Sport or Vocation?

Cat-shearing.

(Shiva, who spouts incredibly foul language when combed, seems to enjoy being trimmed: purrs, points out bits I've missed, chats about her holiday plans etc. And would you want to wear a fur coat in this weather?)

Edited to add: Don't try this indoors, unless your cat matches your furniture and your entire wardrobe.

Actually, I did mean to post about Doctor Who

and then the content went into a comment to nhw
( possible spoilers (belated cut!) )

Living on a Round Planet

One should never post when drunk
*hic*
I've just spent a very pleasant hour in the garden, pursuing a favourite childhood activity for the first time in can't-remember-how-long: watching the stars come out.

Almost all of the time I spent living in London was spent in unbalconied flats. Where I did have access to garden (or fire escape) there was usually too much light pollution, of the sodium-orange variety, to have much chance of seeing stars.

There've been a couple of picnics where I've had a strong inclination to stay behind with the rubbish and lie there until it gets dark: but I have always been dissuaded by Sensible Types.

Here, I have a garden; although there are several street lamps around the edge, the sky above is pretty clear; it's quiet, come evening; there are two cats to make sure I can find my way back to the door; and, having had a very pleasant and productive day, I decided that some cider was called for.

So I've spent an hour watching the planes circle round Gatwick; watching the leaves on the nearest tree turn from green to brown as the street-light worked its chromatic magic; watching the stars come out, and thinking about why it's a gradual process, and why it's less gradual the further towards the Equator you go; counting the first five stars, and having the same five visible, without any others appearing, for some time; being mountaineered on by small furry guides, anxious that I shouldn't forget about Indoors; wondering why I don't like The Last Witchfinder more, though I enjoyed reading it; thinking it's about time I checked the heavens-above website where I find I missed the ISS by about 10 minutes; feeling very much a small fleck on a round turning thing in a limitless void, and loving it. Different to an eclipse, but on the same scale.

Could probably have done the same without benefit of CIDER, but I'd probably have got distracted by things I 'should' be thinking about, like werk and book reviews and stuff.

The view from the sunlounger, 10:30pm

without flash
Originally uploaded by tamaranth.

with flash
Originally uploaded by tamaranth.

View from the same place, with and without flash. (Check the bright glimmer of street-light, bottom left.) Though I was going for the lovely contrast of sodium-lit orange leaves and indigo sky ...