Green Fingers

Well, after promising the earth in terms of blogging, I let myself down.  I was distracted by the garden and the fact that it has been sorely neglected.  There was no excuse any more and that's where I have been spending all my free time.

The photos are deceptive.  The flower beds are meant to look bare as I have been forking and digging out crocosmia and some other yellow flower that have totally taken over the ground.

And what a nightmare job it has turned out to be.  Bags of the bulbs and roots have been taken away by the council recycling people.  I know that there will be a few bulbs etc left but I am hoping that they will be easy to get out next year and I have (hopefully) halted the invasion!

New plants have been planted instead.  Now all that is left to do is to sit on my new bench and wait for the new plants to flower.

Still on the green theme, I bought this lovely felt bag thinking it was an old one.  1940s or possibly 1960s.  Took it home and nopw can't decide. 

Do any of you ladies agree with me?  I know it's difficult to tell from a photo.  But what do we think>  New/Old?

Old or new, Dulcie certainly took a shine to it!

Sunny Days

After a few beautiful sunny days, we have the rain back - which means bad light for photographs.

So rather than dwell on the awful weather that we are having (again), I thought I would share photos that were taken a few days ago when the weather was good.

Dulcie and Arthur sunbathing together:


and vintage linens drying on the line. Sunny days indeed.

In Season

The car boot sale season is now well underway and I thought I would take full advantage of the beautiful weather today and visit a local market/bootsale.

Unfortunately there wasn't much there for me, but I did buy a charming cupcake ceramic trinket box. When I got it home and looked underneath, there was a Marks and Spencer label stating that it had once held chocolates.


It's perfect for my dresser and sits nicely next to the Allsorts jar that I bought some months ago.

Dulcie was on the prowl when I was taking the photographs and managed to sneak in to the shot.


The kittens have all been rehomed: one to a friend, one to the friend of the lady that works in our local vet and the two tabbies have gone to their new home together - which was very comforting. She initially did look and call for them after they had left for their new homes (although I tried to make it as stress free as possible and rehomed them over the period of just over a week) but really has settled down well without them.

She has also discovered a love of Arthur and after a few nights of her roaming around the house and waking us all up with her howling, she is now shut in the kitchen at night with Arthur and that has solved the problem. Hope I haven't spoken too soon!

And now she is starting to come out of her shell and settle in. And in true Siamese style, she may be small and delicate but she has a voice like a foghorn! She just walks around the house making the most horrendous noise - but I find it very endearing. Stephen doesn't though; especially when he is trying to watch TV and it is getting drowned out by Dulcie. At this point even poor Arthur doesn't know quite what to do with her.

Kitten Update

I've just come back from the vet - it's nothing serious.

The vet thinks that the infection is a result of a bite - from Dulcie. Possibly she went to pick up the kitten and didn't get the right spot. That sounds plausible as she accidentally bit me when eating some chicken from my hand. That became infected and was all swollen and full of pus.

The vet took him into the adjoining room and cleaned out the infected area. I was practically in tears as I could hear the little thing crying. He had an injection in his tummy and I have to take him back for the next 3 or 4 days for more injections until it's cleared.

So we were all stressed out - but hopefully he's on the road to recovery! Unlike my wallet!

A bun in the oven

Not me - but the newest addition to your family. You may remember poor Bertie was knocked over and killed. Well after that I decided there would be no more outdoor cats for us and started doing some research about cats on the Internet.

After reading about them, I fell in love with Siamese cats and set my heart on one. But for me there is the moral dilemma about buying a cat from a breeder. Which set me off to look for adult cats that needed re-homing. As you can imagine there aren't that many plus the fact that we have Arthur the dog narrows that down even more.

So when I spotted an advert for an adult Siamese that was looking for a new home due to a house move, I was interested. When I called to chat about her and her owner informed that she thought the cat was pregnant, maybe I should have decided against going to see her. But I did.

Which is how we have ended up giving a new home to Dulcie (nee Suki) and two year old Siamese who is due to give birth in a few weeks to kittens which will be half Siamese, half moggie. The decision was made prior to rehoming her that we would not be keeping the kittens, but will find them good homes.

So here she is, Dulcie girl. A little timid, but settling in and enjoying non-stop kisses and attention. Not to mention cooked chicken!