A VeRy Loonnnnng Week (!!)

Greetings lovely friends & readers

 Instead of a vase of flowers I am sharing my Moth Orchids today, which are flowering away.  The pinky one is the plant that I accidentally broke the stem off last year, so it is wonderful to see it in full bloom again. 

And on my deck I have my Cymbidium Orchid with two large flower stems on it.  It always makes me smile when I see this in bloom as when my son gifted it to me, several Mother's Days ago, he told me it would have white flowers (!!) 😉

Dear Friends - it has been a VeRy LoNg WeeK indeed (I started this post last Monday)  

We I have had a week of unwell cats & believe me I feel like I have aged about a hundred years!!!

It started with Pippi.  She had been constantly scratching & pulling at her fur for a couple of months now - most unusual for her & she was also behaving slightly crazier than she normally is.  I initially thought it was stress due to the Painters, however it continued so I decided to flea her before taking it any further (vet visit).  I gave her the same brand flea treatment I usually use but it had a worm treatment added in.  She had an allergic reaction to the treatment & frothed at the mouth & was most unwell for two long days.  

During this time Blackie went out last Tuesday morning at 5 am, in a frost & got a type of hypothermia.  He was in again at 7 am & most unwell, could barely walk, joints all wobbly, most disoriented.  He has been very unwell all last week & I think probably only "turned a corner" last Monday.  I couldn't get him in the cat cage so could not take him to the Vets but I did go & talk with them & they gave me some joint supplements & told me to keep him in, in the warm, hydrated & keep a close eye on him, which I did do for several days.  He did not lose his appetite thankfully so it was simple enough to get the crushed up tablets in to him & he will stay on these now.

I should mention we have had some minus 3 degrees frosts❄️here lately!

Would you like to see the Hospital Ward ??

 This is right by our fire, so nice & warm ... the box is for him to get down as he was walking rather like a drunken sailor.  

In the middle of all this, Wednesday morning I think ... Little One threw up all morning in the spare room & sat huddled in a corner for the entire morning.  Then immediately, that afternoon ... ran around like a nutcase like nothing had ever happened (!!)  Here he is resting on my bed late that afternoon.

So as you can see dear friends, it was all rather worrying & so difficult as they cannot tell you where it hurts or how they feel.  Pippi & Little One are now fine & back to as normal as it gets around here .... I think Blackie is as-good-as-he-will-get & certainly improved but not back to how he was.  I am keeping a close eye on him.    I don't know if he is 13 or 14 as I am unsure how old he was when I bought him in from the wild.

In the midst of all this I was given a Gift.  Some farming friends cleaned out under their wool shed & gifted me 6 bags of sheep droppings pellets ... I was giddy with excitement !! 

As soon as I hit Publish on this post I am going out to spread lots of this around my newly pruned Roses & I can afford to be extra generous with it this year.

I had 6 large heads of broccoli ready in my veggie garden this week so I picked & blanched it to freeze for winter stews & casseroles.

  I have another punnet ready to plant on the 18th of this month when my moon calendar tells me is optimum planting time 😊 (18th to 27th)

Last month I managed a tiny bit of Christmas-in-July stitching that I've forgotten to share.   These sweet little bags are from Natalie Bird's book "From The Heart".  I had done the stitcheries & decided to sew them up into bags, ready for gifting this Christmas.

Last year I purchased a lovely selection of the Tilda fabric range Merry Little Christmas & did hardly anything at all with it!!  So I've pulled it out & started fussy cutting some to make into Christmas Decorations.  Little One is kindly modelling this Santa one for me 😉

Throughout the year I have been doing some Charity Sewing for * this Charity *.  I plan to make some stockings & fill them with tiny treats for children, so I made a prototype to get my sizing right ... not wanting them to be too large.  I've auditioned a selection of Christmas coloured blankets & fabrics to use up for this. 

Sid received a Reading Award at school assembly last week & was so proud of himself.  Well done Sid  💙

Well dear friends, those sheep pellets won't get on the roses by themselves. 

Thank you as always, for your ever-welcome visits here today,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,