http://kitsandmortar.com writing our home into existence Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:00:46 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Peter Hetherington on the rise of community-owned land | Society | The Guardian Great piece on the way communities ... http://kitsandmortar.com/2009/04/09/links-for-2009-04-09/ I've been eager to go to my nearest cat shelter and volunteer to socialise with the cats there for months and months. The nearest one was closed for refurbishment for ages, but the recently reopened, so a friend and I went today to spend some time with the cats they ... http://kitsandmortar.com/2009/02/27/playing-with-the-rescue-kitties/ Cat Training Overview | Karen Pryor Clickertraining Huge amounts of info about how to clicker train your cat. ... http://kitsandmortar.com/2009/02/27/links-for-2009-02-27/ I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about the games that cats like to play, and she mentioned that her cat is showing signs of learning to play fetch. Fetch is a game that is primarily associated with dogs as it's a game that they are ... http://kitsandmortar.com/2009/02/27/games-cats-play-fetch/ Kevin and I were watching Grand Designs' Kent Eco Arch episode with a little bit more interest than usual because it was billed as a "sustainable" build. But what caught our eye wasn't the green aspects (which were hardly discussed anyway), it was the amazing design. The most striking feature ... http://kitsandmortar.com/2009/02/26/is-this-a-game-changing-house/ The BBC has a piece on its website that purports to be about training cats, but in fact discusses nothing of the sort. It's a two minute package which focuses mainly on cats being "mugged" with a brush as a pretense at grooming, and a discussion of trimming their claws ... http://kitsandmortar.com/2009/02/22/training-cats-and-ailuropolitics/ Ecobuild is a free exhibition at Earls Court, London, from 3rd to 5th March 2009, which covers all sorts of green and sustainable building topics. There are exhibits on renovation, zero carbon houses, solar energy, natural materials and more. There will be seminars as well, on water, regulation, and urban ... http://kitsandmortar.com/2009/02/12/ecobuild-3rd-to-5th-march/ This house in Japan has to be one of the most impressive examples of designing for cats that I've ever seen. It includes almost all of the features I've been thinking about over the last year or so: high walkwayscat stairshiding placesinternal catflaps in the wallslarge, secure outside penswell positioned litter ... http://kitsandmortar.com/2009/02/11/the-ultimate-cat-house/ One of the most attractive things about old houses is that many of them have been extended and remodelled over the centuries, often using quite different materials and styles. This gives the building a sense of change, especially when the owners have resisted the urge to make the innards all ... http://kitsandmortar.com/2009/02/10/building-in-phases-all-at-once/ Vermont Timber Works, Inc. - Builder of Wood Beam Frames Timber frame builder, with some beautiful designs, although not ... http://kitsandmortar.com/2009/02/09/links-for-2009-02-09/