Phantom

This cat often comes into our garden, and sometimes even our house, if the back door is open. She's been nicknamed, 'Phantom'. She came into the house today but I didn't get any good pictures of her indoors. She's not a stray, she looks very healthy and wears a pink collar with a bell on it. I resist feeding her but only because I know it would be bad for her. Like the squirrel in our garden, I have to remind myself how fat she got when I kept giving her toast crusts in order to stop myself giving her treats all the time.

Had a lovely afternoon with Al at a pottery cafe, making Chris a mug for Christmas. Al likes to take his time, whatever the task, and he took took two hours to painstakingly paint the mug and carefully eat a chocolate cupcake, managing to leave the buttercream icing to the end, and the chocolate button on the top to the very last. Figuring her handwriting would be better than mine, I asked the girl in the cafe to write Al's message on the bottom of the cup. She asked me if there was a double 'S' at the end of 'Christmas', and then missed out the 'T' in it entirely. I also puzzled over the sight of a little girl aged about four, patiently watching her mother decorate a plate, apparently not allowed to paint anything herself.

Betsy has a bad cold, but dragged herself to Softball Academy anyway, but wasn't fit for anything else. Watched A League of Their Own is afternoon, just for the baseball. It's hardly a great film but I can't help liking it, a guilty pleasure.