An unwelcome visitor...

We cannot change the past - but oh how I wish we could.  When I wrote this post I had no idea that this would be one of the last I might make about our beloved boy Chivers - who we miss daily.  Of all our four he was the quietest most gentle cat you could wish to meet and the others just don't have that same personality.  They are much more independent and rarely want a cuddle.  Chivers would sit on you and high five you to get your attention and a bit of love.  RIP buddy.


Chivers had a rat last night - John found him under the dining table with the back end, tail and a leg hanging out of his mouth.  Then this morning he was extraordinarily interested in the washing machine - I opened the door and he had a good sniff around and then he started staring at the top of it and when I looked, sure enough, there was some sort of rodent sitting on the top.

John pulled the washing machine out and as he did the visitor disappeared dragging a tea-towel with it.  We couldn't see where it had gone and for a while Charlie and Boris kept sniffing around under the kitchen units but we couldn't find it - we thought there were only a few places it could hide but there was no sign.

Eventually John pulled out the two fridges and Charlie started sticking his paw in and around the motor at the back of one and then the bloody rodent shot out in my direction and then under the kitchen units and then it vanished - we hope it shot off out of the back door when we weren't looking but we couldn't be sure but shortly afterwards the cats lost all interest in the kitchen so we are guessing it did get out and if it is still around then Chivers will get it later for sure.

We have been painting the railings - John got up extra early this morning to finish the job off in the cool.

The problem is that the cats use the ladder to get up onto the top so we had to prevent them getting up there so John rigged up a curtain which seemed to put them off and as it was a pretty hot day the paint dried pretty quickly - we just wanted to make sure it wasn't tacky when anyone/cat went up otherwise the marks would be on there for good.

John can now cross that off of his To-Do list and as we consulted it we decided to tackle a couple of other jobs before it got too hot.

We have been meaning to clean the windows at the front of the conservatory for some time - by that I don't mean just the glass, I mean the aluminium and the tracks inside.

We have also had an issue that when it rains really hard we can get drips coming in through the handles which needed some investigation and today was the day to do it.

Scarily this meant taking the windows apart and removing the double glazed units so that we could clean them properly and John could adjust the handles to prevent the drips.

Everything came out and got a clean - I was terrified that something would go wrong and we would end up smashing one of the units but we managed it.  Time, and the weather, will tell whether or not we still get the drips but at least we know they cannot be any cleaner.

Once we had all the windows safely back into place and cleaned up the surrounds and washed the glass I decided that I would paint the concrete plinth at the front in cream which looks so much better - we still have some plinths left but by the time I had got this far it was beginning to get pretty hot and the paint goes all thick and sticky so makes it difficult to handle.

That was all the DIY for today but as we had had the conservatory doors wide open and had been washing down the floor needed a clean and a mop.  We had a very pretty moth come in overnight - sadly I thought it was just resting but it had died.  It had a magnificent set of antennae - not sure what sort it was but you can bet that under normal circumstances it would have been well camouflaged.

Not much to report on the rest of the day - tomorrow is a biggie as the Footie season restarts and Sheffield United is the first premiership game - you can imagine how excited John is!!