Cold, Cats and Cutting-In

Another very chilly day here.

I am dealing with the cold by turning the heater up,

occasionally turning the airconditioning on, also,

cooking soup for lunch,

and by shutting the hall door

which stops the heat from escaping 

to the front rooms of the house.

I can tell this is working, 

because when I go into the front of the house

I am greeted with an icy blast.

Brrrr!

Later in the day I will turn on the oil heater 

in my piano teaching room

in time to heat that up for my afternoon's teaching.

In the meantime I'm painting the stairs again,

and am finally on the downhill stretch,

with most of the third coat done.

This is the first coat of Antique White USA gloss,

and a second coat will complete it,

maybe this afternoon, but more likely tomorrow.

To help the time pass and distract from

all that pesky cutting-in

I'm listening to excellent talks from

here and here.

Well recommended.

And on another topic,

this morning at 4.00am 

we were woken by the howling and yowling

of cats.

Shrieks, meows and thumps.

This morning around our carport were clumps of fur

and large drops of blood.

But thankfully, no corpses.

Ick.

Any ideas for repelling the neighbourhood cats

from our yard??