Cats and Memories of Macavity

Macavity's the mystery cat: He's called the hidden paw - For he's a master criminal who can defy the law.
T.S Eliot

The only positive impact school had on me (I hated it) was English, or poetry and prose as it was charmingly called. I can still remember so much of what we had to learn off by heart.  I was always in trouble in school for regurgitating stuff that looked like I had copied it word by word. I hadn't; I just had a photographic memory. I could remember car number plates, telephone numbers and the most obscure facts.

I always loved the above line from T.S Eliot's poem. We never had cats at home, always dogs. Dad used to let the dogs out at night and would shout "cats, cats" to them as an incentive to charge down the garden barking madly.

One time he did this and a small runty little kitten was cowering on the path.  I remember screaming at him to take the dog in and I rescued the kitten.  I had rescued magpies fallen from their nests and guinea pigs threatened with the chop. The kitten was just next in the line.

My mother hated cats and referred to the cat as "pukey guts".  The poor cat was always referred to as Puke after that. I studied for my leaving cert with her always perched on my lap.  I loved her.

Years later when I first moved here, it was necessary to have a cat and there has been a large throughput. Some were killed on the road, others disappeared and one died from Feline Aids.

The current incumbent is Kitty or Fat Kitty. We realised a long time ago there is absolutely no point naming a cat in this house.  They are always referred to as kitty.  Has kitty been fed, will you let kitty out, where's kitty etc.

Kitty was dragged out of a farmyard barn, where he was part of a litter living down between big round hay bales.  It was a case of put your hand down and pick the first kitten you can get hold of.  There was more than one litter there. They were very healthy, as surprisingly the farmer liked them and fed them but they were completely wild. Kitty came home and had to be bathed as he was so smelly. Then he got a cold and every morning I had to clean his eyes and nose.  He recovered and is as odd as the dickens today.  He distrusts every human (except us). He vanishes when the door bell rings - up underneath my bed usually.  My brother refers to him as "the phantom cat".

But he is a character and is still a big kid.  When I first got him, Piaf the Jack Russell was a puppy and the two of them played incessantly together. When Piaf had her puppies last August he played with them.  He still plays with the two I kept.

Now I have Spitzy, found on the side of the road a couple of weeks ago (recognise the pattern here?) Spitzy, so called as every time I opened the door to feed her she spat at me. She has settled in now and is getting braver and braver. This morning I found her and Fat Kitty tumbling around the sitting room, playing hide and seek.  She plays with the puppies and even sleeps with them in their beds.

I can't imagine a life without animals. We have always had them here. For a short period when one of our much loved dogs was killed on the road and both kids were at boarding school and I was working full time, we had none.  Every time I reversed the car in the driveway my son said "mum you would really miss the welcome a dog gives you". He was right. 

Tags: Macavity  T.S Eliot  Cats  Dogs  Rescue animals

An Irish Summer

My mother always said she had blood from the Spanish Armada in her veins.When we were children she was frequently described as being "black". The reason - she was a sun worshiper and lay out for hours in our back garden - like a lizard basking in the sun.

I inherited her love of the sun. Friends always joke that as soon as the sun pops out, I am stretched in it.

The sun most definitely affects my mood.

I hate to waste a minute of it and that includes having to do anything other than soak it up when it appears. I always envy the peoples of the Mediterranean who just take it for granted.  How they sit by choice in the shade. How they can plan an outdoor meal or a barbeque and never have to worry if it will rain. I envy how they wrap up to walk on the beach when it's eighteen degrees as if it was below zero.

I don't want to appear negative but we have just had over a week of Irish summer. For more than seven days we woke to blue skies and balmy temperatures. For the first time in years I sat in the shade as a preference. We ate out without thinking about it. We had a barbeque and didn't worry about rain.

It took us collectively as a nation, completely by shock. Two years with no summer to speak of and the coldest spring in decades yada, yada, yada . The statistics go on and on....... 

For the first year in absolutely ages I have planted nothing in my garden. No herbs, no vegetables, no salads. After how disastrously they all grew last year I decided that without a poly tunnel there really was no point. Now it is catch up and I am heading off to buy vegetable plants and some bedding and praying to the sun god that it continues at least warm enough to make it worth while.

The animals here, completely unused to it quickly adapted. The pigs in particular slept for the hottest part of the day and when they eventually ventured out again, most of the field was in shade. The rose early and retired late. They became Mediterranean.


I often wonder what other nationalities think of our collective obsession with the weather. But you know when you can afford to take something for granted you have no need to comment on it.

A cold cider in the hot sun

Maybe and just maybe we will get a few more days and then the statistics will again be quoted. The warmest summer on record.....

If wishes were promises.
















Tags: An Irish summer 

Oregano Pesto

I was weeding this morning and discovered that my oregano plants had gone into overdrive.

I wondered could I make pesto with it. Now I'm beginning to wonder is there any herb you can't use for it.

Oregano pesto is really delicious. So is rocket pesto, parsley pesto and of course basil pesto.

At this time of year the leaves are really soft and almost downy. Later in the year they go slightly darker and tougher.




















Remove the leaves from the stems and add a good handful into blender, a garlic clove, a tablespoon of pine nuts, a good piece of Parmesan, salt, pepper and enough olive oil to make it all come together.



Taste and add more of whatever ingredient you think it needs.

If you are a sucker for punishment you can always make it in the traditional way in a morter and pestle.

Toss into drained pasta and add a selection of summer vegetables lightly sautéed (I used courgette, oyster mushrooms, mange tout, cauliflower and spinach).

Add in a few pieces of fresh Mozarella and you have a delicious, summer meal.














Tags: Oregano pesto  Oregano Summer meals  Irish food  Summer recipes