Flying Cat - January 2008

Just in time, with a sort of pierhead leap of the blogosphere, Carol has very kindly sent photos to Anorak Towers for me and Marmers to post - how very exotic! (I said EXOTIC Tws dearie, not...) The parental units are off to the Granite City tomorrow and fpu hopes to have this posted in absentia...in the same way she hoped that many comments might have been posted over the festive blackout...*sigh*...anyway, here they are.
queue here to be redeemed. vouchers accepted no doubt!

only androgenes need apply

shiny tree in Singapore

house in Franklin Road...could be Singapore...not sure...certainly not in Franklin Road, Stromness, tho' things are getting worse...

waterlilies, Singapore

Bethells Beach NZ







jellyfish and sinister shadow...the jellyfish's nemesis...we're a' doomed!
(don't even mention the size of that pawprint, SHUDDER)

New Zealand greenlipped mussels...have you SEEN how much people pay for extract of this thing in so-called healthfood shops!!!

those Kiwis have pinched one of our oystercatchers!



leaving Auckland Harbour

Russian square-rigger in Auckland Harbour

Skytower

Dolphins!!!









looking over the Coromandel Peninsula

Kahu Island

Tiritiri Island

Waiheke Island..."Hello Dawn!" from the parental units

a Big Bang from the Skytower just before midnight 2007/8

Apologies for any strange spellings, but we couldn't find all the names in the atlas to check up, so any visiting Kiwis, all corrections will be acted upon. Meanwhile, there's a bit of a gale howling outside and the pu's are feeling mellow after a visit to friends at the South End. And would like to publicly apologise for drinking all Jenny's Highland Park in the wee small hours of Tuesday morning. (But in extenuation m'lud, would like to say she left the cork on the table...'send us a sign oh lord'...and he did!)

It really is not what self-respecting own-business-minding pusscats expect to be confronted with upon being given this day their daily freedom. One moment you're trotting along, humming a little hum, spraying a little spray, beating the bounds of Rolling Acres, the next...Meeeeoooww!!! Wozzat???? There's a shooge overgrown clappy-doo on stilts with a beak like Lady MacB's dagger lurking beside Pond 2! It's not DOING anything that we can make out...in fact it seems to be admiring its own reflection in the water...is THIS what Narcissus looked like? Because, if it is, I can't see why he was so besotted.
Come on Marmers, let's give it a cat's chorus - "Skinny malinky longlegs big banana feet went tae the pictures and fell through the seat!" No, it's not listening. What is going on? Oh miu! It's not on the qui vive for free frog dinners? How very dare it! Still, them indoors can't expect us small defenceless moggies to tackle a thing like that...
...so, me and m'Marmalade Chum decided that discretion was the better part by far and are now having a well-earned snooze on Other Persons' Chairs. Always best.
We did send fpu out with digicam, but its a lousy grey day and her camera shake was something shocking. Tsk! Can't get the staff y'know. Mia will tell you.


Mr Hegri approaches Pond 2



Mr H casts his beady eye



Mr H gets his stilts wet



Mr H says "Wozzat?"

Mr H has a little think...

Mr H realising the stalker has become the stalked, stalks off

Mr h leaves his calling card in Rolling Acres. How very kind.
Some days later...Mr Hegri is now being actively discouraged. Having decided that a human waving its arms about is not conducive to peaceful pond dipping, he takes flight towards the shore where he belongs.

"Ha det bra, Herr Hegri!"

SOME WE PREPARED EARLIER...
These are pics Carol took before the Great Camera Crisis of 2008 which has now been resolved. Anyone who finds any sort of symbolism in these images of waves crashing on the shore, a giant erection and a hunky liffguard on rubber needs a cranial spring-clean.

waves crashing...

mini Ailsa Craig

keeping an eye out for Carol just in case...

...and this is Carol's big bowl of mussels...mmmmmmm...
IMAGES AT THE MUSEUM
The collection is nothing if not eclectic and faintly reminiscent of Marischal College in Aberdeen, which in turn was like a tiny pale version of the Pitt Rivers Collection at the Ashmolean. Loads of stuff pertaining to "our Maoris" as a Pakeha Kiwi friend once condescendingly referred to that proud warrior race...it seems to us that the NZ greenstone tiki should be in the hands of a tribe or chief, not stuck in the white man's museum. (See, we can do rants on Orkney too!)

Auckland Museum

one for Arnish

Tiki



woven wall

hoose...is it a marae?

outrigger

wish we had a posh gable-end like this

gorgeous tiki...we wants one...

stuffed jumbo

rather worryingly stuffed kitty

scene from a torture chamber

as Carol remarked, a strange juxtaposition of garmentage (well she didn't quite say that, but the gist is there. I mean...garmentage???)

a bitterny-herony sort of bird

so this is what happened to that oystercatcher in C'sGBNZA part one
AT THE BOTANICS



Under The Greenwood Tree

how our wee froggies would love these giant lilypads!

have-a-banana, have-a-banana, have-a-banana...as the song goes





an especial construction for Muness from Carol
THE BURNSIAN CONNECTION

Rab the Spitfire

mpu found this image on a yachtie website, every kilt-wearing Scot on Burns Night should have had one of these...
Thanks to Carol fae France in a land downunder (soon to be back chez elle, and re-united with Oor Wullie and Cinq-chat-gang) for her heroic photo-taking and emailing efforts. FC&Marmers.