A NEW CHAPTER

As you can probably tell from the backdrop to this photo, my life is currently all a bit upside down and topsy turvy! I recently moved from my 15-acre sanctuary in the Peak District National Park to a 'normal' council house with a little garden, which is presently a total dump. I am still finding my feet (and living on plastic decorators' sheeting!), spending unanticipated time - and money! - working to get the place shipshape. Making it habitable is certainly developing and flexing my DIY muscles. Amongst many other projects needed to create an enjoyable space to live and work in, THAT RED WALLPAPER HAS TO GO!!!!!!! As yet, I've nowhere to paint paint, so instead I am doodling daily, when not building this website, networking, searching for jobs or stripping walls and floors.

As you can see, I have already made friends with the neighbours, some of whom have been so welcoming that they seem to think my home is also theirs! "Cats without Borders", I call them! This is sweet little Miss Molly, who is endlessly fascinated by the boxes and the climbing surfaces they provide. She also likes to sprinkle newly painted areas with cat hair, tread my bedding, and meow outside my window at 3a.m. in a quite persuasive effort to induct me into her informal 'cat sharing' scheme. The last couple of mornings, she's actually figured out how to force her way in through the slightly-open window - she has developed a special knack for busting it further open with her head! So clever! Timid, flighty, super-standoffish Rufus she ain't, haha!