True grit. So far it hasn't been needed to spread over the roads and pavements in these parts.I like cats, even love them, but sometimes cat- love can seem to go too far. This is the last paragraph (names, cat, human and geographical have been changed to avoid possible embarrassment) of one of those round-robins full of news, good and bad, which sometimes accompanies Christmas cards. It strikes me as being rather well written:
"Our seven cats became 8 in May, when we adopted Marianne, a poor stray who turned out to have bone cancer. The vet amputated the affected back leg and gave her six months to live, but she seems to be doing well and is very happy. George, one of our long standing cats, was diagnosed with pancreatitis in April and underwent extensive tests. Although he was also given a grim prognosis, we put him on a special diet immediately, removed everything possibly in the garden and he is still going strong. I always take any ill cat to our wonderful homoeopathic and conventional vet outside Cambridge for a second opinion, Even Joan has benefited from his expertise, and, like the cats, takes her pills every evening too."
I am not sure that the nearest and dearest who are staying with us this Christmas like mince pies very much. But I have nevertheless made a dozen and half and dusted them with icing sugar, because it is something I like doing. If they are not eaten at home they will make nice presents for neighbours.
3 comments:
Oh my, that sounds like one annual Christmas letter from certain friends, just add dogs! I'd love one of your mincemeat pies, please!
And thanks so very much for your lovely card which arrived a few days ago. Happy Christmas with your family.
My eyes caught "Cats Pies".
What's this? I thought..... then enjoyed the read, as usual.
I love cats as well, have 2 who run this place. But neither would make good pie, as either creator or ingredient. =^..^=
I have been going through my link list scattering secular (but heartfelt) greetings in the way we unbelievers do. Because you are the founder member of the list you are at the bottom of an ascending sequence and therefore the last to be reached. I wouldn't wish you to infer anything malign from this. I was going to say that low numbers carry more gravitas but that isn't strictly true. Some positions are merely accidents due to the passage of time. Better to think of the list as a sort of periodic table with each element carrying its own specific gravity, density and atomic structure. But even that isn't right. In the real periodic table hydrogen (atomic number 1) is I think more important than nobelium (atomic number 102) so this raggedy conceit immediately falls on its face. Nobelium, by the way, is an actinoid. I didn't know that.
In fact I didn't embark on this comment merely to greet but to thank. Again I am indebted for the technical help on writing you have given me throughout the year but, perhaps even more important, for the intelligent optimism you create. The qualifier is important because anyone can do optimism, and for most it is the default state. But there is an understanding between us, almost a specialised conduit of information that is not limited to judgments, and I profit from this enormously.
You mentioned the fact that the pub has become as important as the Retreat. More so, in fact. The fact is eating does get in the way of conversation whereas drinking doesn't. On the other hand the eating is essential since it feather-beds my stomach prior to the drink and ensures I arrive back at Hereford able to speak coherently to the taxi-driver.
Anyway thanks for the handholding and my (our) best wishes to Heidi. Since getting to Hereford would seem to be a burden perhaps we could return to TW under the strict understanding that we are able to take you both out to dinner.I have a good deal more to say (none of it pleasant) about the Hart-Davis/Lyttleton letters.
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