Forty days till the winter solstice

On By bertie bootsIn Happenings2 Comments

Morning all, it’s Bertie here today.

Mummy said last night she’d worked out it’s forty days to the winter Solstice, when the day is shortest.  Then the days start getting longer again.  I”m beginning to get the hang of these long and short days.  Short days are winter, and we don’t go out in the garden because it’s cold.  Long days are in summer, and it’s usually warm enough to go out.

The days are certainly short at the moment.  Mummy has been going out for golf as usual, and not getting back until it’s nearly dark.  We have a light above us that she turns on when she comes in, and turns off just after cucumber time, which is a lot later.  Some mornings it’s still pretty dark when she comes down from her sleep.  She opens the curtains and tells us what the sunrise looks like.

sunrise outside our window
Neville and me
Me and Neville

Apparently, it’s going to be like this, or even darker, until the end of January.  That’s when Mummy said the days will be back to the length they are now.  Well, I suppose that’s not too bad.  It’ll be another forty days after that before we can start to hope we might go out on the grass again, though.

I have trouble counting to forty.  I only have fourteen toes. I’ll just have to trust Mummy to tell me when things happen. Between us we can count to thirty-four because she has twenty toes. Or are they fingers?  Perhaps it’s a mixture.  Humans are funny like that.

This week we celebrate Percy’s Gotcha Day on  Thursday (because he didn’t have a birthday and that’s when he first came to live here, three years ago).  We also celebrate seven years since Fred’s Passing on Sunday.  I’ll have to have a look at his photographs to remember who he is. I never met him.

Have a nice week!

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Bangs, flashes, fizzes and sparkles

On By geordieroscoeIn Happenings2 Comments

Way-aye, Roscoe here.  Our Bertie was fretting about something last week, so I told him to ask you about it.  Thank for your replies.  You were a great help.

The sun seems to be going in the right direction to me – it just had that one blip.  It always does that around this time of year, but then I’ve had more years than Bertie. I expect next year he’ll be happy as Larry about it.  I don’t know who Larry is, it’s just something they say about him.

Bertie
Neville
Selfie with Mam
Biggles

This week it’s been very noisy in the night time.  Bangs, flashes, fizzes and sparkles. Bangs are noisy, some fizzes are noisy too, but the sparkles are generally just pretty.  One night we could see them out of our upper window, and they were very loud.  The bangs went on for ages. Bang. Bang. Bang.  Made the house shake too.  Mam was down with us, talking to us and telling us everything was okay, and the music was playing too, which was sorta soothing.  So we just took it as Mam said, and hid in our snuggle sacks and tunnels till it had all stopped.

Then next night they started early on the other side of the house, and stopped, then started again, then stopped.  Then it was quiet for a while till it started somewhere else.  Sounds like we’re surrounded.  I think it was like that where we grew up, but I can’t rightly remember now.  It was long ago and faraway.

Mam says there’ll be more tonight and we might have a few more but by next weekend it should be fine until New Year.  That’s less than two months to go.

Right.  Just so we’re warned.

Hope it’s all quiet where you are.

love

Roscoe

PS Mam brought in lots of raspberries from the garden.  She offered them to us, but I don’t trust them. Only Biggles ate them, but he’ll eat anything.  Mam made noises and tings for a while and then put the raspberries in some jars.  That’s why the photo is there with the ones of us.

The sun’s going backwards!

On By bertie bootsIn Happenings3 Comments

Hi all, Bertie here.  Yes I know it’s Roscoe’s turn, but he didn’t understand what I was so worried about so he told me to tell you and you’d probably work it out.

Mummy’s been behaving strangely.  Well, that’s not unusual, but she’s usually very regular with our cucumber and cuddles and the like, and last week she was all over the place!  Sometimes she’d be down in the dark before the music started, sometimes the music would start and the sun would come out and then she’d come down.

But suddenly yesterday, the sun came out before the music started, and then Mummy came down.  We had cuddles and cucumber and breakfast, all in the daylight. (Then we all slept except Roscoe). She was acting as if nothing unusual was happening.  It happened again today, although it wasn’t so sunny.

Roscoe, not asleep
Neville, asleep
The autumn garden
Biggles, asleep
Bertie, nearly asleep

She’s going to bed later too.  We know because we have to wait till ages after dark for our last hay of the day.

As far as I can see, it must be the sun’s fault.  The sun has started getting up earlier again, all of a sudden.  Usually it changes slowly.  And I think Mummy’s said before it doesn’t start getting lighter again in the mornings until after Christmas.  We haven’t done Christmas yet because we haven’t had our photos taken in our red hats, and we haven’t had yummy presents.

So what’s going on?

Why has the sun gone backwards?

Is Mummy okay, or is it too late to help her?

Please help.

Mummy’s taken our runs in :(

On By bertie bootsIn garden, Hygiene4 Comments

Mummy took our run panels down at the weekend, even though it was sunny outside.  She said it was just too wet for us, due to the heavy dew, and lack of sun on the grass.  I know what she means: the last few times there’s been sun in the sky but not shining where we are.  It was okay, but if the grass is wet then I want to stay in my tent.  Or the tunnel.

So that’s it for this year.  Maybe we’ll get out on the grass in March.  Mummy says we do some years, but this year it was cold and wet right through till early May.  It’s something to do with climate change changing things around.

Selfie with Mummy

I saw Roscoe told you he and Neville had baths.  I didn’t have a bath then but I had my tummy washed this week.  Just my tummy.  I’d got it all sticky during the night.  Mummy didn’t ask questions, she just stood me on the side of the big white sink, put water and soap on my tummy and rubbed it so it all went bubbly, and then held me so the water ran over my tummy to wash it clean again.  Then she wrapped me in a light towel, and we went and had our normal cuddles.

Apparently Auntie Shirley and Uncle Barry are coming to see us on Tuesday.  That’s tomorrow.  I expect they’ll look at our teeth too.  I like Auntie Shirley and Uncle Barry but I wish they wouldn’t make us show them our back teeth.  Mummy says it\s better than having to go to the vet for teeth work.  She thinks Biggles may need some work on his.  Mine will be perfect, of course.

 

last day of summer 2018

That might be it for summer…

On By geordieroscoeIn Happenings3 Comments

It was really nice last week.  Each day when Mam came back from her golf (it’s always golf, we think), she put us out in the garden for a wee while, even when it was nearly dark. It wasn’t really dark. The darkest day we only went out for a few minutes, but it was good for a leg stretch and some grass.

Selfie with Mam
Me on Mam’s lap after the bath
Neville’s selfie with Mam

Thursday Neville and me had a bath.  We don’t like having baths, but it’s good afterwards.  My hair goes soft and silky, and so does Neville’s.  His bottom stops smelling riper than is polite, too.  We get an extra long cuddle (I don’t like long cuddles) and get a warm blowy noisy thing held over us before we go for our run.  It does make you feel nice and warm, though.

Saturday was great.  Mummy was not in golf clothes, and we went out into the garden runs at lunchtime. That’s earlier than we’ve had all summer long, I think.  The runs had moved onto fresh grass.  We made good work of that, I can tell you.  Mam made good work of planting seeds in the veggie patch with the chard and winter lettuce.

Us on Saturday
Bertie on Thursday
Biggles on Thursday (he went all shy in the garden)

There was a lot of air blowing about, almost as warm as that hair drying thing Mam used on Thursday.  We were in a sheltered part, between the plant that’s escaped from its pen and the wall, where there’s lots of grass.  Bertie was beside us.  He’d moved only a little way, next to where he’d been before.  And the other end was Biggles.

Mam said to eat as much as we liked because we wouldn’t be coming out much longer.  How right she was!  Sunday was wet as could be and Mam said it was cold out, too.  Today Mam’s gone out early in her golf uniform again, but she’s got extra layers on.  It’s funny how she manages to get extra layers of coat on.  We just fluff up our hair a bit more.

Mam said to send a special note to Auntie Noelle, because she’s been suffering from the hurricane, which is even windier than our wind.  That must be really something, Auntie Noelle.  And also we’re still thinking solidly for Uncle Mo, and hope the treatment’s okay and the human vet people are looking after you well. Love and kisses from us.

And love and kisses to you too.

Roscoe xxx

Late night grass time

On By bertie bootsIn garden2 Comments

I don’t like to complain, but Mummy keeps going out in the afternoon and it’s nearly dark, or even really dark, when she comes back.

A couple of nights last week she came back when the sun was in the sky, but not in the garden, not even in Roscoe & Neville’s run.  We were all pleased she put us out on the grass for a little while, but really, it was just a little while.  Then at the weekend it rained.  Well, Saturday it rained, and Sunday before Mummy went out she dried the grass for us with the towel, and said it might be dry enough when she came back, but she doubted it.

Well, don’t you know, but she was right.  Or so she said.  I’m supposed to believe Mummy when she says things like that, but it was still sunny out, so why wasn’t it dry enough.

Well, I suppose at least we got a little bit of late night grass time last week. There won’t be much more of it, Mummy says.  The leaves are starting to cover up the grass, so I suppose that means it’s going to be winter soon.  I hate winter.

Then again, after winter comes spring.