Woodhead snowscape

Kian in the snow

Cinder in the snow

Honeymoon badges

So it’s been a busy few days. We went to the theatre on Friday night. In the snow. It took 5 hours to get home. 15miles. Kian pushed 18cars on the A666 (about 2 miles from home). I can happily say that my Saxo can handle being in 6inches+ of snow. I miss the snow. I wish it hadn’t melted so quickly.

Kian post-training

Cinder sleeping – such a rarity!

Almost eggless brownies

Mandeville Oversees.

Well it’s snowing here in lovely Bolton. With that it does mean that I’m mostly stuck indoors (joints don’t agree with being out in the cold for longer than a few minutes). Being stuck in does have it’s downsides, like not seeing Mum on her birthday (Saturday). One upside is that I’ve got most of a jumper knitted this weekend (for me!). Yesterday Kian and I tried out a new-to-us restaurant with his Taste card (2for1/special discounts), Retreat, we would definitely recommend it.

One wet week

Cinder has spent today playing in the mud that is our backyard. This does result in her long fur getting far too muddy and I will bet I get another shower time incursion from the fuzz ball tomorrow.

Well you may have seen on Twitter and/or Facebook that this week Kian and I got a new addition to our little family. Walnut is slowly coming back from “What the flipping hell do you think you’re bringing into MY HOUSE?!” to “I do not want to share!” Hopefully she’ll get to “ohh can we play all night and keep them up?” in the next week or so.

She was named Fay by Bolton & Bury Cat Rescue, but we’re currently trying to find something that fits with her better. She’s far too excitable to be “Fay”. Give us name suggestions for her!

This was not the next blog post I was expecting to write.

On Tuesday I wasn’t very well. I had a bath in the middle of the night, and as usual, both the cats came to check on me (well see if they could have an early breakfast). That was between 3 and 5am. The day went on as a slow day, until I got a knock on the door at about noon. One of the lady’s from the allotments across the road came over to ask me if Apollo lived here. She had found him under a bush just inside the allotments. So I wandered over and she was right. He apparently had a lie down in a favoured spot and not got back up.

She and another lady told me tales of Apollo’s charming exploits. They told me of his Sunday afternoon’s in their greenhouse, and his own chair, of the number of people that loved his attention and of him trying to get the frogs in the ponds. We brought him home and wrapped him up and let Walnut see him, before going to the vet.

Our vet looked him over to check that it wasn’t poison or trauma. She thinks that his heart simply gave out.

He was 6years old nearly 7. He came to me as a sweet 3 month old 6 years ago. He was shy and unsure of himself, people ,and other cats when he came to me. By the number of neighbours that have spoken to us since he was found, I can happily say he became a much loved, charming tom.

I will miss him joining us in the middle of the bed, or sleeping on his back next to me on the sofa. He was a loving and caring little boy. Goodbye my friend, Apollo.

On Sunday Hannah died. She’d not been well for a while, but she was happy until Sunday. We took her to the Emergency Vet. They found a couple of “masses” on her liver and spleen. We’d apparently been treating the masses for a while with steroids (she was on them for a skin problem).

She and I had been together for 14 years and 4 months. She came to me at 5 weeks old. We slept, ate and travelled together. There were few thing I did in her lifetime without considering her first. I am going to miss her more than I can say. Walnut and Apollo are trying to comfort me and themselves.

She will no longer wake me to join me in bed when it gets too cold, or hunt rabbits on family holidays in Wales, but she will be with me.

Bye Bye Hannah.

When we went to see AFP we also saw Bitter Ruin. Georgia blew me away with her strong yet delicate voice. Bitter Ruin happen to have a single coming out next week.

Kian and I stayed over at the Royal Albion and on our day off, before coming home, went to Brighton’s aquarium. The sea turtles were amazing in size (27st and as big as my coffee table). (Yes, we took Captain Jack to see his cousin…)

Since getting back from Brighton I have been doing my training at The Lowry in Salford. It is a wonderful theatre. In the last month I have seen I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue (the stage version, not recording), The Unthanks, Dancing Shoes and today was Top Hat (it’s on until the 8th October and is a great musical). All have been thoroughly entertaining. Of the 12 shifts that I have to complete “shadowing” I have now done 8. I’ve got 2 more to do in the Lyric (the large theatre) and 2 more in the Quays (the medium theatre) before I become a a “full” VIP (I’ll get a red shirt, jumper and name tag!).

This month has been busy. Looking forward to October.

Just a few photos from yesterday at WoolFest 2011.

A few weeks ago Walnut was being somewhat distant after I took a series of photographs of her in a box (she likes being in boxes and seemed to enjoy it while it was going on). She goes through phases of liking me or not, same with Kian, but on this day I went from being loved to She Who Must Not Be Named. Well I rather liked these – especially since she normally rolls around and makes it terribly difficult to take photographs of her..

May I introduce Pink Tentacle (they will be renamed I’m sure by the final owner!) – this is the only Pink Tentacle.

This tentacle took a few hours to make. I’m quite proud of this one – the wool isn’t the easiest to work with and its much finer double knit than I’m used to working with.

These suckers are just fantastic if I do say so myself!

I hope that Pink Tentacle is happy in their new home after the 25th December.