2026 Quick Daily Posts

[Serinde]

Golly! Makes me think mine isn't so bad.

Days of Rest are good! Plus holiday Monday, I presume. Enjoy!

[richardandtracy]

Baby Rabbits. Hrrumph.

I had to rescue one from the bathroom again yesterday. Put on some welding gauntlets & scooped the terrified thing up with my hands from under Toby's nose. Toby didn't notice, strangely, and continued searching under the bathroom sideboard. Took the bunny downstairs and let it go on our bank where a rabbit can hide easily. No blood, and no apparent injuries, just terrified.

We kept Toby in for much of the rest of the day. We need to get our side fence cat proofed. (not that I really think it's possible). The road infront of our house is quieter than it used to be, but I don't want to risk him getting killed by a car like our cat Floyd was when he nipped over the road to the same warren.

Regards,

Richard

[richardandtracy]

Baby Rabbit update...

Apparently Toby found the same baby rabbit in the garden yesterday and started to play with it as he would a little cat toy. He picked it up by the scruff of its neck and carried it around, putting it down and when it hopped more than 2ft away from him, he picked it up and brought it back to him. At no point does he seem to have done any damage to the rabbit, nor did he fling it up in the air like cats tend to do with their 'edible' toys.

After a little while Tracy thought the rabbit had had enough of Toby, locked him in the house and carried the rabbit to safety in another part of the garden. I think we're going to have to return this one to the warren ourselves.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Toby is still young enough to be in the play-experimental stage of hunting. Everything is a game. Lucky bunny.

[richardandtracy]

Toby is now older than Floyd ever got to be, and Floyd caught, killed and ate many, many adult rabbits. The garden was littered with random rabbit front or back feet. He brought the rabbits into the garden, alive, and let them go before chasing them down again. It was a magnificent sight seeing the cat chase down a rabbit at full speed, gaining a couple of yards every jink the rabbit made. However the result was gruesome. Also, there were one or two that got away from Floyd, one died from its injuries under the 2CV, and we only noticed due to the smell. I removed it with a shovel, and had maggots dripping off every side of the shovel blade. Yuk, yuk, yuk.

Toby, on the other hand has made one kill that we know of, a fairly big mouse. Size... about the size of his two front paws. He has chased a few Magpies, watched a big rat, lost another mouse after catching it, and failed to kill a bunny. I think he's a fair bit less of a hunter than Floyd was.

Regards,

Richard

[Roland]

My cats are indoor only. Tyger once caught and ate a bug. We think it was a centipede. He was sick for a week. He’s pretty dumb for a cat in most ways, but he may actually remember that because now when he sees one, he’ll stalk it, and sometimes put a paw on it, but he doesn’t eat them anymore. He does get our attention because he loves the praise for saving us all from the insect.

Skye tends to bring us dead bugs. She hasn’t killed them, she just finds them dead and brings them to us.

[richardandtracy]

Youngest Daughter has exchanged contracts on a house. Completion is 22 May. She's going to be a home owner.. And she's going to slowly move out. Hooray!

Tracy & I are going to spend the first week or so decorating for her. If we work like stink, we might be able to get half of it re-decorated (walls, ceilings, picture rail skirting board and internal doors). She needs four new light fittings, four non-dimmable light switches (dimmers don't work well with LED bulbs), load bearing picture rails for her pictures, and complete re-decoration. Also, she'll need a washing machine and fridge/freezer. The garden needs a mow, and rotten decking to be removed.

It's fun.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

I've only just caught up with the forum, not really been on during our holiday, and here we have two cat stories - great way to get back into the swing of things
Love the baby bunny saga , very pleased about Toby's "hunting" style!
The Tyger story made me giggle, brave Tyger saving you all

And great news about daughter's house situation, Richard. Remember it doesn't have to be fully redecorated in one or even two goes, most houses I know of are WIPs for years so even getting it all done within the first year would be quite an achievement!

[Serinde]

Many, many congratulations to Youngest Daughter. Such an achievement! She'll revel in the space, that's for sure (if my Elder Son is anything to go by), not to mention the independence. How far away is it from the Old Homestead?

So chuffed for her!

[richardandtracy]

Her house is on the far side of the nearest town to us, about 2.5-3 miles away. On a good traffic day, 12 minutes drive. On a bad traffic day you won't get there (only partly joking.. traffic can get horrific if the M2 is closed due to a crash, that backs up the M20 and we get gridlock up to 10 miles away).

She will be living in a Victorian terrace dating to the 1890's and the houses have about 12ft road frontage per house. She's slightly luckier in that the upstairs rooms go halfway across a covered alley down the side of the house which gives access to the back garden. The upstairs rooms are a bit wider than downstairs. The upstairs bathroom has three external walls, is 6ft wide by 10ft long, same size as the kitchen below. Her immediate next door neighbour has right of access through her back garden to theirs, and the right of way is between her house and her back garden. This is normal in this area, and was the same in my first house.

Her street is closed at the far end from her, with a Tesco Express on one side, and a Chinese takeaway & funeral parlour on the other side. The businesses are not related; Probably. Anyway, Orianna can just pop down the road to see her grandfather's ashes. [Note to self: We must get them interred...] She has a 42ft back garden that's about 13ft wide and a 6-8ft long front garden about 12ft wide, the alleyway is 31" wide and to the left of her house. The front garden is currently laid to gravel, odd bits of concrete, moss and litter, the primary decoration is a rusting bicycle.

The road is a nightmare for parking early mornings and evenings. Most cars are longer than the owner's house's road frontage, so on their return from work there's a mad scramble for parking spots. During the working day, there are frequently large areas free. Orianna doesn't have a vehicle, which is good, but we will when coming to her place. Her front garden is big enough to park mopeds, but parked vehicles often make it impossible to get a moped through her front gate (narrow pavement and occasionally vans have 2 wheels up on the pavement). The road is wide enough for a vehicle on either side and one vehicle to pass down the middle. Guess how cars pass when all parking spots are used up - actually, they can't and don't. The adjacent roads are all one-way, but hers can't be because it's a dead end and only has a small vehicle turning space at the end.

Orianna's new house is in the parish where Tracy currently (until mid June) holds a Curacy position. We're not sure what will happen after she gets Priested, but it's likely she'll become the second vicar in the parish when a fourth church gets amalgamated into an enlarged parish. They currently have 3 churches, though one is infested with bats that can get into the main part of the church and are making a horrific mess, to the extent no services are held in the church.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

On the Needle 'n' Thread FB group somebody posted a transfer method I hadn't come across before - more useful for non-counted work than counted, but even so a handy trick to have up your sleeve (assuming you have - or know someone who has - a laser printer).

Print the design, mirror image, using a laser printer. Place the print upside down on your fabric. Iron for 30 seconds on a high heat. Done.

I must say that I haven't actually tried it yet, but the transfer she showed looked very clear. I'm not sure whether a lower heat would work if you're using fabrics like silk, I may have a play with it on various fabric this weekend.

[Steam.Jo]

I have used the reverse Laser iron on technique to make brass plaques for model engines. It is necessary to lacquer over the top to secure it on the brass.

Laser toner is heat activated plastic so I cannot see any reason it would not work on fabric.

Jo

[Serinde]

Oh, that's a neat idea. I was always sorry that I needed an ink-jet printer to print directly on fabric. Laser printer I have! And an iron.

[richardandtracy]

Oh dear this is ridiculous.

Wednesday last week Orianna dropped a jar of Marmite (a yeast extract used to flavour sandwiches) on her big toe in the kitchen. The bruise was spectacular. We didn't think it was broken, but over the last week the swelling got bigger & bigger and more painful until she felt she needed to go to our local minor injuries unit. After 3 hours, 2 X-Rays and a nurse consultation with the nearest A&E fracture clinic specialist she was told... It's just bruising.

She was taken to the minor injuries unit by a colleague (having had issues all day with it) and I popped in to take her home when she was waiting for the post X-Ray analysis. This meant I waited with her for over an hour.

Then after we got home, while hopping about in the kitchen, she dropped a smaller jar of Marmite on her other big toe.

It was terribly, terribly hard not to laugh.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Oh dear, poor Orianna!

[Serinde]

Poor thing. At least the jars didn't hit the floor directly and break? (looking for silver linings here)

[richardandtracy]

No broken jars.

She's currently off joining in with a 'Hen Do' in Hastings for her best friend.
Tracy and I are now 2 days in to redecorating parts of her house. One of the recent tenants has painted the front room very dark blue and the rear bedroom very dark green. 2 coats of white are now applied and the rooms are much lighter. The kitchen is scrubbing up well, we've mown the grass, changed four light switches, two ceiling lights, and added a ceiling rose. The chandelier is next. Then repeat the ceiling rose and chandelier in the front room.

The temperature is horrific. I've been sweating and loosing so much salt that my shirt has white tide marks... I needed at least a teaspoon of salt both yesterday and today. Tomorrow is due to be even hotter. Hopefully we'll get another coat of paint on the two rooms, and maybe ready to put up something like the peach/magnolia she wants to show off her pictures. Tuesday is the internet installation and delivery of white goods. Orianna returns around lunchtime tomorrow.

This is not going to be an easy week off!

Regards,

Richard.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I'm not sure the words "coat" (of whatever kind) and "heatwave" should ever go together Richard! Sounds like you're making the house much pleasanter as well as more practical, but perhaps a short Bank Holiday break today?

[Serinde]

Yeah, I'd agree. Morning working, earlier the better, but not during the hottest part of the day. You'll make yourself sick (really). Hospitals will be full of Englishmen, if not their mad dogs, at the rate you are going.

[Mabel Figworthy]

And as we know from your reports what the NHS is like in your area....