Sunday, December 02, 2012

Return to Moomin Valley

Well, it's been a busy couple of months, I've moved house during a very busy contemporary music festival, opened (and closed) five new opera productions in five locations in one weekend, and now I've finally got through the layers of cardboard boxes to reach the wood burning stove. Probably just as well as it appears to be -5 at the moment.
Ironically, when I look out of my new bedroom window I can see the house I moved out of eighteen months ago, I'm now on the opposite side of the valley and mighty pleased to be back.
My new house is called Blackhole, and thus far has proved to be as elusive as its name implies, I suppose if they'd called it Higgs-Boson, then posties and service companies might have had a better excuse for not being able to find it. I suspect that the farmer who has lived on the property since the 1950's has never courted publicity, consequently, like Brigadoon, the mists only rise and expose it every few years; he certainly managed to persuade the council tax people it wasn't worth giving much attention to, for which I am very grateful.
I do have a plague of cats, the farmers wife feeds then, and they seem to have decided that I should participate in this. They're quite unusual, small, but with a coat that makes them look as though they had been painted by an enthusiastic but not very competent spongeware artist. Although they're not very friendly, they do keep trying to get into the house, come the warmer weather I suspect water pistols will be needed. I'll post some pictures when I have better ones.