Since we moved into this house many moons ago (more than 13 years…can’t believe we’ve been here so long!), we’ve been troubled with cats using our garden as a toilet. I spend a lot of time knocking our windows, hissing and shouting at cats to get out of our garden and even shocked the neighbours by rushing outside screaming as I chased the furry fiends from our lawns looking like an extra from a Game of Thrones fight scene (except I was in my old faded housecoat, not glamorous armour armed with nothing more than a rolled up newspaper).

But still they come in and pooh and pee – especially in the front garden.

Even having the dog has not deterred the wee blighters from toileting here. In saying that she’s about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Despite her Jack Russell ancestry, the dog shies away from anything that looks remotely scary to her (for scary read: cats, crows and squirrels). Wimp. I don’t want her to hurt anything, I just want her to chase them and give them enough of a fright (the cats that is) so they stay out of our garden.

 

So this year I’ve upped my game. Not only have I bought a tonne of Get Off My Garden (it only works for a wee while then the rain washes it away), but some fake cats with marble eyes (so far these have had very little effect – I found two local moggies sunning themselves on our front lawn last week only a couple of metres away from these ‘terrifying cats’) and have just invested in some plants that cats hate – namely the Scaredy Cat Plant (pictured below)…

…and the Curry Herb Plant (pictured below)…

Here’s hoping that’ll ‘encourage’ the wee besoms to stay away and stop using my garden as a thoroughfare/toilet (this is where I feel like blowing a raspberry at the pests!). By the way apparently they don’t like Rosemary and Lavender either (first two pics).

Right rant over. How are you all? Hope you’ve had a good week. As usual this week has been…hmmm…not great. We’ve had two trips to the hospital for my beloved hubby and he’s developed yet another health issue. Poor soul doesn’t deserve any of this.

Anyway, that’s held me back from doing various things this week although I did manage to do a couple of sessions of training (running and bike) for my triathlon training and then promptly spoiled all the hard work by drinking wine and eating a Chinese takeaway (oops!).

I have managed to squeeze in a fair bit of reading (hospital waiting areas are NOT comfortable to sit in for hours on end but as I had no choice I caught up with my reading): I’m still reading Arianna Huffington’s Thrive which is an excellent book full of good advice on how to live well. Am also reading Literature of the 1920s: Writers Among the Ruins.  I bought it after watching Scotland: The Promised Land,  a three part series on the history of modern Scotland and one episode looked at the Scottish Renaissance (something I knew very little about shockingly – we were never really taught a lot about Scottish history at school although we were forced to read The House with the Green Shutters (a book which reputedly inspired later Scottish writers) in English class – a book I hated). The Renaissance was at its height in the years after the First World War (the world of Lewis Grassic Gibbon , Helen Cruickshank and Hugh MacDiarmid) and I wanted to learn more. It’s an interesting read. I’ve only just started it, but it’s caught my imagination already.

Anyway, that’s sort of been my week. I have managed to write a little bit and plan to do more this weekend, it being a bank holiday weekend. Yipee long lies all round!!

Right I have nothing further to report other than I am now tired. It’s nearly 9pm and my bed and a good book await me! Til next time!

Dawn xxxx