Happy Birthday Catriona

Catriona who I used to work with is 40 today and sadly far away in New York State. I posted this clapotis off to her a while ago with instructions not to open the package before her special day. It was knitted in a wonderful Noro wool, silk, cashmere mix, a delight to handle, and it blocked out so well, big enough to wear as a wrap but soft and light enough to use as a scarf. I hope she likes it, I hope she has a wonderful birthday, I miss her.

Peaches and Plums

For the last two weeks we have been feeding this young lady, Peaches who lives up the lane from us, while her family is on holiday. Peaches has one of those automatic feeders that dispenses 5 meals opening twice a day, we were told how to fill it with dry biscuits, set it going and that she would be fine. We asked if she would be lonely if she didn't see anyone for a couple of days but her family said she would be perfectly happy as long as she had food and water. The first time we went up to set the feeder Peaches was torn between getting her nose into the dish or winding herself round her legs, so we stayed on while she ate and then gave her some fuss which she loved. We decided we would visit her again the next day so she had some company and to make sure the mechanism was working, and we've gone to see her every night since.As I said Peaches lives up the lane from us, in this gorgeous little white cottage with a beautiful garden and I've loved spending time there. I generally prepare our dinner before we set out to walk, we spend about half an hour in the house, I check the greenhouse and fill the bird feeders while Mr FF tops up the cat biscuits and entertains Peaches. Then we both pick a few plums from the tree that grows outside the back door to munch on the way home before dinner. We usually leave just before it gets dark, we love the views from the cottage, the darkening sky and the noises from the farms as the birds and animals begin to settle in for the evening. Tomorrow will be our last visit, its been a very enjoyable duty, in fact not a duty at all.

Quick Update

In case you were wondering about a few things from recent blogs, I can confirm that

(a) Our Italian bank has now received the interview forms, Mr FF scanned them, got a translation on line and filled them in. We are able to move our money back into the interest paying account, though in the current climate this may not be a good thing.

(b) My car is still in the garage, one of the pieces of metal I picked up on the road was indeed mine, a spring to do with the suspension had rusted. A new part has been ordered and should be fitted fairly soon.

(c) Cleo continues to eat the diet cat food, over 10 days on the same dried food and she a cat who was bored before reaching the end of a tin of Whiskas. She had put on some weight and is doing well, bless.

(d) I am still gardening and not patchworking, but Joanne, queen of the quilts, is coming round tomorrow evening with the other girlies from my ex-work, so there could be some progress soon.

Betwixt and Between

I seem to be between seasons at the moment. Its official autumn now and I've been trying to keep the flowers in the garden going a bit longer by dead heading and generally cutting back. Really there's not much return for all this effort, a few feeble blooms, nothing like the riot of colour in high summer. I'm also revamping a couple of beds and have been digging out some thuggish plants that have taken over. Lots of new planting opportunities for me to enjoy. Because I'm still able to do things outside I am not reconciled to crafting in the daytime. I had a brief period when I started my patchwork mainly listening to radio 4 in the afternoon which seemed like a worthwhile use of time. Patching isn't as easily picked up and put down as knitting, which I do whilst watching tv in the evening, on long journeys in the car, on the bus into town or just sitting waiting. For me patchwork requires a bit more concentration and effort but that may be because I'm such a novice.I got all my patchwork pieces laid out, its my intention to put together 8 large coloured squares and join them all with patches of the cream material (somehow). I've made 3 squares so far but haven't done any more since before we went to Italy. I'd really like to crack on with this not least because my hands are in a dreadful state from all the gardening and time spent stitching would let them recover, but the sun is shining and I can't sit down.

Where does this bit go?

I'm hardly using my car nowadays but I noticed when I did take it out recently that it had developed a rattle somewhere towards the front. That's as specific as I can be, whenever I say that my car is making a noise Mr FF asks me what kind of noise and I am never able to elaborate. So Mr FF drove my car briefly and said he wasn't sure what it was but didn't think I needed to worry about it.

Then yesterday I had to take my car into town, I did mention again the rattle but Mr FF thought it would be fine. There was no rattle on the main and fairly straight road into town just on the bumpy back lanes near our house, so I didn't worry too much. I'd just got into Edinburgh when there was a horrible clank and the sound of metal bouncing down the road. I stopped the car as soon as I could and walked back to find out what had come off. I picked up a large semi circle of very rusty metal with jagged ends and a shiny long silver coloured pin. I phoned Mr FF who was in a meeting and left a message explaining what had happened, describing the bits that had come adrift. I decided to press on for my appointment, the exhaust still seemed to be secure and at least the rattle had stopped.

Afterwards I drove home very slowly and feeling quite sick wondering what major part of the car those pieces secured and if the wheels were going to fall off. I got back safely and showed Mr FF the pieces of metal. He had a look round my car and under the bonnet before announcing 'no way did those parts come off your car, you've brought the wrong bits home'.

The car is going to the garage at the weekend, be interesting to know what exactly happened and how the rattle was cured.

Cleo defies her doctors

I took Cleo to the vets last week, she'd not been eating much, drinking lots of water and was quite subdued. Before we set off I assured her that she would be coming home and that she should put on a good healthy show to confirm that she still has plenty of life left in her. She was a complete star, walking round the surgery while Trevor checked her leg injury and purring constantly. Trevor was amazed by her recovery, he said the x-rays of her leg had been horrific and he couldn't believe how happy and alert she was. In fact she was only on the pain killers they gave us for a day or so, they completely zonked her out and she didn't seem to be suffering when we didn't administer them so we stopped. Within a few days her limp improved and now she walking is perfectly normal.
He gave her a thorough examination and reported that her thyroid was overactive, putting pressure on her kidneys though oddly not her heart. He gave her a couple of injections and asked me to take her back in a few days once she had made some progress. Actually Cleo was slow to recover but in the middle of the week her appetite improved and we both took her down to the vets again yesterday.

We all agreed not to take any more action on her thyroid, blood tests and the like, because any medication would suppress her appetite and basically her kidneys aren't going to get much better. She can have an injection every few weeks to help and David, who she saw this time, suggested we try her on a special diet for cats with renal problems. He kindly gave us a few sachets of the dried food to try with the caution that generally cats don't find it very palatable so whilst it really helps their metabolism, its difficult to get them to eat it. Cleo is on her second packet already, she can't get enough of it. I'll probably go back to the vets this week, buy a full size bag and she won't touch it again. David also checked out Cleo's leg injury and said that sometimes cats like to make fools of us all. Such a defiant, stubborn girl, I wonder where she gets it from.

Battle of the Banca

You already know that we have a strange and wonderful relationship with our Italian bank that has in the past thought it good customer relations to bodily remove me from the premises so all the staff could all go off together for a three hour lunch.

We have this arrangement with them whereby when we receive a nice chunk of rent money we move most of it into an internet savings account with the jolly title of Moneybox, leaving the balance in the current account to pay our bills, taxes etc. We had to go to the bank personally to open this account, we made an appointment and were duly kept waiting for about an hour. During this time Mr FF did try the attack of taking one of the numbered tickets and when our number was called going up to the cashier and explaining that we were waiting to be seen, they sent us back to wait. We managed to open the account after a lengthy interview, none of which we understood, basically they shoved papers in front of us and we signed them. At that time they failed to mention that we needed a special 'key' that plugged into our computer with a code to enable us to carry out online banking, so we collected that next time we were in Italy and there we were up and operational.

The money stays in Moneybox for a couple of months then the bank moves it back into our current account with about a week where it is in neither account, we move it into the savings again and so it goes on. We accepted this and it worked fine until this week when Mr FF went to transfer the money back into the savings account and wasn't able to, we received a message saying that we needed to go into the bank for an interview. I then embarked upon a series of emails explaining that we didn't plan to be in Italy again this year but wanted to earn some interest on our money. The bank insisted we needed to attend because it was a European directive. I suggested we might be able to have an interview with their associate bank in Scotland, The Royal Bank which is our lovely organised, helpful bank here that has never heard of this EU directive, no we needed to attend in person. I asked if we could maybe have the interview with our Italian lawyer here in Scotland who could have their power of attorney, no we needed to attend in person. I half threatened to close our account but of course they have us stitched, we are only allowed a small amount of our own money from our current account each month unless we make a special arrangement and attend in person, it would take the best part of a year to filter the money out.

Finally I emailed them and said we as their customers needed them to offer a resolution, they replied that we needed to attend in person. I had suggested to Mr FF that I could go over to Rome for a while, maybe a month, and sort if out but he pointed out that we would both need to be there for the interview as it is a joint account. The time off and travel would amount to more than any interest and be a total waste of time. After much ranting about how a bank might in the current climate be glad to have investors who left money with them to use as they wished in return for sod all interest, we spoke to Franco, our friend in Rome who said he would get on the case. He phoned back last night to say he has arranged to visit our bank, will collect the interview forms and post them to us for completion and return. As we say in Italia, sono senza parole - I am without words.