Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

I think I prefer raindrops on alchemilla rather than roses, but whiskers on kittens is a definite favourite!

 

 

The catlings are 12 days old and have just open their eyes in the last 24 hours. They are clumsily bumbling around in their box. I don't think it will be long 'til they can climb out...at which point I think I'll have to move them off of my bed and bring them downstairs...I would hate to think of one of them falling downstairs whilst still so small...better safe than sorry. I have a stairgate but it's too wide for my little narrow steep stairs...I used it for the back door when Queenie and Baldrick were small.

 

Anyway, this weekend I will be busy watching them grow :-)

(though if the rain holds off tomorrow I think I'll pop to the West Woodhay Garden Show...I love a snoop round big house grounds:-)   )

 

Have a lovely weekend !

 

And...back down to earth

Lovely holiday last week. Back to work on Monday, great team meeting, pipeline looking good, momentum building. Tuesday, the Canadians have decided to "close down" Europe and you 4 will be out of a job (BUGGER!). Wednesday they got rid of a load of people in Canada too apparently. We will get letters by the end of the week. My UK Boss is saying carry on as normal for the time being and he will try to secure funding to set up as a separate UK operation (if the board agree). Once the cards are laid on the table and I know where we are at, I will deal with it (somehow) but I have to say that this "limbo" is driving me mental.
Sorry for posting something negative...struggling a bit with todays "reasons to be cheerful"....think I'll take my cup of tea upstairs and watch kittens for a bit.
(their little faces have rounded out a bit and they are just starting to open their eyes)

My kind of "kind of" holiday

I had last week off on holiday...I had specifically timed it to coincide with the kittens arrival ( like some sort of bizarre feline grandparent!) Didn't I just get it right with the weather though? It was GLORIOUS (Ethan says only old people say glorious LOL) I didn't go away - I never do. The last time I went "away" on holiday I took Mum to Cornwall for a week...we stayed just outside of Boscastle and left the day before the flood so my last "holiday" must have been 2004. I can't honestly say that I miss having holidays...let's be honest - where I live it feels like the sort of place you would go to on holiday if you wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle. Now obviously, I spent quite a bit of time looking at kittens, (tongue out concentrating on growing)

 

 but I did get some chores done and squeezed in a few outings.
My garden furniture was in need of a spruce up after the long winter (to be fair, I got it second hand and it was already rusty long before winter)

I spent 2 days in the garden armed with my trusty paintbrush and a tin of hammerite and TADAH!!! 2 chairs and 2 tables later - new furniture! ( I don't know why the pictures are loading on the squiff...they are fine in my folder...oh well...neck exercise for you! )

 

 

 

I visited Caen Locks..

 

 

I went to a car boot sale (haven't been to one for about 20 years)

 

I visited Ethan in Bournemouth...we went for a walk in the woods, walked through the gardens,  had a decadent sea food platter lunch in a restaurant, a browse round the shops, a ride on the land train and a walk back along the beach (including a 99 with a flake!)

 

 

I sunbathed in the garden and read a book

 

 I climbed up Beacon Hill...and could see for miles

 

 

 

 Look, I could even see "Downton Abbey" :)

 

 

 I hadn't realised that Lord Carnarvon was buried up there...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I visited Donnington Castle

 

 

 

 

 

I went to the Wiltshire Steam and Vintage Rally... (wish I had been wearing my walking boots...it was right under Oare Hill)

 

 

 

So, I did a lot of the same sort of things that people do when they go on foreign holidays,(oh all right, the sort of things I do...no burgers were eaten, no union jack shorts were worn, no fake tan and false eyelashes were applied, and I didn't get pissed and go clubbing lol)  it's just that a lot of my outings were half an hour away from home. No cat and chicken sitters required.

 

 

I hope that you have as lovely a time on your holiday as I did on mine :o)

 

Welcome to the world lil catlings..

 

 

Last night at about 8 o'clock Queenie settled down in one of the " kittening boxes" I had placed around the house. She chose the one on the landing, so I grabbed a glass of wine and my book and made myself comfy on my bed so that I was close by to offer moral support.  After about half an hour, she decided that she would rather be RIGHT next to me, so jumped up on the bed and settled at my side. It quickly became apparent the she was is labour and was going to have the catlings right there on my bed. I grabbed some towels in a futile attempt to protect the bed, but wasn't about to lift her at this delicate stage...let's be honest, I have a washing machine and my mattress is 15 years old and desperately needs replacing anyway, so no biggie. Catling  #1 took about 45 minutes to arrive and is the biggest...it's the one at the top of the picture below. You can't really see it here but it has little white paws and and some white on the chest...taking after daddy tuxedo cat methinks. I've had a quick peek at the nether-regions ( or should I say "down below" as my Grandmother would have? LOL ) and I think this one is a girl.

Catling # 2 (on the left) arrived within10 minutes.....then we had a 40 minute wait for # 3 , then 20 minutes until # 4 arrived. 2,3 & 4 look to be all "black" (Queenie looks black but she is actually really, really dark brown)

One of them is definitely a boy, but I haven't really had a chance to confirm the others yet. I feel really honoured that Queenie feels comfortable enough with me to was to have her babies right next to me, it was a fabulous experience to watch them being born, but I don't want to take liberties. I'm just trying to work out how I can clean my bed up though :o) Baldrick is a little puzzled by it all....he doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body, but I will keep an eye on him near the kittens until I see whether he's comfortable with them. Pet count is now 10 with 4 chooks and 6 kittehs...I think I have now attained official cat lady status! Now I need to think of cat and chicken names....any suggestions?

 

Little chick goes on an outing..

A sunny day (about bloody time too...1st June indeed!) and Yolko brought little chicky out for a wander in the garden. She's a very defensive Mum...see how she's all puffed up....she thinks I am too close to her baby!  I've been searching the internet, looking at young chick pictures to see if I can identify what breed the chicky is...closest pictures seem to be Australorp, and (gulp) Jersey Giant. How hilarious would that be ? Tiny Polish bantam "Mum " to a huge Jersey Giant? Maybe I'll pop down to the chicken man at Littlecote and see if he recognises what it is. ( I bought a dozen mixed eggs from him...he has all sorts of breeds there)
Pet count remains at 6 today (Queenie, Baldrick, Yolko, Mo, Fernanda and un named little chicky)- Queenie is 9 weeks pregnant today and has a tummy full of squirming catlings...it's delightful when she sits on my lap and I can feel them kicking. I'm watching her closely to see if she has gone off of her food as an indication of labour about to start - at the moment she wants about 47 small meals per day.  I'm sure we shall have news soon. In the meantime, I shall leave you with a photo of Queen Fatling & her belly.....blinking at the camera flash

Don't count your chickens...

Yolko sat on some eggs (went with some from the chicken man at Littlecote after she abandoned the hatching eggs) ...I wasn't convinced that she knew what she was doing...

 
 
 
 
Yesterday there was a perfectly formed little chick that just didn't quite make it :(
 

 Just got in from work this evening and lifted her up (not really expecting anything) and look what I found... :) (tried to rotate the pic but it didn't save)

 

I think some of the other eggs look as if they have some little cracks too...we'll have to wait and see..anyway..Yolko is now a Mum:-)

(anyone know what type it is? )

 

 

 

Queenie is currently looking dainty at the front, dainty at the back, and WIDE load in the middle....catlings due at the weekend I think ( at least it's 9 weeks from the doorstep cat-porn episode ) ...hopefully all will go well and I'll post photos as soon as they arrive:-)

 

 

 

My Sis posted this on her Facebook today (she got it from somewhere else on

 

t'internet I guess) ...just TOO good not to share :-) Think maybe I'll print it out and hang it somewhere...

 

RULES FOR LIFE

1. Don’t be shitty.
2. Don’t make happy people sad.
3. Don’t make sad people sadder.
4. If more than two people tell you that you’re being an asshole, consider that maybe you’re being an asshole.
5. Flush the toilet behind you.  You’re grossing us all out.
6. Support the under-dog.
7. Critics aren’t automatically bullies and you’re doing yourself a disservice if you ignore all of them out of hand.  That being said, it sucks to read shitty stuff about yourself so find an honest friend to read your criticism and tell you if it’s something worth listening to or if the critic is just a crazy fucking douche-canoe.
8. Real bullies are complete assholes but they can’t recognize themselves as such so maybe spray paint an “x” on their forehead so that we can all just recognize them from a distance and ignore them.
9. Be stupid.  Be childlike.  Be ridiculous.  Be happy.
10. Don’t use the word “literally” when you really mean “figuratively”.  It literally makes me want to stab you a little but I don’t do it because that’s illegal and also because I have a very limited amount of knives.
11. Read more.  Watch shows that inspire you.  Embrace whatever makes you geek out.  Even if it’s Laura Ingalls.  Because Laura Ingalls is fascinating and there’s nothing wrong with obsessively knowing every detail about her life and death.  Stop judging me.  
12. Bite off more than you can chew.  You can always spit it out on the floor if you decide you don’t like it.  Women do it all the time.
12b. Embrace your flaws and foibles.  If people make fun of you, kick them in the back and then blame it on a ghost.
14. Don’t let other people on the internet tell you what to do.  Unless it’s this list.  Then I guess just use your best judgement.
15. Become a pirate.  Or a monster truck.  Or a space toddler.  Or a jacket.  That’s my favorite one.  I just jump on someone’s back and say “Sorry.  You looked cold.  Zip me up.”  It’s awesome.
16. Do something nice for someone you love.
17. Do something nice for a perfect stranger.
18. Do something nice for you.
19. Do ‘The Robot’.
20.  Add your own.  Go ahead.  You can’t fuck this up any more than I have.

A present from Queenie (and the promise of one later)

This poor wee stiffened thing was left carefully placed on the carpet between my bedroom door and the loo. There doesn't seem to be a mark on it...perhaps it died of shock. The pygmy shrew is Britains smallest mammal and loses a great deal of energy from body heat so constantly needs to search for food - it dies of starvation if it fails to eat for more than 2 hours. I don't think starvation was this issue here given it's frozen "run for it" pose. Shame - such a beautiful little thing...I had never seen one before.

 

In other news, I noticed today that Queenies nipples are now all sticky-outy and pinked up...I think her (repeated) dalliance with one of the tuxedo twins on the back door step on Easter Sunday has been fruitful. I wonder how good she'll be at hunting as she gets fatter over the next few weeks?  And does this mean I'm going to be a Nana? LOL. Either way...I'm really looking forward to kittens (beginning of June I calculate) as I haven't watched kittens being born since I was about 6 and I am lucky enough to be in the position to support some extra cats (and now 50 so multiple cats are of course mandatory!)

Wild Garlic Pesto

 

Hello my preshlings....let me give you my usual uber-precise recipe for wild garlic pesto (LOL - let me hear you say "yes Mama!")

 

Put some pinenuts in the blender

 

Grate some parmesan in there...take a photo and then double or triple it... (the parmesan, not the photo)

 

Stuff in as many wild garlic leave as will fit

 

 

and a good glug of olive oil

 

whizz it up

repeat steps 3, 4, 5 several times :-)

Taste it! Put some salt and pepper in, and taste it again.....repeat as necessary..then

 stick it in a jar and exclude any air with a layer of olive oil...sorted 

 

Shove the rest in little tubs to go in the freezer...and LABEL IT...'cos if you mix this up with the green curry paste you made it's going to make a really boring curry, and frozen they look the same

 

Tadah!!!!

It's quite "gentle" so you could add a clove of garlic to the mix if you wanted to pep it up a bit.

Llamas and wild garlic

No it's not a recipe...I haven't changed my mind and decided to eat meat...I just want to share with you what I've found on my walk.....
The rain wasn't really being serious about it so it seemed like a good opportunity to get out for a walk...but where to go? I shuffled through my little pack of village walks and realised that I'd never "done" the Piggs Hill route in it's entirety (just bits of it incorporated into other walks)
The info on my charming little sheet reads as follows: The Walk climbs steadily from the start on the bridleway towards baydon. The hilltop provides grand views over Aldbournes and to Piggs hill , with  rolling cornfields.Preston: An old man who was born in the Toll House said that it used to be told that if the water flowed in the Whitton Ditch which is a Winterbourne (  old English word 'winter-burna' meaning 'winter stream' - dry through the summer months - Winterbourne streams are mostly fed by ground water held in the chalk rather than surface water. The water bubbles up in springs which feed the streams. As the water table drops during the summer, the springs dry up and the streams gradually stop flowing. Only when winter rainfall recharges the groundwater supplies will the streams flow again - which is why they are known as “winterbournes”. Because the water has been filtered through the chalk, it is crystal clear and stays at a fairly constant temperature, making it an ideal home for wildlife) by the 5th of January, (Christmas Day on the old calendar) you can expect a wet summer. (I'll confirm for you now that the Whitton Ditch has been proper soggy since about November I think...you heard it here first folks!)

I started out at the little toll house

 

and the geese made sure everyone knew someone was walking along the track

 

The Whittonditch as you can see is certainly flowing...crystal clear now - was very muddy when we had the heavy rains.

 

I love the fact that I can go off walking for a couple of hours and see absolutely no one  - I guess I'm just anti - social :o)

 

 

Only a few signs of spring so far....lots of this yellow blossom

 

 

I took a close up so that I could identify it when I got home...my trusty Collins little gem (1980) tells me that it is cornelian cherry...it flowers in February and March it adds...errrm try 14th April!

 

 

 Not a great photo...it was really windy up on the hills..what I was trying to capture was that finally the buds were starting to fatten so we should have leave soon (please!)

 

 

Not a soul around though..

 

Not even a dog walker...if these photos had sound you'd hear the wind , and lots of birdsong coming from every hedge and tree

 

Not from this little chap though...wonder what happened there then?  Poor Maggs!

 

Then a wafting smell....finally - wild garlic!! Hurrah! early days...see - not a single flower yet. I always have a sandwich bag stashed in my pack so I crammed it full of wild garlic leaves and continued on my way with softly garlicky aroma hands (wild garlic recipe to follow later in the week)

 

still not a soul around though :o)

Yellow is the only floral colour it seems...still some primroses around (love these...they self seed all around my garden)

and here is the first cowslip I have seen....just coming into flower...I'd love some of these in the garden too

 

and bright buttery celandines..

 

what's this? sheep?

elegant long necked sheep?

 

No...llamas methinks...or alpacas

 

 

lots of them...

little specs in the distance

 

This is my view down the track once I had climbed Piggs Hill...sound effects here are puffing noises!

 

You can really see we are on chalk where the badgers dig it up (if the crystal water and the plants hadn't given it away beforehand)

ahhh...the gentle amble downhill....I'm quite good at these bits :o)

  still not a soul around (yaay)

more gentle downhilly bits...

 

 nearly there

 and back down to the Whittonditch again :-)

 

2 and 1/2 hours and not a soul was seen - I love it when for a little while it's mine, all mine!!