Vet

Today we're going to take our kitten to the vet. He still has a cold that he doesn't seem to beat and yesterday his eye was all swollen up and infected, the poor thing. Today it's much better as it's a rule among cats to always get sick or hurt on Sundays when the vet's closed. Right now he is sleeping on my leg, having played all morning and even been outside for quite a bit. He really knows what he wants. If we don't let him outside he miaows until we get annoyed and open the door. But he's real good outside, staying in the yard and returning after a while.

Meanwhile my sunflowers are finished for the summer. The birds started picking on two of them before they were even in full bloom and they died. Today I took some seeds from the biggest and prettiest before the birds steal them all. I now planted some ranking plants in two of the pots and in one some olive seeds. The other day I also finally got a big vase for my window in which I want to plant a mixture of several cascading plants and a summer flower misture all in pink. It will look rather beautiful as the house is painted a light cream color that is almost rosè. I only need to get some soil now.

I also want to get some flowers for the kitchen that don't need a lot of sun. We do get sun there in the morning (I think it's north-east) but the basilicum and other spices I put there didn't grow well.

That they may face the rising sun

I am reading a book the setting of which is in Ireland. It is called "That they may face the rising sun". I haven't yet found out why it is called that but I like the title. The book in itself is different from everything I have read so far and that alone is reason enough to like it. It talkes about a couple in Ireland. Whereas most of the Irish population has been forced to depart for England to find work, these two have decided to live out in the country. They seem to be middle-aged with no children. The odd thing is nothing much happens in this book. The seasons change, they are visited by various neighbors, they take care of their animals and the fields. And yet it is not boring. Everybody in the book is quite a character but then there are people that you don't get to know well, too. It is strange how much it is like real life without no real development in the protagonists and no conflict and yet it is so fascinating.

This may sound like a rather odd "Gedankensprung" but when I think of the title I think of my "girasole" or sunflowers that I planted. The seeds were given to me by Franco and the season being advanced as it is I put them in the soil a couple of weeks ago. They have begun to grow and there are about 11 now. (Unfortunately one I think is dying...) In Italian they are called "turns to the sun" and that is what they do. They are sitting on the windowsill and when I look at them at night all their little heads are turned to the window, and I think that they may face the rising sun.