Blacky Out for a Walk (by sarah)

We have a leash for Jean's rabbit which everyone including the rabbit loves! I wanted a nice picture of them walking up the drive but Blacky decided that there was a nice bunch of dandilions and that was it every sat down :/

Recycling Bags (by sarah)

These are my new recycling bags that go under the kitchen table - they velcro together! We've just had the first week of them being in use, it has made such a huge difference to keeping the kitchen tidy - it's almost unbelievable!

Plus I think they look nice 🙂 and they were cheap!

The only issue is there really needed to be one for cans too - but a) that wouldn't have fitted under the table so well and b) we've doubled up the plastic as tins as well as we don't get that much plastic.

Minni Puss (by sarah)

Minni disappeared a while ago and because she would often go off for a while initially we thought she would come back. But she didn't which has led to a strange situation as in when to give up hope - we hunted high and low fearing she had got trapped in somewhere but she wasn't anywhere 🙁

No body was found but she was acting 'old' just before she disappeared i.e. not moving from the fireplace except to eat and maybe sit on a lap for stroking.

We had given up on our little puss cat but it has become evident that Jean hasn't. When Betsy died the vet gave Barbara the body which Jean watched being buried so after the initial Pooey Betsy incident she got over the fact Betsy wasn't there.

With Minni she still expects to see her and will tell people we have four cats though Minni is missing. Then when we went to the park we saw a huge black cat, sleek and powerful, sort of what Minni would have been if she was a young male cat. Jean called it over and stroked it and then said, 'It's Minni! Mummy it's Minni - she's run away to here and the people have fed her lots and lots so she's grown up big and strong!'

I didn't really know what to say :/ So I just 'maybe Jean.'

We are all really missing the black menace even if she did have the re-occuring anal gland problem which made her regually a smelly cat. I think Minni's absence is harder on Jean as write from the start Minni would guard Jean whilst she slept and things.

I think Jean may have not understood Minni was an adult cat - we got Hydrogen and Helium as kittens who grew up and even Tom hadn't finished growing when we got him (which is bad news as he was so underwieght).

You can’t get the staff these days! (by alaric)

We've got houseguests over, and we left them at home while we went for a walk in the countryside.

However, when I got home, I found they'd decided to go to Tesco many hours previously, and had gone off leaving:

• Jean's rabbit outside in his run
• The shed unlocked
• The front door of the house wide open

When asked why, they said "Oh, Barbara (the next door neighbour, my aunt) was around"...

Had it not occurred to them that Barbara might decide to go out herself, and is not supposed to be responsible for locking up our home? Or that Barbara might not actually take it upon herself to guard our open doors from passing opportunists, and sit watching, but might have her own things to do?

sigh

Last Day of Reception Class (by sarah)

Jean has had a busy week at school full of end of term activities and now it is the last day! It seems amazing that she is at school let alone finishing her first year!

We got her ready this morning with her thankyou cards for the teachers and some oreo cookies and jelly babies (they where going to have home made banoffe cupcakes but the power didn't come on until late yesterday so that was a no go!).

Then this afternoon was the end of year celebration assembly in the village hall - it was sweet watching the years sixes (about to leave and go to big school) go over the highlights of the year and it reminded me just what a lot of stuff they had packed in!

But then came the Prize Givings and the first person called for the Ray Tortenese Competition was Jean! So we now have a shiny trophy cup (for Class One) sitting on the bookshelf next to a citificate and she got lots of other goodies too like a gardening book with an inscription to her in and lots of run recyclables like purses made from old juice cartons!

Jean didn't realise what was supposed to happen though so had to be encouraged to go up on the stage! Then she is so small and the prizes relatively big to her that she looked a bit swamped until help came along in the form of one of the year sixes!

She didn't know what it was about until it was explained to her and she stood on stage looking all wide eyed and bewildered - however since it was explained she hasn't stopped talking about it and how she didn't know she was going to win!

So yes I'm being a gushy parent and probably too proud especially when I think she wont be five until the end of next month!