Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Tis The Season To Be Sparkly

by admin - 16:25 on 13 December 2014

It's official – Christmas has begun at The Rural Retreat.

This morning, for the first time this year, we awoke to discover a (very thin) carpet of white outside the cottage, much to Matchgirl's delight. Parts of The Pride were less impressed. The snowy frolics which Matchgirl invited them to share were taken up wholeheartedly by Willow, with vague enthusiasm by Maia and not at all by Pandora. Leaping on to the oil bunker and sliding off again is enough to put tabby cats off winter sports.

Maia's not in the best of moods anyway. An infection on her offside rear inner thigh, the cause of much licking and nibbling and a pink bald patch the size of a 5p piece, is being treated with anti-bacterial shampoo and steroid spray. It also necessitates frequent application of the cone of shame when she won't leave the area alone. Poor puss.

Snowy scenery inspired Matchgirl the Magpie to deck the mantelpiece with boughs of tinsel, sparkly red and silver reindeer, baubles, candles and mini-trees – her substitute for the much-missed Christmas tree that would be certain not to survive exploration by three inquisitive cats. There's also been an outbreak of tinsel and Christmas stockings over the living room window. Where will it end?

Music Update: My dismissal by The Strays after I joined City Limits has been rescinded. On Thursday we'll rehearse (something yet to be planned by City Limits) and discuss the future. I'm not expecting more than a handful of Strays gigs in 2015, or I'd have stuck to just City Limits, but we have one confirmed booking. I can't reveal details but it should be a good one. Watch this space.

As for City Limits, we star at Johnny Foxes, Inverness, on Sunday next weekend. Don't miss it.

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