The Moon

Whilst the sunrises in Greece were particularly impressive, so was the moon  rising.

I think the bright light at 4 o'clock to the moon is Venus.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 I have tried many times to photograph the moon at home and I just end up with a messy blur.

This night in Greece I just pointed and clicked and it was as clear as a bell.

Even the craters are there, with just a pocket camera whilst messing around down on the beach after dinner.

The first time I saw the Milky Way was in Greece sometime in the 80s and it seemed so beautiful.

The night sky in Greece isn't anything like it was at Ayres Rock where there is no light pollution at all, but the difference between home (and we live in the countryside) and Greece is still quite amazing.

But having time to lie and stare at the night sky makes me feel very, very small and wondering about unanswerable why are we here questions.  Sometimes it's better to not think about it at all.

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Cooking Fat

You might recall a while ago I told you I was having a difficult time with my cat.

It was in fact exactly this time last year.  I ended up having to change my home phone number because I was being harassed so much by an old lady a few streets a way and her friend.

Well it has all started up again.  She is again feeding Maisie, she is encouraging her to sleep in a basket in her house, and she is now ringing my mobile but hanging up or leaving silent 'messages'.

So this time I sent her a letter, polite but straight to the point. It reiterated that following advice from the vets and the RSPCA I have previously asked her to spray Maisie with water should she try to enter her house and not allow her into her house, that she should not feed her etc and that she should please endeavour to do this.

I also pointed out that cats are regarded as property under the Theft Act 1968 and theft of a cat is treated as an offence under the Act.  Even a cat that is lost or has strayed remains the property of the owner (especially when microchipped as ownership can be clearly proven) and it is necessary to make all reasonable endeavours to locate and return the cat to the original owner.

This has meant I have now been promoted from the 'rudest person she has ever spoken to' to being a bully.

I am again at my wits end.

HWMBO collected a sleeping Maisie from the basket in her house last weekend and we shut her in.  She is a very difficult cat to keep in and very, very clever.  She can open doors.  She is very fast.  So in the end I gave up and put her in the slammer.  She has spent 3 days in cattery and not one I particularly like, but the best ones are booked up this time of year.  Tomorrow I am moving her to a different cattery for another week.

I am hoping that 'disorientating' her a bit will break the habit of going to the old lady.  The old lady is clearly not prepared to break her habit of loving and feeding my cat until she is fed up with her and then getting angry with me because my cat is in her house.

I have put a call into the police and asked the local PSCO to get involved and see if they can 'mediate'.  But I've not heard from them yet.  I'm guessing they have real work to do!

I love Maisie dearly but life is too damn short for this.  It is too much stress.  I've started to put feelers out about rehoming her.  The old woman has broken me.  I now feel I have no option other than lose my cat.  She is a lovely, young, cuddly, fit and healthy animal.  Covered in bells she can still catch birds (I swear the birds around here must be deaf.)  She eats rats like they are going out of fashion, I know this because she always leaves the back feet for me in the middle of the kitchen floor, only the back feet ever!

Maisie visits many people in the village.

She definitely sleeps with the young man that lives next door.  His mum told us but that is fine by us, they don't mind and they don't moan at us about her being round there.  I love snugging her when she comes home smelling of wood smoke from sitting in front of their fire.  You see they put her out when they don't want her any more and they don't regularly feed her (just the odd treat of BBQ chicken I hear!).

She definitely plays in the house in the corner with the children there, I see her trotting in and out with them.  They just put her out when they don't want her any more.

The difference with the other houses is they send her home, they don't feed her, they don't shout at Cog down the phone in the evening, they don't call after midnight telling me to go pick her up, they don't ring me at work saying that my cat is in her cat food tin and she can't get her out whilst saying "ooooh Maisie stop that you naughty girl" at the same time.

I really could cry that this old woman's behaviour has affected me so much.

So I have a cat to rehome.  I'm really not looking forward to trying to explain this to the RSPCA/Cats Protection League.

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The Sun

Whilst I've been on holiday I've had the opportunity to rekindle a friendship with the sun.  Not during the day, Cog's current medication means she can't be exposed to sun at all, so daytime meant seeking shade at all costs.  That cost was getting up at 5:30am each day to 'secure' sunbeds in the most constantly shady spot we could find that enabled us to be pool side(ish) and still able to lounge the day away but in shade the whole time from not only the umbrella but a triangle of 3 beautiful trees that created permanent shade.

So every day I've sat and watched the sun rise.

It appeared from behind the mountains in Turkey.

 It seemed to take ages to start to turn the sky red, but once it appeared it moved so fast, blink and you would miss it.

 Once it was full, Turkey disappeared and you could feel the heat immediately.  By 7am it had a bite to it.











Occasionally I was fool hardy enough to take an early swim.













The day we left the sunset decided to show it's best too.




































And it set as fast as it rose.  By the time I had walked across the tarmac the sun was gone.


It's the 3rd year we've been to Rhodes, it's a lovely place ( in the right parts) but mostly I love the sunrise.  I'm sure nowhere else would see me happy to get up so early.

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For me

It has been a lovely holiday this year, one of the best we have had. These are some photos just for me to come back to sometimes for happy memories.



 Watching the sunrise and the planes come in.

Resting, reading and watching the sea sparkle before the rest of the world joins in.

Cog just being Cog

A lovely birthday.

HWMBO being HWMBO

Boats

Food

Tea

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Camp fire (yes, in a field again!)

 It's that time of year for Guiding, time to be in a field.

And so we were again.

My Rangers had decided not to sleep over, but a good number went in for the evening camp fire.

I thought I was also there for a relax.

 Guiding doesn't work that way does it?!

So this was my view a fair amount of the time but it's ok, I got to do a lot of washing up too and I cleaned the loos! (Only because the recently retired Midlands Commissioner was still scrubbing dirty pans and she was planning to do it afterwards - hierarchy is no respect-er of dirty jobs in Guiding either!)

 The whole camp site was a mass of teenagers chillin' no matter which direction you looked.  There were a lot of DofEs there as well.

I think this is such a healthy way for them to spend time.  It made me really happy to see them.

The sun started to set.

 And I did get to go to the camp fire Cinderella.










It was a beautiful evening.

I had a few difficulties with one of my Rangers not getting picked up as planned and whilst trying to solve it I wandered back to the field to find the two I was taking home.

Found them.......just chillin'!

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Den Building

 It's good to be able to get out and about when the weather is good.

One of our local parks has a den building area with lots of good logs.

 Which are great for making good dens!














The Rangers did some really good ones.














And they got the opportunity to climb some trees too.

It made me slightly nervous as a leader, asking them to test some weight on top of their shelter before going under and holding my breath with each tree climb but it's important that they get the opportunity to do this sort of thing and risk a broken arm, well exams are over now at least!

They did a bit of orienteering too.

 There also happens to be a very good park with equipment big enough for big people.

 And at the time we went it was empty.

 They had a good time just chillin'

a lovely way to spend a summer evening.

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A walk around Greenwich

 It was starting to push 30C in London  when I left Elvis at the O2 (I left the building not him) so I decided to catch the clipper to Greenwich rather than heading into the heat of the city centre.

 The Cutty Sark is there.  I'll go back another day to visit her though.

 The buildings around are the Old Royal Naval College, they were designed by Christopher Wren and are beautiful.

 They are now partly let to the University of Greenwich.

I sat in a quiet courtyard eating an ice-cream whilst listening to flute, piano and opera coming from the open windows of the practise rooms.

 There were plenty of shaded walk ways to sit and cool off in.

 The Painted Hall has been recently renovated and is amazing.



















I spent a long time with the information boards finding the kings, queens, virtues, countries, gods, so many things all there for a reason.  It's fascinating to stand and ponder what they all meant at the time.

 The grandeur of the buildings went on and on and I wandered on further heading away from the Thames.

 The Queen's House is a former Royal Residence.

 I wanted to go and see the paintings inside but decided to put it off for another day as it was a perfect day to take in ambience rather than detail.















The National Maritime museum is there, I visited it briefly for a loo stop

 I went past the buildings and up the hill towards the observatory.  There is a path to the right of the hill, so I wandered up in the shade of the trees.

 The Shepherd Gate clock is at the top of the path.  The date I visited was the day of the 2015 leap second.  I really wanted to ask them how this clock (or the main one in the observatory) would deal with it but it seemed bad form to bring up NPL and the true world centre of time these days. So I decided to let them carry on herding Japanese tourists who needed a photo on the Meridian.

This red ball rises just before 13:00 (BST) noon (GMT) and drops on the dot so boats could accurately set their time.

It's been doing it since 1833.















There are great views from up high too.

This was my first visit to Greenwich.  It was nice to get a feel for the area and I'll now go back to visit different places one by one.  Starting with the Observatory itself I think.

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