Festive spirit

The festive season has arrived... and it is too much for TfL's alcohol ban it would seem.

This was one of two empty bottles on the Eastbound platform at North Greenwich.

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Cass is keeping an eye on the garden... Tink has gone to sleep.

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There is something about boxes cats can't resist. Cass and Tink don't need expensive presents... the boxes will do!

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At least Amazon's exessive packaging is good for something! I think Tink is about to go into hiding!

Clever fish

The blue pebbles (seen at the bottom of the tank) were placed in the tank in a random heap. It is the fish (honestly) that have arranged them in a path. I wonder if, perhaps, a la Douglas Adams, like the dolphins they are sending a message. We ran out of fish food yesterday - so perhaps it was "Feed us now!"

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Tink fell asleep whilst on a phonecall?

Tinker the communicator

Pea-soupper

Or maybe a light consommé... fog hiding the top of the Dome this morning and causing chaos across the Peninsula.

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According to Tinker, cats like going shopping too; as long as they aren't expected to walk!

Tinker

Family tree

Whilst going through papers with my mother following my father's recent passing we found a wealth of information relating to generations past. This ranged from passports to marriage certificates, birth certificates to death certificates and of course an absolute heap of photos.

Victorians and Edwardians are mostly terribly serious in their photographs... well it was new technology and probably cost a lot of money (which is why there are so few compared to our over exposed digital age). The most annoying thing is that (if those in my possession are typical of the age) they made NO effort to make any note of who was in the photos.

The good thing is though that it has rekindled my genealogy interest (first sparked when I was laid up ill in bed for six weeks) and I'm making progress on my family tree again.

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Cass and Tink, most especially Tink, are fascinated by anything to do with water. Anyone at the kitchen sink, or more exciting, in the bathroom will soon find two little black feline apprentice plumbers by their side.

Tink and Cass

Farewell

Yesterday was my father's funeral; a brief service at the crematorium followed by a wake at a nearby hotel. I found this gravestone in a graveyard near where I grew up and and so with a little digital help I made one final tribute to my lovely dad.

Do not stand at my grave and weep;

I am not there, I do not sleep

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die.

The last bit of snow

This lonely lump of snow was spotted in New Bond Street this evening... the last bit of snow in Central London?

Skywatch Friday (36)

Fiery Sunrise over the Greenwich Peninsula

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If there is one thing that kittens know how to do it's sleep... and Cass does with abandon!

Casper

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Tink and Cass when they were small

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We're not quite sure where Casper was going to post himself... most likely somewhere that makes food...

Casper packaged

Tracking

There were a lot of birds around and about in our garden. The blackbirds, the thrushes, the tits, the robins and of course the pigeons and doves (to whom I think these footprints belong).

The heron made a stop too... it was that or small dinosaur.

Icicles

The full icicle collection

But look... they're melting

...downwards, where they re-freeze

It's and icicle tree!

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Tink is absolutely convinced that something lives down the plughole. I've told him if he keeps sticking his paw down there it will get stuck and we'll have to call in the fire brigade; although in all likelihood it would be the plumber. Tink told me not to worry as he and Casper are plumbers!

Tinker living up to his name and being a tinker

Daily Kitten (3)

They're not sure about taking turns being the daily kitten - so today it is daily kittens! Attempting to prove that as large kittens (small cats) they can both still fit on the desk chair!

Tink and Cass

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Tinker wants everyone to know that he is just as cute as Casper! He's also doing his best 'kitten pose' even though he is now a small cat!

Tinker

Daily Kitten (1)

I am horrified to find that at the tender age of six months old (and bearing in mind that they were twelve weeks old when we got them) I have over a thousand photos of the kittens already. I figured, who doesn't love a cute kitten - so I'm sharing some of the best shots of the kittens; doing cute things, doing crazy things, and mostly doing nothing at all!

Casper

Skywatch Friday (35)

Snow on the way

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Tube strikes - not done yet

The fourth twenty-four hour stoppage on the tubes at the beginning of this week was the last of the currently scheduled strikes. Head of the RMT Union Bob Crow has said that there will not be any stoppages over the Christmas period, however warned in a recent interview that action would continue after January 2nd if the current dispute was not resolved and that the action would escalate to 48 hour walk-outs.

Pecking order

Whilst we have been imprisoned by the snow my Mum has made sure that our avian friends have not been forgotten! To be fair there had been a lot of traffic around the garden - so it would be hard to ignore the birds! 

The photo on the left was taken around 11am - after we'd already cleared the patio once!

The doves like to think they rule the roost - but in a fine example of bird brains they keep forgetting how to get into the bird table! Or anywhere if it comes to that. This is half of two couples which seem to live near the garden.

Next we have the sparrows... there are massive clan which seem to spend equal time sitting in trees and bushes chattering away, chasing each other or cramming in as much food as they can, from wherever they can!

Last but not least the starlings, or the 'bovver boys' as they are known here. They descend and carry out  little experiments such as how many  can fit inside the bird table (over half a dozen)

There are other occasional visitors who don't stop long enough to get their photos snapped... today a great tit, a robin and a chaffinch - not including the seagull circling overhead!

Delightfully this photo was taken about twenty minutes ago and there does seem to be an infinitesimal thaw beginning.

Snow days

In England it is always a big thing when it snows. Transport everywhere ceases to function and people stock up with enough food to survive the siege of Troy.

Once I accept that I am stuck in Kent until either a) the roads clear or b) the trains start running again I can quite enjoy the scenery.

Our garden this morning

Yesterday before five inches fell overnight

Very seasonal at least!

Snowed in

Having spent the last few days with my Mum down in Kent today it was time to get back to London and back to work. 

The great gods of weather have other ideas. Stop the press - it's snowing. 

Now as we all go - the country (especially the south) comes to a halt when it snows.

The roads are broken... well, at least the roads I'd like to use aren't working. I wouldn't dare try the side roads (see photo above).

The trains are broken too.

They don't even know where the trains are going through Tonbridge!

Tribute

This has been a difficult week as my beloved father passed away last Monday after a final brief illness. He'd beaten cancer several times before but this last time, just three weeks after his 70th birthday was one time too many.

My parents had been married for nearly 40 years and had the perfect marriage, my mother told me this week that she has no regrets of the time they had together. They very rarely had a cross word between them and often told each other that they loved each other.

It was my father who was largely responsible for me becoming a quantity surveyor (he himself was one); he would on occasion in school holidays have me hold the other end of a measuring tape or arithmetically check columns of figures.  It was my father's interest in photography that started my own interest, and it gave us both a lot of enjoyment.

When I was younger we were prone to arguments, we were very alike - both of us always wanting the last word in any dispute. Once I left home though he became more than a father but also a friend. We would talk several times a week on the phone and set the world to rights!

My father was a quiet man and a private man, but the letters of condolence that my mother has received reveal that he was universally like and respected. A gentle man and a gentleman.

Ezio is back!

Sometimes trilogies are good - increasingly often trilogies are bad. Once upon a time things in threes (books, movies, etc.) arrived this way because there was a story still to be told... and in books this is often still the case. It is a modern curse though that successful franchises, in order to keep on making money, have a second or even third where none is needed... or it is so weak that they might not have bothered (sorry Fable III I'm thinking of you).

Not so Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. First off, it isn't really a trilogy. Assassins Creed centred on the sullen Altair; Assassins Creed II had the much more likeable Ezio as the hero. In which case this is really on the second (maybe why it isn't Assassins Creed III) because we're back with Ezio only moments after we left him at the end of the last game. Reassuringly everything is as we left it (I'm looking at you again Fable III); the Villa Monteriggioni is just as I remembered it... all the menus and controls are where you expect to find them - and Ezio is still running up the sides of buildings and perching on the edge of precipitous drops. I've not had much time to play yet but so far I'm giving it five stars... not least because there is a bit of a challenge to be had (yes, Fable III I'm looking at you again!).

Royal engagement

Unless you've been living under a rock you can't have failed to notice the news this week of the engagement of second-in-line heir to the throne Prince William's engagement to long-time girlfriend Catherine.

Personally I wasn't very interested. Neither were most people I know... one of my colleagues did go as far as to wonder if we'd get an extra Bank Holiday when they get married, but that was the extent of the conversation in our office.

I'm not very interested in Royal goings on these days - but that wasn't always true. I was a huge fan of the Royal family as a child. When Prince Charles got married I had a cardboard Diana doll that you could dress in different outfits (that is what passed for interactive back in those days!). My brother and I were taken by my mother to see the flowers at St Paul's (and again to Westminster Abbey after Prince Andrew's wedding). I drew a few pictures (the one I parcticularly remember was off the Queen and Prince Philip dressed for an official occasion) I would post them off and get a nice letter of thanks from a lady-in-waiting. When Prince William was born I had a great big coffee table book called "Born to be King".

I'm not sure when I lost interest in it all... but I have to confess skipping the pages in the newspaper relating to the story and not bothering to get an Evening Standard that evening.

Good British weather

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago at lunch time in Central London. The first was timed at 25 past one; the second at five to two. Funny old weather we've been having!