Warmer

A little warmer today. Not unbearable, and even pleasant outside with a breeze. But inside it's stuffy.

29°C  Wind: N at 13 km/h Humidity: 63% Sat 29°C | 23°C Sun 31°C | 22°C Mon 21°C | 21°C Tue 22°C | 19°C

A comic Artist's Date

My counsellor suggested that the artist's date for this fortnight was bombing out on comics. Certainly within the last three weeks, I've read all of The Invisibles, some of Promethea and am making inroads with Sandman. This morning after doing my morning pages I decided to read the Sandman volume Season of Mists.
Mainly, I wanted to sit outside on the sofa under the trees which faces the garden shed, and do some reading. I hadn't done much of that in the last year due to the pups (especially the last 6 weeks they were here), partly because they chewed out the cushions that used to be on it (which I've roughly replaced). Sigh. Sitting out there and reading something, probably with a pet or two beside me, was one of the pleasures I savoured. Well today I got my wish.
I was reading Season of Mists, like I say, and of course Bobby came up to sit on my left. A little while later, Gabby the cat came up and sat on my right. This was unexpected - she's been sick for the last week or so, and has generally been sleeping on a cushion on my kitchen table. I was really pleased. I had Trip[le J on the radio, and I read my graphic novel.

. . .

Anyway, I got to the end of the story, and there on the last page was a quote from The Man who was October by G.K. Chesterton. Now understand, this book doesn't exists as such in our world. At best it will be in the Library of Dreams, for found perhaps in Hicksville, because it never got written. Anyway the quout read:

October knew of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter or of shutting a book, did not a tale end

Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: "It is simply a matter," he explained to April, "of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and be content."

At that point I put the book down. I looked to the left and saw...

...and then I tooked to the right and saw...

...and I realised that the light was golden, and that the grass (such as it was) is soft, and that this part of my home (if not all of it) was somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and be content.

Worried about my cats

Regardless of any general contentment in my life, I'm worried about two of my pets.

This summer has been a bad one for fleas. The house was flea bombed in October, and again last month after K & M moved out. But that seems to have been ineffective. A week after it seemed the fleas were back again. I vacuum and do what I can, but seems like a battle I can't win (in fact, the booms seemed to have killed more cockroaches than anything else). But I am worried about gabby and Ebony.

Here's Gabby about this time last month:

She has a good thick coat, and there's a shine to it. Here's Gabby a few days ago:

Her fur is uneven and patching, and the shine's gone. Worse, there seem to be bare patches like this:

Ebony has something similar. Here she is a week ago:

Ebs has always had bare-ish patches but not so bad. Today however, she looked like this!

What is this? Is it fleas, mange, what?!

Bobby and Xena seem unaffected. Here's Xena a few days ago:

Mind you, Xena stays outside, and mostly in next door's yard. Bobby likewise is fine:

I trimmed his coat about a month ago, and while he huhs and puffs in the heat, all dogs I've ever known do. He is starting to sit down like Pegasus did in the last year of his life, but Bobby's 14-17 years old - he can do if you wants to.

So, any suggestions about what this is for Gabby and Ebony? Due to bills I'm short until Wednesday otherwise I would have taken Gabby off to the vets already. Ebony doesn't seem to be concerned about her white patches. What gives?

Cool stuff!!!!

and

Time is..

Time is:

short,
but also long,
and in a finite space of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks,
months and years,
we have both no time
and all the time
we need.