I have downloaded photos and will return to the holiday, but just to keep up to date, I was very happy this afternoon. I went out to feed the barn cats and was dishing out food to them when I saw Eloise cat, I thought, looking at me. She disapproves of other cats and only approaches them to chase them away when they’re near the house. After I’d given all the food, I went back towards the entrance to the place where I feed them and the cat moved off – in the wrong direction. I was confused. I looked left and saw a tabby, not a tortoiseshell. The cat looked at me, then went through the missing plank (intentionally missing) into the cats’ barn. It must have been RasPutin, father cat to all the Barnies.

He vanished in the autumn of 2019 and he’d returned several times over the previous few months looking thin. I fed him until he looked well again, then he disappeared – he vanished for good in the November, I think, I assumed he’d died. But it seems he hasn’t. No other cat would go into the Barnies’ barn, it must be RasPutin. I’m fond of him, he was never a pet and I made no attempt to catch him. But I’ll be thrilled if he comes back to be fed again.

I went to a Nadfas lecture today and I could speak about the integrity of a personal collection rather than a museum collection, not that the latter doesn’t have its valid place. But not now. Quite possibly never. I don’t see a lot of point in getting impassioned nowadays, my views don’t matter and that’s okay.