Island cat

Island kittens

These are the orphaned feral kittens I clicker 'tamed' at my family's summer house on a Greek island. Scrawny and scaredy at first, they turned into adorable and affectionate beauties within 2 weeks. Aw!
But as autumn proceeds, and they grow dearer every day, the big question looms larger every day: who's going to take them in over the winter...?

Geese on the beach

These geese live in the shallow salty waters of a Greek island beach - and in the evenings will occasionally waddle past customers at the beach-side taverna. Hilarious.

Geraniums

Today I planted new geraniums in my garden pots.
I LOVE geraniums, red geraniums, they remind me of home.

I've always had geranium pots, ever since I got my own garden, and they didn't seem to mind the English winter much. Until last winter - this time the frost burnt them all (and it came so suddelnly in early december that I didn't even have time to cover them up...).  Now I have six new pots with small plants, some showing early red buds - just have to work out how to prevent the cats digging in the fresh pots!

My favourite place in the world

Me and cats

I'm new to living with cats - sort of: As a 10year old growing up in Athens, Greece I used to feed an army of strays in the backyard, and even teaching tricks to some. We also had a dog (Ajax, my very best friend), a tank with goldfish, a couple of turtles, and changing guests of injured birds my father picked up at his rural work locations and brought home for me to look after until healed (this included a falcon who used to happily sit on my head and eat meat chunks off my hand for several months)
Then we moved, then I left the country... and managed to convince myself for the next 20 years that my lifestyle did not allow space for any pets and that I could live without any animals around me.

And then, the cats arrived! They have been endless joy since and I feel so lucky for having been chosen, and although slightly overwhelmed at first, even the thought of giving any of them away just breaks my heart so I'm now all set up for a life with 4 cats!