The need for kindness

I am losing faith in humanity's ability to be kind. I don't see much kindness anywhere, anymore. That may be the fault of the news media; it may be my fault for not searching out the good positive human interest stories. Part of me feels like giving up on the world and isolating myself from most of what is intrusive, unkind, aggressive and unnecessary. It may be counterproductive of me to seek 'away' from the world. In truth, perhaps my energy would be better spent trying to add more kindness to the world, because kindness is necessary in order for us to survive as a people. Without it, we will ensure our destruction. But even trying to add more kindness feels like a futile effort at times. I try to remain kind, but I can't shake the feeling of futileness that hangs over me like a heavy fog. 

I don't know that social media necessarily exacerbates the situation as I see it, but it doesn't help matters. Most of those I know on social media are decent people trying to live decent lives. And yet, some of them fall into the trap of commenting on one thing or another, and suddenly they are dragged into the trolling that goes on, that lives a life of its own long after the actual post they commented on has seen the light of day. Nowadays your opinion, if you have a reasoned one, gets lost in the severity of the response to it. You are told you should have an opinion, but if you do and it isn't the same opinion as the ruling majority in society (that have set themselves up as judge and jury), you are excommunicated. I have begun to say that the Catholic Church at least offers forgiveness for one's transgressions; that's more than the secular media and its supporters offer. You are 'labeled' and the label sticks. No forgiveness for you. This type of response merely forces those who are 'labeled' into a corner where they become even more stubborn and irascible. When I look at it objectively, it's easy to understand that when there is no kindness or attempt at understanding anywhere you turn, you choose your own survival (mental and physical) and the rest be damned. 

Not an uplifting post for a Monday morning, I know. But it is inspired by recent happenings around me. I have discovered that garden enthusiasts are not necessarily nice people; they can be unkind when it serves their purposes. Sometimes their behavior reminds me of what I saw in my former workplace, where some of the leaders harassed those they perceived as weaker than them. An unkind workplace; but now I see that the world outside its walls is also unkind. This particular situation does not affect me personally, but I don't like to see how the other party is being treated. Yet another example is from my former workplace, where a former colleague, who had a 'round' birthday together with another colleague, was not feted in the same way as her colleague; she was deliberately ignored in favor of the other colleague. You might think this does not go on in an 'adult' workplace; if you think so, I have a bridge to sell you. Another example is from my own life; I recently ran an ad on Facebook to promote my new garden book, and as fate would have it, several people responded with an 'angry' emoji. It wasn't quite clear to me why they were angry, and I commented on it in a general way, wondering if they were angry that I wrote a book or angry that I promoted it. I wished them all peace, whereby one of them actually responded in an angry way to my wishing them peace. His response made me understand that the world is truly a crazy place, full of angry people looking for ways to take it out on others. For more examples, you only need to take a look at the world news, with mass shootings in the USA and Europe, the war in Ukraine (and accompanying atrocities), the societal anger in the USA over so many things, and politicians who deliberately refuse to compromise and to take the higher road. Hatred, anger, and stubbornness prevail; they have won. I am not sure where it all will lead, but it's not anywhere good. 

When birds were dinosaurs

Very true. In another era, we might not have thought they were so sweet.......

(Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis)

The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby (From "Yellow Submarine") from 1966

Eleanor Rigby lyrics

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby

Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been

Lives in a dream

Waits at the window

Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door

Who is it for?

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie

Writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear

No one comes near

Look at him working

Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there

What does he care?

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby

Died in the church and was buried along with her name

Nobody came

Father McKenzie

Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave

No one was saved

All the lonely people (ah, look at all the lonely people)

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people (ah, look at all the lonely people)

Where do they all belong?

Seals & Crofts - We May Never Pass This Way Again [w/ lyrics]

This song was released in 1973, almost fifty years ago. It is a beautiful song/love song and pure poetry, expressing all the sentiments that many of us have about time passing and the wanting to spend the time we have on earth with those you love. The song makes you reflect on your life and your relationships, as did so much of the music we grew up with. 

The majority of music at present is not like this. It is harsher and more superficial. Perhaps it reflects the times we live in. There are a few exceptions, but by and large commercial hits with little substance are the norm. Artists make their money and move on. Some of them are one-hit wonders. I will try and find some of the exceptions; I know they exist. 

Notes from a traveler on my recent trip to the USA

Meeting the Canadian DJ in the passport control line at Newark airport who had traveled all around the world for his job when he was younger and who ended up marrying a Norwegian woman and living in Norway. A very gregarious type, very talkative. He must have been quite the Lothario when he was single. He mentioned that he had had many Norwegian girlfriends before he married, some of whom were married themselves. Now he sounded resigned to his being 'trapped' in Norway, as he put it. 

Meeting the American woman and her daughter on the train platform at Newark airport while waiting for the Amtrak train to Washington DC. They had just returned from vacation in Copenhagen. We compared notes on Covid-19 testing in order to enter the USA again; she had paid forty dollars for two antigen tests in Copenhagen whereas I had paid ninety dollars for one test in Oslo, Norway. Norway knows how to extract money from us. 

Meeting the taxi driver from Jamaica who drove me from the Union train station in Washington DC to my hotel. The first chance he got, he showed me pictures of his daughter, her husband, and his beautiful granddaughters who live in Montenegro. He was so proud of his grandchildren. He only gets to see them once a year, and was hoping to travel to visit them next year. We talked about how hard it was to have parents in another country than where you live, especially when they get sick and old. Most of his siblings had emigrated to the USA from Jamaica, but many of them were dead now. Most of them had had government jobs. I gave him a big tip after he told me how business had fallen off due to the pandemic. DC was a ghost town now, he said, with most people still working from home. People weren't using taxis to get to their workplaces anymore. 

Meeting the hotel guest born in Nigeria who padded out barefoot to the reception area of the Comfort Inn in search of bottled water. The tap water for drinking purposes in DC leaves a lot to be desired; it literally smells of whatever chemicals are used to disinfect the water. Apparently DC uses chloramine (a mixture of chlorine and ammonia). In any case, the water does not taste good at all, and bottled water is used by most people. The Nigerian man was very friendly and told me about his college years traveling around Europe with his friends. He loved France and French food, especially baguettes. He spoke the Queen's English after having lived in London for a while, and told me "I am a proud American" when I asked him where he lives now. The hotel itself was worn down and had seen better days; for 180 dollars a night I had expected more. The staff at reception and in the breakfast room were friendly so no complaints there. But I'm glad I only stayed there one night. 

Visiting with three of my cousins while I was in the DC area: two of them (Karen and Robert) live not far from DC proper, whereas my other cousin Cathy lives in Charlottesville VA. It was wonderful to spend time with each of them and their spouses. I visited with Karen first, then with Robert, and then with Cathy. We ate at some great restaurants and had some memorable conversations. I hope to be able to visit them again in a few years. 

Taking the (very comfortable) bus from Union Station to Charlottesville VA. When I was on the bus, I saw a road sign near Culpeper VA: "Let Jesus make you a fisherman. You catch 'em, he cleans 'em". 

Listening to the busker Daniel Kepel in Charlottesville while eating lunch outdoors with Cathy and her husband Scott. Kepel played some requests, among them Bill Withers' 'Ain't No Sunshine'. A very enjoyable afternoon. 

Traveling back to New York via Amtrak. Amtrak has a 'quiet car', where no cell phone conversations are allowed. The quiet car is a dream come true for passengers like me who don't want to listen to people yack on their phones ad nauseam about nothing. I listened to music, did some reading and writing, and otherwise enjoyed the scenery until we got into Penn Station in Manhattan. 

Once I get to NY, I'm back in familiar territory. I don't spend much time in Manhattan anymore, but as I was walking from Penn Station to Grand Central Station to get the train to Tarrytown, I felt the 'rush' of the city, the good rush, the rush that makes you want to work hard and achieve. When you are in Manhattan, it's hard not to feel that the 'world is your oyster' or that 'the sky's the limit'. It's not until you've worked there a while that you see the down sides of this way of thinking. But when you're young, it's a fun place to be, and I have good memories of having gone to school and worked there for ten years. 

When I was on the bus to White Plains so that I could pick up my rental car, there was a sign in Spanish that had to do with wearing masks to prevent Covid infections. I am relearning Spanish at present and was happy that I was able to read and understand this sign with no problems. 

Once I get to the NY area, I get together with my sister Renata and her husband Tim and my dear friends Jean, Maria, Gisele, Stef and Jola. Sometimes we hang out in Tarrytown down by the Hudson River and have a picnic, or visit the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, or eat lunch in downtown Mamaroneck. This time around Jean, Maria and I visited Olana (Olana State Historic Site (ny.gov), the Hudson River home of Frederic Church, who was perhaps the most well-known artist of the Hudson River School of American landscape painters. I usually stay at Jean's house until I leave for Oslo again. Being with her is always like coming home; I feel safe. Whenever it seems as though the world is coming apart at the seams, I think of her and my closest friends and the world is alright again. 

Collateral damage

Collateral damage. Those words keep running through my mind, especially in light of some of the recent events in the USA. The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas is one of them. Our children are the collateral damage in the obsession to uphold the second amendment at any cost and to placate the NRA. Our children don’t matter to the politicians who insist that the second amendment be upheld. They simply don’t matter. The NRA matters most. 

Our children suffer again when schools have to spend thousands of dollars on defence against active shooters, money that could be spent on increasing salaries for teachers so that our children would benefit intellectually. But our children don’t matter to the politicians who insist that the best solution is that teachers arm themselves and learn to shoot. Teachers don’t matter either to our esteemed politicians.

Ordinary folks in society are collateral damage when liberals push to defund the police and conservatives push guns on us. Many ordinary citizens don’t want to own a gun or learn how to shoot one. They also don’t want the police to be defunded. What they do want is for the police to do their jobs and that they are visible to society at large. The majority of ordinary citizens trust the police. Yes, there are bad police, just as there are bad doctors, bad nurses, and bad priests. But if the police disappear from a society, chaos will reign. It won’t be a society any of us will want to live in.

The overturning of Roe versus Wade is another recent event that will have collateral damage. Poor women will not have access to abortion if they need one. You can argue the morality of abortion all you like; the reality is that abortion, like prostitution, will exist until the end of time. Banning abortion will not stop abortion; it will simply drive it underground, as was the case before Roe versus Wade. Backroom abortions that led to infection and death. Yes, poor women will be able to travel to those states that still permit abortion, but the travel costs will not be reimbursed by anyone nor will the actual procedure. That is not the case for middle and upper class women working for companies who will cover the costs. One can argue that unborn babies have been collateral damage as the result of access to unlimited abortion and that is true. But it is also true that none of the women I know who have had an abortion really wanted to have one; they were very young and they felt pressured to have an abortion by the men in their lives who did not want to be fathers or who did not want more children. Shall we then blame the men for their decisions? Perhaps we should. Men play a big role here. 

In Europe, the liberal approach to crime has led to violent mentally-ill people being let back onto the streets of society after being assessed by teams of psychiatrists as 'safe'. There are people who have said to me that 'everyone is a potential murderer', which can explain the liberal approach to criminals; we should feel sorry for them. In Scandinavia murderers don't often get long prison sentences if they are convicted. According to Wikipedia, the longest prison sentence in Norway is 21 years, although the new Penal Code provides for a 30-year maximum sentence for crimes related to genocide, crimes against humanity or some other war crimes. Collateral damage? The poor victims of stabbings, shootings, and bow and arrow killings, along with their families and friends. Anyone who forgets the victims of such crimes should rot in hell. If that makes me a conservative on crime, then I am. I'm all for long prison sentences for murder, 40 years minimum in most cases. Because in most cases there is discussion ad nauseam about whether the criminal 'knew' what he was doing. If he or she was truly mentally ill, then they belong in a mental hospital; if not, then they belong in prison, not back on the streets to commit yet more atrocities. I'm all for rehabilitation of criminals, but there needs to be more compassion for the victims and their families, which there is not at present. 

Again in Europe, we see the collateral damage and fallout from the pandemic. Airline companies let a lot of workers go during the pandemic and have not rehired enough people to tackle the upcoming summer vacation crowds. Now the airline mechanics are on strike, as are the pilots, at least here in Norway. They are striking for more money, of course. No one cares about the passengers who had been looking forward to well-earned vacations. The situation is chaotic at best. The airline companies should have prepared better, but they didn't because it costs money to prepare better. And the companies don't want to spend a penny more than they have to, except where leader salaries are concerned. Rest assured the leaders are still pulling in big bucks at the expense of ordinary people. They will bankrupt their companies and go on their merry ways, because the only thing they think about is themselves. It is of course more complicated than this, but greed is a huge part of it. 

The world is not black and white, as much as some people would like it to be. Black and white is easy, but ultimately destructive. It leads to ‘Me against you’, ‘Us against them’. Unfortunately for the black and white folks, there are multiple gray areas and nuances in life. Compassion and empathy are also collateral damage resulting from policies and laws that do not acknowledge the gray areas in life. Intelligence and reflection are also collateral damage. We have reached the point in society where the death of intelligence and compassion is merely glossed over. Our humanity is the collateral damage.

My new book, The Gifts of a Garden, is now published and available for purchase

My new book--The Gifts of a Garden, is now published and available for purchase on Amazon: The Gifts of a Garden: De Angelis, Paula Mary: 9798435180572: Amazon.com: Books

As the back cover of the book states--'gardening has become my passion and my form of meditation'. The text and photography in the book are my own. The book cover design (front and back) as well as the book's layout are the work of the talented graphic designer (and my friend) Paloma Ayala. I love the front cover design and I know you will too. You can find Paloma on Instagram at @paloma.photo.nature

My new book--The Gifts of a Garden

My new book, The Gifts of a Garden, is now available for purchase in hardcover and paperback formats on Amazon. It will eventually be available as an e-book as well. 

Here is the link to the book on Amazon: The Gifts of a Garden: De Angelis, Paula Mary: 9798833097694: Amazon.com: Books

Thank you for your support!  

My author page on Amazon

I recently published a poetry collection, Movements Through the Landscape, and I'm in the process of publishing my book about the gifts and blessings that are given to us by our gardens. It's entitled The Gifts of a Garden. Both of them are available for purchase on Amazon. I thought I'd include the link to my Amazon Author page for those of you who are interested in seeing the books I've published. 

Amazon.com: Paula M. De Angelis: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

School Days

When we were children, we sang along to the song School Days, at least at home. My mother was very good at finding records for children, and one of them was School Days. I'm not sure who sang the song we listened to, but the lyrics and music were written in 1907 by Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards: 

School days, school days
Dear old golden rule days
Readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hickory stick
You were my queen in calico
I was your bashful barefoot beau
And you wrote on my slate, "I love you, Joe"
When we were a couple of kids

There was no hickory stick to keep us in line when we were schoolchildren, just the Catholic school nuns. One look or word from them and you stopped misbehaving. There was also no rampant social media addiction to warp our minds. I don't know why I was reminded of this song today, perhaps because the reality of school days for children nowadays is anything but innocent and carefree. 

I cannot imagine being a parent or grandparent and watching young children go off to school, not knowing if you will see them again. School shootings (and mass shootings in general) have become part of the norm of everyday life and they shouldn't be. There are people I know on Facebook who always post the same thing after a school or other mass shooting--"guns don't kill people, people kill people". It's semantics. Of course guns kill people. If access to those guns wasn't readily available, there wouldn't be guns to kill people. We can argue about the differences between a handgun and an assault rifle. I know that they are not the same. Most of the shootings seem to be done with assault rifles. Why? Because the intent is to kill as many people as possible. There is no other purpose to an assault rifle. You certainly don't need one to riddle a poor animal you're hunting with a barrage of bullets. What's left of the animal after that? If you defend the right to own an assault rifle, you are part of the problem. One solution, perhaps the best, is to ban assault rifles, as they have no place in civilized society. Another is to require thorough extensive background checks on anyone who wants to purchase any type of gun or rifle, period. 

Do our senators realize that their children and grandchildren are at risk? Or don't they care? I ask that question because such shootings are unpredictable. They occur in all states, in small towns and in larger cities. Living rurally doesn't protect anyone or hinder such events. Uvalde is proof of that. Another unsettling factor in so many shootings is how the shooters post their intentions or photos of themselves decked out as if for war on social media. What is wrong with our society? Something is definitely pathologically wrong about society's love of guns. If it continues unchecked, there will just be lawlessness and random shootings everywhere in the next ten years. 

When we were in grammar school and high school, we were taught how to crouch under our desks in case of an atomic bomb attack. Little good that would have done us. Once a year we may have had that drill. Teachers and parents did not focus on it because such an attack was not a very real threat despite the Cold War and the rhetoric surrounding the use of atomic bombs. Everyone saw the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and decided that such horrific occurrences would never happen again. It can't be so difficult to see the carnage after a mass shooting and ban assault rifles as well as change the laws as to who is competent enough to own a gun. Each life that is saved has incalculable worth. Why are we arguing over this? 

More Than This by Roxy Music

More Than This by Roxy Music is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Whenever I listen to it I am transported to the past--music is an immediate portal to the past. It reminds me of my former boss at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who loved this song. I think he secretly wanted to be Bryan Ferry; he looked a bit like him and he definitely dressed like him. It also reminds me of my brother. Both live on in my memory; my brother died in 2015 and my former boss in 2020. Listening to the music and the lyrics makes me feel connected to them, for which I'm grateful. 

 

More Than This

Roxy Music

I could feel at the time
There was no way of knowing
Fallen leaves in the night
Who can say where they're blowing?

As free as the wind
Hopefully learning
Why the sea on the tide
Has no way of turning

More than this
You know there's nothing
More than this
Tell me one thing
More than this
Ooh there's nothing

It was fun for a while
There was no way of knowing
Like a dream in the night
Who can say where we're going?

No care in the world
Maybe I'm learning
Why the sea on the tide
Has no way of turning

More than this
You know there's nothing
More than this
Tell me one thing
More than this
No there's nothing

More than this
Nothing
More than this
More than this
Nothing

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Bryan Ferry

More Than This lyrics © Bmg Rights Management (uk) Limited

Garden update--photos

Here are some recent photos of the garden, which is always a work in progress that incorporates new ideas and new additions to the garden family.......

Wisteria growing on the fence

Wisteria flower in bloom--a heavenly fragrance

The new addition to the garden family--a cherry tree

The forsythia bush blooming happily

The magnolia tree also blooming 

How the garden looks behind the greenhouse and the adjoining fence

Another forsythia bush planted between the birdbath and the cherry tree

the part of my garden facing my neighbor's garden--separated from mine by a large trellis

facing the greenhouse

pumpkin and zucchini beds covered by fiber cloth 

Garden update--May 2022

We've had some strange weather since spring began. A couple of weeks in March were actually quite mild and I got an early start in the garden. That was a good thing because I had to dig up a rose bush that had died. I cut it down last autumn with the intention of digging up the entire plant in March, right after the ground had thawed. That turned out to be a good idea, because the earth was actually quite muddy and it was easy to dig down with a shovel to find the roots. However, it was no easy task getting the roots up; the bush has been there for many years, apparently, and the roots had spread out widely. My husband got a hold of a crowbar and he got up most of the roots for me. But we couldn't get them all up. Luckily, the bush is dead so it won't be growing underground and sprouting up new stems here and there as it had been doing the past several years. None of those new stems survived for very long. The bush itself had become infested with aphids over the past several years, and even though I kept the infestation in check, I think it weakened and sensitized the plant for other types of attack, such as from parasitic mushrooms that appeared during the autumn, at which point I knew it was 'game over'. 

April was another month with two weeks of warm temperatures followed by cold temperatures, but not freezing. I started most of the plants I wanted to plant outdoors as seeds in the greenhouse, and I planted the seed potatoes outdoors since it takes at least a month for them to begin to germinate. I also planted the gladiola corms outdoors at the same time, since it takes a month for them to begin to germinate. Pumpkins, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, and string beans (from seeds) were on the planting list this year. All of them grew well from seeds in the greenhouse and are now planted outdoors except for the tomatoes which need a bit more time in the greenhouse so that they can grow taller. The giant-type sunflowers, pot marigolds, rose mallows, and cornflowers that I also started from seeds are now planted outdoors as well. 

May has been mild for the most part, with temperatures hovering around 60 degrees during the day and 50 degrees at night. But it has been a very dry month with very little rain, so that Oslo is experiencing a drought (not entirely due to lack of rainfall, but still). But luckily there is rain in the forecast for the next two weeks, so the garden should benefit from the predicted rainfall. 

I bought two new lavender plants to replace two that had died, and got some new perennials from my garden neighbor Urzsula. She has given me a plant called 'brennende kjærlighet' (translated to burning love in English). It is also called the Maltese-cross, scarlet lychnis or Jerusalem cross in English. It produces big red balls of flowers, so it should be a nice addition to my garden. I also received a yellow iris from her and some large yellow loosestrife which is beautiful when it flowers. Other new additions to the garden are 'jordskokk' bulbs planted near the fence; they are called Jerusalem artichokes in English, but taste nothing like artichokes. I got about three pounds of them from another garden neighbor, Embla, and I planted some and made soup with the rest. The soup was excellent so I will definitely make it again. Jordskokk look like this (image from Jordskokk | Bama):

You peel them as you would potatoes and then boil them until they become soft enough to mash. If you are making soup you can use an immersion blender to puree them in the pot. Here is a good recipe for jordskokk soup if you are interested. 

Jerusalem artichoke soup with bacon  (Kremet jordskokksuppe med sprø bacon | Oppskrift | Meny.no)

Needed (for 3 people)

• 525 g Jerusalem artichokes
• 3 dl chicken broth
• 3 dl whipping cream (or heavy cream)
• 75 g dry salted bacon
• 0.75 tablespoons butter
• 0.75 tart apple
• 1.5 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
• pepper
• salt

1. Peel the vegetables and cut them into cubes. Put them in a saucepan and cover with broth and cream. Cook until they are tender.
2. Cut the bacon and apple into cubes. Fry the bacon cubes in butter until golden. Put the apple cubes in the pan and remove the pan from the heat. Add parsley.
3. Blend the soup with an immersion blender until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Serve the soup in deep bowls and top with bacon and apple mixture.

The jordskokk flowers above ground are yellow, grow profusely and quite high; they also have a tendency to spread out, so keeping them in check is part of gardening work. Here is how they look when the flowers are blooming (image from Sunchokes - Bi-O) 

My wisteria plant is doing very well. I planted it two years ago along the fence and it has taken off and actually has quite a lot of gorgeous, spicy-scented flowers this year. I love wisteria, but from what I've read online about it, it is another plant that must be 'held in check', otherwise it will spread out and just keep expanding. The magnolia tree has also bloomed again, and this year I bought a cherry tree and planted it in the spot where the rose bush was. It too has settled in to its new home and has in fact bloomed, although I don't think we'll get cherries (the tart kind) this year. We'll see. I was happy to see that the two forsythia bushes that I planted along the fence also bloomed; forsythia is another favorite plant of mine--lovely cheery yellow flowers in the spring. I also planted a new lilac bush near the cherry tree. I'm guessing that in a few years I'll have to transplant it as it grows and expands, but for now it's happy where it is. 

It's nice to be part of a community allotment garden. I enjoy talking to my garden neighbors, but more importantly, we share plants and seeds with each other and water each other's gardens when one of us is on vacation. The neighborliness and generosity are worth gold. 

In my next post I'll include some recent photos that I've taken of the garden. 

An endless source of amusement

Oslo has become a city of dog owners. Whenever I am out walking, there are always people out walking their dogs. It has become a common sight. We have pooper-scooper laws, thank God, and most dog owners abide by them. I watch the dogs with their owners sometimes; the owners carry treats when they are training them, and it's funny to watch how the dogs respond to training. I also smile or laugh when I see dogs tugging at their leashes, barking at their owners to throw the ball or stick at hand, or trying to retrieve a ball that has floated out onto the small waterways with small falls that run down from Kiellands plass. You can see dogs of all kinds--dachshunds, chihuahuas, Russian wolfhounds, whippets, Welsh corgis, Jack Russell terriers, small and large poodles, bulldogs, German shepherds--the list is long. I like all the breeds but my preference runs to dachshunds, Russian wolfhounds and Jack Russell terriers. Even though most people in Oslo live in apartments, they still own dogs so it must be working out, living together in close quarters with their dogs. I'm on the fence about getting a dog; they are more work than cats because you need to walk them and keep them active. Cats are more solitary and will activate themselves, although if you invest the time, they can almost behave like dogs when it comes to retrieving and playing with toys. Our cat loved to run after catnip drops that we skidded along the floor to her; she played with them (and olives) before eating them. She also loved to chase my husband around the apartment; she would 'get her fur up' so to speak and then find him in the living room so that he could chase her. It was very funny to watch them play together. 

I notice all animal, bird, and insect life now. When I am in the garden, I watch the birds fly to and fro between the different trees and bushes. They enjoy taking full baths in the birdbath, and then they find a patch of dry sandy earth to roll around in. I wonder why this sequence is not reversed, first a sand bath and then a water bath. There are a lot of sparrows in the garden, and they chatter among themselves, sometimes quarreling, other times happily chirping to each other. The garden is a haven for them as well as for magpies, crows, brown and black thrushes, wagtails, and ring-necked doves. The latter have increased in number during the past few years in Oslo. Sometimes local cats wander through the garden; they are often hounded out of the garden by the crows and magpies. But they still come back from time to time. One of the cats, the one who has taken a nap in my greenhouse, likes to drink water from the birdbath; the water can be dirty or clean, it doesn't seem to matter to him. Likewise for the honeybees, who don't seem to mind at all that the water is dirty. Nature. It will leave you in awe, and it will also make you laugh out loud. I'm grateful that I have the time now during the day to appreciate all of it. 

A friendly visitor to the garden

There are cats that roam the neighborhood near the allotment garden, and every now and then they make their way into the garden to wander around. Last summer my garden was graced by a visit from one such cat, a black and white cat that is very friendly and docile. He found a cozy place on the floor of my greenhouse and promptly went to sleep for half an hour or so. After his nap he stretched and then moseyed on his way to visit someone else's garden.

The other day the same cat returned to the garden and found his way into my greenhouse. At this time of year the greenhouse is quite a nice place to be, cozy and warm. He jumped up onto one of the metal benches, made himself comfortable, and went to sleep for a half hour. Like last summer, I was able to snap a few photos of him. He is an affectionate and nice cat; he lets himself be petted and does not go after the birds in the garden (he is well-fed at home). Quite the opposite; it is the birds, mostly magpies and crows, that have harassed him to the point where he is forced to leave the garden. I have seen it happen once. They grab at his tail; when they did this last summer he did not fight back, rather choosing to leave the premises. 

I look forward to his visits. I am a cat lover, having had several cats up through the years. Becoming friends with this cat has made me want another cat, so we'll see what time brings. In any case, I hope he'll be a frequent visitor during the summer months.