I'm back home for a bit after the wool festival in Backnang - which was lovely, and full of nice chats, and two spinning workshops that were very well received (at least I got a lot of positive verbal feedback, and nobody hit me over the head with a distaff! I count that as well received overall). 

It was very, very exhausting, though. If you're a solo trader and give workshops, you have basically no break at all. The setup I had - two workshops while running a booth throughout the whole weekend - was only possible because of the wonderful support of the Alte Künste-Team, who graciously occupied my booth and sold stuff for me while I was gone (thank you so much again!) and the help of my other wonderful neighbours, Frau Wöllfchen, who also had an eye on my stuff when I had to run off to the loo.

Because, let's face it - if you're a solo trader at these markets, reality is that you turn up in the morning when the place opens for the exhibitors, get your stuff sorted out, then you're there all the time except for a loo break when necessary - which is run to the toilet, do your stuff, and run back. If you're really lucky, someone from the team running the fair has organised a coffee distributor who passes by your stall and offers you a cup, or if you're really really lucky you have someone to spot you for ten minutes so you can have a breath of fresh air and maybe catch a cup of joe yourself. You're not getting out of your corner otherwise until the end of the day, when all you want to do is go to your overnight place and have something to eat and quiet and an early night to recharge for the next day.

Mind you, please, I'm not complaining. That's just how it is, and on a good fair, the day is so full of chats with people you don't even realize how time passes, and may even have trouble finding the time to eat. (You learn quickly to just make that time, no matter what.) Being in that rush, and knowing you're managing all this by yourself has its own kind of feelgood attached... and it's not that you don't know how it is after, at the latest, the first fair or show you're doing solo. (Kind-of-pro-tip: If you are on a fair, and have the time, and there's a solo trader you like - you might make their day if you ask them if you can fetch them a coffee, or something else.)

And there's always the unexpected talks about half- or very-way-off topics. The quiet chat with lovely people. The unexpected laugh, or crazy little action. In Backnang on the weekend, one of the giggliest times was the visit of the Green-Eared Cat (who is a very well-known personality at wool festivals here, and some of that may rub off on her taxi people). She turned up with her personnel, but of course the little piece of the Bamberg cloak reconstruction I had with me to show to people was only large enough for the cat herself to try on.  (The personnel will have to get themselves to Bamberg into the exhibition, where the full-size object is available for humans of any size to try on.)

But the cat did try it on, and to all our great delight, it fit her perfectly: 

So now it's sorting everything back, then packing for the European Textile Forum. Last prep for that is also running; we're still wondering about the best way to form artificial pearls, for instance. 

There's also two paper drafts that have to be finished and handed in, and some orders to be sent out, so I'm definitely not suffering from boredom right now!

I have a disgustingly large number of unsorted images, and while I also have a goal of doing a little bit about that regularly (though not daily), it's still a disgustingly large number. I can't even say if it does get better, as there's the occasional influx of images... but the last few days, I think I did have less incoming pictures than those getting sorted.

Among them that were sorted was this one: 

...and yes, that's exactly what I could use now. Not getting my own ears massaged (I think feline ears are much better suited for that), but hanging somewhere, chilling. There was bits and bobs of this and that getting done today, that kind of work day where in the end you feel like nothing has happenend though there was something to do all the time.

Fortunately the weekend is almost upon us, and I am looking forward to that. I hope you'll have a nice one too!

Yesterday was Pi Day - and today, my computer obligingly tells me (even though I did not ask) it's World Sleep Day. There's a something-day every single day these days, it seems!

At least this means that should you feel sleepy, you can blame the day. If you're feeling just the same as always... well, I guess our little cat does, too, and she sleeps a lot anyways.  

In, as you'd guess as she's a cat, varying positions and degrees of "aaw"-ness. Quite often it looks so comfy one gets the spontaneous wish to lie down beside her and take a nap as well.

In spite of today being World Sleep Day and the cat napping here and there since the morning (on a chair, in a basket, in her cat bed, and on my arm on the desk), I have not joined her for sleepies but instead did some writing and editing tasks and some spinning. And now for even more work... but no getting up for the moment even though I'd have some tasks that require hopping around... because the current sleeping spot is draped half over my arm again.

This morning I found a link to an article in my news digest - about how free-ranging cats are a danger to species diversity, and may be to blame for species going extinct.

Well. WHAT?

I'm aware that there's been a discussion about cats hunting, killing, and (not always) eating all kinds of prey animals, and that this should be curtailed to give the birds and whatever other species more of a chance to survive. Yes, cats are fierce predators with a very strong hunting instinct, and yes, I can see that this may pose a problem. I'm also not thrilled about cats killing birds.

However, I'm also not convinced that keeping cats indoors all the time is the perfect solution. It's definitely safer for the cat in regards to traffic dangers (rarely do cars go inside of living spaces, after all) - but having seen how our old lady lived a second spring when she discovered the Great Outdoors, keeping cats penned up inside, even if it's a rather large place, is also not the best thing that can happen to them. (There is a lot of pros and cons for indoor vs. outdoor cats, but all the cats that I have had in my own life were outdoor cats, and were very fond of their freedom. And I am talking about Germany here, which had the wild cat before the house cat came, so it's not really an invasive species here. Things are different for areas where cats are not more-or-less native predators. Also - feral cats are a problem everywhere, and they should be caught and at least neutered so they cannot breed without restriction. There's enough cats around already.)

To get back to the main topic though - in my firm opinion, free-ranging cats may today pose a problem for animal species that are in their prey spectrum, and are already struggling. The reason for that, however, is not the fact that humans keep cats as pets and companions, or else we'd have lost a lot more species since the Middle Ages or even earlier. Species diversity is endangered because humans have been very good at making bad decisions, at impacting the habitats of a lot of species, and reducing biodiversity overall through the use of monoculture, pesticides, herbicides, and general other Stuff That Is Very Bad For The Environment (TM). And it really ruffles my feathers to have that blamed on cats now. Because it's much easier, obviously, to say that cats are to blame for this or that going extinct than our ruining the planet.

Interestingly, the article itself, from what I've read of it, is not blaming it all on cats as much as the news digest snippet that I got sent does. If you're interested, it is open access in Nature and you can find it here. Linked within is another, equally interesting article about "Invasive predators and global biodiversity loss" where, interestingly, not only cats are listed - but also foxes, rodents, and other imported invasive species. And also interestingly, rodents have played at least as large, if not a larger, role than cats. In any case, the main culprit for importing these species is... the human.

I've looked a bit more for museum collection management software... and I am amazed at how many different options and solutions there are. Most of them, however, will upload or import or otherwise duplicate an existing file. Most of them are also designed to run on a server (though that is something that I could work with), which makes perfect sense for an accessible database, and are accessed through the browser. (Also workable.)

However, it takes a bit of time to skim the documentation for each of the options to see if it might be suitable for my purposes... and that's where I'm still stuck, skimming stuff and figuring out which one may be worth a try. 

That's all happening in little bits of time inbetween "proper" work stuff, though. With extra help from the little cat today (who has been putting her paw down on the touchpad more than usual...). But I won't complain too much about having a fluffy companion while working!

Having the cat relax and hang out on the desk also means that I get to sneakily shorten her claws as necessary. She's not active enough anymore to keep all the claws short enough through wear and tear, and the tendons in older cats sort of wear out as well and don't retract everything as completely as it should be... and that has actually caused her issues with walking. Plus claw snags, which may look funny, but must be rather annoying and sometimes probably also painful. So we got a claw trimmer (human nail clippers have the wrong shape) and now we're keeping her claws short enough that they don't bother her. 

Fortunately she's fine with having her paws handled; the only really difficult claw is the thumb claw, but even that is unsupervised and standing out sometimes, in some sleepy positions. And then, snip!, it is suddenly a little shorter. And Madame is a good bit happier - not strictly in that moment, but overall, since being able to walk without pain is definitely a great factor in personal happiness!

There I was, telling you I'd be back here on the blog yesterday... and then somehow the day went by, with a lot of things done (catch-up-stuff still left from my trip to the conference) and I completely forgot to blog.

Even though it's on my trusty to-do-and-reminder list... but, ah, that only helps if one looks at it as the workday draws closer to ending. Otherwise... well. Like not looking at the calendar and then promptly forgetting about dates. 

So... what was happening here?

Lots of things. I went off to Romania, for a conference about Eastern European Traditional Textiles... hoping to learn some more about them (as I was rather blank on that topic), and make some new acquaintances to get better network possibilities into the East. Both plans did work out, to my great delight! I had a wonderful time looking at splendidly embroidered shirts, doing a little hemp processing, taking part in a dyeing workshop that included some dyes I'd not had contact with before, and visiting the wonderful museums in Băiţa and Sibiu.

While I was away, the little cat felt a bit under the weather... apparently she managed to catch a cold, which made her appetite about non-existent. She spent a few days just sleeping and eating very little, but she did pull through - and the plus side of her spending a few days only sleeping is that she rested her right back leg enough with that to let it recover from whatever sprain it had. Now we hope the rest of her cold will pass quickly so she can go back to her usual upbeat self.

She's at least fit enough again to conquer her favourite sleeping spots (which all have conquering aids for her now - ramps or steps, for easier access, since the jumping powers of probably-around-18-years-or-older cats are, let's say, limited...)

Meanwhile, planning for the Textile Forum is also happening, there's a demonstration coming up where I will be showing tablet weaving (which has to be prepared), orders have been sent out and more prepared to follow their chums today, and some more planning has been done - which I'll tell about tomorrow. 

Today is, as I found out this morning, International Cat Day - taking place annually on August 8. And because that is the perfect excuse to not write a long blog post today, and instead delight you (well, hopefully) with a cat picture, here you go: 

Madame is, not surprisingly but still a little sadly, getting old. She's always had some food intolerances, but those got much more severe last year. After several months of searching for a possible cause, we did find out that it's probably the thickening additives in the canned cat food that she reacts to... and that ruled out about all kinds of available canned pet food (in combination with the kinds of meat she cannot have, there's about nothing left that would work for her).

So we switched to mixing her food ourselves, which means buying meat and adding in all the vitamins, minerals, and other things that are necessary to achieve the right amount of everything. Definitely not a low-maintenance cat - but she is much better now, having less issues with scratching herself, and also no more bad gut issues. The past few days, though, she seems to have hip pains :( and we hope that getting her some more aids to get onto her fave spots without jumping, and providing her with some nice warm spots, will help.

Growing old is not for cowards...