Sunday - a bit of a breakthrough...

I felt we had made a small breakthrough with Chivers this morning because when I got up and went across to the lounge he was asleep on the sofa but stretched out in a relaxed fashion rather than sitting scrunched up like he has been and, when I opened the door, he sat up with interest and a clearer look in his eye.  I gave him a little food from a pouch and he licked it and ate a little and then he ate a handful of biscuits.  I could have cried and ran off to give John the news.

On a minus side Chivers has got a bit confused about the toilet.  For a couple of days we had cat litter for him and so we could see the consistency of his poo (nice) but we have now taken that away and he is still looking in the conservatory for somewhere to go.  It crossed my mind last night that maybe I should move all my pot plants up to a higher level and I had moved all the big ones and looked at the little ones thinking that they would be too small for him to use but I was wrong as he had tried to dig up a small pot containing some of my (now mangled and dead) cuttings so I needed to give it a good clean up as Mum and Dad were coming for lunch.  On moving some of the pots I found a poor skink lizard who was trying to hibernate (I think they hibernate) and I decided I should move it before one or other of the cats found it.

Having moved the large patio table and chairs back onto the decking we brought the old round one in just before the heavens opened - the conservatory is easy to warm in the day with the patio heater and super Ser and the light is better for us when we play cards.  It can't have been too cold as John is in short sleeves!!  They are busy looking at the rain filling the swimming pool - John is going to have to pump it out again.

Today we were having the duck which Angela had given me which I had made into a Canard au Vin instead of a Coq au Vin and which I was serving with fresh veggies and hedgehog potatoes.  I was a bit nervous as Duck can be rather greasy and Dad said he had never had a tender bit of duck.

I was careful to cool the casserole overnight last night and skimmed off the excess fat as best I could and used my preserved kumquats to add a sharpness to the sauce.  I was really chuffed when Dad declared it was both tasty and tender - result!!!  I text Angela to let her know - I promised I would.

We had a nice couple of hours together - we don't like Mum or Dad driving back when the weather is bad or the light failing and we do get all those awful rolling mists so we try and make sure they set off in plenty of time to get home safely.

Our Winter has arrived with a marked change in the temperatures both during the day and at night so we are ever so, ever so grateful for our wood burner which is one of the best investments we have made whilst being here.

John has tidied up our wood store so he knows exactly what we have.  It looks as though we may well have enough wood to take us through this Winter and with the money Mum and Dad gave us for staying over Christmas/New Year we will buy another load of wood soon so that it is busy drying out during the course of the year.  We have supplemented our logs with 'finds' and 'scrounging' - both essential when you have a wood burner!!!

We both felt exhausted this evening - it has been a very difficult week and what with one thing or another neither of us has been sleeping very well.  With very little on the TV we decided to watch an episode of Last Tango in Halifax which looks like it is going to be a good series - although I managed to sleep through the last 10 minutes so will have to do a recap.

John and I breathed a sigh of relief when Chivers decided to cuddle up on John's lap like he normally does.  He is still not 100 percent and getting him back to eating normally is going to take some time - not having eaten for nearly a week means that his stomach must have shrunk.  Small steps but positive ones.  Keep your fingers crossed that this progress continues.