Calie is the reason why I'm in Portugal alone which is why, in turn, I haven't posted for a couple of days. For the next book project I'm spending 10 days in and around Lisbon, and I've found it a bit difficult to find internet access in blocks of time long enough to mess around with the blog. I'll have more to say in the next couple of days, but for the moment here's a picture of the cat who runs our household, if not the world.Calie will turn 22 next month and is extremely set in her own ways. A year ago when Lee and I were in France, the kids split the time we were away, moving in for 10 days a piece to keep Calie happy. Now, old age has advanced so far that I don't think it's fair to ask anyone but Lee or me to look after her. So he stayed behind.
Of course, he's got a lot of things to do, projects he's been working on all winter and spring that are now reaching fruition, so I don't feel too badly about leaving him behind. Besides he's going to accompany Elin to Europe in August when she picks up her new viola da gamba, so he'll get a little travel in too.
And then when the day comes that Calie has gone on to that great catnip field in the sky we'll go some place together.
3 comments:
Lovely Calie! Glad to see she is still properly ruling her human assistants.
I used to live in the southwestern Plateau before it became gentrified; many Portuguese immigrants had settled in the streets between St-Laurent and St-Denis and painted the old houses in beautiful colours. Many of the Portuguese shops had resident cats, so important in a seafaring culture. Of course eventually the Montréal hygiene authorities eventually clamped down on the lovely feline presence, the Lares of shop and home.
Your post has me looking at Lisbon trams, I'm rather dismayed to learn that there have been significant cuts to the tram service over the past 25 years (though this site seems to date a bit, and it mentioned attempts to restore closed lines). Love looking at the trams climbing the steep hills of the city centre.
I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing for people who have been together for a long time to take working holidays or other trips abroad alone, no matter how much they may miss their (human) companion. Hints of saudade...
The trams still run, including sleek new ones to suburban areas. In town, buses--including small 20 passenger ones on the steep and curving hills--seem to provide an extremely efficient network. The elétricos are still there and a greatly-expanded Metro system carries hundreds of thousands. But I found the quickest way to get around was on foot many times--saw only a few bicycles because the hills and streets are so steep.
As I say in my post today--a smaller Paris set down in California. It was a most interstly trip and Lee and Calie both seemed glad to see me.
M
Can your cat help with the ERDC? My new small cat, Nora, got into the ERDC file box, and wanted to nest there.
I put it away, and made a decoy box ("Nora's Files") with scrap paper, which she now happily shreds with impunity.
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