The 4 Cs of cat couture

Camouflage........

Counter-camouflage......

Coordinating colours......

Complementary colours....

Hope you had a lovely weekend! 

xxxxxxxxxxxx hawthorn and the house of 'courtured' cats

Thank you

Thank you so so much for your lovely comments re our little Pan.

A quick reply - Lovely Lady - no - Lily has taken a deep and personal dislike to the interloper, she pounces with menace and grumbles most unladylide - where do these dear 'gentle' creatures learn to swear with aplomb using such filthy words!!?! At the moment she has taken on the persona of a fire-breathing dragon.....

Jak - yes she is a quick learner when it comes to knitting and crochet - as soon as she sees yarn she flies over and watches closely -  a bit too closely I have to admit. I will be knitting and get to a rather soggy bit of yarn..... bless!

Angela - I'd forgotten you had a Pan, it was Eldest who chose her name, before we had even let him know that we'd found a kitten, he was found pouring over books and writing down names he fancied. Soon as he saw the little mite - he said - Pan. :)

Jacqueline -  ha ha ha - love the knit one purrrr one :) (Thanks too for your lovely comments about my mitten - still in the singular but for A-Very-Good-Reason for which I-Can-Not-Say *yet*)

Fiona - That box is her best toy - Pan hunts down Lily's toys and rushes off and hides them in the 'kitty-castle' to play-with-them-later  Pan says.

Jane - We are working hard on the cuddling bit (Pan allows us moments before reaching saturation point and scampers off) but each cuddle gets longer and more satisfying. I read the Yarn Harlot's blog and find her very funny or poignant and everything in between but have never tried her books. I read this article written by her and found it very true about being self-employed and based at home - people don't deem you as busy if you are working from home.

busybusybeejay hello and welcome :)  your Ziggy looks gorgeous, rescue cats often pay back with so so much love :) I lived just outside Ruthin for a year while I was at the agricultural college. I used to go quite regularly with my then boyfriend, now Himself, to the craft centre at Ruthin. I would have loved to have seen the Nuno textiles and the pottery.

Thankyous done :)

I have been busy recently, hence lack of any posts recently. I will, show/share soon, but in the meantime I will bob over and see what you've been up to !

Have a lovely evening - don't know about you but it is l-a-s-h-i-n-g it down here still and has been all day - hosepipe ban or not our lawn is now floating!

Before I go - a quick picture of our fire breathing dragon..........

I've been a bit occupied recently with......

...Pan (short for Pandora) a small and tatty sweetheart who has tugged our purr-strings and our hearts. 

She is a timid little soul who has had a terrible start but hopefully will blossom into a lovely part of our family.

Welcome Pan x

Ps - We had a MAJOR accomplishment this morning - Pan sat on my lap and 'helped' with my knitting!

knit-lit (chick - lit so so-oo last year) and knitting books

I love love love reading, not that I get much time to do a lot of it, but when I can snatch a few pages it ticks my happy boxes.

At the moment I am absorbed by 'proper' knitting books with grown up subjects such as patterns for socks or fairisle hats.

 I can be spotted with nose in book, hook or needles in hand and studious look on brow.

My knitting pattern book that inspired me to knit my FIRST MITTEN ON DPNs (yes - mitten as opposed to mittenS - am yet to start the next one....might be a problem here - want to try something else!!) (Kristin Knits - playing with colour)

The Knitting School book - with really good descriptions and instructions - ideal for me coz I still don't know my stockinette from my elbow and other bodily related comparisons.

However, I have a guilty pleasure - sshhhhhhh.


I  r-e-a-d  *said in hushed tones* knit-lit (ooh there I've said it).

My fav-sis-in-law and I year ago or so, bought a book each on a whim and really enjoyed it, now at knit and natter we bring and swap knit-lit with each other - it is definitely a guilty pleasure as the husbands raise their eyebrows and sigh in a sort-of-husbandly sort-of-way when we come out clutching books, hooks, wool and yarn and all have silly happy grins on our faces. 

But we don't mind...we don't care coz we are the knit-chicks!

(Mind you, my dear husband occasionally says knit-wits....)

Easter Break review in photos

Visiting......

...A vintage vehicle rally in Kirby Stephen.

Knitting.......

...my sky scarf and my first mitten on dpn needles

Walking................

....on high wild hills, over farm land, through isolated villages.

We celebrated Easter.....

.....with cheese rolling down a wet and windy hill...

                                   ....eating chocolate for breakfast!

I took inspiration from......

.....lichens on stone walls, carvings from ruined buildings, fungus on rotten trunks, flowers, stones and sky.

We had a lovely time, may be a little wet and a little cold at times, but these small discomforts were far outweighed by the beauty of the wilderness we camped in.

******************************

Again I have to say thank you for all your wonderful thoughts and kind words. We are really touched by the response - thank you very much xx

Tears

I want to thank you all so much for you kind comments - I hadn't realised that my ramblings about our little catlings touched so many of you - thank you.

All we can surmise is that Holly slipped out through the back of our garden into the neighbours. From there she would have been able to get to the road and as she didn't know that area then got lost. She could have tried to return or was frightened by something and ran off in the wrong direction.

We had searched from about 2 hours when I received a phone call - her body had been found and carefully lifted off the road while her rescuers tried to trace us. We, Himself and I, left our sobbing boys at home and we collected her body.

At home we all cuddled her, Eldest - who was her human held her the longest and cried so hard while Himself dug her a grave in her favourite part of the garden. Youngest collected Lily as we all agreed that she should know her sister had died. He held his cat as I held Holly (Eldest too distraught to watch stood behind and sobbed) and Lily very very gently washed the small speck of blood off Holly's face. She looked as if she was just asleep.

I am crying as I type - sorry - who'd have thought that a small creature who we'd only had for 6 months would reduce us all to such floods tears. The rest of the evening was of self-recriminations of should we have let them play in the garden, should we have searched quicker, sooner, longer but what ever we could have done, we didn't and so the boys and I cuddled up on the settee and took turns to talk and cry while Himself seemed stunned.

Later, much later, once the boys had gone to bed, we talked about her and Himself summed it up in one sentence -
How could something so small and furry leave such a terribly big hole?

Lily seems to know she has gone, she doesn't look for her, but needs more loving and lap time. Yesterday she sat on me every time I had a lap or followed me and sat on my feet. She is sitting next to me now.

I promise my next posting will be a little more cheerful, but for the time being we all feel a little sad and a lot empty.

Holly

RIP

Holly

01.10.11 - 15.04.12

We are heartbroken.