Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Cowardly Cats and Nonchalant Martens
by admin - 23:29 on 16 October 2010
Pheasant wars broke out this morning, just as Bess and I took a stroll along the lane beside The Rural Retreat. Bess was not impressed.
We'd got halfway up the track when a shouting match erupted between two cock pheasants at either end of Mr Moneybags' field. I suspect that one was Mr P. This left us in the middle of the battle, avian insults flying back and forth over our heads, and Bess with nowhere to turn, so she sat and waited for the tumult to die down. It didn't.
Cats, who are shifty creatures, rarely look you in the eye, but after a while Bess gazed up at me and gave a yowl of despair which clearly asked “Why don't you do something about this?” The best I could do was walk back to the Retreat, for our exercise was unlikely to continue. Matchgirl's heroic cat hurried after me.
Master Marten in early June - he's put on a bit of weight since then
Animal antics continued this evening. I've moved the position of the gate and redistributed marten treats in the hope of luring a visitor on to the sill outside the living room window – it would be good to see one now and then during the winter. Success was unexpectedly swift.
Around 9.30 I shone a torch through the window, to see if the egg had been taken, and illuminated Master Marten atop the gate, polishing off his Nutella. The light – admittedly a rather feeble beam – didn't bother him at all.
He devoured the goodies on the gate, and more left on a stone beneath the window, but either didn't notice hazelnut spread and nuts on the sill or was more interested in his egg, which he carried away into the darkness in the general direction of The Nutella Tree.
I can report that the slim youngster who used to visit is now a hefty, well fed gent. And so he should be.
I'll continue my efforts to lure him on to the sill; sooner or later he'll learn to tap on the window to ask for his supper.
Earlier, much progress was made with The Bumper Book of Black Isle Snappery. The first draft is complete and will be pored over on Friday when its three contributors get together. Dolphin James could have had a sneak preview but this morning he and his gorgeous bride-to-be left for a romantic caravan holiday in Kingussie. It takes all sorts.
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