Anyone planning a trip to London had better go soon. There's the Easter rush, then Biden is planning a state visit and of course come May there's the coronation. Angus planned to go down for his annual doctors check-up in late April. He's now going in mid-March when a) he can get a room and b) the room doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
Sophie has had a major muzzle trim. Two inches of fur off her jowls. An inch off her beard. The hair on the tip of her ears cut back so that she is less prone to picking up detritus on our walk along the foreshore. Now she appears merely shaggy rather than unkempt. The look she gives me as she's loaded into the back of the car tells you what she thinks about being trimmed.
She does her best to ignore me as we head off across the beach. The PONette really knows how to play the ' How could you treat such a poor maiden so ?' routine.
Sadly, lots of dead gulls have been washed up on the beach. At least a dozen of them. I'd hoped that avian flu might have peaked. It looks as though it's still gaining strength. Sophie is told to stay clear of the waters edge. Surprisingly, she does.
As some compensation for the indignity of having her fur trimmed Sophie is taken to the William and Kate cafe for a bowl of water and a shared bacon roll. There are half a dozen students hanging around outside waiting for their Americanos. They are returning home after a night of 'partying'. Sophie is hopeful that they may have Jaffa Cakes. They don't. After some slivers of bacon roll Sophie and Angus are once again reconciled.
The new bookcases in the snug at the wee cottage are completely filled. This is a bit of a disappointment. We still have enough books to fill them over not once but twice . Angus is loathe to get rid of books. He remembers where he was and what he was doing when he read each of them. A rote of travels, births, marriages and deaths. Quite how we will deal with this dilemma has yet to be resolved. This is one of the problems with downsizing. 'The Font' tries a website that promises to buy old books. Angus's tomes on foreign policy have a bid of exactly £0.00.
12 comments:
Hari OM
Oh, that library wall looks lush!!! An earlier me would be mightily envious... now I seek to downsize and declutter and divest. I had one go with one of those online book-buyers. My Sanskrit books earned the most and the whole box containing about a ten books yielded ten quid. hey ho... YAM xx
Now the cottage looks like a proper home. I feel that my books are an important part of me, and plan to keep most of them, even ones I never seriously expect to reread. One person's 'clutter' is another's treasured memories. (Once a year I do have a book clear out, but what I've noticed is that it's almost always the more recently acquired ones that I'm more prepared to take to the Oxfam shop).
Nobby is not convinced by Sophie's 'poor maiden' act...
Cheers! Gail.
Well Sophie, you've learned that there are compensations for suffering a trim - slivers of bacon roll are an excellent reward. Shame about the students and no Jaffa cakes - but there you are - that's the younger generation for you!
Echo YAM's and Gail's comments about the bookcases - filled they do turn the house into a home. Remembering your boxes of books way back from your move from Italy, I did wonder if the new bookcases were remotely adequate, but have no idea how many books you might have disposed of along the way - or how many you've acquired since. With all the time consuming responsibilities of dog walking and dog care, will you ever find time to re-read even a small number of those unpacked?
Perhaps you could open your own lending library?
Please, find somewhere in your home and build more bookshelves. Sit books on furniture. Never sell books. You can never tell when you just might need the ones you sold. I say again find away to build more bookshelves. Fur baby always looks good to me.
She may be ignoring you, but I think she is smiling at her new look. We parted with hundreds of books when we sold the second house, painful, but necessary. Kind of like the trim around the muzzle.
Joey knows just what Sophie was thinking about the trim. His favorite thing to do is get a long drink of water then hop on the couch with a dripping muzzle and beard for a kiss. Our solution: a similar trim as Sophie's! A slight aesthetic change for Mr. Handsome but happier dryer folks. I'm worried about the extent of the avian flu. Apparently it has become more widespread than usual, with signs of migrating to some mammals in addition to way too many wild bird deaths. Sophie well advised to stay clear of the gulls. Finally, I love looking at your beautiful bookshelves and echo the call for more to house the unshelved.
The books add so much color to the room!
Filled bookcases are a thing of beauty to me. I've become very good at decluttering over the last few years but books are still tough to let go. My mother once suggested I put all the "maybes" in a box and seal it up for a week or two. If you can't remember (or care) what's in the box at the end of this waiting period, let it go.
The room looks very beautiful and inviting. I suggest you put your excess books up between the rafters.
Ah, a book lover after my own heart. There'll be no downsizing here; I love the feel of a book in my hands and looking for a remembered passage whenever desired. Your room is lovely. An unliked haircut can be a hard thing to forgive; I'm glad that amicable relations have been restored between you and Sophie. The death of the birds adds a very sad note.
Sadly, the government vets who are supervising our home quarantine of our pet birds in advance of their entry into France told us they spend most of their time dealing with Avian Flu outbreaks in the farm sector. Of course, they became vets because they love animals, but now they are faced with culling so many birds. They told us that Avian Flu has already become endemic. Hopefully, like many endemic illnesses, it will become less deadly, but birds have unusual respiratory systems, comprised of multiple air sacs, and are very vulnerable to respiratory illness.
We are curious to know how long Sophie's hair would grow without occasional trimming - does it just get longer and longer? or is there some point where shedding and regrowth match and the length stays sort of the same?
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