Just for Michelle...

Another duck picture for scale - or - dinner time!

Bear Update

Bear is still on her language spurt. Cats are earning their keep! Lots of "Daddy" and "Mummy" and tonight "Ritz" for the required savoury biscuit AND generalised it to ask Daddy!

Also in cat news...Hot-Hubby thinks they "need" to come through to the front room for a cuddle at night "so they get more used to us" They are growing like weeds and feel like they have doubled in size in the two weeks we have had them.

In duck news - they're taking over the asylum!!


and yes that's snow on our roof - more falling at time of writing so hoping for enough for sledging or a melt by morning. Nothing more irritating for Scrumpy than not enough snow!

osina not othy - now it all makes sense!

Cats have had a trip to the vet where it was confirmed that Tim is actually a girl. Need I say more?

Tim gets stuck, Tim shouts for help. Bruce gets stuck, sits there silently like a numpty.

Both are growing on me and purr like out board motors, so much so that Tim had to have surgical spirit wafted up her nose to help stop her purring so the vet could hear her chest! Tim also had to have her eye checked but all in order except a short course of antibiotics to cover cat flu infection.

Bear is still besotted. Scrumpy also quite beside herself and wants to hug them all the time. They are now dual purpose cats, big bad barn therapy cats. Bear has said more sentences since we had the cats indoors than she has said in the last year. Never underestimate the power of animals.

What a day! or Dreams can come true...

Yesterday we found Squeak in the wall of the tack room - today, we found him in the tiniest tube in the wall, upside down and looking very much worse for wear. Stupid cat. Having got him out of the wall we brought him in and left him with food and water on top of the boiler in a pet carrier. He soon picked up but then our attention focused on the absence of Ratty, who was eventually found in the wall on the other side of the stable. So today has been spent rescuing cats - head down the back of walls bum in the air trying not to join them. Not the most elegant position but needs must.

I decided to call in the big guns and got the lady from the cat protection league to come out. A lovely lady who has lent us a double size carrier so they can be contained with food and litter tray and we can keep an eye on them. She also confirmed we have two brothers so their actual names are Tim (as in Nice but Dim - Harry Enfield and Hot-Hubby's choice) and Bruce which was my choice and due to a dream I had. Tim has the snots which I'm hoping is due to dust and dirt and nothing more but we need to keep an eye on him. Next episode - a trip to the vet for jabs and worming.

Mid-week Highland Madess Howler

Put your tea/coffee down and watch this but please be warned, language is definitely "adult theme"

And for those of you preferring "Aww!" to "BWAHAHAHA!!" here's a picture of Squeak - sibling Ratty is the same colour but slightly shorter coat and more of a splodge than stripe effect. Squeak is more adventurous (or should that be less clever?) and got stuck down the wall this morning - stupid cat had climbed up the wood pile and over the gap at ceiling height into the tackroom nextdoor to the stable (we use it as a garden shed.) Did Squeak land in the comparitavely vast area of the tackroom? No, stupid cat fell down the wall - a gap of about 3" at most - and I had to pull the hardboard off to let the thing out. Then I had to catch it - Squeak NOT impressed!


But none the worse for wear



and still cute, for a cat.

Decison made!

We now have two adorable ginger kittens currently living in the stable. I collected them today from the Giggling Farmer's connection.

Photo's to follow

Decisions, decisions

What colour wetwall should we have? Where should the radiators go? The lights? The switches? How high do we want the shower head? Where and what's going in the kitchen? The list is never ending! Extension is exciting and progressing but also so consuming.

Then there's the mouse issue - should we trap them, poison them or get a cat or two? I'm in favour of option three so watch this space (had a dream we had a barn cat called Bruce!!)

And now the ducks have moulted and regrown feathers do we clip them or trust them to know what side their bread's buttered and stick around? The books say they fly around not away and they do look amazing zooming around at head height...

Answers on a postcard please....

I'm off to prepare the house and food for friends round for dinner - when the kids are away, mum and dad will play!

Elections, Recession, Depression...Here's a Highland Madness Happy to Lift Your Spirits!

Click this link to see Eddie does Darth