Storytelling Starters ~ Visitors
Marmalade and I get on very well. I love the edible kind: my mother would make great batches of it and it was a staple of breakfast time. But now there’s another Marmalade in our lives. It’s a cat, a very lithe and light little cat who comes across the back garden wall. I’ve no idea if she’ll continue to visit. If she doesn’t, I’ll miss her a bit. If she does, she’ll be very welcome. The other day, sitting at the kitchen table doing our current jigsaw (jigsaws is something that began with lockdown), suddenly, there she was on my lap. No warning. At least she didn’t climb onto the table and start pawing the jigsaw pieces onto the floor.
Of course Marmalade makes me think of all the other famous cats there have been in our lives. Biggles and Minky and Fanta and Cosimo and Whiskers and Hannah-Jane all much-loved, known to all friends and mourned by many when they passed on to cat-heaven.
So now that we don’t have a cat in our lives on a regular live-in basis, I have begun wondering (again) why on earth not. Time for action. The possible impediments – running out of cat-food and having to make unplanned visits to the shops, plus mewing from the back seat of the car on our journeys to Wales and provision of litter tray on the floor of the car – have not proved impossible in the past.
So I think a new cat must become a project. Of course, we did learn that, during Lockdown, cats were in short supply. But hopefully that problem has eased by now. I remember that as a teacher, Beryl, my Pembrokeshire friend, was constantly being offered cats. Children would regularly turn up with a kitten they thought she might like.
Meantime, cat or no cat, there’s plenty to do. The garden is looking great but, as always, needs attention. Plus, so far, my intention of clearing out stuff from my computer and papers from my physical files has not got very far. Funny how it is that when there’s time to do it is when you don’t do it. For instance, I’ve been promising myself to take a good look at the so-far unpublished stories I’ve written to see if I might get on with sending these out into the wider world. But have I even started this task? Plus, a while ago I did start writing a kind of autobiographical account of my life. What has happened to that when there’s been plenty of time to continue with it?
Laziness? Inertia? Effects of Lockdown? I don’t know why ginger is supposed to get you on track. But as in the phrase, ginger yourself up, I must try and get back to the ginger. After all, there’s nothing wrong with the taste of ginger (for my taste-buds anyway). My mother’s ginger cake was always terrific! And ginger cats are pretty nice too.
PS: Top picture is Marmalade. The second is from many years ago with Minky outstaring a fox. The third is the fox who visited yesterday.