People or places

It is said that cats are attached to place whereas dogs are attached to people. When we moved from the UK to Canada we sent our two cats on ahead, a couple of weeks before our arrival date. HGs brother picked them up from the airport and looked after them until we arrived. The older cat seemed to cope fine and was not at all bothered at having moved to a new place. The younger cat, Elmo, seemed to be quite depressed and apparently stayed under the bed in the basement until we arrived. Once he had seen the kids again he took on a new lease of life and started running about my brother-in-laws house as though he owned the place.

This past two weeks have seen quite an upheaval at home. First DAG moved out, then ARG returned from Europe, spent a few days with us and left again to return home to Montreal. Both the dog and one of the cats have been quite confused. The dog is clearly looking for DAG or ARG and keeps checking the car or the moving van for them. More unusually, to my mind, is the behaviour of the grey cat. She is refusing to spend time on the main level of the house and keeps wanting to be in the basement (which used to be ARGs room when she lived at home), or in DAGs old bedroom. Often I just find her crying in the downstairs entrance hall.

ARG moved out two years ago, long enough for this house not to be her home anymore, but DAG has only just made the move. I guess we each adjust to change in people and places in different ways. DAG surprised me by appearing to be much more rooted to place than I had expected. ARG on the other hand went back packing in Europe for the summer, but seemed to have had the best time enjoying people, rather than the places that she visited.

Over the years I have been in Canada, I have really missed my friends and family back in the UK. But yet I feel strangely rooted to this place. Leaving Canada, especially in the winter I miss the trees and the snow and only feel at ease when I'm back home to my pine forest.

we are thriving

For my birthday this year ARG gave me a book called about the Thrive Diet. Its a vegan diet developed by a triathalon specialist. The book wasn't a revelation to me, or anything like that. Instead it took me back to when I was ARGs age, just finished a BSc in Physiology and moving on to live in a series of rented dives while studying further. It was those hippyish years when we are all into making our own bread, sprouting lentils, scrounging windfall apples and tomatoes left over from field trials.

The Thrive Diet book took me back to those years of hempseeds and cheesecloth. I particularly remembered our home made lasgne drying on a clothes rack where it was nibbled by cats (and possibly vermin too). Over the past few weeks I've had enormous fun getting back into growing sprouts in glass jars and making a variety of recipes included in the book.

I've not become a convert to veganism overnight, but I have to say that I've not got such a kick over playing with food for a long time.