One of the signs of the season is the desertion by our cats of the conservatory, where they have been camped out almost permanently this year. They have moved indoors in search of greater comforts and have been spending much of each day on our bed — normally Nell’s province, where they all like to curl up on Mr L’s pillow. Sadly, this has brought on a great wheezing. Discouragement was applied and the cats then sought solace on my desk, where they have discovered the delights of Colinette. It would seem that I have no need to re-knit my Urchin — it makes a perfect cat bed just as it is…
Clearly, this will not do!
I planned to come home on Friday with one of those cheap fleece bankets. The idea was that it could be laid over the bed during the day, allowing assorted pets to make themselves comfortable, and then cleared away at night so that Mr L’s wheezing tubes might be alleviated. Tesco always have the fleece blankets in, do they not? Not this time they didn’t.
What Tesco did have in stock were some fake fur throws, at half price. I lashed out, thinking that Nell and the cats would find this irresistable.
In fact, Nell seems to dislike lying on it and has moved her sleeping place to the foot of the bed, where the throw does not extend. The cats, though?
Love at first sight, and they’ve scarcely moved since Saturday morning — though, that said, Treacle is presently back on the Urchin and Teddy is sitting by his side looking for a vantage point at which to make an assault on a couple of spare woolly inches…
Meanwhile, in another part of the Windswept Acre, we have been making our own defences against the weather. Lunch today was a hearty bowl of Chicken Mulligatawny Soup. I used a new recipe (this one, with some slight mods ((I used lentils and split peas 50/50 and added half a cup of basmati rice with the vegetables — the spices were fried in butter ghee rather than olive oil and I added some coriander seed and used flaked chilli instead of chilli powder)) ) and it was astoundingly good. It will be served again, and again.