Cat Log Stardate 63974.6

Posted on 5 July, 2010 by Val

Yes, sadly, I did indeed google ‘Star Trek stardate calculation’ to find out what today’s date would be in Trekky-land. It’s hard to believe how some people spend their lives. What I particularly love about the site I found is this bit (Twenty-third Century Stardates), which states a list of “facts” (yes, facts – I kid you not) which the author has used to arrive at a formula for working out the calendar dates of the stardates mentioned in The Original Series. Take a look at the link… it’s mind-blowing. Someone, please, please tell these people that Star Trek IS NOT REAL.

But then again, who’s to say what “real” is, and what is real?

And who can explain how a blog post that was started with the intention of updating the Cat Log, has suddenly morphed into a philosophical musing on the nature of reality?

Never mind. Such is my world.

Now…. about the cats….. Continue reading →

Posted in Cats, Life | 1 Comment

In the Moment of the Heat

Posted on 3 July, 2010 by Val

It’s hot. Very hot. So hot that Meteo-France has issued an orange ‘vigilance météorologique’ for a number of departments, including the Allier, telling us to “Ne sortez pas aux heures les plus chaudes (11h-21h)” and to “Limitez vos activités physiques”

Bummer. Can’t go out between 11am and 9pm, and can’t do any physical work. Ha! Quel dommage. I’ll just have to sit inside in the cool (26C) and mess about on t’internet all day then. Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Life | Tagged | Leave a comment

A Town Called Hedgehog

Posted on 2 July, 2010 by Val

Yesterday was another weekend. We like to have our weekends during the week, when there are fewer other people out and about doing weekendy things. And we like to have them more than once a week. Because we can.

This has been a busy week. We’ve got next winter’s hay in. Simon has sorted another blocked septic tank problem (for our friend Sue, whose sick hubby is in hospital), and mowed acres of very nettley land. I have mowed the rocks and pieces of wood that lurk in the very long weeds that grow in the ‘paths’ in the vegetable patch, and the dogs’ playground, and washed all the bedding. All in 30 degrees plus. So we decided to spend yesterday morning being tourists. Continue reading →

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Cat Log

Posted on 29 June, 2010 by Val

If someone asked me how many pets we have, I would not find it an easy question to answer. Dictionary definitions say that a pet is “an animal that is tamed or domesticated and kept as a companion or treated with fondness” or “an animal, a bird, etc. that you have at home for pleasure, rather than one that is kept for work or food”.

Of all our animals, the chickens are the only ones ‘kept for food’, but in many ways they are more pet-like than most of our other animals. We take great pleasure in their company, as they pootle around our feet in the yard, bibbling and burbling conversationally. And, of all our animals, they are the only ones who consistently come when they are called.

The cats, on the other hand, are very possibly the least pet-like of the animals that inhabit the Blanchetière domain. I could not say with confidence how many cats we ‘have’. For the most part we don’t have cats – they have us. And they have us for just as long as it suits them, and not a moment longer. Continue reading →

Posted in Cats, Chickens | 1 Comment

Water Play

Posted on 27 June, 2010 by Val

Today is the seventh day of summer. Yup – a whole week of summer done and gone already. How many days are there in summer anyway? I suspect the only meaningful answer is ‘Not Enough’.

Today is also the fifth day of free-running drainage. The odious aroma awakened by our diggery-pokery that lingered in the bathroom, leaked into the kitchen, and gently wafted though the rest of the house, is at last beginning to subside. The disgusting pool of vile has also undergone an intriguing transformation, and continues to be a source of fascination and photo opportunity for certain sad people who clearly have nothing better to do with their time. (Yes, that would be me.) Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Plumbing | 2 Comments

The Surge to Victory

Posted on 23 June, 2010 by Val

Ah. The third day of summer. And at last it feels like it. Sun shines. Washing dries. Pigs snooze. Cats roll in the dust. Grasshopper warblers warble and grasshoppers hop. And Plumber Man declares the day a weekend.

He deserves it. Yesterday he excelled himself in the gruelling and ultimately gross activity of unearthing and unbunging the long and pongy outflow pipe from the foul and overly-flowing septic tank. And I have to say, disgusting as the task was, it was at the same time both fascinating and satisfying. Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Plumbing | 9 Comments