Of Spring Days, Happy Cats, and Supper in the Garden

Supper tonight at Octavia’s and some very bad pictures of the Grey Ninja who swarmed up her catwalk, slid behind the frothy blossom of next door’s tree and disappeared to her own private hunting grounds. She did make a sudden and rather speedy return, and when we stood up we saw a grey tabby following her. He changed his mind about coming closer in the face of our stares. As I said to the Grey Ninja, next time he asks you ‘you and whose army?‘ you can remind him of tonight.

Bad Photo of Grey Ninja and Pink Blossom

From this you may have understood that we ate supper in the garden. It’s a date for the diary; the first time this year. I in my shirt sleeves, Octavia in a T-shirt, we enjoyed the expansive air of spring. How right Robert Browning was. He was a local lad, born in nearby Peckham, and attending chapel with his devout mother in what is now Browning Street SE17, so I am guessing exiled in Italy the springs he missed in England’s April were like the one we are enjoying now.

Springwatch asked viewers to record various signs of spring on their blog. One of those signs was hawthorn blossom. It so happens we have a hawthorn tree outside the front door. I have been checking it daily. Today I saw the first blossoms among the newly leafy branches.

The Ginger Ninja is also enjoying spring hunting and getting on better with Cookie, if not her boyf, whose name we have learned is Johnny. Great name for a cat. Johnny knows I am Not A Fan and makes himself scarce when I appear. I think His Gingerness understood this today, as he curbed his initial flight at the sight of Johnny by the garden table and watched as the Moustached One scrambled hurriedly up and over the wall. Cat used to use me as a human shield behind which he would hurl insults at Sonny, the only cat to threaten his territory. Maybe the Ginger Ninja will be able to give Johnny a piece of his mind from behind my legs.

Our own garden is no slouch in the spring stakes, though the only pictures I took of MasterB today were when he was napping on the sofa.

Ginger Ninja Naptime

I should like some new pictures of him among the blssom of the cherry tree. On Friday, before heading East, I looked at it with Celia. There were a few flowers, and lots of buds. Today it hit its exuberant stride.

Cherry Blossom

The tulips are still full of zest and colour. The blister I got planting the bulbs in the autumn was a small price to pay for this ongoing display.

Tulips

You could get drunk on the sensory stimuli at this time of year. The birds are bustling about with nesting materials in their beaks. We have a very present blackbird who looks at me with a knowing eye when I go outside. Cookie would like to catch him, but he simply flies to a higher branch, or a tree the other side of the wall. She’s off to her new home on Friday, so after that he’ll just have Johnny to contend with. MasterB has so many bells on his collar he sounds like a wedding.

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