6 June 2023

Mishmash

The Summer of 1954

"I'm just going up the garden to paint the cat's eyes."

That's not something one says every day.

Yesterday I had painted the flaking Buddha and used the same  black paint to refresh our old stone cat.  He had been crouching on a paving stone for twenty five years. Under that slab is the grave of our first family cat - Blizzard. We acquired him from the RSPCA animal shelter at Bawtry one snowy day in January 1982. By the time we got back to Sheffield  that night,  a full-on blizzard was making driving conditions dangerous. We ditched the car and walked the last half mile back to our terraced house with me gripping the handle of the cardboard pet carrier in which Kitten Blizzard was miaowing in terror. This is how he got his name.

You can't have a black cat with black eyes so I painted them green using oil paint from a tube. And I decided that from now on, he won't be crouching at ground level, he will sit on the stump of  our old horse chestnut tree which we now use as an extra bird table.

I am happy to report that the scaffolding finally came down today and  that the three scaffolders took it all away in their flatbed truck. Now we can see properly that our rendering is the smartest and whitest on the street. It was looking rather shabby beforehand. I am so glad we bit the bullet on that one. I have just got the rendering below our front bay window to paint but before I do that I shall jetwash the block paving in front of our house.

I made a nice spaghetti meal this evening with bacon bits, courgette, cherry tomatoes, fried onion and chopped mushroom with grated parmesan cheese. There was some left - mostly from Shirley's plate. Instead of casting it into the kitchen bin, I chopped it up and chucked it on our lawn. Sure enough, as dusk was descending, I looked out and saw that a fox was cleaning it up for us. The other day the same fox was chowing down a chicken carcass.

Sorry I didn't take photos of the restored Buddha or the stone cat to accompany this writing. Instead I'm sharing two of the pictures that were re-discovered in our attic. That's me with my mother in the summer of 1954 when I was ten months old and the other one is of me with my late brother Simon on my wedding day in 1981.  There were reasons why I asked him to be my best man when there were three or four other blokes I might have picked - including Tony who I went walking with last week.

October 1981

33 comments:

  1. Handsome young men! I would love to see photos of everything, including the house!

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  2. Blizzard is a good cat name.
    Rendering, painting and jetwashing. It is all go go go.
    Who would have thought the ten month old you would grow into such a handsome young man.

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    Replies
    1. God would have thought that because God rules all things - even your kidney Andrew!

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  3. I'll say is a mish mash. You covered a lot of territory in this post. It pays to go rummaging around in the attic. If everything is newly painted, so much the better.

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    1. I did cover a lot of territory but not as much as Alberta!

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  4. I do want to see the Buddha nd the Cat.

    And you and Simon are a pair of handsome lads!

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    Replies
    1. How the years ravage us... and Simon is now deceased.

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  5. You look barely old enough to get married! (I know - it's a sign of me getting older when young people look VERY young.) The two of you make a handsome pair of brothers. From what you have told us about Simon, I suppose he was a troubled soul already, but at least in this photo, it looks like it was a happy day.
    Another fox! I wonder if he or she is related to dear old Fred.
    I bet you and Shirley are now the envy of all your neighbours, what with Pudding Towers looking all smart and shiny now.

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    1. Yes - we are top dogs now - especially as I have just jetwashed the block paving. It has come up a treat! I had just turned 28 on my wedding day.

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  6. Lovely photos, but none of the sparkling white house yet? I'm glad you moved Blizzard to higher ground, but I don't think it's a good idea to encourage the foxes. You might end up with the whole pack on your lawn every evening waiting for their supper.

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    Replies
    1. Our foxes are not bloody dingos River! They tend to be quite solitary.

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  7. Painting the cats eyes is one of those jobs, you only get to do when you are retired or are on holiday…mine today? Washing the bulldogs fanny

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    1. Is washing the bulldog's fanny a euphemism for taking a big dump?

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  8. You two look like The Likely Lads.

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    Replies
    1. I must be James Bolam because he is still alive.

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  9. What a lovely cuddly baby you were, no wonder your mother was looking on with such pride.
    Both you and Simon look like two very handsome smart young men. There doesn't seem to be any hint of Simon's future problems - who could imagine that he changed so much.

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    Replies
    1. He was already hooked on cannabis and marijuana at that time. It utterly changed him.

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  10. We have a neighborhood fox, I haven't seen him for a while

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    Replies
    1. I wonder if your foxes are just like ours. English "gentlemen" may have taken them to America for hunting purposes. Tally-ho!

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  11. You were certainly a darling baby. And a very handsome young man, as was your brother.

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  12. I'm always tempted to put leftovers out for the foxes, but I don't want to attract rats! (A perpetual London problem.)

    That is a very '80s tie you're wearing in the second photo. I used to have a couple just like that.

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    Replies
    1. It was knitted tie. Thankfully, rats are not significant in our neighbourhood.

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  13. I once knew someone who use put dog food outside on a plate for a rat. He would watch it from his window. He was vehement that it was the same rat that turned up for the dog food every night.

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    Replies
    1. I knew that rat. He was called Roland.

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  14. Have you always worn bangs, Neil? I can't remember what you look like now and am too lazy to look through your past posts... :)

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    1. I am afraid I do not know what "bangs" are Ellen!

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    2. You know, your hair hanging on your forehead, Neil. Maybe you call it fringe?

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    3. Bangs=fringe=hair worn hanging over the forehead

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  15. I presume you are the one in the 3 piece dark suit, I cannot imagine someone getting married in 'brown'.

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    Replies
    1. It was the only suit my brother owned

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  16. Ah well, a cat named Blizzard. Who cares about the rest of this. Though you were a handsome gent on your wedding day.

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