Tuesday 28 August 2007

The Lion Sun

In the days of the sol leone my red burmese, who could have made claim to being the Sol Leone himself, has rested on the hot bricks of the terrace, shaded by catnip and sage, taking his leave.
Now he is in his garden, under the magnolia stellata, and padding through the building at night with the ghosts.

11 comments:

Sackerson said...

Photo, please!

Electro-Kevin said...

Well good for him. You do make it sound lovely.

hatfield girl said...

Yes S, I'll put a photo soon. He was very fine EK, and being 18 or its equivalent can't be dodged by any of us; the other afternoon he just slept on.

Sackerson said...

We lost our British shorthair/blue this year - aged 20. Somehow she'd got into the front garden (despite being very ill and athritic) to find her place under a just-flowering hebe. So fitting.

hatfield girl said...

S, Of course she got into the garden, as you knew she must have intended to do as soon as you saw her chosen spot.
Lots in common - really clever, devoted friends, conversational in wholly un- cat-like murmurs, though they look so different, the two breeds.

He never put a foot wrong.

Newmania said...

and I see the Tiger is approaching extinction in the wild today

Sackerson said...

HG, Newmania etc: This isn't the right place, but I don't have another way to raise the issue (my blog isn't about this) - if you think it's worth pursuing, perhaps you'll remove it from here to another place.

Here's a quote from Norman Stone's review (The Oldie, September 2007, p. 52) of Simon Montefiore's book on Stalin:

"...how, if you are a socialist, do you accommodate nationalism? Well-meaning Austro-Marxists thought that you could reduce it to cultural preferences, and wanted to turn the Habsburg empire into a socialist federation of peoples. Stalin understood that nationalism was about power, and the Revolution, quite deceptively, offered it to Ukrainians or Tatars, thereby dividing its enemies."

Do you see parallels, and does this suggest that the EU has a much older history?

Newmania said...

For I Will Consider My Cat Jeoffry (excerpt, Jubilate Agno)


For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.

XXX

lilith said...

I am sorry about your cat HG. Magnolia Stellata sounds just the place.

Anonymous said...

I love Stellata. It's not in flower down your way is it? I love Magnolia, and go to Westonbirt Arboretum to wallow in them in the spring. 60 foot ones with huge pink bowls for flowers. Glorious. Stellata utterly restrained in comparison.

Fotherington-Thomas

word verification "dvsvgrot". like

hatfield girl said...

No, LBF, it will flower in the early spring, as down your way. Agreed it isn't to wallow in like the magnolias (a magnolia of ours actually fell over unbder its weight of flowers one year, it had rained a lot and it collapsed onto the green house in a plethora of flowers and broken glass).

The flowers don't shine white as stars though, do they? And quite a lot to be said for restraint in beauty.