Cat Diary 8

I confess to being completely stressed for the two nights that we had a visitor staying.

First there was the getting the place ship-shape, with no peace to just lay up and relax while the old woman worked through her usual routines.

No. We had putting away. Dusting. Airing the pillows. Wrangling bedsheets onto the mattress. Finding linen in the linen cupboard by first reefing things out, then putting most of them back.

This is how I prefer at least some of my day

But there wasn’t anything like sleeping on the couch for three days! because after our visitor arrived, I had to be totally on my toes. Not that the two women ever sat on the couch, they lounged about at the dining table.

And they mainly ignored me. Even the old woman ignored me. I didn’t get even one game out of her, and the kibble game might as well not have been invented. Very exasperating!

The first night I was shut in my den by 8.30 p/m! In vain I tried to tell her that she was making a mistake. Bedtime is at 9.30 p/m! She ignored my entreating look, where I begged to stay up longer. I was so shocked I didn’t make any further attempts to communicate.

The following night I decided to get back at them. Our visitor slept next door in the guest room made over from the study. I set my internal alarm, and putting my face right by the crack left by the door not quite closing, miaouwed every hour.

She had hardly any sleep, she said. Unfortunately, the old woman had a great night, she said. That’s when I discovered that when she takes out her hearing aids, she can hear very little. Certainly not a few little miaouws.

All was good, though. The visitor left at 9.20 a/m and my routines have been restored.

New Growth

I’m just boasting here … not that I did any of the growing myself. These plants don’t seem to mind standing around on a south facing balcony …

Australian native fig (proper name later)

This is a rainforest species and starts in the undergrowth, so the conditions probably right up its alley.

Bolly gum … it’s reaching for the outdoor light I’ve been leaving on for the fishpond. It’s grown over 30 cm in 6 months. A sprig of its new growth.

This velvety kurrajong is also putting out new growth. I think I finally found the place it likes.

Isn’t that a lush and verdant growth of parsley and Chinese cabbage? I suspect that their success is more to do more with growing in thinly covered composting vegetables.

Most of the rest of the plants are struggling in various different ways. But never mind, I heard from my neighbours that we do get sun for a few weeks! Maybe then there will be various growth spurts. We’ll see.

The Build, Days 1+2

Day two of the demolition stage … a brand spanking new machine is busy taking out the vegetation so carefully nurtured by the gardening crew only a few days ago.

Someone could’ve saved themselves a swag of money, time and useless busy work if they only worked together.

When I watch a machine like that at work, I always wonder whether a couple of men on the ground couldn’t do that work more efficiently.

Chainsawing the shrubs, stacking them on a pile or dragging them to a truck. There aren’t any real trees in that section. How can it be cheaper?

Yes. Don’t worry. That was a rhetorical ‘big world’ question. I realise that by the time an employer pays humans their holiday pays, sickness benefits and super, one driver is cheaper than three laborers.

By ‘big world’ I mean the ESG costs as well as just running a demolition company.

E = environmental; S = social; G = governance … I’m still in the dark about the significance of the last one. You?

Cat Diary 7

Now that I’ve proven that I know how to play, the old woman is constantly thinking up new games. My favorite one so far is hunting kibbles.

Round about her lunchtime she’ll wander around with a small handful of kibbles and drops them tinkling into the various little plates and bowls she has hidden around the unit.

I know she means me to listen for the sound of them hitting the china but why would I? I just watch her bending over here and there to pour them from only a little height.

Then … this afternoon … she totally tricked me! We had a parcel delivery this morning that came in a cardboard box. After unpacking it, she set it in the living room.

“Go ahead,” she said. “Find out what’s in it. You should be able to smell them.”

First I just walked past it. It smelled new. Cardboardy. After her lunch I walked past it again. Hmph, still new and cardboardy.

By mid afternoon I’d worked it out though I continued lying around. A box with flappy bits—like that—seems like they’ll jump up and get me if I try to jump in between them.

The old woman weakened and lay the box on its side. That’s when I made my move …

Reading: ‘The Lathe of Heaven’

I love Ursula Le Guin’s writings. I have The Lathe of Heaven on my shelves and as soon as I’m done with The Revenger series–any day now– I’ll be re-reading The Lathe.

In the meantime read this fabulous review by Sam Matey, and his reminders of how much ‘we’ (humanity) have/has progressed since the 1970s … And even though we’re trying to get used not progressing, not using more resources, these kind of progressions are needed.

https://sammatey.substack.com/p/unpaywalled-book-review-the-lathe/comments

Spring …

The season has been very busy in these climes for most of August, somewhat earlier than the calendar announces it.

This delightful show of gold along the verge at the entrance to the complex.

One of the flowers … vaguely funnel-shaped with an extra fold in one of the petals. I picked it up from the ground, so it’s a little battered.

It’s the third tree flowering along that verge, as if they calculated the sequence to put out their blossoms. The first was mauve-pink, then a pink, now this yellow.

From my balcony, it’s possible to hear—if not see—the scraping complaints of young Torresian crows waiting to be fed. I suspect the Carindale crow ‘murder’ calls the trees in in the Carinya grounds their home.

My view

This morning’s fog to the east …

An hour or so later …

Similar angle as above …

I hope that I get to keep this bit of my view … yesterday we (residents) got an email with the map of the soon-to-be-begun demolitions in prep for the fourth building to be started.

I wondered where they (construction company) would get the fill to extend the flood bulwark. Last night had the thought that possibly the digging out of the basement carpark will give them enough. Time will tell.

The poor cat, she’ll have conniptions. She’s still very skittish.