Quarter Century

Little Dark One, me, The Cat [in a suitcase] and MBNAD woman all off There. One of those Fridays. Grand I thought, although The Cat had Views all the way from the Meat-and-Bread stop. Car was packed up to the lid with lots of stuff but no matter. I like being There and my MBNAD woman is really happy when we're There.

"Wales, Mossie. Powys, Home"

Late on, but we dont mind.

"Night night Mossie. Night night Humbug".

A big treat. The Tall One. All of them together, where I can herd them. Grand.


Turns out the Tall One is having a birthday.

Twenty-Five.

Old.

The Man with the Cat came too for the birthday.

Then they went out for food. Humph Can't see why - there's a whole cupboard full of food. Shouted a bit. Cat told me to shut up.

Humph

They had a special cake for the Tall One. She's good at cake so I always sit and wait expectantly just in case something falls off a plate. Funny thing about people - if food falls off a plate onto the floor, they don't want to eat it even if it's only a little bit gritty. As long as she tells me it's ok to have it, then I don't hang around. Anyway, this special cake ... just when I think she's not really Mad or not a real Witch, she does something very peculiar and I have to revise my opinions.

So they set fire to the cake and said incantations before eating it. What more evidence is needed? A Witch, without doubt. She'll get caught one of these days.

We didn't leave There on Sunday night. Turns out we could stay all week. And the Little Dark One, and the Tall One and The Cat.

They spent a lot of the week trying to stick a broken picture back together. Don't know why they had to buy a broken one.

We met Brucie's people and they went to a park. Then they came back for tea and had more of the Tall One's special cake. The Cat said some very bad words to Brucie. Brucie's woman said that she'd never heard a cat growl before. That ain't growling, that's swearing. Really bad swearing. Father Jack swearing.



Thank Dog, I couldn't fit. But my MBNAD woman could.



Lots of walks with boots and scenery. At the end of the last one, I was so tired that my MBNAD woman had to fetch the car while I waited with the Tall One. He had to carry me to the place where we waited for her. I could have walked but he wanted to be useful.



Time to turn There to Here again.

And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;