Although Spring is the season of new life, the opposite occurred in the Villa. During a stay in the Villa our Shower Cat suddenly died. After the traditional shower with Ms. M. her heart stopped functioning. You can find a last picture of her and a short farewell poem in het Room of Grief. We will miss her dearly.

But gladly I found the solution to all our problems, sadnesses and botherations: the Calamity Stop. You can find this in the Orchard and you are welcome to park all your large and small disasters there.

We did not have much of a winter this year and life was quiet in the Villa. Therefore we found our diversions outside and offshore. I went Christmas Shopping in London with Dormouse, who bought himself a nice little companion.

Since then the Kitchen is Mouse Paradise: there I stationed our stock of cheeses we brought back with us from London, yummie, yummie!

There is no lack of mice in the Villa anyway: two new guests arrived in the Art Collection: a French Agate Mouse and a Saponite Mouse:

In the meantime Ms. M. reorganised the Library and added all Dormouse’s favourite books. She also arranged the photo exhibition ‘From winter to spring’ in the Living Room and discovered the painter Jongkind in Amsterdam:

To the left the Singelgracht in Amsterdam, to the right a Rotterdam canal painted by Jongkind in 1873, in the collection of the Museum Rotterdam.

Being the correspondent for the National Sillygraphic Society Ms. M. documented the extremely rare Porcelain Fungus in Westervoort, and an albino Moorhen in Utrecht:

The little spare time she has left she spends in the Studio, where she combines the knitting of socks with composing melancholic poems.

Kate finished the spring cleaning and refurbished a large part of the Villa, for example the Sun Room, the Meditation Room, the Veranda, the Rooms of Love and Life, the Bathroom (where currently a Black-Headed Gull has chosen its domicile) and Outside. She put a merry little bench out of Breedenbroek in the Backyard and gave the Pond a new drainpipe. And last but not least the Loo got a new signpost (it reads: Buttocks Path), but you have to take precautions when you want to visit the Loo...!

Do no hesitate to wander through the Villa and to enjoy the sun in the Backyard or in the Sun Room.

Have fun in the Villa!

Best wishes,