Herschel visits the vet

 

Herschel visits the vet

Our cats do not like visiting the vet. We have had cats in the past who have relished it, but Herschel and Jellicoe are averse. They make a lot of noise, but don’t follow it with any action.

Anyway, on Thursday it was Herschel’s turn to be checked over. It was raining and the cat basket is made of mesh, allowing the ingress of the nasty wet stuff. We haven’t got a custom-made cover so have to improvise with bin liners.

Herschel yowled all the way to the car and continued making piteous noises until Barry realised the poor cat couldn’t see him and lifted the cover. Herschel then settled in the car.

He was found to have a heart murmur, which is very common in cats, affecting about 40% of them. Herschel’s is quite a soft murmur, but as he is now thirteen years old and so considered elderly, it will be checked regularly to determine whether further steps need to be taken.

The vet said that ticks and fleas are making a much earlier appearance this year. Normally, they are seen from March onwards, but have been seen since January in 2026.

In my mind’s eye

 

In my mind’s eye

Now at all times I can see in the mind’s eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary’s turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939)

It might be assumed that the ability to visualise something is a practice everyone can indulge. ‘Counting sheep’ to aid sleep is one form of visualisation. Revisiting a favourite location in one’s mind is a pleasant occupation, but suppose you couldn’t? Some people lack the ability so to do. They may have difficulty recalling faces but will still be able to recognise people when they meet them. Imagining a scene is difficult for them and detailed descriptions will not conjure pictures in their minds, but they may be excellent at abstract problem-solving and code-breaking.

Inability to visualise mental images is called aphantasia and was first described in 1880 by Francis Galton (1822-1911). At that time, visualisation was largely disbelieved. It was not extensively studied until 2015, when Adam Zeman (1957-) of the University of Exeter, coined the term aphantasia. 

The extreme opposite of aphantasia is hyperphantasia, in which people have the ability to visualise events or places with almost photographic detail. Dreams can be overwhelmingly realistic, and mental images may be intense.

The table below sets out simplistically the differences between aphantasia and hyperphantasia.

Trait	Aphantasia	Hyperphantasia
Mental images	None	Extremely vivid
Thinking style	Verbal / logical	Visual / sensory
Memory	Conceptual	Image‑based
Emotional response to imagination	Lower	Stronger

So, for some people, the ‘mind’s eye’ does not function, and they may be astonished at the idea that others can ‘see with their mind.’

Colour blindness

 

Colour blindness

Colour vision deficiency, more commonly called colour blindness, is a common, often genetic, condition. It usually means an inability to distinguish certain colours. The commonest type is red-green deficiency, making it difficult to differentiate between shades of red and green, and creating confusion with brown, orange, and purple.

The second, rarer, form is blue-yellow deficiency, which affects the ability to discern blue, green, and yellow.

The rarest form of colour vision deficiency is absolute colour blindness, when an individual sees only shades of grey.

There is no cure for any version of colour blindness, but corrective contact lenses or glasses can help make colour identification easier, though they are unhelpful for blue-yellow deficiency. People can adapt by learning position rather than colour, in traffic lights, for example, or by adjusting contrasts on iPhone or computer screens.

Many years ago, I had in my class of eight-year-olds, a very diligent, painstaking boy. His teachers in the nursery/pre-school class had initially been concerned that all his drawings and colouring were black. They feared that he had significant psychological problems. In fact, he was colour-blind and a much-loved, precious child. He said he wanted to be a pilot or an air traffic controller when he grew up. Obviously, that was not going to be a suitable career path for him.

He was a delightful boy, and I often wondered how his life developed. I really wanted to ask him what colours he could identify in monochrome drawings in books, but resisted the urge. It was not my place to investigate, and it might have distressed him to be questioned, but I have always pondered what version of colour blindness he had.

Ishihara colour plates are used to discern colour vision deficiency. These show numbers or shapes on a dot pattern background. There are more sophisticated versions to identify specifics.

Presentation

 

Presentation

A gift handed to a recipient in a paper bag is still an acceptable gift, but how much pleasanter it is to receive it nicely packaged.

Eyes feast on expectation. The tin above is an example of attractive presentation. I came across it while looking for ginger biscuits. It appealed to me instantly. Sometimes the contents of striking containers do not live up to the expectation, but these biscuits did. Heart-shaped and pleasantly gingery, they were a delight.

In the 15^th century, German monks imported ginger biscuits to Sweden. Ginger biscuits had been known in England and Germany for many years before this.

In 1929, sisters Anna and Emma Karlsson established a bakery in Östermalm, Stockholm, to produce thin ginger biscuits. The legend is that a wish will come true if a biscuit held in the palm of one’s hand breaks into three when gently tapped. Don’t tap too hard or there will be a handful of crumbs!

Nyåkers Pepparkakor are also attractively packaged. They were introduced in the 1940s by two brothers, Bengt and John Åström, in the village of Nyåker. This area became known as the ‘Promised Land of ginger biscuits.’

I could make my own biscuits, of course, but I’m pretty sure they would not stand comparison with either of the above products, neither of which are always readily available. 

Scaffolding

 

Scaffolding

Shortly after being photographed, the amaryllis fell over. Scaffolding was erected hastily. Earth was added to the pot and it looks much happier now.

Meanwhile, the sitting room bulb continues to push forth its green shoots. The one in the conservatory is far behind.

Birthday

 

Birthday

6 o’clock gin started about thirty years ago as a small enterprise. Sloe gin is just one of their products.

February kicks off the birthday year in my family. There are just two in the second month. Melia, our third great-grand-daughter, will be three at the end of the month. It’s wonderful to see her developing skills and independence.

Barry, who set the whole train in motion, has his birthday at the beginning of the month, and is rather more than three years old. Our children have stopped asking what he’d like for his birthday, as I certainly don’t know. In any case, he has more than enough of everything he could possibly need, apart from youth, and that’s not available. As is so often the case, he decided on something he’d rather like – a miniature DAC (don’t ask!) which has arrived and been declared ‘superb.’ The larger, older DACs are still in service and still pleasing the discerning ear.

                            No. 1 sloe and elderflower gin is produced for Waitrose.

I couldn’t let the occasion pass without a gift from me, one which we will both appreciate, I’m sure. After the passing of 2025 during which neither of us drank anything alcoholic, we opened the bottle of ‘6 o’clock sloe gin’ which had been languishing in our dining room for two or three years. It was a smooth and warming liqueur, and one glass slowly sipped was quite sufficient.

Berkshire Botanicals

In addition to the above Rhubarb and Raspberry gin, Berkshire Botanicals offer Honey and Orange Blossom, Dandelion and Burdock, Sloe, Morello Cherry, Orange and Grapefruit, and Navy Strength gins. They are all created in Berkshire at the Yattendon Estate Distillery.

St Germain French Elderflower Liqueur

 That gave me an idea, so I looked to see what was available online. I’m no connoisseur, so easily satisfied, and quickly selected three which looked interesting and different. Judging by our usual consumption, they should last us about six years.

I added a box of Monty Bojangles Choccy Scoffy Dusted Truffles – very rich, very moreish.

Developments

 

Developments

Things are moving fast in the USA. It looks as though the administration is about to be overhauled and some elements removed and potentially imprisoned, Pam Bondi, for one.

One of the most astonishing things is that Trump is set to sue the Treasury for $10 billion dollars, to compensate him for the distress caused by the leaking of his tax return information. Extraordinary! American presidents are expected to declare their tax returns and always have done so. Trump’s naked greed is rampant.

Watching the breaking news on Thursday evening, I expected to see it making headlines in all the papers and news outlets on Friday morning. It didn’t. I began to think I had imagined it.

I note that more Epstein files have been released. The cynic would suggest that such a release is a means to distract attention from current events. Will the 25^th Amendment be invoked, or will Trump survive to stumble and ramble through another day, week, month, year?

Great Britain’s politics pale by comparison and seem very parochial. We seem to be grateful to be acknowledged by more influential countries as they continue their rise to the pinnacle. Our time in the spotlight has passed.