Katriona's Diary

The temperature has risen. This morning we hadmild sunshine, the air was really spring-like. Our garden cats seemed to be happy and relaxed in the morning sun :) They were lovely :)





But, then, when I went to the backside of of the house, I found this poor mouse.



Its small body was clean and still flexible. Clearly, this was what one of our garden cats has done during the night :(. I dug a small grave and buried this small body… :(

Today I woke up with s sore throat. I knew the reason. Yesterday evening I ate out with some acquaintances. enjoyed eating and chatting for almost 4 hours. Too many food and too much talking XD I knew then I would hurt my throat and I was right X) They are the people with whom I have worked together many times for years (not my co-worker) and we all have trust and respect each other, the best relationship. One of them have recently decided to change his job so the meeting was a kind of a farewell party.

Anyway I enjoyed the meeting yesterday and this morning I was a bit tired X) Fortunately today was my working-at-home day, and it's mildly fine, around the noon it's almost warm even in the garden. The narcissus flowers are now passing their prime still they looked beautiful in the mild sunshine. And I felt the sign of the coming spring in the air...

This weekend the temperature has been oddly high, it's really like spring days. In our garden Ume tree is in full bloom, its flowers' scent is subtle but wonderful :)



Yesterday afternoon and today I have waxed the wooden floors of my house. It's a bit tough job but somewhat enjoyable :)



But of course this tired me :( At least I don't need to do this again until next winter X)

From our north window we can see the neighbors garden in which they have some nice garden trees. Their citrus tree looks like the tree in a picture book, with its young yellow fruits in green XD

Today I visited the local zoo for some job. And walked around to see the animals. I saw some cats ... all relaxing and looked ...lazy in the mild sun XD. Well, no matter how big they are, ... a cat is always a cat!



Tiger



Cheetah



Lion

Yeaterday was my birthday :)

I have worked at home but I didn‘t want to spend the day just for my job so took a half day off in the aftrnoon and went out with mother. We went to my favorite tearoom in towncentre and enjoyed nice cakes and pot of tea :)



Then we strolled on a nice shopping street and found a nice pair of shoes for mother, then went to a small but nice Turkish restaurant for supper. It’s the first time for mother to try the Turkish cuisine and she liked it! But she is late in her 80s and seemed to be a bit tired, so I took a taxi outside of the restaurant and came home. It was a nice birthday! :D

And. Usually I don’t go out with mother like this, frankly, yesterday I was going out with my friend K. But 2 days ago K’s mother went into the hospital suddenly and K was busy and quite anxious to take care of her mother or talk with the doctors etc, no time to enjoy with a friend, of course. K’s mother is also late on her 80s, I think. And I think, how fortunate I am to be able to enjoy outing with mother who is quite fit for her age at the moment…

Today, Sunday. I woke up late, and found it was oddly light in my room. I don’t have curtain inside of the window of my room, but have Shoji, sliding paper screen which the light can come through.



But this lightness was not sunshine…. I opened the shoji and found this X(



! ! ! ! !



It seems have start snowing around 3am. Poor garden cats…they must be freezing! :(



The footprints of cat.

Yesterday I picked some narcissus flowers from our garden and put them in a small base. I took them from 2 different places, not far from each other, but the flowers look different.



I prefer the whiter ones, but the flower with vivid yellow centre is also good, very typical narcissus.

Today on my way to the office I walked through a small park and saw the narcissus flowers which are almost pure white. They looked so beautiful!

Today I haven’t made packed lunch. I could buy something on my way to the office to eat it in the office. But I decided to eat out on lunchtime. I went to some small, but nice restaurant. I have to walk there for 5 minutes, not very near from the office but they serve very nice meat, I have liked the place for years and visited once or twice for an year by myself or with the co-worker. Hough today, I was a bit surprised to find the pieces of meat were far smaller than the ones they had served before. Of course, every food prices are now rising, it’s understandable.



Anyway the food was yummy, I enjoyed the lunch. And it’s good for the distraction from the job :)

Sunday. Again sunny and rather comfortable day, not too cold! :) In the morning I went to the meeting of our neighborhood association. In the afternoon did some trivial houseworks, wrote 2 letters, and painted the wooden verandah with waterproof paint etc. Rather a busy day and no proper tea time XD Though I rather overate at supper so now (in the evening) I'm quite full X(

Anyway, at least I didn't waste time on this weekend :)



Camellia sasanqua again.

This morning I was walking to the office. When I stopped to drink water from my water-bottle (the air is very dry now) I noticed some kind of plum tree in the front yard of the nearby house, which was just going to bloom. It’s pale pink flowers and flower buds were small but looked beautiful.



Recently I tend to feel rather blue often, but there are so many small but nice things in this world if we are ready…