Schnukems, our slightly rounded tabby cat feels unable to get onto the fridge to get her food unless Ian is watching. As she quite often fails in her quest to jump on the fridge I think she may feel that Ian presents some sort of safety-net opportunity for her. Ian says he is going to put his foot down and does not want to get into that situation with the kittens – who seem to be pretty quick to learn. They still get fed in my workshop as they are too little to jump on the fridge, however they are convinced that the grown-up cats have food that is much more exciting (even though it is the same). They therefore cry to get put in the fridge, which Ian refuses to do as he doesn’t want to get to a Schumkem situation. Instead he takes them into my workshop and puts them on the food table there. I have a horrible feeling that we are developing a situation where the kittens will have trained us that when they cry in the kitchen they cat carried to the workshop and placed on their food table. When I say ‘kitten training’, I of course mean the kittens training us rather than the other way around.
Noticed that one of our hens had started laying again AND she had gone broody. Silkies are known for their broodiness, however I was surprised that she had gone broody so quickly. We took the eggs away, and she immediately forgot them, but it is something we need to watch. I can’t find where they are laying eggs – assuming they both are. I’ve put their nesting box back in the barn, so that’s one place we know not to look for eggs as they steadfastly ignore it.
There was a fiesta at the swimming pool on Saturday night. We went along, and it was rather an unusual band. I’m not sure how to describe the music – at a push I’d say Spanish skiffle. I was expecting a mutiny, however they managed to pasadoble along to it without any problems, just varying the speed as required. Young and old seemed to enjoy it and perhaps it was only us that felt that it would have been nice if they managed to hit at least some of the high notes.
Last week we were busy working on our sites. We dedicated the whole week to adding to the databases. We worked really hard and added over 1700 items to the database which was pretty good going. I really enjoy doing this, Ian appreciates it slightly less. I think this is mainly because I keep finding ideas for things to do. I was particularly taken with a knitting pattern for covering plastic chairs, which Ian is no doubt looking forward to immensely. Next month we’ll be spending a week tidying up some of the sites. Freeneedle, for instance, now has links to over 150 bag patterns and projects, which is just too many. We’re just starting to see a slight drop off now in revenue, I was expecting the drop to start earlier, perhaps from June, before picking up in September.
I’ve now 5 children in my class and have had enquiries for September. The children are all in love with Basil and were coming round in the evening to see him. I rather mistakenly thought they were coming to see me, however one day we pretended to be out and we could hear them shouting ‘basil, basil we love you’ through the door. Poor Basil, he loves standing there while they pet him and when some of the girls started trying to put pony tails into his hair you could tell he was delighted. He was most upset when we started to hide him away to stop them coming round!
It’s getting hot again this week. It’s also noticeably darker in the morning. We went for a cycle ride at around quarter to seven last week, and it was almost too dark to be out without lights.