A while back I happened to notice my cat Nila had an infected toe/foot. She walked normal so it was by sheer accident when patting her that I found out.
Cats tend to hide injury from their keepers. The only thing I did notice was her being cranky towards my kitten Roosje.

It smelled quite bad so I knew it was quite badly infected.
Now I don't normally race to the vet's with my cats. I always try to heal them myself and so far I've always succeeded whenever they had an injury. (thank goodness not often)
But it being her rear left paw... I didn't see that work out with salt water baths. I tried, but li'l Ms Nila was not impressed, hihi.

I decided to go to the vet's after all. I didn't want to risk her losing part of her foot and I knew it wouldn't miraculously just heal.

She got antibiotics and painkiller injections and I got the same home to give orally.
She quickly cheered up and turned to her normal chirpy self.
Infection went away but... after about a week it came back.
I didn't want to spend another E95 at the vet's. I decided to try healing it myself this time.

So salt water baths, even though Nila greatly objected, hihi. But... she didn't scratch nor bite me even though she was very much not in agreement.
I also bought honey ointment, suitable for both animals and people.
She didn't like that much either, worse than the salt water, as the ointment had a rather strong scent.
But I managed to get it on her toe some 4-5 times.

Outdoors I noticed she was eating lots and lots of duckweed from my li'l pond, scooping it up and eating it off her paw. Ridiculous amounts at that.
Interesting! I Googled it, turns out duckweed is anti-inflammatory, lots of protein, strengthening immune system and whatnot.
The wisdom of cats!!
She knew exactly what to eat to help heal herself?!!

About a week of this combi -salt water, honey ointment, duckweed eating- and the toe had healed!!
No flooding her system with anti-biotics a 2nd time, no E95 at the vet's and cat-stress to get her there.

And I saw the other day that the nail has grown back!
The vet had said it was too damaged and likely wouldn't come back but it has :D

Just wanted to share this. I've always healed my cats myself without needing a vet, from a very infested shot wound from an air rifle (such a lovely neighbour) to scratch wounds from fighting, and now Nila's toe.
It's much healthier for the animal than getting antibiotics and chemical shizzel in their body.
All the while using common sense of course, knowing when your animal does need a vet!

When watching the docu series "The Alaska Triangle" people tell that real men in black turn up whenever people have clear evidence of UFOs or aliens. These men in black confiscate the whole lot, albeit photos or vids or sound material, and make sure you never ever talk about it or else...
So yes, it seems they do exist.

I think the saying 'no smoke without' fire applies to all of these things. In this case the MiB movies are the smoke, but there are a lot of things in that movie that are considered truth by certain people. The one(s) who made it wasn't a knucklehead.

If you don't like it simply move on as opposed to showcasing your love for judgement.

13C during the day
sun in the afternoon...
Then mild showers, and again strong wind.

Not too difficult...
Don't spend all your time together, keep doing things by yourself and/or with your own friends.

Be spontaneous, keep a sense of being adventurous instead of becoming a couch potato because you got him/her and are now in a perceived 'safe zone'.

You've got to keep things fresh and vibrant. Routine and ruts will eventually create boredom and kill romance and intimacy.

Work on good communication. No bottling things up, but communicate in a healthy clear way without any blame.

Surprise your partners with fun, sweet, cute things. Don't wait for his/her birthday or Christmas.

Compliment the other.

Make sure you spend enough quality time together.

9C rain, dull & grey, stronger wind

Thank you so much, bobtail!

Thank you, Julie :)

The profile come across as typical Filipina: pleaser, no boundaries, possible low self-esteem.
Whether this is genuine or make believe to lure a man in, I don't know.

I personally prefer a woman profile herself in a self-confident way so I wouldn't rate this very high.
But men usually like that sort of thing.

Yes, or has gone through a traumatic change. You often see it after divorce.

14C overcast, raining, and quite dark. Considering switching on the light...
Wind will get strong in the afternoon, during shower possibly storm gusts.

It's basically finished! I'll check it tomorrow with proper daylight and a clear head to see if everything I want in it is.
But in essence it's done!

The edges of the roof now have the thatched sticky out bits, the bridge's railing is done, the flowering & plants in the foreground, and the path is now made up of flagstones with grass in the between.
Believe it or not, that was a nightmare to do (the grass lines in the path).
Oh, did a few tweaks and fine-tuning of the water.




A close up of the cottage as I feel it's worth a closer look

some 9C but felt like 5C-ish. No sun, overcast all day and bit hazy until after noon.

Time to get the winter coat out instead of my in between seasons coat. I could see my own breath, it was bloody cold outdoors!

Thinking... I want a sweet loving attractive man, my Mr Right!

Thank you, Julie :)

Huh? I already replied?!?

Thank you so much, Merry & Delightful!

Still lots of detail to be done and I'm doing shorter sessions at the mo cause of my neck. But I got it on top of my desk's cupboard right now and dang, do I love it!!
I actually like it better than the other cottage painting. But then again I always feel that way about every new painting I'm doing, hihi.

Gosh the water in this painting wasn't easy. A new one on me.
In the photo above it was too bright red-orange. Then I decided to go to a normal colour, blue. I didn't like that one bit though! In a way I liked the red-orange and this was so cold and didn't seem to fit the rest of the pallet at all.



I could've softened it of course, but I decided to have a good look at the reference again and go for that.
Which I did.
Warm colours, just what I liked and wanted :D

I will likely do some finishing fine-tuning touches to the water, but the colour will remain the same.

In the reference it was brown/orange/reddish. Mine just got too reddish so I will have to work on it. Maybe put primer over it and make it regular blueish.

Couple more sessions done.
Not finished yet, but nearing the end. Lots of detail to be done and a few correction. Nevertheless nearing the end.

Thank you, Maybe!
And yes, I do have that but I haven't updated it in a long time. I think my thread here is way more complete in that sense.