February 2018

Having had a couple of visitors gate crashing through the "cat flaps" recently we decided to fit an electronic 'door'.  We had to get Fif' chipped, Lettie had already been chipped when we picked her up.  Fitting the door was not a problem but getting the cats to use it has been more difficult.  Fif' has now accepted it and has no problem using it now.  Lettie is having more of a problem adapting to it.  But then she had a problem using the original one.  Hopefully it will all be sorted out soon.

December 2017

December 2017 has arrived with snow. By the 2nd it was over six centimetres deep.

This was all new to Lettie who had never seen or walked in snow before.

Fif’ took it all in her stride rushing out quickly and returning speedily to settle down to sleep for the rest of the day on the bed. The bird table has had to be replenished several times

and all the garden birds have taken shelter there and dined well.

June 2017

June has been a peculiar month. It started hot with temperatures of over 30 degrees then the temperature dropped down to less than 15 and yesterday it was over 37!

Then we had a mouse problem. Both cats brought into the house several mice which they then let loose, became bored and abandoned them. It became so bad that several traps were brought into use which eventually solved the problem. I am sure we got the cats to solve any mouse problems rather than extubate the situation.

Then Lettie went missing. We had just printed off a “Perdu” poster when she reappeared. She was totally unaware of the stress she had caused – just tucked into a meal and got on with life!

April continues

Although we have had a couple of very cold nights the frost has not damaged too much.  However, the' mouse in the house' season has returned with Fif'

bringing them in one at a time for Lettie.  Luckily we have been able to catch them and return them to the wild before Lettie

has a chance to get her claws into them.  We have seen our resident hedgehog trundling up the garden path at night and have a desman

 resident in the bank next to the stream.  So far he has been too quick to photograph.

First mouse

Wednesday night Thursday morning. At some unholy hour there came a thumping, scratching, rasping and jangling noise. On examination there was Lettie comfortably stretched out with an expired mouse under her right paw. As she had not been out I can only surmise that Fif’ brought it in for her. She used to do that for Willie. However, it was not difficult to retrieve the mouse from Lettie; Willie used to growl loudly and strike out if anyone else wanted his mouse! So, Lettie has now experienced two species of our local wildlife.

It is the end of March 2017 and we have lived through “Brexit” but as we are both French; Fifi and Lettie, we do not really care.

However, the owners have taken precautions to ensure we will be well cared for as one is French and the other is Irish. The weather has improved and we can go out hunting

and carousing and enjoying the work done in the garden.

It really is amazing what a noisy lawn mower can accomplish together with a ‘strimmer’ in good hands! Last year’s bulbs have survived and the trees planted on the bank are growing nicely.

But at the end of the day we both know where to rest and recuperate best.

Winter's back?

The sun had been shining and we thought that spring had arrived.

However, winter has a sting in its tail as we woke up this morning to this.

So we decided that a day on the bed was the order of the day!