Bye man.

Vale Beazley. The man cat didn't make it despite M's best efforts to get him good medical attention. We were all there to say goodbye to him yesterday and see him on his way. He will be missed.

 

Mynah problems

It's a bird eat bird world here today... but hopefully not in the literal sense. I'm sitting out with Beazley who is on ''bed rest'' as he has done some damage to one of the ligaments in his back leg. It sounds like the "excruciating" ligament - and while the pain he's suffering does seem severe, the proper name escapes me. He's been pretty good at not moving around - if he was a dog they would need to operate, but the treatment for cats is rest. How he can do that with all the racket the birds are making is beyond me. Some wagtails have built another of those incredible nests in the front tree and they were defending it this morning from five or six mynah birds, each at least twice as big as a wagtail. They were at the nest - one even appearing to be pecking at something in there, and despite the noise the wagtails were making and their attempts to shoo them away, they were not winning. In the end, I deciced I couldn't just watch it unfold and as I walked over, the mynahs flew away to the next tree to continue to watch, and the wagtails settled. Five minutes or so later, the mynahs took off in the direction of Nerang. M was saying that she thinks it may be too late for the wagtails. We'll have to wait to see if the mynahs do come back to claim the nest as their own - although how they could hope to fit into the nest - it's so tiny - is beyond me.

Pearl is still visiting Nana - and that's probably for the best while Beazley is on his "bed rest". It would be much more difficult leaving food out for Beazley if Pearl was in the area - although, it might be that Pearl would be good company for him. The other cats, while they appear interested, don't seem to be spending a lot of time with him - which could be a good sign!

Saturday

We had another breakfast out this morning thanks to M's purchase of vouchers from Living Social. This was for a Mediterranean-themed restaurant/cafe in Southport near where E and B live. S and A joined us as well. It doesn't seem like just a week since we last saw them at the markets. Breakfast was good but we didn't linger for the usual two or more hours that is the norm. We must have all had a busy day planned. Certainly S and A did because A had decided it was time they did their Christmas shopping. Little did we realise but what we had planned was a trip to the Post Office to collect our newly printed Festive Season cards - and then to have a coffee (milkshake for S) and then a visit to the cinema - in the same complex. I suggested a movie and to my surprise S said yes - to “Breaking Dawn Part 2” - the final chapter in the Twilight Saga. S has shown little to no interest in Twilight previously - so it was a big thing to come to the ending without really having any knowledge of the beginning and middle. As it turns out, there really wasn't that much to tell her to bring her up to speed: Girly girl who missed out on the feminism movement falls in love with a vampire (and possibly with a werewolf), wants to become a vampire, marries the vampire, becomes pregnant, and while giving birth to a half-vampire child nearly dies but is saved when the vampire turns her into a vampire. Move on to “Breaking Dawn Part 2”. The special effects were amazing - which is why I wanted to go (not necessarily for closure but there certainly was a fair amount of that!).

Then we went home, and after a short interlude, we were off again to the Mayor's Carols by Candlelight. But that's a story for another day.

Starry starry night

I sometimes forget to just come out and look at the stars. This is one of the benefits of not living in the city. There is no extraneous light to dim them. As I called for Tinka to come in this evening - she was the last to come in but that is not unusual - and as I waited and whistled, I chanced to look up. The first thing I saw was the Big Dipper. Off to the left and down a little was a constellation I didn't recognise, and more than a few others as well, and I knew that if I moved out into the yard and looked in the other direction, I would have seen the Southern Cross - visible in the southern hemisphere, maybe only from Australia. I didn't see any shooting stars but I know that soon, in the UK, and northern hemisphere, they will be witness to a very impressive meteorite shower. This is an annual event and I have seen it once - although that was a fair while ago now!

Tink didn't come in in the end and M went out looking for her - and found her quite easily, sitting on the single bale of hay in the carport. I had looked on the other one (I know Tink is a bit partial to the hay) but didn't think to check the one where she actually was. But in no way was it wasted time!