Cats, Carpentry and Cold Case Crimes

[poliphilo]

1. On monday we had five cats in our front yard. Five- none of them belonging to us. They were lounging about under the hedge, like teenagers in a bedsit, trying to look cool, as if the reason for them all hanging out together was not that one of them was in heat. Next day they were gone. I wonder if the owners of Mrs Tabith Twitchit are prepared to have kittens?

2. Monday afternoon we went to Housing Units of Hollingwood with Ruth. She's looking for a dining table. We found one made of reclaimed European oak which we all thought was fabulous. Sturdy, honest, beautiful. And for £700-1 you also get four equally unkillable chairs. I took photos so she could show them to Keith. Just look at the grain on that!



3. We've watched the whole of the latest series of Waking the Dead. Uneven of course, sometimes frankly incredible, but the premise- using the investigation of cold case crimes to examine political and social issues of the recent past- is neat.  Last night's final show was the best of season. The case was a war crime committed during the conflict in Yugoslavia and the treatment was emotionally literate (which isn't a given) and so painful I kept finding myself wanting to look away. Waking the Dead isn't a cult show, but it's capable of great things- and the stars- especially Trevor Eve, Sue Johnson and Tara Fitzgerald- are terrific.   

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the owners of Mrs Tabith Twitchit are prepared to have kittens?

or more importantly, if they're ready for their CAT to have kittens...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But they're the ones who are going to have to feed and house the little loves.

My fear is this will turn out to be an unplanned pregnancy and the kittens will be unwanted by the human owners- with all that that implies.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're right. It's irresponsible. Too bad you're over there, because right about the time the kittens are ready to leave their mum, I'll be ready for two kitties

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The RSPCA (Royal Society For The Protection Of Animals) is reporting a big increase in abandoned pets now the economy is on the downturn.

[jenny_evergreen]

I hope you don't see young'uns roaming the street in the future. *sigh*

What a GORGEOUS table! I love wood. Every time we watch a decorating show and people are bemoaning paneling, Tom and I are saying, "But WE like it! It's wood!".

They were showing Waking the Dead on BBCA some time ago and I got quite hooked for a bit but then I ran out of time to keep watching it. I'd like to see more.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I love wood too. It amazed me to see that this real oak table was cheaper (a lot cheaper) than ones there were just cheap pine covered with veneer.

I've caught odd episodes of WTD in the past, but this is the first time I've watched a whole season. It's a good detective series and- at it's best- emotionally engaging.

[margaretarts.livejournal.com]

2. I love the finish on this European oak, too, which lets the beauty of the wood shine through. It's hard to find anything that's not too blond, not too dark over here.

3. I can't quite imagine how the premise of the show even works, but I'd love to see the series sometime on DVD. We just saw Vaclav Havel's 1960s Czech play "The Garden Party" here, and it seemed like a page out of a contemporary American book on how to succeed in bureaucrazy (sic).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Czechs have a great tradition of satirizing bureaucracy and petty officialdom. i guess it comes from having lived under the Austro-Hungarian Empire and then as a Soviet satellite state.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Re cats. I do wish owners would be responsible and neuter or spay their pets. :(

We're seriously considering having cats again and I have been looking at animals available at a local rescue centre. Sadly there are plenty to choose from, all wanting good homes. I know some are there due to the death or serious illness of the owner, but many are just acquired on a whim and abandoned when the novelty wears off.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We used to have cats. At one time we had eight- or was it nine? After they all died out we had a short interregnum- then went into the rabbit business. Rabbits are less hard work.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Rabbits are less hard work.

Having kept both cats and rabbits, I'm not so sure. The rabbit we had when I was a kid was terribly aggressive to my brother and not very cuddly. But perhaps we just had an unfriendly one?

Besides, if we had rabbits, they'd have to live in a hutch outside. We couldn't leave them alone in the house unattended because of the chewing and we don't have a room that we could dedicate solely to them. They'd probably be all right near the house, but our neighbours had a rabbit when the kids were small and it was killed one night, presumably by a stoat. The predator had managed to get inside the hutch. :(

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We have one friendly rabbit and one unfriendly one. The unfriendly one isn't aggressive; it just doesn't want to have anything to do with us.

Rabbits aren't naturally cuddly. They mostly don't like being picked up- probably because it feels too much like being grabbed by a predator. What they do like is having their noses rubbed.

Chewing is certainly a problem. In the early days- when we were untested and naive- we let them have the run of the house and they did a huge amount of damage- chewing through wires, destroying carpets, damaging furniture. Now they're confined to their own room- where there's an old carpet they can eat to their hearts' content- and they've settled to it; I suppose they regard it as their territory. we leave the door open during the daytime, but they rarely venture out.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

What an awesome! table. And to think that such a prize actually costs less than an "all-new" one.
We have a "Cold Case" show running on network TV here in the States. It's very good, especially when compared to the usual pap that is offered on network.
Now I'm going to search out WTD on Public TV, which offers many BBC productions, all of which are usually superior to anything our own networks provide.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

One of the interesting things about Waking the Dead is the forensic science. We've come a long way from fingerprints and tobacco ash!

We tend to think your TV is better than ours- because we only import the very best shows. I'm glad it works the other way as well. :)

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

I've been watching 'Waking the Dead' all winter and absolutely loved it - stopped going out on Sunday's nights if I could so I wouldn't miss an episode. Wonderful acting - Wonderfully British.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm hooked after this latest season. I hope they'll commission another.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

That table is BEAUTIFUL. Ours is about that color but it's not nearly as interesting.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It said on the accompanying literature that the oak had been salvaged from barns and bridges and all sorts. It felt like you'd be buying a piece of history.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

How wonderful! Will you all be purchasing it?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't know. It's not my decision. Ruth has to run it by Keith and see what he thinks.