On our travels..

I don't usually post this many times a day but as I said before there were quite a few things I'd been waiting to write about which got put on hold due to Joeys accident so whilst he is asleep and Mr B is poorly in bed (unfortunately he's caught my cold) I thought it the perfect time to catch up on my writing.

Before the accident we had a nice day in Carlisle. I was very impressed by their raised beds in the city centre. A sea of forget me nots, a very understated pretty flower. One which I remember making miniature bouquets out of as a child.

Two weekends ago we were in Glasgow. We had a lovely time on our last getaway before becoming parents. Highlights were; watching Flight of the Conchords in concert, wandering the streets, having lay ins (as there was no pets to wake us up at dawn), riding the subway to visit the Kelvingrove museum which was in the most amazing gothic building, complete with full size organ on the balcony of which there was a recital at 1pm filling the corridors with eerie Hammer Horror style sounds.
My favourite section of the museum was Natural History. In particular the display of birds in the main hall and the antlered heads.

Glasgow was brilliant and somewhere we would definately go again. The people were so friendly, even on the train up Glaswegians were chipping in with bits of info about where to visit etc. What a nice time we had.

Positive picnic

Last week amidst all the worry and upset from Joeys accident mum and I took the time to wander across the meadow down to the woods and take stock of all the positive things around us. It's a wonderful time of year with nature really coming alive. The woods are full of primroses, bluebells, wild garlic and ferns uncurled after what seems like the longest and coldest winter.

We took a picnic with us and sat on this bench while Myrtle legged it back and forth bringing us sticks, a beautiful spot to stop at though the bench was a bit rickety. It was really nice to get out the house and have the sun shining through the trees onto our faces.

Here's Myrtle posing head cocked next to a mass of bluebells. She has been very worried about Joey too, despite all their differences she does love him lots, so it was nice for all of us to get a breather from what's happening. Whilst eating cake outdoors!

Mellow Yellow.

Just a quick post to show you these amazing yellow moths I discovered by the front door. I've never seen anything like them before. They were having a lazy afternoon snooze under some wood and had really weird faces!

My last birthday before I am a mummy.

It was my 33rd birthday on Thursday.
I didn't really feel much like having a birthday at the moment what with Joey being so poorly and me feeling so tired from the pregnancy, having a really bad cold and insomnia (lately emphasised by Joey creating and calling throughout the night).

Thing is you don't really have a choice if you want a birthday or not, they just happen and you can celebrate them or let others do all the celebrating for you. I chose the latter, though I have every intention of throwing some kind of belated birthday/imminent baby arrival bash in a few weeks once the house is sorted and Joey is well again. Can't wait! I love summer parties.

The night before my birthday was Knit, Natter, Stitch and Chatter night and Julie had very kindly made us all some chocolate crispie cakes, which were great. They had sultanas, cranberries, marshmellows and digestives mixed in with them. Amazing food cupboard clear out recipe or what! Mine was a special one as you can see by the picture. They even sang me Happy Birthday.

I got lots of lovely cards and presents from Mr B and all my friends and family which amongst other things included tea towels from four different friends, how well they know me. I love kitchen stuff and you can't beat a fancy tea towel. Why settle for anything less hanging in your kitchen?

So here's the selection (from left to right) MD got me Rayburn tea towels (we now have an aqua colour Rayburn as part of our new kitchen. Don't worry I'll show you some pics when the room's all done and dusted) Jill sent me (amongst many lovely things) this Tunnocks teacake one. We love Tunnocks, milk or dark their foily retroness make a party a party. If you've never had one you must try, as far as I can think back their packaging has never changed (just part of their appeal). Little Miss Ingham got me the stripey Joules for Aga one, very fetching and Joy bought me a pair of Cath Kidston. One of which is the same pattern as a mug I own, will I lose it when drying up?

Wendy House

At the moment we are having lots of work done on the house which means we are without a proper kitchen. So we have set up what we call the wendy house kitchen in the garage.
Our big oak dining table has the two ring camping stove on it (with grill) and is also our prep space. We have got the fridge freezer (full of a whole batch of chili I cooked up befre the kitchen was ripped out) in there along with a microwave/mini oven which we have recently discovered has a pizza button. Result!

There's an old cupboard we have used as our larder and crockery store.

Here are some eggy weggs a la wendy frying up for butties on the camping stove.

'His and Hers' sauces, do you know which is which? It's an unofficial rule that fruity is the girls version of brown sauce (sorry if that causes any offence to male readers)

So all in all it's not a bad set up, the only drag is that there's no tap in there but we've managed ok so far. The weather has been really nice of late so we've mainly been having 'summer teas' consisting of jersey royal potatoes, salad and something. Easy to prepare.
Mr B reckons that salad aint sald unless it has some hard boiled egg included, it made us laugh that this was such a hard fast rule, bred into him from childhood no doubt. We decided this must be a Lancashire thing (our home county) as it's not common up here. So anyway I'd better get some eggs on the go ready for tea.

On the mend.

I haven't posted for a little while, it's been pretty chaotic at number 5 lately. I had two or three posts in mind with supporting photos taken of each adventure and then when I was just about ready to sit down and blog them disaster struck.
Joey our beloved cat got run over! Presumably on the lane outside our house as we were out when it happened. He wasn't there to greet us on the wall outside or the stairs when we got in (usually looking groggy on the top step with 'bed head' after a deep snooze) so I sensed something was wrong. When I called him he cried from one of the bedrooms, he was curled up on a blanket looking all weird and scared. I checked his claws and sure enough they were all bust up and bleeding (the sign that he'd been in a road accident) We whizzed him straight down to the vets, who assessed him and put him on a drip to avoid shock. He was kept in for three nights so as to be observed and have some xrays done under sedation. The verdict- severe pelvic bruising, seperated tail (to be removed at a later date) and loss of bladder/bowel muscle control.

It was really hard not having him here but thankfully on the third day we were allowed to visit him twice so we took him his favourite biscuits, the flowery bed I made and some of his play things. Here he is in cat hospital last Wednesday, you can just see his drip tube at the front. He had to have a nasty tasting bandage over it to keep him from pulling it out, it made him walk about with a wooden leg. The visits made us happy but we were all sad when it was time to go.

So Joey has been home since last Thursday, recuperating and having lots of attention and care. We were all happy to be reunited, Myrtle was upset by his absence and gave him a thorough ear washing when he got home, he must have forgotten to do them himself. He was really just being a bit inactive, staying mainly in his basket or on the bed, aside from that he was his usual purry self. Here he is on our bed watching re runs of As Time Goes By starring Dame Judy Dench.

The vet then recommended confinement so as to help his pelvis heal so he's been in Myrtles big crate with his tray and food bowls most of the time with the occasional windowsill outing in his basket (carried there and back). He's enjoyed those on these hot days, listening to the birds, noseying at the neighbours and taking swipes at passing flys, just to show he's still got it.

However the basket had to go as yesterday he woke up unable to bear weight on his back legs so needs to be able to stretch out flat, a bit like when humans have back problems. The new sleeping arrangement seems to have done the trick as he is more mobile today and not growling when I stroke him. Sorry Joey no more window sill trips, just crate rest from now on.

So now it's just a waiting game, to see if he gets his muscle control back. He is making good progress, small steps but all positive ones. Fingers, and everything else, crossed he'll pull through like the strong little wonder cat he is.

Bee'n buzzy

Back in August last year I wrote about the giant bee we saw in our front garden, well last week I met it's mother! It was about the size of a two pound coin. Here it is safely caught inbetween a glass and Myrtles vaccination reminder card. They are such an important part of our eco system and sadly on the decline.

Here's a shot of it's big fluffy yellow bum. It was getting a bit angry at this point so I popped it outside and off it went.

Myrtle hid under the dining room table while I caught it. She has a massive phobia of bees, well anything that makes a buzz noise actually. Since being stung on the bum last summer she thinks anything that makes that noise is going to 'get her'. This includes bees, wasps, flies, midges and humans who make the noise just to see what happens, and yes we are to blame for that last one.

Out of the blue!

Yesterday whilst walking through one of Kendals many cobbled shopping yards, I noticed something new, a bright blue building looming over the now somewhat bland looking colour palette of it's neighbours.

It took me a back that I hadn't noticed it before as I trundle around this small town most lunchtimes and it was really refreshing to spot something new. Whilst some may be of the opinion that it's garish and not in keeping with the usual Lakeland style I love it as it reminded me of my home sea side town, where stretches of houses and B&Bs near the sea front are each painted in a different daring colour. Made me want a bag of chips!