First Morning

I woke up at six and was disoriented by the dark. London never gets completely dark, but I am in the country for a few days and the moon is a slim crescent just now. A second or so passed before I remembered. I turned over and went back to sleep then woke again an hour or so later. The heating had come on. I rarely have the heating on in my bedroom at home. I realise now it is an effective way of waking me up. I got up and went into the kitchen to make some breakfast, an activity that had to be delayed while Westie Boy greeted me enthusiastically. One thing led to another, and after he had been out for an inspection of the garden, we had a bit of a lovefest and a game. The Big Cat came in and I lifted her over the gate away from her canine tormentor. She headed for the bathroom and her cosy basket nook behind the hot press.
It’s a grey morning but dry, in fact the forecast looks very hopeful. I don’t know what plans there are today. When I come here I love the chilling out I get to do, the abdicating of decision making. Cousin is an undemanding hostess. I can make my own meals, bake if the mood takes me, play with the dog and cats, curl up in a chair and read. We watched television last night, Channel 4 News, The Last Leg, a detective series whose title I’ve forgotten that I’ve not seen before but shall watch again, Graham Norton.

We admired Westie Boy who is looking like a rough tough sort of dog, the sort who never combs his hair. Racing around the garden in hopeful pursuit of birds, rolling on the grass and other obligatory doggy things mean the salon look is short lived. I told Cousin about Speccy’s Jake and his dislike of swimming pools. I showed her the post the post where Speccy recaps the changes to family life since Jake’s arrival. Read it now if you haven’t before. Actually even if you have read it before, read it again. I love the image it conjures of all the MacSpecs rising as one to change the channel if a picture of a swimming pool comes on the screen. That’s Westie Power for you. She has written several posts about Jake’s impact on family life that should be obligatory reading for anyone getting a pet and thinking the pet will fit around them. Jake has come with his own views and opinions and he has done a darn good job of educating his new family. Cousin admired Jake and then we admired Westie Boy some more. I had brought him a sock toy and it was well received.
The news about Oscar Pistorius continues to shock and dismay. He is someone I was lucky enough to see run at the Paralympics last year, and it was thrilling. The discovery that he keeps a machine gun on his window sill breaks my picture of him into pieces and reassembles it into a grotesque image. The killing of his girlfriend may have been a terrible accident or it may have been murder, but the death of this woman underlines the dangers of firearms in homes.