Switzerland
It’s no good. We all want to move to Switzerland. The real deciding factor is not that we miss our Master, which of course we do. No, it’s the length of the days. Our Mistress hates the winter months in England and to be fair the rest of us can see her point. I know it’s only October but the days are beginning to get much shorter and darker. Already where our Master lives gets 14 minutes a day more daylight than we do and that difference is only going to get more as we head further through the year. We don’t mind that we’d lost some of the long summer nights – to be fair we tend to sleep through quite a bit of that. It’s the daytime we’d like to feel like day really. How do the Scandinavian’s cope?
Darkness
If any of you live further north than we do, how on earth do you cope with the winter darkness? It’s bad enough here at the end of the year when it’s dark by 3.30 in the afternoon. We can’t imagine what it’s like to have it dark even earlier than that.
An odd year
Having said all that, this year does seem to be a little odd. It still hasn’t done much in the way of raining here. Wilma says there really isn’t as much mud as she’d been hoping for. Most of the trees are hanging onto their leaves longer than you’d expect and we’ve still got sunflowers in bloom. Our Mistress has to put her winter tyres on the car in a couple of weeks because of going to Switzerland, but she really doesn’t need them here at the moment. The more years I live, the more I realise that this whole pattern of the seasons I was led to expect isn’t quite as normal as people would have me believe! The only thing that seems to happen reliably is the days getting longer or shorter depending on the time of year.
I’m going to lie by the window and watch to see if any leaves fall off.
Have a great day
Alfie
© 2018 Rosemary J. Kind
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Being a cat who likes roaming the outdoors at dusk, Sweden gives me many opportunities. But I do not care much for the cold snow or the wet so… well wintertime is a perfect time for long naps. I have good nightvision but my human is stumbling around especially since deep winter means very, very short days. We are grateful to say that in our half of Sweden we still have some daylight all days while the north of Sweden, above the arctic circle, they have a day or so each year when the sun does not rise at all.
But, and this is a huge but, for a roamer like me, summer is the opposite. The sun hardly sets and for a period the nightsky is not dark and the stars do their best but they can’t twinkle as brigtly when the nightsky stays light as they do in the dark winternights. Summer is my time. My human complains that she hardly can sleep because I like to be out all night and do my roaming and hunting. These walks are my catprivilige and I live in the countryside so my human says that I’m fairly safe from the cars but she worries about foxes and badgers and other wildlife. She has difficulties wrapping her mind around the fact that I’m a bit of a wildcat myself, and I’m proud of it. She sees me as a cuddly pet but I’m actually a king by night and that’s why I roam and climb my old oak trees to use them as thrones.
Well it’s autumn now and my fur is getting really thick and soft and my human absolutely adores my fur so I stay in a lot so that she may cuddle me, spoil me and treat me as a… yes of course… as a King! She says that without me she would probably get winterdepression but with me she won’t because I’m there!!!
Naps are good! The winternaps prepare me for springtime. And when the snow’s all gone again and the ground is getting dry again I will be ready to go take my kingdom back and be king for another summer!
Best autumn wishes from Francis, King of Oak Hill, Bjärka-Säby, Sweden, in the 10th year of His reign!
Dear King Francis,
How very interesting. I’m not sure I’d like it to be light all night. I prefer sleeping to hunting. I think I need to even my year up a bit somehow.
I’m impressed that you’re part of the royalty. That’s quite an achievement even for a cat. I’ll remember to bow if I ever get chance to meet you.
Happy hunting
Alfie