Pedigree Cats

We spent this weekend at my brothers house in Tunbridge Wells. Saturday afternoon was spent browsing round the most fabulous toy shop that cannot fail to impress any adult let alone any child. We purchased an amazing mini red guitar for Charlie as he has become obsessed with Mikes and anyone else guitars, constantly gesturing towards them, arms held up wanting me to take him to them. He seems to have already mastered the strumming technique and will carefully swipe his hand across the strings almost melodically if you really image hard. So this cute little red guitar was the perfect Christmas present for our budding young musician.

After settling Charlie in bed we tucked into a sumptuous roast beef dinner, expertly cooked by Jon and after several glasses of wine we got onto the subject of cats. Mike and I had seen the most gorgeous one lolling around on the beach the other day. What was striking about this cat was it was huge and very lion like in its appearance. So that set Jon off on a mission to find out what this breed was. We discovered it was a Maine Coon and was indeed a giant breed (see pic). And so the evening progressed into a cat googling time trawling through the internet and laughing hysterically and childishly at some of the most ridiculous breeds ever seen. A very good weekend.

It's Freeeeeezing

Good God, it was like ice station zebra this weekend, icy icy north-easterly winds blowing in from Scandinavia and the sky looking like snow was imminent at any moment. So the weekend was spent indoors on Saturday just reading the papers and playing in front of the fire with Charlie. It was the first time he had seen the fire since he was a little baby and at first glance at the roaring flames he looked as if he was about to burst into tears, but in fact he was totally mesmerised. To pass the time we also spent a while amusing ourselves trying our hats on Charlie but he really wasn't that impressed.

Sunday saw us go off to my sisters new house for lunch. They were obviously feeling the cold too as their house was quite literally like an oven and soon I spied Mike, eyes drooping as he sat on the sofa feeling completely cocooned in the heat. We decided to brave the weather and headed off for a short walk, so wrapped Charlie up snugly and tramped out up a few of the winding roads. However we were walking straight into such a biting wind that the only thing to do was to turn back and head back to the warmth of Lucy's house. To say our faces were paralysed with cold was an understatement and so relieved we were to get back and thaw out.

Going Commando

Over the past few weeks Charlie has been attempting to master the art of crawling. He has been trying out a variety of positions and techniques and the floor has been headbutted several times resulting in tears and frustration. This weekend he finally developed his own unique style and has taken to using the commando crawl and going backwards.

Not content with just crawling he has also taken to the old army assault course favourite and trying to scale the bars of his cot. So now is the time to really do some surveillance of the house and move any dangerous objects because he is so keen to get almost anything he sets his sights on, including door knobs, flowers and Mike's guitars. With Christmas only a few weeks away we are preparing for shifts on keeping guard of the Christmas tree and all its decorations. Let the fun begin....

It's Finished

After 18 months of hard grafting, digging, bricklaying and precision planning we have finally finished our garden. We started this project a few months after Ruby died as a way of channelling our energies and creating something new and we have now realised our vision and it is fabulous. The lawn is so flat and so green it looks like a plush carpet that we feel we are not worthy of walking on it. It has been edged with blocks and slate coloured gravel and the borders are filled with top soil ready for planting in the spring next year. The Mediterranean chill out area was finished in the summer and is the perfect setting for all the greenery. The whole garden captures so many of the places that Mike and I have travelled to and were the inspiration behind our creation. Roll on the summer we say.....