A little bit of summer

Just a very little bit...

My husband doesn't work on Thursdays now and my daughter-in-law has gone back to work this month so Grandad now gets to look after 10 month old granddaughter every Thursday.  He took her to the allotment and took one of those backpack things to carry a child on your back.  It has an extra bit so you can put child and backpack on the ground without the whole thing tipping over.  He put her where she could watch him and did a little bit of work then five minutes later, moved her and did a little bit more work.  This carried on for over an hour before she got tired of looking at everything.  So he came home.  It started raining heavily after lunch so it is as well that they went to the allotment when they did.

And the little bit of summer?  He brought home the first four ripe strawberries and we had two each for pudding.

Sad, sad

I had to take my old cat to the vet yesterday evening to be put to sleep and today I feel bereft.  I wrote about her in a post a little while back.  Of all the cats I've had, she had the sweetest nature and I'm really, really going to miss her.

It turns out that she had developed a tumour in her throat which explains why she was getting so very thin but she was only having problems eating this last week. She didn't seem to be in much pain, so I'm thankful for that.  I didn't want to lose her but at least I could make sure that she didn't reach the point where she was suffering greatly and I'm thankful for that too.

Birthday cake, mainly

Life is just plodding along here and I don't think I have much to write about at the moment.  We're back at school and I'm trying to catch up on my paperwork.  Being ill but back at work meant that I let the paperwork slip and it is now a bit of a mountain.  Oops.

I'm guinea pig-sitting this week which is fun. My friend at school is away on a week long field trip with Year 8 so I get the fun of the guinea pigs.  I just happen to have a spare hutch and run at the moment so that is very handy. They are three lovely little characters - two are smooth haired and really friendly and curious about everything and the third is long haired and looks like a mini sheep and is a cowardy custard., even when food is on offer. We had guinea pigs when our kids were small because they are so child friendly. And me friendly : )

We are about to start eating our homegrown lettuce leaves which will be nice.  We have still got a few of last year's leaf beet plants that I am cropping (I love anything spinach-y) but they are starting to go to seed so I'm sharing the past-it plants with the rabbits and hens who are also firm fans.  The guinea pigs are not so keen but they love grass so there is plenty of that for them to eat.

At half term, it was my husband's birthday, so we had a family meal/get together for him.  We held it at my daughter's house so he did not know it was happening until the last minute.  They all hid in the kitchen and jumped out and shouted Happy Birthday to him and our little grandson thought this was tremendous fun : )

I made the cake for him but had to make two - one that he saw me making for him and another to hide to take to my daughter's with candles for him and our grandson to blow out.  I didn't want to set the cake on fire so just had a token number of candles...

Then he decided that he wanted to take cake to church on the Sunday.  I made traybake sponges and iced them with chocolate fudge icing and cut them up into 120 or so fingers.  Before cutting them up, they were sitting on the table for the icing to set and my younger cat decided to go where she is not allowed to go and jumped on to the table and landed right in the middle of one of the cakes.  So that was another one to bake.  Then there was the cake to take into school on the Monday......  I had to go to the supermarket and buy eggs because my hens couldn't supply enough.

Time to go

My old hen went at the weekend.  I had not expected her to wait so long.  She came down the ramp from the sleeping area, sat in a patch of sunshine and just keeled over.  She hadn't been suffering and was just old.  This week, she had spent a lot of time just standing and watching the others. Her friend is all alone in their run now but she can see the others next door. She was a nice natured hen and I shall miss her.