Some more pictures of cake and cats
...because I knew you'd been missing them so. What do you mean, you hadn't? Well bloody sod you then.
Just when you thought you'd finally escaped Christmas... I took some pics of the cake I'd made and decorated for Mum before we left Cardiff, just in case it didn't survive the journey (it did). I wish I'd done the ribboning differently, but by that point everything was getting too Christmas-last-minutey and I was running out of tiiiiiiime...
Hoorah! I managed to make royal icing that peaked! By adding another half skip load of icing sugar and nearly breaking my electric whisk. I made the holly from sugarpaste, shaping the leaves and leaving them out to dry/set before sticking the whole lot onto the top of the cake, 'adding some gold highlights' (ie attacking it w/ a paintbrush loaded w/ metallic gold food colouring) and varnishing the holly with an edible glaze made from gum arabic. You really wanted to know all that, I'm sure.
The small cat and and the big cat face off on the settee at Dad's (probably shortly before launching into another playfight session that looked scarily like it was in earnest). Pyewacket's identity tag has been amended w/ a sticky label owing to his temporary change of address. Bran was yet to receive his Christmas collar...
As well as baiting/being chased by Jenna's cat, Bran spent much of his time in Birmingham gazing, transfixed, at her rats. Small there is keeping an eye on him, making sure he doesn't get up to any funny business. Eventually she tired of his invasion of her personal space (he got a lot closer than this picture shows), and nipped him smartly on the ear, which didn't deter him in the slightest (though it looks as if he's now marked for life).
l-r: Clanger, Wilde, toppled toadstool, cat (now with NEW! added collar, tag and ratscar). I only took down the 2005 mini-calendar yesterday. Kitten likes sitting on the Hypervalue shelf I have on top of the monitor. It's quite warm up there, and it lets him keep tabs on what I'm up to if I'm sat over at the computer (as well as providing him with a good platform from which to paw at the monitor screen, should anything exciting-looking start going on down there).
You can see the result of his encounter w/ Small more clearly in this one, at the tippity tip of the ear closest to Oscar. The bite didn't seem to bother him at all - he didn't even squeal at the time - and the scab came off to reveal a neat little notch where once his ear had peaked. Trying not to let myself feel too sad about his tiny pussycat perfection being forever marred... trying...
Branwell also finds the monitor platform a fine place for a snooze...
*
Just when you thought you'd finally escaped Christmas... I took some pics of the cake I'd made and decorated for Mum before we left Cardiff, just in case it didn't survive the journey (it did). I wish I'd done the ribboning differently, but by that point everything was getting too Christmas-last-minutey and I was running out of tiiiiiiime...
Hoorah! I managed to make royal icing that peaked! By adding another half skip load of icing sugar and nearly breaking my electric whisk. I made the holly from sugarpaste, shaping the leaves and leaving them out to dry/set before sticking the whole lot onto the top of the cake, 'adding some gold highlights' (ie attacking it w/ a paintbrush loaded w/ metallic gold food colouring) and varnishing the holly with an edible glaze made from gum arabic. You really wanted to know all that, I'm sure.
The small cat and and the big cat face off on the settee at Dad's (probably shortly before launching into another playfight session that looked scarily like it was in earnest). Pyewacket's identity tag has been amended w/ a sticky label owing to his temporary change of address. Bran was yet to receive his Christmas collar...
As well as baiting/being chased by Jenna's cat, Bran spent much of his time in Birmingham gazing, transfixed, at her rats. Small there is keeping an eye on him, making sure he doesn't get up to any funny business. Eventually she tired of his invasion of her personal space (he got a lot closer than this picture shows), and nipped him smartly on the ear, which didn't deter him in the slightest (though it looks as if he's now marked for life).
l-r: Clanger, Wilde, toppled toadstool, cat (now with NEW! added collar, tag and ratscar). I only took down the 2005 mini-calendar yesterday. Kitten likes sitting on the Hypervalue shelf I have on top of the monitor. It's quite warm up there, and it lets him keep tabs on what I'm up to if I'm sat over at the computer (as well as providing him with a good platform from which to paw at the monitor screen, should anything exciting-looking start going on down there).
You can see the result of his encounter w/ Small more clearly in this one, at the tippity tip of the ear closest to Oscar. The bite didn't seem to bother him at all - he didn't even squeal at the time - and the scab came off to reveal a neat little notch where once his ear had peaked. Trying not to let myself feel too sad about his tiny pussycat perfection being forever marred... trying...
Branwell also finds the monitor platform a fine place for a snooze...
*