About this Blog
Welcome to Cats and Birds and Stuff — a home for stories, memories, feathered visitors, feline overlords, and the occasional rant about electricity meters or Lee Harvey Oswald.
I’m Paul. I grew up in Swansea during a time when “health and safety” meant keeping your fingers out of the plug socket, and childhood mischief was met with a clout and a cloud of cigarette smoke. From there, life took me through the army and eventually landing me (somehow) in a quiet corner of the Italian Alps — with cats, a bird feeder, and a terrace garden that definitely wouldn’t feed us through a zombie apocalypse, but makes a fine home for tomatoes and butterflies.
This blog is a mix of:
- Childhood memories — often chaotic, occasionally criminal, and always very real
- Army tales — with a few darker moments, told honestly but with humour
- Nature and garden musings — birds, bugs, stink bugs, and the occasional wasp with attitude
- Cat stories — because I live with three furry reprobates who run the household
- And whatever else pops into my head after two cups of coffee and a look out the window.
I’m not selling courses, pushing affiliate links, or promising to teach you how to make passive income using ChatGPT. I’m just telling stories — the kind that stick in your mind for no good reason. If any of it makes you laugh, remember something, or just feel a little less alone in the world, then this blog’s doing its job.
Pull up a chair. Stay as long as you like. And if the telly cuts out, don’t worry — I’ve got a clothes peg.