Why was last weekend so stupidly hot!?

I just want to get on with wearing my nice, new (to me) winter clothes I’ve been getting off of eBay, eating lovely wholesome winter meals mostly consisting of custard and kicking leaves in the air whilst wearing my wellies…I just don’t really like the summer, I realise this is a hangable offence but I love the winter – bright, crisp days with stodgy food, cheek freezing walks and snuggling in front of the fire. I’ve been looking forward to Autumn since May!

So WHY was it so ridiculously hot this weekend? We/I had plans to pull out the cupboard in our lounge, rip off the rest of the wallpaper, put the skirting boards back on, put things in the loft, get started on the new quilts I’m making for Christmas and generally sort out the hundreds of piles and boxes (well, more like 10) around my house. Instead Mr B and I got hot and bothered (and not in a good sense) and squabbled our way through the weekend whilst achieving pretty little it feels like, I want my weekend for a do-over! Do you ever have that moment where you’re really not sure what you’re arguing about? We did it a lot!

We did manage to achieve one thing which we’ve been intending to do for about 3 weeks – we put the finishing touches to the coir matting in the hallway. Having ripped up all the carpets downstairs to do the sanding of the floors, we discovered that there was a massive piece of hard board in place of about 3 floorboards just inside the door in the hallway. So, rather than having to actually sort it out properly I came up with a bodge that involved sanding 2 thirds of the hallway and covering the rest in coir matting – presenting it as my truly intentional and original idea, obviously! I think the main problem with fitting it ourselves though is that neither of us had a clue what we were doing but both felt we should pretend we did

The coir matting, edged and finished

But it is done now and I do feel mighty proud of our efforts every time I come down the stairs

To be fair, it wasn’t all bad, we did have a nice evening out on Friday, drinking outside in the sun…so it wasn’t all bad…and we had a lovely BBQ on Sunday afternoon…and we sat out with Betty as she ransacked all my pots – yes, they look pathetic, I know!

Betty in the flower-pot

But last night I tried to make up for the lack of action a little and I’ve nearly finished one quilt with the plan to get started on fabric planning for the other two tonight and I’ll be putting all my other fabric in the loft so you can actually move around in our spare room. Mr B needs the space to play XBox you see

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• The floors are done… (dreamalittledreamalot.wordpress.com)

Oh my, has it been a busy few days!

We’re in! Despite this being (apparently) a relatively quick sale it seems like forever since we first walked into our little house in the wrong part of town and decided we HAD to have it. Only 8 weeks later we have now moved around 50 billion boxes and way more furniture than we remember having and I’ve cleaned till all my fingernails broke! There was much help from our respective parents but Mr B and I may take a little while to recover from the stress!So now our days are filled with discussing where the CD’s should go (a primary concern of Mr B) and which way round our bed should go (it’s the wrong way!!!). But I am LOVING it, I’ve got the gorgeous period cottage that I have wanted since I was about 3 years old…well maybe that’s a slight exaggeration! I’ve got a bay window…and fireplaces in every room…and red brick walls wound my garden, it’s so pretty And we’re going to spend FOREVER making it even prettier!

Betty seemed to be settling in, she’s still eating and pooing which is always a good sign! Though I keep finding a cat on top of her hutch or run so think she might take a while to get used to that daily trauma! Once we’re all settled in, we’re going to be finding her a Bertie (how cute would that be?!?) to keep her company when we’re not there as I hate seeing her cute little face looking all lonely when I go off to work

Even the little annoyances, like our Polish neighbours horrific taste in 90′s club music or the man who hocks up half his lungs every morning (urgh!!!) really don’t bother me because… it’s OUR house!!!

Soon as we’re up and running (and I’ve found my camera) I’ll be posting copious photos and stories about our struggles!

Run free little Betty!

On Sunday we let Betty out to roam free in the garden whilst me and Mr B kept watch for the HUGE birds that usually circle our garden looking for small rodents to swoop at and eat. I had horrible visions of poor Betty being carried off in some horrible birds claws but, except for one sticky moment where I had to run around waving my arms (I think I heard them mocking me), she remained safe and sound, having a fantastic time scampering around.

Mr B managed to grab some pictures of her scampering around – super cute!!!

Losing someone you love…

Last night was not a good night in our household…I got home to find Helga looking decidedly under the weather, not as bad as last time but very floppy, refusing to eat and then she couldn’t even stand up So I rushed her to the vet and sadly the diagnosis wasn’t good, the fact that it had only been two months since the last time she was critically ill left the vet thinking that it was probably a congenital condition, not the parasite they originally thought, and that these episodes would only increase in occurrence with no prior warning or medication to prevent and a lot of nursing required each time to ensure that she kept eating and her body temperature stayed up. Sadly Mr B and I had to take the horrible decision to put her to sleep, it wasn’t a nice thing to have to do but we didn’t want her to have to go through this over and over again with no real medication to treat her problem.

Poor Betty looked very forlorn last night and this morning, having spent her whole year of life with her sister I can only imagine how horrible it must be for her to no longer have her naughty little partner in crime. We’ll have to see how it goes with Betty and hopefully she’ll keep being her usual sweet self without too much pinning. But for now we all miss Helga terribly and I’ll never forget how incredibly small and weak she was right at the end. Though she was only a year old she was the brightest and most incorrigible rabbit I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting!

The gorgeous Helga

The buns have a new friend!

We’ve been noticing this little birdie pottering around our garden lately and the bunnies were taking quite an interest in him so today I managed to get a few pictures of them examining each other – too cute!

 

What a weekend!

Wow, I feel like I’ve been through a washing machine – frazzled, bumped and more than a little dazed!

Having driven home Friday night after work thinking how much I was looking forward to the (diet friendly) Thai meal that we had planned I decided to put the bunnies in their run before doing some Yoga…this is where it all went completely and utterly and horribly wrong

I found Helga, who had been fine the night before and when I checked on her that morning, flat out in the hutch looking only a fingers width from death. To say I panicked is quite an understatement! With Mr B at least another hour away from home I had to load her in the car and drive the 15 minutes to Henley on my own. Those 15 minutes seemed like FOREVER, I had to sing ‘Yellow Submarine’ to myself just to keep vaguely sane and not run myself (and everyone else) off of the road. It was the only song I could remember any words to at the time – not the best! I was just convinced that she wasn’t going to make the drive

But we got to the vets and I got her in there whereupon the vet told me that her bloat was so bad that it was probably better to put her down, there would be only a 10% chance of survival if she was treated…what do you do when someone says that?!? Never have I wanted to be an adult less – Mr B still wasn’t there and all I kept thinking was how she’d been fine that morning. Fortunately for Helga when I rang Mr B he said we had to give her a chance so they whisked her away for pain treatment as she was in agony and started treating the bloat. They were so good at the surgery, giving me some strong, sweet tea and pretending they couldn’t see my mascara all down my face! I was so grateful when Mr B turned up, he was so calm and settled me down. After an hour she hadn’t gotten any worse which was apparently the best we could hope for so they sent us home saying we could phone every hour for an update and that they’d phone us if she went downhill – we were REALLY hoping not to get a phone call from them!

So we spent the night on the sofa, watching Betty, terrified that she was going to go the same way (she remained ridiculously healthy though) after which we spent the whole of Saturday calling every hour and every hour she recovered a little bit more, tough little bunny that she is! But now she was really uncoordinated and kept falling over so the vet started to treat her for a parasite called E.Cuniculi – never heard of it before – and she started to improve even more.

To cut a (very) long story short, Sunday afternoon we were able to bring her home and she’s looking really well, she hates us for having to syringe feed her though (I don’t blame her, I hate myself a little bit whilst doing it) and we were up in shifts last night checking on her so I am super knackered this morning but we have a (seemingly) healthy bunny back and I am soooooo thankful! We’ve now got to treat her and Betty for a month for this parasite as apparently Betty could have it too, either through their mother or wild rabbit urine…because there’s loads of that in our garden?!? Anyway, fingers crossed that they both stay happy and healthy…and I get some sleep sometime soon

Also, to my lovely man, thank you for being perfect when you needed to be xxx

Snow buns – snow fun

So, unless you’ve been completely oblivious we had a whole lot of snow the weekend before Christmas and we got some here in the valley too, though nowhere near as much as they got elsewhere in the UK!

It’s the first snow the buns have ever seen so we got them out in it and it was soooo cute, Helga wasn’t so sure but Betty loved it…

 

Illness and bunny surgery – no excuse!

So I have been INCREDIBLY rubbish with blogging lately I am sorry!

It’s no excuse but the mother of all colds combined with the bunnies going in to be ‘done’ has left me tired, rather uninspired and quite weepy. Not a pretty sight!

Anyway, I am back at work now having almost recovered from the cold…well I’ll keep telling myself that and it might come true! It’s my birthday on Monday so I have a very busy weekend ahead AND we’re going on holiday next week to…dum de dum…Chicago!

I am SO excited, not on the normal scale of excitement but on another far more excitable scale where I lose total interest in everything else and just keep thinking about the hotel and the lake and the shopping and the FOOD and eating myself silly. Plus I have NEVER been outside of Europe – ridiculous I know – so even the idea of the long flight is exciting me. Poor Mr B, it’ll be like taking an excitable toddler across the Atlantic, except I’ll probably get drunk and pass out

So now I’m just worrying about packing and getting the house vaguely clean for my parents staying whilst we’re away. Maybe I’ll shove everything in one room and make it out of bounds. Far too concerned about the bunnies to spend too long cleaning etc.

They had their op to remove all their lady bits on Monday and I have never felt so mean as I did when we dropped them off. They just looked at us like we were the meanest people ever and Betty very kindly gave me a three inch cavernous scratch on my hand as a goodbye kiss – thanks! So we picked them up Monday night and since then I have worried worried and worried a little more that they weren’t eating and then they were eating but they weren’t pooing, I even composed the poo song which had absolutely no effect on their bowel movements but did make them seem a little amused Then we had to syringe feed them minging baby food which was not fun for anyone and I now have shelves covered in carrot and vegetable…hmmmmm. Finally last night they POOED, never have me and Mr B been so happy or so aware of our immense lameness. Yes we are reduced to talking about poos – it’s just what happens with some couples after a while I guess.

So absolutely knackered I may now be, I couldn’t be happier that the two madames are now on the road to recovery. I leave you with some pictures…

And then the bunnies were gone…

So I got home last night and started setting up the lounge for the rabbits to come inside – we decided that they needed a bit more handling as they’re still not that tame and really won’t come to us when we call. Anyway, so I set all this up, opened the back door to get them out of the hutch to find…the hutch door wide open and NO RABBITS!!! To say I panicked would be a MASSIVE understatement, I spent a full ten minutes sat by the door crying and wondering how on earth I was going to tell Mr B that I had lost the rabbits. I remember shutting the cage latch but there it was wide open – what had I done!?!

I then tried to calm down and find a torch, maybe, just maybe they were still in the garden I thought? Couldn’t find a torch…ok then my phone light it is, out I went stomping round the garden in the dark to try and desperately find them before Mr B came home. What seemed like hours later I located the mishievious little so and sos behind the shed. Oh the relief!!! They were having a whale of a time to be fair, not even slightly fazed by the big bad world – led me on a merry chase getting them back in the hutch though! I managed however to get them back in, even though I think it was clearly a two person job Mr B wasn’t back for ages so I knuckled down and got the job done! More than a little proud of myself – Helga was a sweetie though, I put a ramp up to the hutch and she jumped straight back in, Betty was another story….grrrrr…but it’s over now!

And then the bunnies were gone...

Betty looking oh so angelic on the sofa - that is thread everywhere

Helga pretending my foot's not there

Quite exhausted by now I couldn’t muster the energy to even tell Mr B about it prooperly let alone cook dinner so he kindly bought home fish and chips and we collapsed on the sofa. But not before bringing Betty and Helga inside for their first roam across the sofa – awwwwwww!!!

P.S. Look what the lovely Mr B made me for breakfast this morning – thank you lovely!

Banana and Blueberry pancakes

A relaxing time was had by all – Bunnies included!

Sadly it’s over but the weekend was relaxing and just what I needed to get back into the swing of things and get back into some projects. More of the quilt was sewn together, more hexagons basted and a lot of chutneys made. All in all fairly productive. My favourite thing was probably the bunny house I made for them on Friday night. Both Betty and Helga seemed to love running around it but I still think it needed a second floor – it did only take about two minutes with a Stanley knife though!

The house, complete with window, doors and sleeping compartment

Helga having a nose around

Betty investigating

Just running around

Betty on the roof