That's a beautiful garden, and a beautiful cat!
That reminds me of the ducks on the campground where we stayed quite often during my childhood. We had a dirty pan and the weather was bad, so we just put it outside the caravan in the rain. Later we wondered about the noise and found two ducks sitting in the pan and feeding on the "soup" the rain created with the dirty pan
I would worry if you let the cat eat out of the pan while you are eating or preparing the food. But after you have finished eating I see no problem.