Thunderstorm!

This morning dawned bright and sunny as usual for the time of year. After lunch it did cloud over a bit, as it has done for the last few days, but although I thought we might have a few drops of rain - as yesterday - I was more interested in the way the sky looked. There were a few rumbles of thunder evidently getting closer....

Suddenly it started raining, but not just spotting - it was proper rain and sounded quite heavy. My first thought was for the feral kittens - their only shelter was a cardboard box but that would turn soggy very quickly. It was under some trees, but not enough to stop rain pouring through. So I grabbed a kagoule and rushed out, to find some very wet-looking kittens! One of them managed to find a dry place so I moved some of the others there, but then the rain got so heavy that even that place was getting drips. So they all climbed on my lap and I sheltered them for a bit, assuming it would be five minutes of rain at most.  

Rain and yet more rain

After about ten minutes my legs were getting cramped and my jeans were soaking, and I realised I had only six of the kittens on me. I managed to gather them all up in my arms and move to the steps outside the kitchen, which is pretty well sheltered. I found the seventh kitten already there, mewing rather pitifully, looking as cold and sodden as the others.

Daniel brought me an old towel so I was able to try them one at a time, while the rest sat in a huddle on my lap, gradually warming up. There was thunder echoing all around which slightly worried them, but they were more concerned about being warm and dry; once they were dried they started washing each other and purring.

I stayed where I was for about half an hour, with Tim chatting to me sitting on his windowsill which overlooks the steps. We were amazed at the quantity of rain that was falling - heavier than we've seen for many months. There were several leaks in Tim's ceiling, so he found buckets and cool boxes to catch what he could. He also found a slight leak in the dining room so covered all the computers with plastic sheeting. Of course he had switched their computer off at the first sign of a thunderstorm, and I hadn't turned mine on yet - but we still didn't want them getting wet.  

I won't need to water for a few days....

The patio was soon flooded, and it looked as if our entire back garden was turning into a mini-lake. I suppose that's because the ground was so hard, the water just sat on top. Eventually it soaked in. Of course it's very good for the garden - maybe our grass will even turn green again - and I won't have to do the watering I had planned either tonight or tomorrow! In fact I might not even water on Saturday as it's been so thoroughly drenched today.

After about forty-five minutes the kittens were getting hungry so Tim passed some food out of his window for them, and I decided to go inside. So I folded the towel and left it on the steps, and they curled up to sleep there once they had finished eating. The rain continued heavily for another hour or so, and then it rained lightly for a while - it was over two hours worth of rain in all. Rain at all is almost unheard-of this time of year, rain like this was just incredible. Dan said the roads were flooded several inches deep.

By about 6pm the sun was poking through the clouds, the rain had stopped, and the floods had abated. So Richard found a couple of other cardboard boxes for the kittens, I found them a replacement old plastic tablecloth to put their food on since the original one was so muddy and dirty it was unrecoverable, and I found another one to put over the top of the cardboard boxes just in case it rains in the night. At least it should protect them somewhat.  

Visitors

We've had some visitors for a long weekend, which has been great. They're friends we've known for years, who go to our church in the UK. Their two sons are a little younger than ours, but the four of them seem to get on quite well. Our friends' younger son was captivated by the feral kittens and spent many hours outside playing with them.

They were only with us for the weekend, plus this morning, because the only reasonable flights they could find were to Paphos rather than Larnaka - and inclusive of a hotel apartment. So they arrived in Paphos on Thursday and rented a car to drive here Saturday morning. Mostly we just talked... it's so good to catch up on news.

The weather has been incredibly cool for the end of May. Today it's only about 25C. There have been grey clouds overhead since lunchtime, and there were even a few drops of rain about an hour ago. Our friends said they drove through a thunderstorm and quite a bit of rain on Saturday, when they were near Limassol. Amazing! Usually there's no rain after the end of April, and we're starting to use the air conditioning by the end of May. But other than about three days earlier in the month when the temps got to 30 or more, it's been extremely pleasant. Long may it last!

McKenzy Beach

Yesterday we took our friends to McKenzy beach. Not that it's really warm enough to swim yet, but one of them wanted to get his feet wet in the sea. Then we lay on beach towels and chatted about mutual friends and acquaintances, life, the universe and everything. It was peaceful, and the beach almost deserted. In a few months it will be teeming with tourists but even though this is a bank holiday weekend in the UK, there don't seem to be many visitors. 

Low flying aeroplanes

Actually McKenzy Beach isn't always peaceful, because it's right next to the airport. Planes land by flying just over the sea, so low it almost looks as if they're going to bump the heads of swimmers sometimes.  

Kittens playing

We still have the seven feral kittens, who I think are now about five-and-a-half weeks old. They are all eating kitty food softened with warm water, and cream cheese; they're also all managing to lap diluted evaporated milk from a tray, although they do still like to have a bottle between them afterwards - for comfort as much as anything, I assume. After their morning feed I wash their faces with a damp flannel, and then they play. Here are five of them involved in some game, moving too fast for the camera really.  

Ginger kitten

Here's the largest kitten - the ginger tom, still known as Darwin (or Garfield!) going back to check if there's any food left in the tray, long after the others have finished with it.  

Fluffy kitten

Here's the little coffee-and-cream kitten - the only really fluffy one, and by far the friendliest - about to join some of the others in a game. 

Tortoiseshell kitten

Here's the little tortoiseshell kitten discovering a new place to play, next to some flowerpots.  

Car problems again

On Tuesday Richard and Daniel went to Nicosia, the capital city of Cyprus, which is about 50 minutes' drive away. Richard tried (unsuccessfully) to open a bank account with a bank that - he had been told - would make transfers to and from the UK easier. Daniel wanted to buy some tools for his clarinet repair, and managed to find exactly what he needed, so at least the trip wasn't wasted.

But on the way there, apparently the car was overheating. By the time they found somewhere to park in Nicosia the indicator was showing it to be dangerously hot. We've had radiator problems with other cars so Richard just assumed the water level must have got low. So when they returned to the car, by which time the engine had cooled down totally, he checked the level. But it was full.

So they came back, only to find that as they slowed down from the motorway, the indicator again showed the car to be dangerously hot. Then it started making awful graunching noises, and when the finally got it in the driveway, it shuddered and juddered for a couple of minutes.

Richard has many skills, but car maintenance is not one of them. He was worried that he might have destroyed the engine completely - it certainly sounded bad enough. He was busy that afternoon, but phoned his car mechanic in the morning. This mechanic is fairly young - in his late twenties - but is one of those rare and wonderful people who really cares about his craft. He loves cars. He has a special relationship with ours because he fully reconditioned the engine a few years ago.

This mechanic said he would come out to look at the car, and came this morning about 9am on his motorbike. He poured water in, and listened to it, and said it needed a new radiator hose. He said he could get it towed to his garage, but it was easier and cheaper for him to come back later with the hose and repair it in our driveway.

He came back later, asked for more water, and fixed the hose. Richard came back from the office to talk to him, and asked how much it cost. We thought it would be about £20 at least for coming out here twice, plus the part. Or maybe more. So imagine our astonishment when the mechanic said, 'No charge!' He said that Richard is his customer, so he has to look after him. And then he drove off.

Of course we do usually pay promptly when picking up the car, which is fairly unusual in this country, so I suppose he considers us not just customers, but good customers. But even so - it was a very nice ending to the incident.

Strange conversation

People sometimes tell us we have odd conversations around our meal tables. Someone pointed out that we often (well, a couple of times a week at least, sometimes more) get out a dictionary or atlas or something during a conversation, while eating. Doesn't seem odd to me, but we put it down to being home educators. The whole of life is about learning, after all, and we enjoy our family conversations.

Last night we were just finishing eating, and I glanced up at the lights. We have a somewhat old-fashioned five-bulb arrangement in our dining room with glass globes around them - see picture above. Until a couple of weeks ago, there was another identical one in the living-room. We've had trouble with these lights ever since we came here - the bulbs only ever seem to last three or four weeks each. Then they blow, one by one until there's only one left. At which point Richard drags out the ladder and changes them.

The one in the living room had some faulty fittings too, and about three weeks ago he was going to change them. I asked if it would make the bulbs last longer, and he said no - but at that stage he couldn't fit any new ones at all so it was constantly gloomy in there. I wondered aloud if we'd be better off with an ordinary kind of plain shade and a single bulb. We decided to go for it, and managed to buy all we needed for less than �10. Boring? Yes - but the ceilings are four metres high, and we don't exactly spend much time looking at the light fittings. But the light given out is much better. Our house group definitely appreciate it.

Anyway... last night, when I glanced up at the dining room lights, I realised that all of them were still working, despite having been changed at least a month ago. I pointed this out to the family. '

'Ah', said Richard, 'They saw what we did in the other room and they didn't like it!'

Which led to all of us telling the lights in the dining room that they better watch out, since the new shade in the other room is brighter, looks cleaner, and will almost certainly last longer and save us quite a bit over the months.

Then Tim said the old-fashioned dining-room fittings were ugly, at which point Dan said that was rude, and he really shouldn't make personal comments because the lightbulbs might be offended. So I said that was right, after all we didn't want them over-heating the glass and exploding all over him. Then Richard said that it could be worse - the lightbulbs might get deeply hurt by his comments, and might just decide life wasn't worth living at all. So I said I supposed that whether they exploded with anger or felt hurt depended on whether they were more like ENTJs (which Tim is) or ENFPs (which Richard is).

At which point... Tim said, 'Wait a minute. I can't believe this... are you really psycho-anaylsing lightbulbs??!"

And it struck us all in one moment - yes, we do sometimes have very strange conversations around the meal tables! 

Sunday

All seven of the feral kittens are now eating kitty food and cream cheese from little trays, which is so much more easier than trying to feed them from a teaspoon or my finger! This photo catches the three orange-and-white kittens, including the two very smallest who have been a bit behind in their development. Those two littlest ones still aren't very good at washing themselves although the others seem to have grasped this skill fairly efficiently, and wash each other's ears too. Soon they might even figure out how to wash their faces!

I do still give them warm Lactol in a bottle, after the main food. Rather like introducing a baby to solid food - the milk comes afterwards and is still important for comfort as well as for nutrition. But they have less than they used to, and the three biggest kittens only really want a token gulp; it's the four smaller ones who get through most of the bottle between them. We've nearly got through the can of dried Lactol I bought last Monday - since I reckon these kittens are five weeks old tomorrow, I'm going to give them evaporated milk again once it runs out. It's cheaper, and didn't seem to do them any harm when they had it as emergency rations when we found them, and they're getting the nutrients kittens need from the dried food (which actually I moisten with warm water).

Richard got back this morning from an arduous trip to Egypt where he got very little sleep, so he's slept some of today and is currently napping again. He was relieved to find that the feral kittens are still firmly outside, and we intend it to stay that way. Eleven cats in the house would be crazy, even assuming our four would allow it. The kittens are entirely happy being outside; it's warm, and assuming they go to live at the Cat Sanctuary at Paphos in a couple of weeks, they'll be mostly outside there.

The fluffiest kittens, the coffee-and-cream coloured one, is evidently a man's cat since she made for Richard immediately she met him and wanted to be stroked and cuddled. She purrs efficiently now, and some of the others have begun to purr too although it's hard to work out which ones. They have fairly distinctive characters already, surprising in such young kittens.

Thankfully it's not quite as hot today as it has been the last few days. I suppose it got up to 26-27C, but no more. What a relief.



 

Summer arrives

For three days now it's felt over-warm. I'm wearing very light cotton trousers now rather than jeans (other than when feeding the feral kittens!) and suddenly everything takes a huge amount of effort. Even simple tasks like washing dishes become draining. It's not particularly humid yet, but standing over a sink of hot water is just as bad. Vacuuming, never my favourite chore, is exhausting. Bringing in laundry takes twice as long, and that's not just because of the possibility of stepping on seven tiny little fast-moving kittens!

The weather site tells me it's 30C [86F] today with only 29% humidity. The sunshine is a bit hazy so it's not really too hot anywhere, but somehow it's very tiring. Alas, it heralds the start of at least four months of similar weather, which will only get hotter and more humid before it gets better again.

A couple of weeks ago Richard moved the electric heaters up to the little loft space above the bathroom, and brought down the electric fans which we had stored up there over the winter. We didn't think we would need them for a while! But Tim has already started using his overnight, and it won't be long before we're running them all. Then we'll have to think about starting up the air conditioning during the daytime. We only have one unit, in the living/dining room, and run it at 28C [82F] but as it also reduces humidity, it makes a huge difference. We'll have to move my computer into the dining room too; the boys' one is there already. We've learned from bitter experience that over about 30C computers simply don't function reliably.

Bougainvillea again

Here's the bougainvillea at the front of our house, with the giant rubber plant showing at the edge of the picture. The bougie is magnificent at present; I only wish a photo could do it justice. It's also a bit sad that it's really only so gorgeous during May and June - the rest of the year there are still some pink blossoms, but it looks more straggly. Still, it gives us some extra shade during the summer since it remains in full leaf, and we're very thankful to have it. It's one of the stunning successes of our gardening - seven years ago it was only about 50cm high with hardly any blossoming. 

A local building

Here's one of the older buildings not far from where we live. It's much in need of repairwork and painting!! Unfortunately, the sun damanges paintwork every summer, so to keep places looking nice they really need to be repainted every Autumn. Some people do that, but most don't. I'm not even sure if this place is currently occupied. 

More buildings

This is perhaps more typical of local buildings... we don't know exactly what this one is. Rubbish gets left outside, walls need repairing, but life goes on. Actually we quite like that; it means there's no pressure to keep our house beautiful, which is a relief since it will probably be knocked down to make room for flats at some point. 

Here's a brand new building we've been watching off and on in the past few months. It's where the electricity board used to be, before it moved just out of the town. We're not sure what this building is going to be... a theatre, perhaps? Some kind of sports stadium?  

Kitten sizes

It seems amazing to me that three of these feral kittens are so much bigger than the other four. Dan said that perhaps four of them were runts... I don't know if that's possible. In this photo, the kitten in the middle nearest the camera is one of the smallest. I think they must all have heard the teenagers hooting on their motorbikes when I took this, they're all clearly listening to something! 

School's out?

This morning around 8am I heard the most awful noise - loud car horns blaring, and traffic racing around not far away. Perhaps, I thought, someone had got married? Wedding parties often drive around hooting their horns, but I'd never heard a wedding that early in the morning.

An hour later I went out to the town to check the PO box and saw the source of the noise (which hadn't abated at all) - older teenagers driving around on motor-bikes, most of them with holes in the exhaust pipes, honking their horns as loudly as possible.

I'd quite forgotten about this tradition which marks the end of school - mostly, I think, students from Greek-speaking high schools. I'm not sure if the ones who are leaving school end the year before the rest of their schools or if they really have finished for the summer. I know at least one of the private schools is continuing for another couple of weeks, and the British Army Base school will continue right through until mid-July, like schools in the UK.

It wasn't pleasant in the town. There were teenagers everywhere, on and off motor-bikes, making as much noise as they could. Some were at least wearing helmets on the motorbikes, but most of them weren't. They wove in and out of the cars, wobbling to and fro, often with passengers seated behind the driver just holding on around his waist. It was mostly boys but I saw a few girls too, one of them in a bikini waving her tee-shirt like a flag. Quite shocking for Cyprus in the town, although as it's only 100m from the seafront I suppose it's no big deal.

At one point I was almost deafened by a horrendous noise from an exhaust within a few centimetres of where I was walking, coupled with the loudest horn I had heard. The students (or former students, I should perhaps say!) who were on that bike probably wouldn't have been able to hear for the rest of the day.

In one of the shops I went in, a helpful lady with only a little English told me, 'The school has finished. The children are happy!'

I thought it was a bit sad that they feel such a need to celebrate, as if they're getting out of prison. But perhaps it feels like that to them. When I left school (in the UK) I was terribly sad about it. What's more, the boys here - who were the noisiest - all have to go into compulsory army service within the next few weeks, so they've only exchannged one form of control for another.

Dusk

I'm no good with arty photos somehow, but I do like skylines and the colours of sunset. I took this just after the kittens' last feed this evening, I suppose it was about 8pm. One of the things I don't like so much here is the early darkness in summer - I loved the long light evenings of the UK summers. But then again, at least it cools down here somewhat after dark so perhaps it's just as well. Anyway, our garage roof looks greatly improved in dusky silhouette shades! 

Adventurous kittens

Hmmmm.

Late morning Tim and I were in the kitchen. I was preparing some more kitten food and Tim was making some egg mayonnaise for lunch. We were talking, as you do...

I went to the back door with the kitty food, and heard a little mew. I looked down, and there on the TOP step (of about six biggish concrete steps) was the tabby kitten, who seems to be by far the most adventurous. At the bottom of the steps were two more kittens, and the rest were half-way across the patio towards the steps.

Uh-oh.

I knew we might have problems keeping the kittens outside when they got bigger, but I didn't expect it at four-and-a-half weeks, assuming that's what they are.

Of course they followed me back to the little side bit of garden where they've been living up to now, and had their food, and played a bit, then went to sleep. We then shut the back door although we usually leave it open all day during the summer.

But later on I went to hang out some laundry. I didn't want to open the back door, as I thought the kittens might hear me, so I piled it all into a tub, and went out the FRONT door so I could creep round the side of the house unseen.

No such luck.. one of the kittens spotted me, and before I knew what was happening all seven of them were around my feet. Trying to hang out laundry without stepping on seven fast-moving objects, of whom some are trying to climb up your jeans, is not recommended as a fun activity!

It was actually very warm today, much more so than yesterday. The forecast had been for continued 27C in the sun [80-ish F] but I was sure it was more than that. And when I checked the forecast early afternoon, it told me it was in fact 32C, which I suppose is about 90F. Definitely on the warm side for me, and I should really have moved into shorts by now, but the thought of twenty-eight sets of little claws on bare ankles is not very appealing somehow...

Unbelievable...

I'm almost speechless having seen this report.

I quite agree that many children would benefit from more exercise and less TV, particularly when cooped up in their rooms alone away from any kind of interaction with other family members. But to coerce children into exercising (thus making exercise seem like an unpleasant chore) and 'reward' them with TV (thus making it seem even more attractive)... how can they think that a good idea???? And how on EARTH would anyone implement it so that the children who actually need more exercise would have these shoes?!


The report starts:

It could be the ultimate incentive to get kids exercising - a shoe that controls the amount of TV they watch.

The shoe - dubbed Square-eyes - has a unique insole that records the amount of exercise a child does and converts it into television watching time.

One button on the shoe - the brainchild of a student at west London's Brunel University - records the amount of steps taken by the child over the day.

Another transmits this information to a base station connected to the TV.

It calculates the time earned and once it runs out, the TV automatically switches itself off.

But ordinary life still happens too....

When something new happens that demands my time and emotional energy, I throw myself into it but then somehow forget about everything else I need to do. When I was doing all the food freezing last week, I didn't do anything in the garden. When I'm into gardening a lot, I barely remember to cook let alone do any housework. And (ahem!) when I'm reading a good book or switch the computer on too early in the day, it's hard to get anything much done at all.

Anyway, these seven orphan kittens seem to have taken over my energies since last Saturday, even though my actual time spent with them is only a couple of hours per day. But I peep out of the window at them, I think about them, I write about them, I find sites about them, I talk about them. But ordinary everyday life has to continue too!

So today I went to the supermarket again as we'd run out of various things which I didn't buy last Friday (there's a limit to what I can carry when Richard's away so we can't go in the car). Tim did a History test for his coursework for which he got 100%, however he said it was quite easy. Dan spent most of the morning working on a friend's clarinet which needed some repairs. He's being very careful only to do the simpler tasks such as replacing pieces of cork, and he's checking with his two books every stage of the way, as well as searching the archives of the clarinet forum. He's keeping notes of everything he does, too. And he says he's thoroughly enjoying it! So I guess he can say he started his career properly today, although of course he won't be doing any paid repair work for some time, probably not until he's done one of the relevant courses.

Kitten update

There are still seven kittens. Of course now I'm expecting them to survive and will be devastated if any of them don't, even though of course we're not going to keep them once they're fully weaned and old enough to be moved. Apparently it's very good for kittens to have siblings as they learn to socialise properly then. I can see too that it's good in our case because they all sleep huddled up together, which must keep them all warm, and they're also starting to wash each other. I noticed a few of them tentatively washing themselves a couple of days ago but couldn't understand why their faces stayed so dirty, until Tim pointed out that since their claws don't yet retract, it's probably very painful trying to wash their own faces! But today I spotted some of them licking each others' faces, so that's another advantage of having several.

I now think they're a little older than our friend suggested. He saw them when they were very hungry, and it was after dark too. But I found this site today which gives milestones for kitten development. Unfortunately the link that supposedly allows calculation of the date of birth doesn't work, but I've still got a much better idea than I had. I checked the details with other sites but I liked this one best as it had photos.

Here's what I reckon:

1) Ears - this site says that kittens' ears are fully erect at about three weeks old. All these kittens had their ears up rather than floppy when we first saw them last Saturday morning so they must have been at least three weeks old then. Moreover they could obviously hear - they responded to each other's mews, and got quite disturbed when one of their number was separated from them and mewing plaintively quite a distance away. So that puts them at over three weeks old, even then.

2) Eyes - these can open any time from about a week up to about two weeks. It did look as if their eyes had only just opened when we found them, but that could be because some of them were a bit gungy. I've gently cleaned them with a damp flannel and warm water, and can see that most of them have lost that deep blue look and look like regular cats' eyes. It was also clear that they could see quite well when we found them. They were trying to follow people down the street, after all.

2) Activity - they were still at the tumbling stage when we found them, a little shaky on their legs, but still able to climb out of the box we found for them temporarily and make their way back to their original 'nest'. The site says that walking starts at about 25 days, so I'm now going to assume that on the Friday (when friends saw them although we only heard them) they were 25 days old, which means they were probably four weeks old on Monday.

I'm relieved to learn this because yesterday they seemed so hungry that I gave them a bit of the 'baby kitten' food I bought on Monday, mixed with some warm water. Three of them (the three biggest ones) immediately started to tuck in. I gave the four smaller ones bits of the food on the end of a teaspoon and they seemed to like it but hadn't grasped the idea of eating from the little tray I put out.

Weaning isn't supposed to start until four weeks, and I'm no fan of early weaning - but evidently my instincts may have been correct. Besides which, I think cats usually know what's good for them and what isn't, and as they ate the food I don't suppose it did them any harm.

This morning they seemed hungrier than ever, and by lunchtime after two feeds my hands were covered with tiny scratches and bites. Not vicious - but as they all try to get at the bottle at the same time, and push each other out of the way, my hands bore some of the scars! Mid-afternoon I tried wearing some of my lighter gardening gloves but although that proteced my hands somewhat, the kittens' claws kept getting stuck in them so it made life more difficult rather than easier.

This evening I had just prepared some more rehydrated food when Dan got back from the theatre where he had been doing the sound and lighting for the younger children's rehearsal. He had to go out again at 8pm so we had to eat almost at once. I decided to experiment with putting the dried food out and then leaving the kittens to it for a while. I also put some evaporated milk in another tray to see if they would drink from that.

I watched briefly and saw that our largest hungry ginger kitten (still known as Darwin) went straight for the food, while at least four of the others started lapping the milk. That was encouraging. When Tim and I went out later with the bottles, they weren't nearly as hungry or demanding as usual, and the three biggest ones (Darwin, the coffee-and-cream coloured fluffy one, and the one that's equally orange and white) who are the three who have eaten food from the tray before, weren't very interested in the bottles at all. It gave the smaller ones a chance to get longer drinks, and then the kittens all wanted to play and be stroked, so that was much easier. I shall try that again. The hard bit is going to be spending less time with them as they become more independent!

Dates...

Have they changed the way the dashboard dates work? I logged on today and it showed this blog having been updated yesterday (17th May) and my reading blog today (18th). But I last updated the reading one yesterday, and this one the day before. Should I be concerned? Or do the dates reflect the last comment to be left rather than the last time I did any updating?

Yes, I do have my hands full!

The seven tiny feral kittens survived another night. I fed them more evaporated milk from the bottle, and a triangle of cream cheese first thing and they went back to sleep again. At 8am I walked to our PO Box since I hadn't been there for a few days - Daniel's expecting a couple of parcels from ebay, but they hadn't yet arrived. However I was pleased to find another parcel from Play.com with the books which were dispatched about ten days ago.

The pet shop near the PO box was open by 8.30 so I went in there and asked if they had any Lactol or other kitten milk. The owner didn't speak much English, but clearly knew what Lactol was; however he said he didn't have it, or any other milk for cats. He said they had stopped importing it. However he did sell me some dry food intended for very young kittens, between one and three months old. There are instructions on it in several languages, although unfortunately there's no English (or French, which I could probably have translated). But I could guess at enough Italian to work out that this food needs to be mixed with water. I can try that in another week or so.

I decided to try another pet shop anyway, and to my relief I saw two containers of Lactol almost as soon as I walked in! I don't know if this means they're left over from before importing stopped, or whether the first shop owner simply meant that his shop wasn't getting it any longer. Anyway I bought some, and another little feeding bottle as it would be easier to have two.

Daniel was in Nicosia this morning with a theatre group performance, but Tim had his oral music lesson as usual. We told his teacher about the kittens on her way out, and she said that the Cat Protection League charity shop downtown will take unwanted or feral cats to one of the cat sanctuaries. She thinks they probably need to be weaned first, but that's OK: at this age they're fun to feed and play with. Feral cats usually stop being cute by the time they're a few months old but it does concern me that these kittens may become too dependent on humans. If they could go to a sanctuary where cats can be free, but still somewhat looked after, I should think that would be ideal.

Tim took the photo above after they had been fed around 11am. They were all very playful, and spent a lot of time pouncing on each other and rustling leaves, and experimentally washing themselves. The latter was quite amusing as they tended to overbalance, but at least they're getting the idea. Suddenly some of them came and climbed on me even though they were no longer hungry - probably we should discourage that but it's very difficult as they're so adorable at this stage! I'm putting out a shallow container of water and one of them even managed to lap some of it, so that's encouraging too.

Dan just phoned to say he's still in Nicosia. He wanted to buy some clarinet pads from a shop he knows there, so the theatre folk dropped him off nearby. He said he'd had something to eat and was waiting till the shop opened at 2.30 (most places close over lunchtime here) and will then get a service (shared taxi) or bus home.  

A captain with seven... kittens?

Tim was watching the DVD of 'The Sound of Music' this afternoon. What a great movie it is. Actually I watched the final three-quarters of it too, but while I was still clearing up from lunch I heard strains of the song 'I have confidence....' which includes the lines:

A captain with seven children,
What's so fearsome about that?

Only I somehow heard 'kittens' for 'children'!

Yes, rather to my surprise, the seven orphaned kittens - whom our friend says are no more than three weeks old - survived Saturday night, and were very pleased to see me when I went out to give them some more evaporated milk (from a bottle) and cream cheese this morning. And after church. And just before lunch. And mid-afternoon. And late evening.

I checked a couple of sites about fostering orphaned kittens, such as this one and this one, and was reassured that about four or five meals per day should be sufficient at their age. Back 26 years ago when we hand-reared our first cat, Toby, we measured his feed carefully and timed it dutifully. It's a lot more random now but there's no way I could measure milk for seven kittens individually since they each drink a bit and then another gets at the bottle. But they're different sizes, even at this age, and I hope I can trust their appetites to tell them when to stop.

They seem to be happier now their tummies aren't so empty; after feeding a few of them have started washing themselves, not very thoroughly but at least it's a start. They're also starting to play, and explore a little. And they're going to sleep peacefully in a huddle in between times, which has to be healthier than crying pitifully all the time. I only hope they're managing to wee properly, something which - the sites say - should happen around this age. With Toby we had to wipe his rear end with damp kitchen roll to encourage him to go, that being a more attractive alternative to what a mother cat would do (ie licking the area!) - but although I tried that with one or two of these kittens it didn't seem to have any effect. Every so often we see them scrabbling in leaves and crouching, so I hope their digestive systems are working properly in that area.

The largest and noisiest kitten is the ginger one (presumably a tom) who got separated from his siblings temporarily yesterday. He can lap milk but likes his turn at the bottle, and will push other kittens out of the way if he wants his turn. He's the only one who claws at me while feeding too. Daniel has named him Darwin since he's clearly the fittest of the litter, and determined to survive!! I don't think we should name them since they're going to be feral cats as soon as they can fend for themselves, but it does seem quite appropriate.

Other than Darwin, there are three other gingery cats, one who has a little white as well, one who has a bit more white, and one who has quite a lot of white and seems to be the runt. He - or she - is smaller than the rest, and has a very dirty face. I try to ensure this kitten gets plenty of food - something that probably didn't happen when they were all trying to feed from their unfortunate mother - but I don't hold out too many hopes for that one, although he (or she) was exploring and playing a little with the others this afternoon.

Then there's a tabby, who our friend yesterday said is female; a tortoiseshell who I think has to be female genetically; a rather gorgeous fluffy cream and light brown one who's the second biggest and who my instinct says is probably female too.

Just taking one day at a time so far... a few pictures below. The camera isn't good enough to take close-ups, and the kittens don't stay still anyway but I'm encouraged that they do seem much livelier today.

The orange-and-white, the tortoiseshell and the tabby exploring a little, the white-and-orange runt looking for more food 

Darwin, the tortoiseshell and the creamy kitten play-fighting, tabby in the foreground playing with a leaf 

The tabby, the orange-and-white, the tortoiseshell and the creamy kittens 

Late-night feeding

The boys were both out this evening. Dan helping at the theatre, Tim went to a teenage Bible study. I was sitting here writing some email when the doorbell went - it was Dan's art teacher, who loves cats although he seems to have very bad luck with them. He breeds pedigree cats but even though he keeps them inside, they seem to escape and a couple have been run over. Dan phoned him at lunchtime once we realised the kittens were orphans, because he knew that one of his cats recently had some kittens who died, and wondered if she might like to be a foster-mother. But our friend didn't think that would work, or that she would accept them, and he certainly didn't feel he could take on seven extra kittens.

However he wanted to find out how they were doing, and about 8.30pm he called round to see them, bringing a tiny feeding bottle. He asked what we'd been doing, and I explained that only two of them could lap the evaporated milk we'd been giving them. He said they needed some soft cheese, and went to buy some. While he was gone I put some of the evap in the bottle and found that several of them would take a few gulps - I just shoved the teat in a mewing mouth and the kitten started suckling. I know it's not ideal, but we can't get hold of Lactol until Monday since shops close from Saturday lunchtime and all day Sunday. Right now I think any sort of fluid is vital.

I had just made some yogurt so I gave them some while it was still warm. Two of them started eating it, a couple of others took a tiny amount from a spoon. But in the dark, and with their colouring being so similar, I have a hard time knowing which ones have eaten and which haven't. One of them seems quite weak, it's smaller than the rest and seems to have his eyes rather caked over. I made sure that one got the bottle a couple of times.

Our friend came back with some canned cat food and some soft cheese in triangles, and showed me how to force-feed it to them from his finger. Again we have no idea if all of them managed to get some, but certainly most did and seemed to like it. He put out some meaty cat food too, but they just walked through it, and weren't remotely interested in trying to eat it.

It was very difficult trying to do anything by torchlight, but now they've gone quiet again for at least half an hour so I'm hoping they've gone to sleep in the box, and that they'll survive the night. It's reasonably warm and they all huddle up together for comfort. Tomorrow our friend says he'll come over again, and see about trying to get them a bit cleaner. It's good to have someone who knows what he's doing, but I hope they're not going to become too dependent on us.

This would happen while Richard's away!

Return of the prodigal

Well not exactly. Just as I finished that last post, hoping fondly that the seventh new kitten was in a comfortable new home, I heard loud mewing from the front of the house, by the dustbins. I wondered if the mother cat had in fact returned so I went outside... and found the noisy ginger kitten, standing by their original nest, looking very lost and lonely. Meanwhile all the other six were trying to climb the fence between the front and back gardens!

So I took the ginger kitten to join his siblings, and they greeted him very joyfully, rubbing around each other and generally sounding much happier. Now they've all crawled inside the neighbour's box, and - from the general lack of mewing - seem to have gone to sleep.

Our cats are a bit confused by all this but so far haven't gone near the kittens, which is just as well. Tessie, our youngest, can be quite vicious with cats she sees as intruders.

And then there were six...

Someone told us that kittens are better with evaporated milk than ordinary milk - I suppose it's thicker, so easier to lap, and also more packed with nutrients. So I made a sort of trough out of an empty milk carton and poured some evap in the bottom, and presented that to the orphaned kittens (see below...) since their mother didn't return, so we can only assume Dan is correct, and she was run over.

One or two of them did manage to lap a bit but they seemed much more eager to climb up us and mew loudly. I wish we knew what they wanted. They didn't stay in the neighbour's box for more than about ten minutes - they complained bitterly, and then climbed out and went back to their old 'nest' which I suppose smells of their mother. We tried watching them out of the window, not wanting to get too involved, and they kept trying to follow people down the street... most of whom brought them back, which was good. At least they didn't try to kick them.

About six o'clock I went out with more evaporated milk, and heard plaintive mewing again... and discovered that six of them were in one of our dustbins! Perhaps someone put them there to stop them running down the street. At that point I decided we needed to move them to our back garden where at least they would be safe from cars, and would not be able to follow people. However I couldn't find the seventh kitten.... I did wonder if one of the weaker ones had died, but then realised it was the largest and noisiest ginger kitten who was missing. I hope that means that someone decided to adopt him.

So I moved the remaining six to the back garden, and brought the neighbour's box for them as well as some more evaporated milk and a few crunchies, crumbled. Again one or two of them did lap a bit, so I hope they all manage it when necessary. I really don't know how much food a small kitten needs, but I'm quite sure they need to drink. Water doesn't seem to interest them at all.

It's all rather a dilemma, really. Cyprus is overrun with feral cats, and while they're generally encouraged since they eat lizards, snakes etc, some Cypriots kick them or even poison them (which is illegal, but it still happens). Cat protection societies neuter as many as they can, but inevitably there are far more than can be supported. In the wild, if a mother cat dies then the kittens do too... is it actually irresponsible to give them food?

Noisy kittens!

Why are kittens so adorable, and their mews so plaintive?

We have four cats, the youngest of whom is quite territorial, and have turned down offers of many others - delightful though they were. One cat per human is plenty.

But this morning as I went outside to do some watering, I saw some tiny kittens, about two or three weeks old, I suppose, emerging from a climbing/creeping plant that grows against our boundary wall, near the street. They looked reasonably healthy for feral kittens, and there were seven of them, mostly ginger or brown-and-white. That solved something that puzzled me last night: I heard a high-pitched squeaking several times, and thought perhaps a kitten was stuck in a tree. Or had ventured too far from its mother and got lost. But the mewing had stopped by the time I was going to bed, so I guessed the mother had found the kitten again.

However there was no sign of any mother this morning. Perhaps she had gone hunting, or simply needed a break from her noisy family. I did scatter a few of our cats crunchies - the only food they eat, at our vet's recommendation - but they took no notice. Still, I thought perhaps their mother would appreciate them when she got back.

There was still no sign of her later on, and this time when I went out three of the kittens came towards me, evidently wanting something... very unusual for feral cats, who are usually frightened of humans. I gingerly stroked one of them, but didn't want my scent on them, which might potentially scare their mother.

They were still there by the time Dan got home from the theatre for lunch, and he was very worried to see them: apparently a day or two ago he saw a dead cat in the street, which had similar colouring to these kittens. I wouldn't have thought they would survive very long without their mother, and he couldn't remember exactly when it was, but suddenly I realised we might need to do a bit more for them.

Saturday is early closing day in Cyprus, so we couldn't go and buy any Lactol, so I tried giving them a tiny bowl of milk. They had no idea what to do with it. Then we tried yogurt, and they simply walked through it. We tried putting tiny bits on our fingers, and they sucked it off, but still didn't get the idea of actually eating it form the bowl. Evidently they're much too young to be without a mother.

Our neighbour over the street, who likes cats (unusually for Cypriots) came and saw them, and said we should move them away from the road since they seem inclined to follow anybody they see. Not that it's a particularly busy road, but then most people around here aren't very fond of cats. So he brought us a big box, and we moved them further down our driveway. I tried giving them tiny pieces of bread soaked in milk and that was slightly more successful, but it's not exactly ideal kitten food.

They're still mewing, and there hasn't been any sign of their mother yet, so I'm afraid Dan might be right. Not quite sure what we can do, though. I don't suppose they're old enough to pee on their own, and they certainly don't seem to be washing themselves - and now they have yogurt all over their faces. I guess we'll have to take a little sponge and some warm water outside later and try to wash them and encourage them to pee.

We don't know anyone who wants kittens at present... last week some friends had found just one kitten, rather older than these, but couldn't adopt it because they have dogs. They took the kitten to church, and did manage to find someone who wanted a kitten, but only one in probably a hundred people...  

Tiredness, apricots and musical instruments

I'm normally an early bird, getting up somewhere between 6.30 and 7.30am. I like to have a couple of hours to myself before my later-rising family get up - I suppose it's my recharge time to read and think and potter.

However this week I've had to set my alarm rather than just wake up when I was ready, because Daniel needed to be at the theatre by 7am to get to various places for performances. Unfortunately his alarm doesn't work, and he seems to sleep through other alarms so I get up - since it's not too hard for me to do so - and then wake him up. But of course that means I squeeze orange juice earlier than usual, or he does it instead, and we chat a bit - which is nice - but my peaceful time alone doesn't happen. There's more time when he's left, but it's not quite the same, somehow. Once is no problem at all, twice is OK, but for some reason three times in a week has left me feeling very tired and rather drained.

Or maybe it's the weather. Summer seems to be arriving at last, and as ever the change feels quite major when it happens. I went to the bank this morning, and then I had to walk to the supermarket with my trolley, since Richard's away and I don't drive. It's only five minutes' walk, and I didn't need a whole lot since we got heavy stuff last week, but by about 9.30am the weather was feeling distinctly hot, and I was exhausted by the time I got home again.

According to my favourite weather site it's been about 27C today, but that's 27 in the shade... and I was mostly walking in the sun where I guess it was at least four or five degrees hotter. Perhaps more. [For anyone reading in the USA where imperial measurements are still used, 27C is about 80F. It felt quite pleasant in the shade - in the height of summer we run our air-conditioning at 28C [82F] and it feels quite chilly compared to the surroundings. But I'm not good in sun anyway, and 33 or 34 or whatever it was felt distinctly uncomfortable.

Still, there were apricots in the supermarket! We love apricots... they were fairly expensive so I didn't buy a whole load, just a few for us to eat raw today and tomorrow. They'll probably only be available for a few weeks - fruits are often very seasonal here - but if they reduce in price I'll make some apricot jam.

When I was a bit less tired, I did freeze another three loads of loquats - I think there are now eight litre-sized containers of those in the freezer, and six litres of lemon juice. I feel rather pleased about that...

Daniel had his first (impromptu) violin lesson today. The theatre group did their performance in Nicosia outside, then ran some workshops for the children. It was a Greek-speaking school, so three Greek-speaking theatre staff were leading them. Daniel was sitting watching with the violinist (who also doesn't speak much Greek) and since he had been thinking for a while that he would like to learn the violin, he asked her if he could have a quick lesson. So she explained how to hold the violin, and how to stand, and how to move the bow, and the basic theory... and then taught him one of the theme tunes from the play! I gather he learned fairly fast; she said he had a good ear, but I imagine that it was easier for him because he plays other instruments and has done music in general for many years now.

Dan had a clarinet lesson this afternoon, and arrived home with an extra clarinet - one of the spare ones from the music school, which he says is in dire need of a service. He asked if he could borrow one to experiment on, and while his teacher was a little cynical, Dan explained that he needed some practice in re-padding and re-corking. He still needs some tools, but he's found a supply place in Nicosia that sells pads, and he's been reading his two books to find out the correct techniques for various repair-work. He isn't going to do anything major yet, but wants to get started on the most common maintenance that has to be done.

Meanwhile Tim went with Dan to the music school because Dan had told him that there's a clavinova type electronic piano in the band room that's barely used. He got permission to play it, and spent an hour and a half enjoying it...

Earlier this morning Tim worked out how to play 'Amazing Grace' on his bass guitar, having seen a fabulous performance on a music DVD of someone doing that as a solo in concert. Yes, that was bass guitar! Tim's quite capable of playing it on his ordinary classical guitar, or his acoustic guitar, or indeed the piano, but I gather it's a great deal more complicated on a bass guitar.

It still sometimes strikes me afresh how very odd it is to have two such musical sons without either Richard or myself playing any instruments.

Wednesday Ramblings

I did a load more weeding this morning. The stony patch at the far end of the garden is looking better, although I don't suppose it will ever look good. Tim did some of his NCSC home education coursework while I was weeding, for the first time in a few days. Dan actually did some a couple of weeks ago during the Greek Easter break, and completed three of the workbooks (or 'paces' as they're called) so he now has twelve left for the second level. Tim still hasn't quite completed the first level but they do seem to get on faster when I don't worry about it at all and they choose their own times for the work.

Tim also did a good hour's piano practice this morning, and then baked some American-style courgette muffins - or perhaps I should call them zucchini muffins since they're American style! Then he spent some time online at one of his forums. If I were making a note of what he does academically speaking in his home education, I suppose I would say that he did English, maths and chemistry (those were the courses he worked on) as well as music, home economics and ICT. Not bad for one morning. However as he's 16 now which is above compulsory education age in both England and Cyprus, I barely even think about such things these days.

Dan meanwhile was at a drama performance in Nicosia. He left at 7am, which meant I had to set my alarm for just after 6am... but I don't mind an early start to the day. He got back in time for lunch. We had a guest eating with us - someone who was spending the day with Richard at the office. This guy also came to supper.

Tim had a piano lesson this afternoon, and Dan was back at the theatre doing the sound for the children's production rehearsal. Now Tim's playing his guitar and Dan's at karate.

Richard went to the PO box today and amongst other things collected two books for Dan which we hadn't expected for at least a couple more weeks. They're American manuals about instrument repair, which is his current passion. There don't seem to be any useful books on this topic in the UK - or not at Amazon.co.uk anyway - but a bit of searching revealed several possibilities in the USA, and the clarinet list which Daniel's on recommended two or three of them.

I found one of them, the Band Instrument Repairing Manual by Erick Brand via Abebooks UK at a shop in the UK called Stella and Rose's Books. It was only £10 sterling for a second-hand 'marked' version of a book which usually retails at over twice that amount in the USA. I ordered it about a week ago, but asked for it to be sent via surface mail since that was £3 cheaper than air mail. I was told it could take up to 60 days, so I was amazed that it had already arrived today! That's quite as fast as air-mail would have been anyway.

The other one was a book called 'Clarinetist's Notebook vol 1' by Robert Schmidt. That came from an American online shop, Hickey's Music Center (sic). It was sent via air mail, but from past experience air mail items from the USA can often take two or three weeks, or even more. So I was very pleased that this book also arrived so promptly.

However two books I had ordered from Play.com (in Jersey) last week haven't yet arrived although they were dispatched on May 6th. Strange, when a DVD we ordered from the same site, dispatched on May 5th, arrived on Tuesday. However books do sometimes take longer than DVDs, though I'm not sure why.

Pomegranate flowers

Here are the flowers on one of our four pomegranate trees. They're a vivid scarlet... there don't seem to be as many as there were this time last year, which is just as well. We had far too many pomegranates last Autumn! We ate as many as we could, but hundreds went to waste.  

Bougainvillea

Here's our oldest bougainvillea, which always looks stunning in May. It's been there for seven years now, so it's well-established. They really do grow superbly here; the neighbourhood is full of blossoming bougainvilleas at present, in several bright colours. 

Front Border

Here's that front border of mine which was looking rather feeble a few weeks back. Compost, water and sunshine have made quite a difference!