We walked over the open fields of Totteridge
(1) to Finchley Nurseries Garden Centre. Saw one dead rabbit, which looked like it was just sleeping. Also saw a sinister pile of something with a feather sticking out of it.
(2)
1:
2:
A friendly cat was happy to be talked to and spoke back with a kittenish, high-pitched miaow.
(3)
3:
In the garden centre, they were doing good business with pumpkins.
(4–5)
4:
5:
There were three more cats. Amber was asleep on a table of flowers.
(6) The grumpy black cat was stalking around the "perennial tunnel" and then slinking into the shop
(7) so I kept clear of him. A doddery old black-and-white cat was sleeping on the roof of the aquatic centre, but stirred himself just to be sociable.
(8–9) I picked him up and made friends. The staff later revealed that
he was the grumpy cat, not the all-black puss I had avoided. (Should have remembered that from
HERE.)
6:
7:
8–9:
We went in search of Max's grave round the back of the big greenhouses. Max was a big, tough tabby who used to sleep in a box in the shop window. The staff had made a touching grave marker for him, but it was nowhere to be seen – perhaps relocated to another part of the premises or grown over already.
We had toasted sandwiches and coffee on the lawn outside the café, with soppy dogs yelping at their owners, parakeets flying over and goldfinches eating from the bird-feeders.
We walked back through the "rat poison" field and past the deserted barn. It was warm but distinctly autumnal.
Miles walked: 3.07
Cats spotted: 4
