Upto-date

Well hello!  Cannot believe it's been so long since I blogged.  No excuse I'm afraid, just slipped away from me...

Firstly, for the first time in quite a few years, I haven't grown my veggie plot.  I was all set to do so as usual, and in fact, asked for and received a mini greenhouse to grow seedlings.  But, spring was wet, the seeds rotted, the second lot were got at by the slugs, and by the time I caught up, the plot was full of weeds and I just thought '...oh, sod it...'

I did get lots of strawberries - magnificent, huge, tasty strawberries which seemed to go on for ever. Very lucky as the baby plants were a pressie from my neighbour who spends his time gardening rather odd plants - say no more - but I think as a thank you for our lending him a few tools to dig a channel for his loo drain inside his house.  He has been connected with the street drain, but.. that's as far as he has got - and it's been about three years now since he was connected.  My dear OH thinks there might be a connection between the fabulous strawberry plants and his outside loo arrangements, but I'm trying not to think about it...

The raspberries were great too.  Absolutely wonderful - and again, I think down to loo arrangements, but this time, the produce from my daughter's rabbits.  Lots and lots of droppings and straw - perfect!

The second thing that has happened is that we have lost our Felix aka FatBoyFat.  He was a marvellous cat - a prolific mouser, who had his own following of groupies, including Mme Chic, who lives nearby.  She installed a red velvet chaise longue and he had his special place on it in front of the fire, with some Limoges porcelain to eat his Whiskers from.  Her own cat had to take second place.

Felix had a problem with his thyroid and despite six months of medication, it just couldn't be stablilised, and he gradually lost two-thirds of his body weight.  We had to make that last decision, which is always difficult for a loving pet-owner.  It is the price we all pay for loving our animals.

The third major thing is that our kids passed their exams, despite our fears that too much partying and no apparent studying would result in disappointment.  How wrong we were!  Our daughter is now a qualified cabinet-maker, looking for a job.  She is very realistic though as jobs are hard to come by, but is talking about doing a computer course to give her another string to her bow.  Our son passed his year, and moved up to his last which is to concentrate on English/French/English translation.

Here she is, still to finish a chess board, and the start of an Art Deco coiffeuse.

And here is a photo of our son, doing what he does best ie making us all smile, but honestly, trying to get a decent photo of him is impossible.

Well, it's 36 degs c here today, so I'm going to take the two beers out of the freezer before they explode, open one for me, and put the other in the fridge for OH who is currently taking a nap as it is so darned hot!

'Bye for now!