New Year: climbing cat, birds, creative writing, flying pies and Bill Bailey

Happy New Year!

Kasumi, our grey fluffy cat, saw in the New Year by leaping into our cherry tree on New Years morning after watching a pigeon sitting at the top of the tree for about 10 minutes. She only dared jump up into the tree once the bird had flown off. She's rather ungainly in the tree and spent most of the time glaring at the birds from her new vantage point chattering at them. They did not seem bothered. 

Kasumi cat clinging on to the trunk of the tree as she climbs

 She's too noisy and slow to catch birds. As soon as she spots one she chatters at it. Last year I saw some juvenile starlings goading her to chase them then flying at her mimicking her chattering noise! The same starlings would come hopping right up to my feet as I hung the washing out, I was worried one was going to actually peck my toes they were that brazen!

Kasumi stands half way up the tree looking skyward.

Bill Bailey

On the 2nd of January we went down to that London to see Bill Bailey. It was a matinee performance so we planed to get lunch first, but every single Japanese restaurant we went to had a queue out of the door. In the end we tried an Egyptian place selling the worlds first version of the pie. It was lovely. Something like very thin pizza base wrapped around, in my case, spicy sausage meat, olives and cheese. The portions were enormous. So I recommend The Flying Pie, if you're near Covent Garden and are looking for something different to eat. 

Kick start to my writing this year

I have singed up to For Book Sake's Kick Start Your Creative Heart programme for January. It means I get a writing prompt and resources emailed to me every day and a facebook group of other women to share my writing with. So far this week I've written about rail journeys, fairgrounds, school, the new moon and emotional baggage. I'm enjoying it a lot. 

Birds

At this time of year with bare tree branches I can notice the birds better than at other times of the year. They also congregate around our gardens and the edges of the fields more. Although this year I am yet to see the Egret who has visited in previous winters. 

Today I took some photos of the birds in the garden which I've included below. 

A black and white photo of a starling perched between our satellite dish and the drain pipe

A collared dove preening its tail feathers. I think it looks cute with its eye closed. 

The same collared dove showing off those tail feathers!