Wet.

It's been dark and gloomy all day with the clouds swirling round the garden and tree branches swaying in the strong winds. It was too wet even for a short spell of gardening so I've stayed indoors. When it's cold the cats like to stay in the kitchen near the warm rayburn and today I left the door of the warmer oven open. Sure enough Squeaky claimed it as her own and as the oldest of the cats at 17 I think she deserves it. In the evenings she likes to sleep under one of the radiators in the sitting room on a spot where the concrete floor under the carpet is also warmed by the central heating pipes. For the last few evenings we haven't bothered to put the central heating on as it wasn't that cold and Squeaky objected vociferously first wailing at me and even going upstairs and yelling at Peter in his study. Peter didn't believe me at first when I told him why Squeaky was wailing but the minute the heating goes on she settles down happily. Not that we will be putting the heating on just for her.

Being stuck indoors I decided to sort through several boxes of photos and negatives. Amongst them was the one above of me age 15 with a friend's afghan hound. Our friends lived in Knightsbridge and I would often take Zanzibar for long walks in Hyde Park.  I am sorry to admit that when people asked if they could stroke him I took gleeful pleasure in telling them that he might bite strangers. It was true but I shouldn't have been so smug. He was a beautiful dog and I spent a lot of time brushing him trying to get the matts out of his fur. Not the type of dog to have unless you can afford to have regular dog grooming. As I went through the photos, a lot of which were already sorted, I made sure that were names and dates on the backs, even those photos of ourselves because one day we might forget or future generations might not recognise us. I even found some of Peter's dad's photos from when he became an officer in the Lithuanian army just before the war. I have already got 26 scrap books filled with photos and a lot of the photos today were the spares when I made the albums but I can't throw away photos. It's like throwing away memories. Today's sort out got 3 boxes reduced to 2 along with some stuff actually thrown away.

Look what I did yesterday! I was tidying up the pitcher plant that hangs in the kitchen window by snipping off the old brown leaves, got to the very last leaf and cut through one of the strings of the shell hanging basket. Down fell the plant pot making a mess but nothing got broken. I haven't decided yet whether to get a replacement or try and mend the broken strand.