2026 Quick Daily Posts

[richardandtracy]

Sometimes.. Cats!!!

When I left home this morning I was dripping blood from my neck.
As I was going to work this morning Tracy was in bed & kitten was on her lap. So, as is required, I paid homage and said goodbye to the kitten first, then bent over to give Tracy a kiss.
Kitten likes to be up high, saw a horizontal back and tried to jump up on my shoulder. Being an incompetent kitten, only three paws made it, and one back paw waved about for any purchase it could find. My neck. So the claws dug in and he hauled himself up by brute force. As he hauled, his back claws slipped over my neck and draw blood. Not a lot, but enough to need mopping up with a couple of sheets of loo paper. I'm also pretty sure his front claws went through my jumper, shirt & vest into my back. He's big, heavy and... not terribly competent. Hrrumph.

Yesterday, in the sun, he accompanied Tracy when she did gardening out the back. It was the first time we've seen him run up trees. Correction, try to run up trees. His first effort led to him hitting a branch with his forehead 2 feet off the ground and falling back. All his other efforts led to him getting nearly 3ft off the ground before falling out of the tree.

Did I mention he's incompetent? He may learn, but he's remarkably stubborn about it. He can't yet pull doors open. He can push, though.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

I'm sorry about your injury Richard, but the bit about his tree climbing made me laugh so much!
(By the way, a quick Google suggests that Maine Coons are natural climbers. Is he going against type?)

[Mabel Figworthy]

[richardandtracy]

I suspect Toby is wanting to be exceptional. As cats are usually good at climbing, I suspect he's an exception to that...

And yest it's funny.

Was the image AI generated? Looks to have the sort of 'look'. If so, it's not bad.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Yes, AI. I try not to get sucked into using it too much, but I had wanted to try out the duck.ai version (which is very privacy-focused) that I recently read about, and this seemed a good opportunity.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Serinde, DH needs to take an engine up to just north of Glasgow and suggested that, as the weather this time of year is likely to be dreich, we just explore the city; but when we return to pick it up again in a few months' time and the weather is likely to be better, we are hoping to explore further north, and who know perhaps pay a certain embroiderer a visit?

[Serinde]

That would be delightful!! We would need to check dates, obviously, as we are dotting about a bit, but in principle, it sounds great.

When you come up, if you are in the city centre and looking for a good place to eat (or coffee) don't bypass the Wild Olive Tree. I think you'd like it, and not just for the food. https://thewildolivetree.co.uk.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I've made a note - always good to have local knowledge!

[richardandtracy]

Very off topic.

It rained like it was going out of fashion yesterday. Tracy came 5 miles back from a church service through it on the moped and her hands and bottom half were completely saturated. She said it felt as if she was sitting in a puddle inside her waterproofs within 300 yards of leaving the church. Looking at the MetOffice rainfall chart the rate was 4-8mm per hour, which doesn't sound bad. But it was...

By the time Tracy got home, her trousers were soaked, her boots squelched and her waterproof over gloves just trapped around a cupful of water around her fingers. She was very unimpressed. We're going to have to get her some better waterproofs, I think.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Or move somewhere drier?

Poor Tracy, being cold and wet is so uncomfortable. We've had a fair amount of rain here, complicated by two burst pipes and some blocked drains around the village flooding stretches of road with rather large potholes hidden underneath, so that for two days we were almost marooned on an island comprising four or five streets, with the only way out involving a 6 to 7 mile detour. Either that, or go the wrong way down a one-way street, which a surprising number of cars and vans opted to do. it is a miracle that there were no accidents.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Grandson embroidering a hot air balloon (on wood)

[Roland]

Never to young to start.

[richardandtracy]

Last week youngest daughter started adulting in a serious way.

She's 26 and has been living at home since a couple of days before the first Covid Lockdown in 2020. In the last few months she's been talking about buying her own house. Well, as of last week she's one step closer. She & I went round last Monday to see a small Victorian terrace house very similar to my first house. It's one she'd had her eye on since last October and when the price went down to £25k below the original asking price shift it, it made sense to look.

After a look as it got dark, youngest daughter was impressed, and as far as I was concerned it's in the best condition of its type I've looked at. This is even when comparing with the ones I looked at in the late 1980's when looking for my first house.

So, last Tuesday she put an offer in.

And had it accepted within the hour.

Now we need to put together the £50k help we offered and hopefully, as there is no chain, she'll be out of our house in a few months.

Then on Saturday she finished a 'One Piece' cross stitch (6 page chart done with my program) that's taken her just over 3 years, to be hung up in the new house. Exciting times.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Two great achievements!

[Roland]

Congrats to your daughter. I’m glad you’re able to help her.

Bit of a b***h session here, but my dad was well off. He loaned money to two of my brothers to buy houses. He would not help my sister or I. However, every penny he had loaned us, we paid back with interest. He wrote off loans to my brothers, and yet…they were worthy of a mortgage.

Then, we he sold his house and moved to PEI, he held part of the mortgage for total strangers who bought it, but straight out said no when I asked.

And after that, guess who took care of him in his old age! My sister and I.

[richardandtracy]

That's grossly unfair, and isn't something I'd be able to do with my kids.

Every [brat] child should be treated the same financially, we're helping youngest to the tune of £50k, and hope to need to help the eldest to a similar amount (£50k + inflation) when she needs assistance to buy a place (the sooner the better... [mutter, mutter], but realistically it's unlikely in the foreseeable future). However, I don't think the kids should be treated completely the same. The care & attention they get when growing up should be tailored to them, their age and their personality, rather than being identical. One may need more school help, one may need more assistance with sport, one may be less academic than the other, that sort of thing.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Sounds like solid parenting to me Richard!

[richardandtracy]

Trouble is, you don't know whether you've done it right until it's too late to correct any mistakes.

However, given that our two are happy to stay at home even after university suggests not everything we did was wrong, and maybe some bits came out right for them.

Regards,

Richard.

[richardandtracy]

35th Wedding anniversary today.
Where has the time gone?

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Congratulations! Are you planning any special celebration?