July 13th...

It was our day for wildlife today - we woke to find a trail of feathers which started in the bedrooms and stretched through the conservatory and terminated under the dining room table - CHIVERS!!!!  Well we originally blamed Chivers then thought it could possibly be Charlie but looked at him and thought 'nah' and went back to blaming Chivers.

I was having a day of sorting out food for the Smeaters picnic and I took the opportunity to go through the fridge and use up a load of ingredients, John was getting the house and pool ready as Mum and Dad and Kaye and Richard were coming up tomorrow, going to the picnic and then staying over.

On a couple of occasions during the day Charlie had been coughing - he needs to be fully fit for his next injection - we were worried that he had swallowed one of the sequins that he keeps tearing off of the back door curtain so I asked John to tie the curtain up out of the way.  It was then that we discovered what had possibly left the remains of the bird behind - a BIRD EATING SPIDER - at least that is what we think it was rather than a tarantula - I don't know who was more scared - me, the spider or John but let's just say John quickly dispatched the bugger out of the kitchen door where it played dead - probably trying to lull us into a false sense of security - we were not lulled we just lobbed it over the fence and hoped it would not return with its Dad sometime later!

Diversion over I got on with my cooking - Kaye doesn't eat cheese so I modified the carrot and halloumi fritters and substituted the cheese with apple and added some extra spices and hey presto I had some really lovely fritters - in fact my Chief Taster declared that they were the best I had made as I had left the texture of the carrots rougher than usual.

We had a load of veggies from Running John and Susan so I decided to stuff some of the Cypriot bell peppers with a Moroccan rice filling.  Mum had provided some mini koupies, which were a bit difficult to cook, and some pigs in blankets.  Add to this a frittata, chickpea salad and some fruit and a bilberry pie and voila my contribution was ready and my fridge looking much more manageable!!

My next job was to clean the shower cubicle so imagine my surprise when I was busy scrubbing the shower tray and a tree frog jumped out from between the sliding doors!!!!  It jumped out into about an inch bleach so I had to quickly pick it up and rinse it off and then let it go on the float in the swimming pool so that the cats didn't get it!

Towards the end of the afternoon we realised that Charlie was nowhere to be seen and we went off in search calling for him but getting no response.

We spread our search a little further and as I was out the front our neighbour Persephone from 1B came out with Charlie at her heals asking if we were looking for a kitten.  It transpires that the other night when he was AWOL he had pitched up at theirs and was crying - Persephone said that she LOVES cats so after a while took him in and fed him!!!  Lord knows what because it was after that that his poo took a turn for the worse!!!  She asked where his green collar was and I said that he had lost it!!!  Anyway the good thing is that she and her family now know that we have little Charlie and they will know to bring him back if he pitches up at theirs again.

Charlie was completely oblivious to the angst he had caused us and treated us to a gift of one of those huge locust like grasshoppers which he disemboweled and mutilated with great relish.  Little Sod!

We were finally ready for our visitors!