Ring Out, Wild Bells! As 2025 approaches, the Excellent Cats raise their game with a discussion on Tennyson's poetry

[TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne]

And while the cats are thus engaged, their human slaves are still finishing the turkey and Christmas pud, and idly placing bets on whether or not Kitty will use her new cat tree.

❤️❤️❤️

I've got the whole set in my bedroom.
They're nestling next to my collection of William books.
I can neither confirm nor deny if there's a complete set of Chalet School books there, too.........

Was that when they started the Form Three Times?

So Jennings and Darbishire.

I lost a load in a move, but found some in a charity shop recently.

You lot are hilarious. I’m too young and a foreigner so I have no idea what you’re on about. But I did used to collect old copies I found of St Trinians that had gone out of print and made their way to my birth country. Not home country because England is my home ❤️

St Trinian's is absolutely brilliant
Worryingly though - Ronald Searle's sketches for it sometimes bear a close relation to the sketches he made while a Japanese POW (my dad was also in Changi - hence my interest).
It's frightening where his inspiration came from.

Ooh she's a tall girl!

Sadly I have no idea what happened to our family copies of the Nigel Molesworth books, but I do have them on my Kindle now (paper copies, tatty & about 6th hand, were a fortune!)

She is! She’s asleep in her usual bed now but I’m hoping she’ll explore the tree further at some point.

I love Molesworth!
I applaud his spelling and grammar.

Also his distaste for the skool piano.

I love Molesworth too.
This cartoon still makes me laugh.

Heavens Grumpy! Your dad was in Changi?! 😦

Wasn't that 'ring out those Solstice bells'? Not sure if wild bells are mentioned, will have to dig out a dusty CD to have a listen. Or Google the lyrics.

Yes - captured (like everyone else) at the fall of Singapore in 1942. He was never sent to work on the railway though which probably helped his survival.
He didn't talk about it much...

Was catnip applied to the surfaces perchance?

Might have been.

Oh brilliant! What a good cat.

I'm thinking of selling the tower I got for Kettle. He shows it no interest and I've tried it in multiple different spots.

We didn't get round to putting the suitcase from our trip away yet and it seems someone is determined not to be forgotten next time 😆

An open suitcase is one of the very few things even more magnetic for cats than a box.

Our mother was in Stanley Internment Camp, in Hong Kong, along with her mother. I gather as she was small & skinny for her age, her mother lied about it to save her from the fate of most of the suitably aged girls in the camp.

Her father died there during the war.

I think many of the generation before ours saw hardships and suffering unimaginable to us.

I know this makes me sound like a complete old git, but I find it very difficult to sympathise with anyone now whose only complaint is hurt feelings...

I remember Tenko aired not too long after she died, and father refused to let it be on in the house as he couldn't bear to watch the treatment of the POWs in it.

Lest we forget. 💐
Cat Four is settled in beautifully and Cat Three adores her. They play together all the time. She is a great optimist and fully expects Cat One will also become her play companion. Cat One is wondering why she has not noticed he is an old curmudgeon and won’t leave him alone. He gets no peace when he has retired for a nap, poor boy.
Cat Two tried to push her off the balcony yesterday. Cat Two is in the box lid because Four is sleeping in her bed. There’s a strong connection between the murder attempt and the bed stealing.

Poor Cat Two!
I am extremely impressed by Cat 4's ....earbrows?...earlashes??
Cat 4 is a cutie

Are people anywhere else doing 'practice fireworks'? There are always a few round here who want to welcome the new year before it's even arrived.

NYE will be like WW3 (must admit I do enjoy it but it's very intense) and then it'll be every night until Twelfth Night when everyone will use up all the leftovers.

So far Kettle looks up but doesn't seem too bothered, which is brilliant. We used to have dogs when I was little that would go absolutely out of their heads with terror.

Thought I'd introduce myself- cat mum to 7 beauties- well my little boy would say 3 are his which is pretty true but still! All very loved and very spoilt ❤️ Here is 7 of them eating dinner together teaching newbie the ropes ❤️