far end of the garden.  By 15.40hrs it was 50°C in the sun and I was alternating between the shade of the pergola and the tanning sun on the terrace.  Daisy joined me on the new table for a wash.  By 17.55hrs the sun had been off the sensor for about an hour and it registered 31.6°C in the shade.  Even at this temperature I couldn't stay in the sun for long, although I tried while reading.  My arms, chest and back are quite red, but I don't usually burn and have a problem, although there has been so little sun lately that I haven't yet become tolerant to it this year.

  

Having just finished a very gentle book about a farming family who have to give up their farm appropriately called The Farm by Richard Benson, I am making inroads into a book called The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason.

This book is about an English piano tuner who is commissioned to go to Burma to repair an Erard grand piano in a practically inaccessible place and I'm really enjoying it.

There are some kind people about.  A few days ago I advertised on an expat website here to see if anyone had any  spare roofing felt.  I needed two metres to cover a hen shed.  I had a roll in the garage, but when we came to fit it we realised it was rotten all through.  A roofer replied and let me have the end of a roll for nothing and even gave me some roofing tacks to fit it.  I collected the felt on the way to collect the table and chairs I had won and it's now all fitted on the shed - perfect!

Monday morning and another lovely day.  I was up early and did four loads of washing to take advantage of the drying sun.  At 13.55hrs the sensor was in full sun and it was registering 45.9°C.   Inside, with the doors open to the garden it's registering 24.5°C and rising.  I think it's going to be even hotter than yesterday.

At midday I had a chiropodist appointment in St Nicolas du Pélem and first drove to SuperU to buy some bread.  I was a little surprised to see a camel on the verge by the roundabout!  I drove round the roundabout three times to take photos of the the camel and the llama next to him and also parked and walked up to him to get a better photo.  There were other animals on the verges, donkeys, shetland ponies etc. and it's because the circus is being held in the supermarket car park this afternoon. 

The chiropodist hadn't seen me for two months and reckons I am disappearing.  She said I am lovely enough now I am slim to get a fiancé, but I think that's a pretty unlikely scenario!  She has another patient at her other practice who has lost well after his bypass too, so is used to people changing shape.

Couldn't resist after lunch and braved the swimming pool.  It was apparently 22°C and although I should have hoovered out the eucalyptus leaves which had blown in I decided to jog and swim amongst them.  It was lovely!  As this weather is due to last until late Thursday, I should get a fair few swims in this week.

Three things I like:

1.   A chocolate covered icecream on a stick I found in SuperU which has my absolutely favourite nuts embedded into the chocolate - macadamia nuts - scrumptious!

2.   Getting all the washing dry within a couple of hours of hanging it out - I love this weather.

3.   Finding exotic animals in places I wasn't expecting to see them.

Jay and feathers and surprise prize

A couple more photos of my jay on the garden wall and on the bird table. 

My jay is still safe in the next door garden.  I can see him up in one of my neighbour's trees.  However, this afternoon I drove to St Nicolas du Pélem and unfortunately saw a dead bird in the road.  It looked like a jay, but it was hard to see as a car passed just as I reached it.  On the way back home I stopped on the verge.  It was a jay, quite badly squashed, but I photographed one of the wings with it's beautiful blue barred feathers and plucked some of them to take home as they are so attractive.

The blue is so vibrant and it's the thing that always draws my attention to the jays when they are flying about.

I had some luck last month and having bought two euro tickets for a draw organised by the SPA, animal rescue organisation here in Brittany, I was told that I had won a table.  I went over to Malguénac yesterday afternoon and collected not just a lovely timber table, but also four chairs.  They now have pride of place under my pergola as my usual table and benches have been removed for sanding and preservative painting.

It's a good size and good quality table with an extending section which pops up in the middle and I'm very pleased with it.  I don't remember winning anything in a raffle for years and years so it was a lovely surprise.

Harry's original owners, J & B, came over for the afternoon and he sat on me most of the time just to show them that he was beginning to take over and rule the house.

And here's when Harry met Daisy ...

Daisy and Purrdy aren't entirely happy with Harry being here, but he's here to stay so they'll have to get used to it won't they?

Three things I like:

1.   Finding four eggs in the hen houses today, slightly more than usual, but still nowhere near what I should be collecting.

2.   Going to the tip this morning and getting rid of the big stock trailer full of stuff I had no use for.

3.   Getting my table put together and put in under the pergola.

Jays, Harry, poppies etc.

I hadn't realised how long it was since I'd posted.  It's been quite an exciting week for me having reached my first anniversary since my mini gastric bypass.  I've lost 66.1 kilos and am very pleased with myself!  If you want to see details of my year then check out http://minigastricbypass2011.blogspot.com

This photo is a reflection of me in my sitting room window which is shadowed I presume because of the double glazing.  Strange how my black and white striped top appears to have blue stripes as well.

When I was driving through my local town last week I had to stop to take a photo of this cardboard heart tied to a down pipe at the crossroads.

I'm not sure whether it was for anything special or just a different way of doing the heart with arrow drawn on a wall or carved into tree bark.

The poppies in my garden have been wonderful again this year in spite of the rain.

I am saving seed as usual for me and friends.

I have a jay who has started coming to my bird table.  In fact yesterday there were two of them, but I couldn't get to my camera fast enough.

This one is of him on my oak tree on the driveway at the bottom of the garden.

This afternoon I went to Malgenac to collect a lovely timber garden table and chairs which I had won in a raffle last month.  There were wonderful wild flowers planted at the edge of the town which I couldn't just go past.

Harry, my newest cat, has settled in pretty well now, apart from a few spats with my girls, Daisy and Purrdy, and has taken to sneaking in behind my back while I am leaning forward using the laptop.  Here he is after I had given up trying to sit in my own chair.  He's a gorgeous boy and I already love him to bits.

And here he is lying on the windowsill which he has taken over from Alfie.

The rain has ruined most of the roses and I've had to prune them all, but managed to save one little spray from against the pergola, which I brought in to finish opening indoors.

The hedgerows are clothed with bramble flowers and promises of lots of berries later this year - I can't wait.

Three things I like:

1.   Seeing the sunshine again after so much rain, and being able to read outside.
2.   Celebrating my first year anniversary of my mini gastric bypass.
3.   Collecting some free roofing felt and tacks for my hen house from a generous person.