Flora flees

Yesterday afternoon, after we had packed up and tidied the cottage ready to return to Cambuslang today, James and I suddenly decided that we should head down the road straight away. It was like a self fulfilling prophecy, because we had planned to stay one more night, but once we were ready, we felt as if we wanted to set off. So far so good. The cats were outside so we had to wait for them to come back in. This duly happened and James carried Tom out to the car and put him into the cat carrier. This was where things went wrong. I arrived at the car carrying Flora, but also a pair of shoes and the car keys. I thought that James would open the door for me but he didn’t realise that I needed assistance because of everything that I was carrying, and I ended up dropping both Flora and the shoes. Flora ran round the side of the house, down the path, and along the lane. I have never seen her run so fast. I followed her and found her sitting just inside the thicket of trees and bushes beside the path, looking out at me mournfully. But when I tried to reach her she retreated further into the undergrowth. Foolishly, I tried to follow her and got scratched by thorns and stung by nettles on my wrists and ankles, before I gave up and went back to the cottage. We waited for nearly an hour until she came back to the cottage. By this time it was 8 p.m. and I wondered whether it was worth driving down the road. But everything was packed so we set off, both cats securely in the car. Things got better because the journey went very smoothly and we arrived home at five past midnight. The cats were amazed and demanded a big feed. I had a quick bath and a cup of tea and headed for bed.
Today was all about unpacking and settling back home. The cats stuck pretty close to me as I pottered around upstairs. James and I treated ourselves to lunch in the Museum of Rural Life, one of our old haunts. This evening I went to EK Book Club at Maria’s. It was good to see everyone again and there was a lot of news to catch up on from the summer.