Cat-hartic clothes

I'm feeling a little stressed at the moment, and sometimes when this happens only cats and clothes can bring me round. So here goes:

Kitty pumps - £20.99, Daisy Street

Galaxy cat T-shirt - £12, eBay

Zoe Karssen I Heart Cats T-shirt - £35, Nola Boutique (this one's already mine - at £25 in the in-store sale, how could I say no?)

Louche Kat jumper - £45, Joy

Your Eyes Lie cat T-shirt - £30, ASOS

I feel better already.

Kitsch creatures

Our flat is full of kitsch creatures, which I enjoy all year round, but I feel that Christmas offers the perfect opportunity to celebrate these little friends and show them off to their full potential. Hooray for cute useless tat!

Getting back to nature

Our week in Cornwall was a week without the internet, without even phone signal for the most part, and a time to get back to nature. We walked along the coast on paths overgrown with wild flowers, swam in the sea and enjoyed fresh seafood caught and cooked on the same day.

Since we returned I've been reluctant to let myself be consumed, once again, by the internet and specifically social networks. Instead I've been spending a lot of time pottering in the courtyard - a pastime which is fast becoming one of my favourites - and tending to the various plants and herbs I have in and arond the flat.

This week my roses have begun to bloom and are looking beautiful and the cat has also been enjoying the outdoor life, especially when the sun's been out. I don't know if she's on heat or is just enjoying a playful spell of youth but there was a close call for a lazy pigeon on Monday and she's been transfixed by Springwatch - sitting underneath the TV for the full hour and stalking and trying the attack the birds on screen.

Meet Kitty

This is Kitty, my beautiful special-needs cat. She has this remarkably original name because she was a stray when I met her begging for food in the garden of my old flat. I didn't want to name her in case she belonged to someone else, but it soon became clear that she was a little urchin cat, and by then 'Kitty' had stuck.

Kitty had most probably been mistreated by her original owners: She flinched whenever anyone came near her, as if she was going to get a kick, it took months for her to trust me enough to let me pick her up or pet her properly and she's still not overly keen on humans.

When I left my old flat I couldn't bear the thought of leaving her to fend for herself again so took her with me as I moved twice in the space of two years. Now she is the epitome of the rags to riches story and lords it around mine and Irish's flat and courtyard like the cat who really did get the cream.


Kitty mainly enjoys attacking soft furnishings, riding rugs on laminate surfaces and being a slave to tuna. She's still very shy, hiding whenever visitors come round, but has recently been exhibiting more 'normal cat' behaviour, perhaps as a result of having reached her rebellious teenage years.

Such behaviour has included presenting me with the thoughtful gift of a small dead bird and scaling a 15-foot wall in order to see what was in next door's garden. Fortunately it wasn't next door's dog, who was inside at the time. We managed to tempt her back over with her opium - tuna - but only after she seemed to forget how she made it through the trellis in the first place and became stuck. It was a very embarrassing and regrettable time for her.


Kitty only really likes me - she has good taste - and I feel very privileged to be her best friend.