The Famous Cat Maru and the sled

 



VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z9KPTI5ixI

The Famous Cat Maru

I AM MARU....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZR_6K03gWk

The Famous Cat Maru on the Sofa

If you're stressed  and need to relax here in these busy Christmas preparations -  then look at Maru.
He knows how to relax...................

Maru on the Sofa 

The famous cat Maru and the Swing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnj6cnlIjM4

The Famous Cat Maru

I AM MARU


 

 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgxL-PwmY7s&list=RDjgxL-PwmY7s=t=28








We have known Maru for some years here on my blog, and he is now so famous that it is difficult to find a new video without music and lots of other references.
But here is an old video from 2012.  Maru and boxes is always fun and a few minutes well spent.
He brings a smile to your face doesn-t he?


Have fun!

Cat Quote

After scolding ones cat one looks into its face and is seized by the ugly suspicion that it understood every word .
And has filed it for reference

Charlotte Gray.

The Famous Cat Maru

I AM MARU 6

Never wear clothes which scare your cat....


P.J. O'Rourke

The Cheshire Cat

from 1866 publication Alice in Wonderland (wiki) 

The Cheshire Cat is one of many iconic characters depicted in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that have become enmeshed in popular culture, appearing in various forms of media, from political cartoons to television. One of its distinguishing features is that from time to time it disappears, the last thing to be seen being its grin.

I love the Cheshire cat, a great invention by Lewis Caroll. Its behaviour by disappearing, only leaving its grin, is a very catty behaviour. But I wanted to know a little more about this famous cat and found that it is amazing how much the Cheshire Cat is involved in: Literature, Film, TV, Games, Amima, Manga, Businesses, Art, Comics. Lewis Caroll really did hit bull's eye with that cat.




 CARVINGS

carving, St.Nicolas Church, (wiki)

Where did Lewis Caroll catch

carving, St.Wilfried's Church, Cheshire (wiki)

that great idea? Many have guessed that it came from sandstone carvings on old churches. There is a carving of a cat on the tower of St Wilfried's church in Grappenhall, a neighbourhood of his birth place in Daresbury Cheshire, but some historians believe that his Cheshire cat was inspired by a carving in Croft church. In 1992 the Lewis Caroll Society wondered if a gargoyle on a pillar in St Nicolas church in Cranleigh, where Caroll used to travel when he lived in Guildford - or if a church in the village of Croft on Tees in the north east of England where his father had been rector - had inspired him. But seemingly it could not be the church in Cranleigh, since he moved to Guildford about three years after Alice in Wonderfland was published. The cat in Cranleigh is very similar to a very grinning Cheshire cat though. He might have been there anyway. He cannot tell us now. And according to someone, whom nobody knows, he had visited St Christopher's Church in Pott Shrigley, Cheshire, which has a stone sculpture most closely resembling the picturial cat in the book. There are many theories.


English Stone Masons in Jutland.

with a grin, Hedensted Church (grethe b)

without a grin, Hedensted church (grethe b)

Maybe the Cheshire Cat visited Denmark?. When all the stone churches were built in a relatively short period, there was a need of both men of the church and craftsmen, and the king sent for bishops and stone masons from England. Many Danish churches have got some fine carvings, some were made by English stone masons - and I have found two cats in a church in Hedensted in East Jutland. A cat with a grin and a cat without a grin. Maybe the stone mason came from Cheshire? What do you say about that? 

1898 edition (wiki)

Alice in Wonderland
Alice first encounters the Cheshire Cat at the Duchess' house in her kitchen, and then later outside on the branches of a tree, where it appears and disappears at will, engaging Alice in amusing but sometimes vexing conversation. The cat sometimes raises philosophical points that annoy or baffle Alice. It does, however, appear to cheer her up when it turns up suddenly at the Queen of Heart's croquet field, and when sentenced to death baffles everyone by having made its head appear without its body, sparking a massive argument between the executioner and the King and Queen of Hearts about whether something that does not have a body can indeed be beheaded. At one point, the cat disappears gradually until nothing is left but its grin, prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat

Adaptations: 
In the 1951 Disney animated film, Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat is depicted as an intelligent yet mischievous character that sometimes helps Alice and sometimes gets her into trouble. He frequently sings the first verse of the Jabberwocky poem.
Cheshire Cat made non-speaking cameos in House of Mouse.
Cheshire Cat has made multiple appearances in the video game series Kingdom hearts.
1999 TV film: In the 1999 television adaptation of the books, the Cheshire Cat is portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg. She fully acts as an ally and friend to Alice, the latter defending the cat when she is threatened with execution.
2010 film: The Cheshire Cat appears in Walt Disney's 2010 Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton. In the movie, Cheshire (as he is referred to by other Wonderland characters) first appears to Alice as she is walking alone in the forest. He helps her by binding the wound she suffered earlier by the Bandersnatch and taking her to the Hatter and the March Hare. He is later blamed by the Hatter for betraying him during the Red Queen's attack where the White Queen's throne was usurped. However, as the plot moves along, he redeems himself by changing his form to resemble the Hatter during his execution and then evaporates as the axe is about to make contact, thus fooling everyone as the Hatter's hat floats up to the Queen's seat and Cheshire appears and winks. In the video game adaptation of the movie, Cheshire is a playable character who can not only turn himself invisible, but other objects around him as well. The character was voiced by Stephen Fry.


Other references:
Prior to the release of the 1951 Walt Disney animated adaptation of the story, scholars observed few specific allusions to this character. Martin Gardner, author of The Annotated Alice, wondered if T.S.Eliot had the Cheshire Cat in mind when writing Morning at the Window but notes no other significant allusions in the pre-war period. Images of and references to the Cheshire Cat cropped up more frequently in the 1960s and 1970s, along with more frequent references to Carroll's works in general. (See generally the lyrics to White Rabbit by the rock group Jefferson Airplane. The Cheshire Cat appeared on LSD blotters as well as in song lyrics and popular fiction.

TELEVISION: The Cheshire Cat appears in Once upon a Time in Wonderland (a spin-off of Once Upon a Time) voiced by  Keith David. While looking for the Mad Hatter's house from the trees, Alice encounters the Cheshire Cat in giant form where the Red Queen had promised him that Alice would be good food for him. Both of them ended up engaging each other in combat until the Knave of Hearts arrived and threw a piece of one mushroom side into his mouth which shrank him back to normal size as the Cheshire Cat leaves.

 
ANIME and MANGA: In CLAMP's Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat appears as a sexy catgirl. In the Alice in the Country of Hearts or Heart no Kuni no Alice series of manga and anime the Cheshire Cat appears as a catboy punk called Boris Airay. He has tatoos and body piercings, wears exposing outfits, a collar and a chain and a boa. He also has a fetish with weapons, especially guns. In the series, like many of the other characters, he falls in love with Alice.
The villain Schrödinger in the manga Hellsing is described by his commanding officer the major as "the smiling cat of Wonderland".
In the anime and manga Pandora Hearts one of the main characters Alice had a pet cat that died, but returns 100 years later as a chain in a realm created by one of Alice's memories. He came to call himself the Cheshire Cat, and had a more human-like appearance or a catboy look.
 In the sixth episode of Serial Experiments Lain,  Lain refers to a Wired user with an avatar consisting of disembodied, wide-grinning lips as Cheshire Cat. Lain's friend, Alice, was named after the book's protagonist.
The Pokémon character Gengar has the Cheshire Cat's mischievous smile.
In the episode 'Haruhi in Wonderland' of the popular anime/manga Ouran High School Host Club, the twins Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin each dress up as the Cheshire Cat, allowing them to 'teleport' from one place to another. They keep up this charade until Haruhi tells them to come out. She cannot concentrate as they are making her dizzy.

ART: An exhibit called The Cheshire Cat at the Exploriatum in San Francisco, created by Bob Miller in 1978, features a mirrored eyepiece that allows visitors to look at a picture of the Cheshire Cat's face with one eye, while the other eye sees a reflection of a white screen to the side-

stuffed toy, Museum Indianapolis(wiki)

BUSINESSES:The Cheshire Cat lends its name to two public houses in the county of Cheshire; one near stockport and another on the a41 south of Chester.

COMICS: In DC Comics, the New Goddess Malice Vundabar, niece of the villain Virman Vundabar, resembles Alice and controls a carnivorous creature called Chessure, that looks like nothing more than a grinning face. Cheshire is also the codename of the human assassin Jade Nguyen, who has a daughter with the heroic archer Roy "Speedy" Harper.
In Marvel Comics, Cheshire Cat is a foe of Luke Cage. An ally of fellow Cage enemy Big Brother, Cheshire Cat is able to make himself invisible and teleport. His physical appearance and manner of speaking are both evocative of a classic hep cat., despite debuting in 1976.

Jabberwock (wiki)

FILM: "le fond de l'air est rouge" (1977), the English title Grin Without a Cat. Like the original, it signifies that revolution was in the air but failed to take root. In the film, it is also stated: a spearhead without a spear, a grin without a cat.
The late filmmaker Chris Marker gave his monumental documentary on the New Left Movement of 1967–1977,
The Disney version of the character can also be spotted during the final scene of the film Who framed Roger Rabbit (1988). The Cheshire Cat is heard singing the poem Jabberwocky before he materialises in front of Alice.

GAMES: The character Luka in video game Bayonetta is nicknamed "Cheshire" by the titular character, which is exhibited through his ability to appear or disappear at many locations throughout the game by use of a grappling hook.

American McGee (wiki)

In the video games American McGee's Alice (2000); and the sequel Alice: Madness Returns (2011), the Cheshire Cat is portrayed as an enigmatic, yet wise guide for Alice in the corrupted Wonderland. In keeping with the twisted tone of the game, the Cheshire Cat is mangy and emaciated in appearance. His voice was provided by Roger L. Jackson, who also voiced the Mad Hatter and the Jabberwocky in the game.
In the Disney/Square Enix video game series Kingdom Hearts, loosely based on the Alice books as a subsequent adventure, the Cheshire Cat offers Sora, Donald and Goofy clues to prove that the Heartless attempted to steal the Queen of Hearts' heart and not Alice, along with the blizzard spell.

MUSIC:Pop punk band Blink-182's debut studio album is called Cheshire Cat(1994).
Hypnogaja's  song "Looking glass" states that "There's a cat that smiles like the crescent moon".
Blood on the Dance Floor's "Where's My Wonderland" song makes a reference to the Cheshire Cat's smile.
The Cheshire Cat is part of the chorus of victim effect's "Alice Alice".
French singer Nolwenn Leroy produced the album Le Cheshire Cat et moi in (2009)
Radiohead's "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" contains the lyric "You've got a Cheshire cat grin".
Though never mentioned by name, the Cheshire Cat is a central character in vixy's "The Girl Who's Never Been".
The Cheshire Cat is in the Mad T Party at Disney's California Adventure park. He is portrayed after Chessur and is found onstage playing the drums.

 
PRINT: Cheshire cats is the name given to the widespread genetically engineered cats appearing in Paolo Bacigalupi's biopunk novel The Windup Girl (2009).
In Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars series of novels, the Cat is Redd's top assassin. The Cat has butcher knife claws and can change from his true form to the form of a small black kitten. He initially has nine lives, but loses all but one by the end of the book.
In the  Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, the Cheshire Cat is an overseer in the Great Library, a library within the "book-world" which contains copies of every book ever written. However, due to "boundary changes", the Cat is renamed the "Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat".



Don't despair, take it easy, we're all mad here!

Source: wikipedia
photo Hedensted church, grethe bachmann
photocopies; wikipedia

The Famous Cat Maru and a Christmas Stocking

The famous Cat Maru

The Famous Cat Maru has got a Cat

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGE41yneQw0








Have fun!

The Famous Cat Maru

 Enjoy this little video for your Sunday entertainment.


The Greatest Hits Maru




photo. Maru from youtube

The Famous Cat Maru

Small boxes and the cat Maru

Try to look at the other videos with famous Maru  and the boxes!

Randers District and Lysnet Bakke, a hill more than 45 million years old.

A Taste of Denmark

During the winter season we usually drive a short tour closer to where we live. It's too cold to stay out for a long time like we do in summer. I'll often combine the tour with some church or manor photos, and this time we took the road north of Århus, first stop Spørring church. We were  lucky that day. The sun was shining after a dark week and the air was fresh. Good for the brain to get some sunlight they say -  and my brain felt better!

In the horizon were some low dark blue clouds looking like peninsulas in a sea. I don't know if you can see it?  And here were the silhouettes of trees upon a blue sky. Such lovely trees. There was no parking place by the church, so we had to park opposite by a little supermarket. Outside stood the most miserable Santa Claus I ever saw. He was so thin - his clothes were like put on a hanger, and his curly - and extremely shining - Santa-beard was placed upon his own beard, which was brown. He looked like the manager of the bank who had taken the role of Santa Claus. He was easily recognized, and I'm not sure the children were very impressed!

 

 

A nice church in Spørring with some good details. There was a strange stone in the church yard. Not like a usual hollow stone. I don't know if it was one of the ancient ones, those rock carvings from late Stone Age or from Bronze Age with carved or polished hollows. Since there are no written sources from that time, the experts have not agreed the meaning of these stones. They might be symbols of fertility, or used in sacrifice, or cult-tables in rituals etc. There are many ways to interprete these skålsten.
The sun was behaving well - look at sunshine on the church tower!  The church door was locked, like they usually are on a Saturday, but I can tell you who like unicorns that there is a frescoe with two unicorns at the tree of life inside the church! Outside are two chessboards on the wall - and those carved patterns are a mystery like the hollowed stones. No one knows how to make a certain interpretation of them. I believe they are the Devil's game board. When he played on this gameboard outside the church, he would not go into the church and disturb the service. But I might be wrong! No one knows. That's why it is so exciting to examine such things. Like a detective story.

chessboard, Spørring.

We went on and outside Spørring the landscape was covered in a light haze and the clouds began to gather. What now? You'll never know on a December afternoon. We came to Hadsten, just passing through. I have never been interested in the church in Hadsten which you can see on the photo I took from the car. I don't like the architecture, in my opinion it is boring. It's built in 1871-72. And the dull grey colour. No, I love the old Romanesque churches. Hadsten is a large village - almost a town - what we call a stationsby = railway town, between Århus and Randers. It has the shortest pedestrian zone in Denmark, 35 meter, with no name. In return Hadsten has got one of the largest model railways in Europe - called Model Railway Europe. But we must continue, for we did not stay in Hadsten. A few minutes later we heard screams and crying and I didn't know what it was. It was a tree with black flowers. Lots of rooks. What a racket. And close to a house! I'm glad I don't live there.
The next little stop was by the church in Lerbjerg, and here I couldn't find what was supposedly upon the wall, until I came home and looked in my book! Why didn't I look properly before we went out!

outside Lerbjerg church

But it was lovely outside the church dike and later we took a little stop by a small water stream, Lilleåen ( the Little river). There is much water in the streams now. That's good. Fresh, cool water for the fish and the water plants.  Lilleåen is the most important inlet of the big river, Gudenåen, more than half of the sea trouts go up the Lilleå. It's a good fishing place.

There was some cattle grazing close to a farm. Maybe they had to go inside soon. It was cold. Well, I think they can go out all day and night if it's Hereford. There was a little fat calf. It looked so funny. It was almost shaped like a square.

Near the Lilleå was a fishing lake, but I don't think the lake has any inlet of the river. They put out trouts in the fishing lake for people to catch, so you're always certain to bring fish with you home for suppper. You don't have to go buy fish from the fishmonger. It's a nice place and people bring their lunch and the children are fishing together with their dad.





Then we came to Bidstrup where we have been  several times. There is a fantastic beautiful landscape around Bidstrup. The present building is from the 1600s. 

Although I've got a better photo of the building itself I thought you should see the newly cut trees. The red building is a corner of a farm building. The estate might have roots in a fortification from the Viking period. The name Bidstrup is from the 1300s and means the place of the bishop. 

A few minutes after Bidstrup we saw two dilapidated houses. I don't know if they belong to the Bidstrup estate, but if they do then it's not worthwhile to restore them! They are probably private - and I guess they 'll soon be broken down, leaving place for something new.  







                                                     
                                  





















And then uphill to a special place called Lysnet Bakke. Lysnet Bakke (hill) lies in a landscape which rises markedly from a plateau-landscape. The transition is especially marked by a long 30-50 m high  slope. The inside of the hill is clay, which in one word can be described as plastic clay. The Lysnet Bakke is now a clay pit, from where was earlier extracted the plastic clay. The clay pit gives opportunities to watch the many various clay types, which are from a period 45-55 million years ago. The red clay, which you can see in some places,  is what 's called the Røsnæs clay. It's found in a few places in Denmark. The clay was deposited in an ocean, which covered large parts of the present North Sea-area, like Holland, Beligum, North Germany and all Denmark. South of the highest point is a clay pit, where was earlier extracted clay for a production of clinkers. The pit is marked by slippage today. The calcareous underground with slippage in the plastic clay gives possibilities for a rich flora, and some listed orchids grow here.From the hill is a fine view down to the landscape with the river in the middle. Stone Age people lived down there after the ocean had disappeared and the hills were their hunting place.This hill we stand on has been here forever and ever.

 


 

view from the hill down to the plateau-landscape, which lies in a haze

Then we continued our day-tour from the hill, first along the gravel road, and then it went downhill  through a lovely landscape. A pretty red house lies in shelter in the middle of the hilly area.  



 



 
























                                                                                                      

Next little stop was Vissing church,  placed  halfway downhill. Some churches in this area are very marked by frost and weather. The granite ashlars have got cracks on the northern and western side of the building. I guess it's the weather, for it's rare to see such cracked stones in the old ashlar churches, although they have been here for a thousand years. I suddenly saw a glimpse of a white cat on the church yard, but then it was just a little sculpture on a grave. There must be a sweet story about the cat's connection to this grave.
 

But the afternoon was icy cold. The wind had changed and I'm a sissy - sometimes. I wanted to go home to a warm house and have some good hot soup!

See you soon.


 

Source: Danmarks Naturfredningsforening.

photo 17. December 2011: grethe bachmann