Notes from close to home in isolating times.
In the night, there was a tremendous scuffling and banging coming from the hall. I have a shoe rack there – walking boots, regular boots, shoes & sandals all piled up. It sounded as though the cat was kicking them all around the hall – much more than her usual exercise of clawing the hall mat, in fact, it sounded as though she was throwing the mat at the wall. I suspected she was chasing a mouse, could think of no other reason for all this noisy activity. (Unless she was venting her frustration at me not getting her favourite food – it was all sold out at the supermarket, and so I had to get a different kind.) The mouse might have wandered in (this happens sometimes) or it might have been brought in by Kat herself as I leave a window open at night so I don’t have to keep getting up to let her in and out, accompanied by her loud ferocious miauling.
I fell asleep again and dreamed that I went through to the living-room. There I was faced with a scene of hideous carnage, with bloodstains on a ripped sheepskin and signs of a fight to the death with a large creature – though no body parts were visible.
In the morning when I actually got up, boots and shoes were scattered over the hall but no signs of blood or mauled bodies. If there had been a mouse, it seemed to have escaped, hiding behind boots or boot rack or behind furniture in the living room.
*
A few days ago I took a bus to the supermarket. I was the only passenger. On the way back there were two other people. The supermarket was well-stocked, though a few gaps. There’s still a huge variety for most produce. It reminded me of coming back to this county twenty years ago. I had been living in Tirana, Albania. There were plenty of small shops and open-air markets, where you could buy the best fruit and vegetables imaginable (and you still can) all organically grown because they came from small market gardens. Every lunch time I’d leave the office and buy different fruits as they came into season – cherries, pears, grapes, melons, figs. And there were shops dedicated to different cheeses and yogurts. You could not live more healthily. Big supermarkets were only just starting to appear but people mostly still went to the open-air markets to shop, where people sold local produce which you knew was fresh, and it was also cheaper.
And when I came back to this country and went into a supermarket I felt overwhelmed by the long aisles crammed with so much food, and so many varieties, and felt nostalgic for Tirana's pavement displays of heaped green watermelons, red tomatoes, oranges, apples, lemons, the streets blazing with colour.
*
Venus (Hesperos, the evening star) has been so bright lately. The first evening I saw it when I went out the back door I thought it was an approaching plane, even though planes never come from that direction here, still, I stood outside and waited, but it did not move, it stayed right where it was. I walked round the house, gazing at the Pleiades just above it, and then at Orion, further left, and there Venus stayed, sizzling in the night sky. All the stars seem bigger and closer right now, perhaps because there are no distant car headlights to detract from their brilliance.
 |
| Art & nature: thanks to J for the art! |
In the night, there was a tremendous scuffling and banging coming from the hall. I have a shoe rack there – walking boots, regular boots, shoes & sandals all piled up. It sounded as though the cat was kicking them all around the hall – much more than her usual exercise of clawing the hall mat, in fact, it sounded as though she was throwing the mat at the wall. I suspected she was chasing a mouse, could think of no other reason for all this noisy activity. (Unless she was venting her frustration at me not getting her favourite food – it was all sold out at the supermarket, and so I had to get a different kind.) The mouse might have wandered in (this happens sometimes) or it might have been brought in by Kat herself as I leave a window open at night so I don’t have to keep getting up to let her in and out, accompanied by her loud ferocious miauling.
I fell asleep again and dreamed that I went through to the living-room. There I was faced with a scene of hideous carnage, with bloodstains on a ripped sheepskin and signs of a fight to the death with a large creature – though no body parts were visible.
In the morning when I actually got up, boots and shoes were scattered over the hall but no signs of blood or mauled bodies. If there had been a mouse, it seemed to have escaped, hiding behind boots or boot rack or behind furniture in the living room.
 |
| I didn't catch the mouse but I got this toilet roll |
*
A few days ago I took a bus to the supermarket. I was the only passenger. On the way back there were two other people. The supermarket was well-stocked, though a few gaps. There’s still a huge variety for most produce. It reminded me of coming back to this county twenty years ago. I had been living in Tirana, Albania. There were plenty of small shops and open-air markets, where you could buy the best fruit and vegetables imaginable (and you still can) all organically grown because they came from small market gardens. Every lunch time I’d leave the office and buy different fruits as they came into season – cherries, pears, grapes, melons, figs. And there were shops dedicated to different cheeses and yogurts. You could not live more healthily. Big supermarkets were only just starting to appear but people mostly still went to the open-air markets to shop, where people sold local produce which you knew was fresh, and it was also cheaper.
And when I came back to this country and went into a supermarket I felt overwhelmed by the long aisles crammed with so much food, and so many varieties, and felt nostalgic for Tirana's pavement displays of heaped green watermelons, red tomatoes, oranges, apples, lemons, the streets blazing with colour.
 |
| Street in Tirana today |
*
Venus (Hesperos, the evening star) has been so bright lately. The first evening I saw it when I went out the back door I thought it was an approaching plane, even though planes never come from that direction here, still, I stood outside and waited, but it did not move, it stayed right where it was. I walked round the house, gazing at the Pleiades just above it, and then at Orion, further left, and there Venus stayed, sizzling in the night sky. All the stars seem bigger and closer right now, perhaps because there are no distant car headlights to detract from their brilliance.
Comments
I love your cat story! Your star gazing! And I hope you are keeping safe (going on buses and supermarkets!), but it sounds as if your supermarket is quite well stocked. I know what you mean about the over-wealth of choice in our western markets.
T xxx