An Imaginary Cat

I shall farewell the year 2022 and welcome the year 2023 with a photo of an imaginary cat - Tabs to be specific.  You can be sure she is imaginary as: Cats Are Not Allowed On The Dining Table.

Both of the imaginaries spent their time winding round us, jumping on our laps, mewing at us for whatever luxury food they currently require, and running away in terror if we moved from our chairs, coughed or breathed too deeply.

Clearly they remembered us from our last stay.  Though I can't myself remember the moment when we must have sprung coughing from our chairs, breathing deeply while attacking them...?  How?  And why?

Anyway, they love my sister. They seem to have shared her out between them.  Tabs sits on her lap in the evenings, and Abra sleeps on her bed at night. And they have a big house and garden as their new domain, and seem glossy, healthy and happy, which is what Janet wanted for them. 

We have had a busy week 'oop North.  The Dronfield crowd came for lunch on the day itself - Nute cooked up a turkey feast with all the trimmings, including Yorkshire puds; Lilac Tree Farm came on the 27th including the 5 years old tornado of energy that is the youngest great grandaughter. Nute conjured up a masterly turkey curry plus a bowl of spaghetti with a tomato veggie sauce, and I made a raita.  Though I did not eat myself.  More Scrooge-like than ever, I just had a mug of boiled water from the kettle.   I was struck down by a violent arthritis flare up, which necessitated emergency painkillers, which cause stomach problems...  

The whole thing may have originated in a rather rich soup I made us from veggies and the turkey stock.  Or it may have happened anyway.

So I missed the trip to York on the Thursday - but Col and Nute went. They had a trip to Yorvik and lunched sumptuously at Keith and Janet's.   I did get across The Snake to see Bea and family on Saturday, and Nute came with us. Bea also provided a super lunch. 

Derby sadly had gone down with Covid, so we did not get to see them this time - but we did see them all over the summer at least.

The week ended with what has become the traditional veggie feast from Jen.  She introduced me to bulgur wheat - which I loved. Well, I loved it as she cooked it.  So I am hoping to get the recipe. And it was Captain B's favorite, crumble for dessert - a raspberry and peach crumble to be specific.  Knowing Jen they were probably her own home-grown raspberries.  Her garden, like Bea's, is a work of art.

It seems, reading this back, as if we did nothing but eat...  but all our socialising did centre round lunch. I tried to be careful, blood sugar wise, but there were failures.

We travelled back on Bank Holiday Monday - it was a sunny winter's day, not too cold, and there were no hold ups.  It is strange to be back, but I need to get back into my routine. We both do.

I wish I could have found someone among my family and friends who wanted to hear about the Kingdom of God, and of all it will do for us, here on the earth. And soon. Urgently soon. But alas our Catholic Convent schooldays seem to have put up a barrier against the whole idea of God and religion that is very hard to get past.

As the Inspired Scriptures warn - at 2 Corinthians 4:3,4:

"If, in fact, the good news we declare is veiled among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this system of thing has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through."

The "god of this system of things" is Satan the devil.  And he will use the system he runs to stop people from finding out, understanding, and acting on, what the Bible says.

Reading the Wolf Hall trilogy shows that system at work - and it's frightening. But I was also thinking how our religious education at school worked effectively to blind us to what our Creator is so clearly telling us.