A week behind (oops nearly two!)

Don't know how I manage it but I am always behind! Actually, I did take these photos 8 days ago and forgot about them! So these are the photos of Lesson 1 of Two Peas in a Bucket - 12 Weeks to Better Photos photography course! This lesson was learning about aperture and I did learn a lot! Struggled with the weather over here to get decent photos! Lesson 3 starts tomorrow so guess I better pull my finger out and do the exercises for Lesson 2!! Photos below were taken walking in to Richmond with a tiny bit of sun that came out!

5.6

9.0

22.0

How do you get a huge cat into a cat box!!

Ok yesterday was the day gingerblokeycat left. I took him to the vets in the morning where he was going to be checked over, then the Cat Society foster person picked him up in the afternoon. As you all know, this cat was huge so I was in a dilemma on how I was going to get him in the cat box on my own!! So didn't feed him too much when I got up so that I could tempt him into going into the box on his own at around 10ish. Yeah right, he started going in but he is so big I couldnt close the door of the box with him in there eating! So by then he realised that no way would he go in the box on his own, no matter how hungry he was.

OK, went back into the 2nd bedroom and locked the cat flap and closed the door, I grabbed a towel (otherwise he would bite and scratch me to pieces) and tried to put him into the box. Bad idea - no way would he go in that way! By this time he is not happy and I dont want to stress him! Then I remembered my box also opened from the top! So, grabbed him again and put him in, he just fit! I pressed him in and closed the lid! Phew!! Done!

Turned around to grab my stuff and I hadnt locked it properly so he was out! AARRGGHHHHHH - or )*)B%$£!&^^"&!!! And he went and hid under the sofabed. By this time I'm thinking how the hell am I going to get this cat in the box on my own! So I thought I would try one more time. OK, first move sofabed out and get him from under there. He aimed straight to the cat flap which of course luckily, coz I am clever, I had locked! Sooooo, grabbed him again in the towel and with a bit of a struggle got him back in the box and locked it properly this time!! PHEW!!!!!!!! Covered him with a blanket because if I spoke cat speak, I am sure I would have been shocked at the language coming from him as he was not a happy chappy!! Vet was about 15 mins drive so took him there. The receptionist at the vet nearly had a hernia lifting the cat box!! Ohhh I was so sad by then I didn't even see him as they took him with the blanket still covering him! I got to the car and cried my eyes out! Why am I soo soppy!!

I got an email today telling me "Ginger boy is fine, passed his MOT with flying colours and they've estimated his age at maximum 18 months, all the vet nurses thought he was very handsome!" Oh yes before I forget, I gave them 2 names to choose from - Auburn or Rusty!

Anyway, I want to do my bit to help the cat society so I enquired about sponsoring a cat and when I spoke to the lady who I have been dealing with, she went to find out which of their "elderly" cats could do with sponsoring. This was her reply :

"A cat which we think would be nice to sponsor is Simba, he is in his early teens and completely blind. Even though he has no sight at all, as both eyes were diseased and had to be removed, he still enjoys wandering in her (foster person) garden and is able to climb up on the sofa or wherever else he fancies having a snooze. She says he finds his way around in the house so well, that she sometimes forgets he can't see. He is very happy and purry, enjoys his food, and loves to go and sit in the sun (when we have some !!) She will never rehome him as it would be too unsettling to put him in a strange environment."

So now I am crying and sobbing at work reading this so I told her that is the cat I want to sponsor! I will be setting up £12 a month towards Simba. They will send me photos of Simba and put his photo on their website as a sponsored cat!!

As soon as I have a photo I will post one in my blog! I have rambled on far too long!!!

Byeee byeee Gingerblokeycat!! I hope they find you a nice loving home where you will be very happy!!

Gingerblokeycat

He goes tomorrow! Well, that is if I can catch him and work out how to put him in a cat basket without him scratching or biting me!! I am supposed to take him to a vet so that he gets checked out and then the Cat society http://www.haws-animals.org.uk/ will collect him from there and put him in a temporary foster home and try to get him rehomed. So fingers crossed he finds a lovely home and lovely new owners where he will be happy! I cannot understand people abandoning pets. He has been around where I live for I guess a year and I guess whoever owned him upped and left, leaving him behind. I would love to do more to help animals, but working full time I cant. Its something I should look into at some point, even if I can do a little bit! Only problem is that I end up crying buckets with anything to do with animals, be it happy or sad!! I bawl my eyes out!

A few of you have come up with some lovely names, and now two names that I am thinking of are Auburn (thanks to Heather!), Rusty (thanks Cindy) or Toffee!! Hmmmm decisions! Help choose one!! Will take some more photos of him before he goes and maybe do a layout!

Testing the Mosaic Programme

I scoured through the messages in the MB coz I remembered Susan had posted information regarding the Mosaic Maker at BigHugeLabs, so I just wanted to try it out! Sorry if you have seen some of the Richmond photos before, there are a few new ones! Thanks so much for the information on the Mosaic Susan, it works a treat! I love learning all these cool new things for blogging!! Should have really had 20 photos for this set, but I will know better next time!


I also learnt how to make my post area wider - thanks so much to Kari for her information on the MB! So next thing to play around with is to redo my blog header and make it wider!

The real photographer!

My sister Hayde (Lola's mum) is the real photographer of the family! She doesn't do digital photography (yet). She has such an eye for photos and sees things that I would never see the same as her! When I went to her house for Lola's birthday on Sunday, when I was leaving she grabbed my camera and took these :

I bet you cant tell where the reflection is from! Have a look at this one :

Any guesses???

Honey loves lying on the radiator! I dont know how she balances and doesn't find it uncomfortable! I put a cloth on it for her but its not too thick but it doesn't stop her! She has a knack and knows when the heating has come on and jumps on the table to the side of the radiator and walks to her spot! She can lie on it for ages, eventually jumping off when she gets too hot!! If she gets any fatter she wont fit on it!

January Calendar

I bought a lovely calendar kit called "ccalendar Temps" by Windgefluester designs so, in honour of Lola's 1st birthday - she is January's page! The paper is our lovely Kimi's Kreations Paper 4 recoloured!

Isn't she gorgeous!!

We celebrated Lola's first birthday today (but its not til Tuesday). Can't believe a year has gone by! She is growing so quickly and is so beautiful! She played and smiled the whole time, loved eating scrambled eggs and beans too! She crawls so fast and is nearly walking! I had a chance to have a play with my new camera too but there is so much to learn!!

This photo was taken at Xmas - isnt it a great one of my Dad and Lola??

Since I havent had my EHD and I haven't done any digiscrapping nor photo manipulations, actions etc in like 4 weeks (!!!!) I think I have forgotten everything!! Hhhhmmmmmmmm!!! So starting tomorrow I am going to go through everything that was covered in the two classes and keep practising! Blimey, that is scary - hope its a temporary lapsus of memory!! Definitely need to get up to speed again!

Ginger cat is still here! Yeah ok I know its Sunday. But I really hope they come to get him next week so that the girlies can get back to their normal routine! He spends the whole day either asleep on my futon or wanting to eat!!

Ginger Cat

OK, I know, its been donkeys since I last blogged!! No excuses except blooming busy with Xmas, New Year etc, and I dropped my EHD (DOH!!!!) and couldn't access the data (panic, panic, panic) so took it to the bloke (=man) that fixed it before so I hope he can work miracles and fix it again!! Luckily I did have nearly everything backed up on DVD, but its a hassle if I've lost the data. Cant bear to think about it. Still waiting to hear back from him if he can fix it or not!

Anyhow, back to Ginger Cat. I think this cat has been abandoned as it has taken home in my spare bedroom so I have been sort of looking after it for about 3 weeks (it's eating me out of house and home!!!). There is a wonderful animal rescue place near me so I rang them just after Xmas and they contacted me to tell me they are waiting for spaces to free up in their foster homes so that then can then take him in and find him a nice home. I cant keep him because : a. Honey and Lucy would not be impressed, and b. My flat is too small for 3 cats!! In the meantime its warm and comfortable and fed all the time. And I call him Ginger cat (original or what!!). This is him :

And Lucy has taken to getting drunk out of shock!!

So many more news to post about so will try to blog again tomorrow!!