Castlerock Beach (and a cat's tale)

Hold the front page I was actually out on the beach the other day - early(ish), to avoid the holidaymakers:

HP5+, 35mm lens; Kentmere VC paper, bleached in cupric sulphate then sepia toned.

Too much of the old sepia?  Maybe this one is easier on the eye:

Castlerock beach, looking over towards Inishowen/Donegal.

Note the tramlines - looks like I've gone over the negative with a razor blade.  This is what happens when you mess too much with winding half a film back into the canister and then loading it in a different camera.  Must have picked up some dust somewhere along the line.  Said canister is now in the recycling bin.

My life, I have found, bumps along OK for most of the time.  Then a dozen things happen at once.  This week, for example, we are off to Oxford for the graduation of the year.  My wife and I had tacked on a few days to ourselves before getting the ferry back from Liverpool.  Then our Tabby cat, Maisie, decides to throw a spanner in the works.  She went AWOL last Friday night - it was a warm night and she was last seen running around the garden like a mad thing as dusk descended.  Woke up Saturday morning and she was not in her usual place (bottom of our bed) and her biscuits (by her own bed) were untouched.  Probably sleeping somewhere outside, we thought - it has been known; she'll come back when she's hungry.  Didn't see her all day and as dinner time came and went we became increasingly worried.  Went out a few times to call her name, up and down the road, nothing.  A while later and we were alerted by her cries - she'd managed to drag herself home, got through the cat-flap and then collapsed.  Her front leg was dangling, clearly she was unable to lift/move it.  Hard to tell what happened but her paw looked crushed and her leg was lacerated, as if she'd tried to free it from something by pulling it out.  She was crying incessantly, clearly in pain.  So it was off to the vets with her.  The news isn't great.  We don't know for sure yet as they haven't x-rayed it but there's talk of amputation.  What can you do?  She's young (just turned 4) and otherwise in good health - she wants to live.  If - and it's a big if - there's a big improvement today then they might leave it alone to see how things go, but so far they haven't seen much change in her, in spite of strong painkillers and fluids.  The vets seem good and helpful so we're confident they will do the right thing.  She's not insured though, so this is going to hurt me as well as her.  Payment plans are available, we're told.  You can guess what that means.  In the meantime we are still going to Oxford, but abandoning plans for our mini-break afterwards and coming straight home.  I'll keep y'all posted on progress.