MY FAVORITE ANIMAL SOUND

Besides the various birds which chirp here around before they get caught by cats and  dogs barking sometimes the whole day, which gets on my nerves, I had the charming sound of 4 cats. I point out "had" because sadly 2 of them passed away in the last 2 years. But of course they are not physically here anymore, but still in my heart.

I recognized immediately who was "talking" the biggest cat

called Kim made a soft little meow, hardly to hear like a little kitten, which didn't fit to her body at all.

The other female Pookie was grey and had, what I would call a normal meow as all street cats

The third and still getting on my nerves is little Rosie. She is a very little cat but has a loud voice. Unfortunately when she was out and comes in she announces her arrival with loud meows, even when it is 3 am. She doesn't care if it is day or night, she just has to tell us that she is back ! And I never had asked her to do so !

The worst is Arthur 18 years old but his voice hasn't changed. He still sings operas

but not like a Pavarotti, but rather like I would imagine a cat in a Hitchcock movie, or one who on a graveyard who scares people to dead. He still surprises us and I don't talk aboutthe reaction of our guests. He does this mostly when he wants to eat and as he eats a lot he makes a lot of noise too.

What I also know is of course the moo of a cow, and other farm animals. When we first moved here I hated a rooster who crowed at 4 am and woke up the whole area. One day it stopped so I suppose somebody had complained or he had landed in a cooking pot.

Camels make strange sounds with their tongue, difficult to describe and you better step back if you don't want to get a shower.

There is also the snake whistle or the quack quack of a frog.

The friend's parrot who asked us "are you going to bed ?" when we left doesn't sound like a bird but rather like a human. When he doesn't speak he screams, not a very nice noise.

But the best sound for me I have learned on Internet thanks to YouTube ! An Australian friend talked about a bird called Kookaburrra



who laughed every morning very early in her garden and woke her up ! I had never seen or heard such a bird and now I want one ! waking up with a laughing bird can only bring a lucky day !





Linking to Linda G. Hill SOCS - Animal Sound

FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

As usual we played Scrabble on Monday, this time it was my turn. The girls also play online and have become quite strong in gathering points. I have no time for that, or I don't want to have time, I prefer also to chat and not only to think what word I should put to get the most numbers. Of course I lost, but that isn't a drama for me I am not at all a gambler

The wind had calmed down but it was still raining a bit and not really a weather to go out, so I decided to make a real lazy day without doing nothing but my blog, watching a movie and cleaning up the mess Ol'cat Arthur had made, his last invention is to take out the food of his bowl and use the whole kitchen to eat. Maybe not the whole kitchen but all around its bowl.

I don't know if I suffer from spring lethargy but I really have no energy for nothing ! Our friend who takes care of selling our house called early morning, I was still half asleep and wished the person to hell who called in such early hours, but it was him to ask if he could come and take pictures of the house outside because oh miracle, the sun was shining. I just managed to get dressed when he arrived and took the photos.

When I saw them later, our house looked so nice that I almost wanted to buy it ! He has a special camera with a large angle so that you can easily take a picture also of a small place.

Nicole, Myriam and I felt like prisoners in our houses and thought it is better to be bored together then each of us sitting alone at home. Impossible to go outside if you didn't want to catch a cold. We decided to meet at Myriam's had a nice chat afternoon together and then returned home.

In the night of Wednesday/Thursday a 43 years old German shot 10 people in two Bars in Hanau, drove home shot his mother and then himself. Normalement I wouldn't care, because unfortunately it happens now too often everywhere, but this little German town in which it happened is just 10 km far from where my Grandparents lived, where I spent my childhood and I know it very well.

In my painting class I picked up my pouring picture I had done the week before and it iS dry by now



It's a long and not very large painting the grey underneath is the color of the table. I made another one but as I wasn't very much inspired, I just put a few colors together poured it over the canvas and next week I will see what will come out. That's always the best moment, the surprise !

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

READY TO WRITE IT OF - WHEN ?

Since this morning I was ready to write "it" of but I didn't know what the "it" was. In fact I didn't know anything because I have not the same time as you on the other side of the ocean. When we are joyfully hopping around or working or whatever, the Americans are in bed and sleep deeply, or have nightmares. The Australians are already one day ahead. Must be strange to travel into the future and land one day ahead or loose a day, or something like that.

I was looking the whole day for the prompt and now that it is 7 pm in Brussels it is 1 pm in New York. I am ready for supper and then go to bed, while you are ready for lunch or just had it and then start the other half of a working day.

When I was little I thought that the whole world went to bed when I went and got up when I got up. School of course was also at the same time. At New Year we all celebrated at "my" midnight and not as in Australia at "my" lunchtime and on top at the beach !

Maybe in future I will be ready to write in time and not when I am tired of a busy day when the clima warming has taken place and I in Northern Europe will swim in a pool at Christmas and the once living in the South have to buy snow boots and of course change the time !

Probably by then I will be sitting on a cloud and observe you, your different hours and of course the climate change which goes with it ! Should be logical, because in winter it's darker earlier and in summer later so not only they have to change the time but also the different "saving times".

Anyway you see I made an effort and wrote for Wednesday when it will be Thursday !











Linking to One Liner Wednesday

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

5 year old cars have to go to the technical controle each year.


more participants here,
and Image-in-ing

PETRA - JORDAN

In 2006 I visited Petra. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985. UNESCO has described Petra as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage". In 2007, Al-Khazneh was voted one of the New7Wonders of the World

Therefore when I was there it wasn't yet a tourist spot. Local people offered stones and coins to the tourist against a pencil or a little money. I "bought" a  piece of a vase for three ballpens ! You could go everywhere even on the sites were the archologists still worked.

Today it's completely different of course, as I have been told it became a real tourist place. I am happy that I had the opportunity to see it when it was not yet spoiled by too many tourists.

I don't explain the pictures as I did it already in my COUNTRIES & CITIES Blog. Unfortunately Photobucket masked the photos !

But here are a the most important which gives you an idea about the place !



A long way to walk on cobble stones











until we finally saw this temple



just amazing

more participants here

AWW MONDAY - WEEKEND FEB 15

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS


WEEKEND

Saturday for the moment is cleaning day. My interim Cleaning lady is so kind and comes Saturday mornings, she works for a friend and does me this favour because my dear Maria is still in Ireland helping her daughter with the newborn baby boy.

I don't have much to do, but moving from my room to the living room and Mr. G. is also pushed around. We both had a lot of computer work to do, he was busy the whole day with a back up of the back up so now we are protected twice and probably also in the clouds if the storm hasn't blown them away.





I had found a new photo program and played around. My picture of the Waterloo church looks nearly like a van Gogh !

Of course I was also looking for apartments, I know it is far too early, the house has first to be sold, but I just want to see what is on the market and am satisfied with what is on offer. Exactly what we need. There is quite a choise probably because the banks don't give a lot or nothing of interest, so people with money invest in buildings and rent. Good for me because at our age we don't want to buy anymore and have paper troubles, when you rent, you close the door and just walk away on holidays and all repairs are for the owner !

We are awaiting another storm for the weekend which means that we are again prisoners, and we wanted to see a medivial festival which was cancelled due to the arriving storm and all parks and woods are closed again. I wonder when we are going back to normal weather again, maybe I should write a letter to Greta xxxx.

And punctionally  during the night storm Dennis arrived ! Fortunately I didn't hear anything only in the early morning I heard the wind howl around the house. I got up and checked if there were damages, but fortunately there was nothing at all.

It lasted the whole day ! Fortunately we were invited by Nicole, her cousin a retired pastry chef was happy to show us how to make meringues. The girls were very interested, I prefer to eat and not to make them but at least I could do some photos !



He showed how to make one and then the others tried too, except Mr. G and I, we are not so for sweet things and also too lazy. But it was interesting to see how easy it was to do them.



The cousin made the first one, the man in red is Mr. G. who watched and probably waited for the moment when he could eat them.

We had a real funny afternoon while outside the storm raged. The meringues tasted delicious. Certainly a big difference to the once you buy in a bakery.



The men in the kitchen and Isis watching Dennis the storm !