Vets again……

After being at the vets on Sunday with Molly, then taking DD to the vets to say her last goodbye to Molly on Monday, and a trip to the Pet Crematorium on Wednesday, I ended up back at the vets this morning, with my Maine Coon, Gadget. He hasn't been well for a while, and I've had my suspicions for a while, but today the vet confirmed that he has a tumour and probably hasn't got long with us. She gave me some steroids to give him to see if it will make things a little easier for him for a while, but ultimately I know that our remaining time with him is now a lot shorter than we thought. He is, to be fair, an old boy - coming close to 16 but not quite there yet - and has had a good life, providing us with both entertainment and near heart attacks (he once brought a frog in to the house and let it go, leaving us hunting for a frightened frog while trying to keep Gadget away from it!). It will still be hard though, to make that final journey back to the vets, whenever it may be. Sadly I suspect it will be quite soon, and we will lose another much loved member of our family.  

The Good and the Sad

What a weekend! Where to start? So much has happened.

First, the Good…….

We opted to go walking on Saturday as the weather forecast was better than Sunday, so we headed off to Longsleddale again, parking at Sadgill, to continue the walk we tried to do a few weeks ago when it was drizzly and foggy. I'm so glad we decided to go - blue skies and white fluffy clouds for most of the walk!

We seemed to be doing quite well with the climb, and the higher we went, the more snow was around which made it look amazing. Finally we could see Haweswater in the distance just peeping round the corner……..

……and then more and more ……

…..and then this opened up before us ……….amazing!

It really was an amazing walk (very cold and tough in places), topped off with hot chocolate and a sandwich close to Adam Seat.

Then a quick detour up to Adam Seat before heading back down the snowy path.

Then back down to the van for a nice cup of tea and piece of Christmas cake before heading home.

Now the Sad ……..

After taking Molly to the vets on Friday and being given medication for her, we hadn't been able to get her to eat much at all, which meant that we couldn't get her to take the medication. We thought she might just have had an upset stomach. But yesterday she seemed to go downhill very quickly, and by 3.30pm she was almost unconscious on her bed. I rang the vets and went more or less straight away with Molly. Unfortunately she didn't make it. At the same time, DD was on her way back from her boyfriends and couldn't be there, and DH was supposed to be going to pick DD up from the train station so he couldn't be with me either. It was heartbreaking to see Molly at the end, but we know she has had a good life - over 16 years with us. She has been on countless walks with us over the years and enjoyed them all, bouncing along up the hills. She has travelled so much with us on our holidays in this country, particularly Scotland, going up to the far north coast of Scotland, and across to Skye. We have so many good memories of her - she will never be forgotten.

Molly and Aveline

Oh dear :( I seem to have got a bit behind with my blog. It's all down to my pets - they seem to have taken up rather a lot of my time this week!

Aveline, the now one-eyed cat, needed to go back to the vets on Wednesday to make sure everything was healing ok so that we could finally take her collar off, after Monday's visit to the vet with her. So, off we went on Wednesday afternoon after I'd finished work. Everything looked ok and the nurse was quite happy for the collar to finally be removed. Yay! (or so I thought). Driving home I kept checking to make sure she was ok in the carrier, and everything was going well until we were about a mile from home, when she decided to have a good scratch, right over the wound, and, you guessed it, she made it bleed and managed to open up the wound again :( I had to get home first, get DD to hold Aveline while I put her collar back on her, ring the vets to tell them what had happened and warn them I was on my way back, and then straight out and back to the vets where they managed to somehow tissue glue it all back together. Phew! What an afternoon! So poor Aveline still has a collar on until we're quite sure that she won't open up the wound again.

So that was Wednesday. Yesterday was my long day at work and then DH was later home than normal due to traffic, so that was yesterday sorted. And today it was Molly's turn to go to the vets, our Westie. She's been getting slower and less active over the last few months, sleeping more, getting grumpier, and eating less. She's also been having more and more moments when she seems to forget where she is and what she's supposed to be doing. The vet thinks she's probably got arthritis in her hips and possible dementia. But her heart sounds good which is encouraging :) So we came away with some medication to try with her and see if it helps. Fingers crossed for her.

Then after getting the normal food shopping done and sending off an order from Etsy that came through last night, I finally managed to get round to doing some crafting. I've had a few ideas for some cards that I wanted to try out, so here they are ……

…..and I've also had chance to make another cluster bracelet :) 

Busy, busy busy!

Why not have a look and see what else I've been making ………

www.facebook.com/catztayl   and www.Etsy.com/uk/shop/CatztaylCrafts  It would be lovely if you could pop across and have a look :) Thank you :)

Tomorrow is hopefully going to be our walking day this weekend, weather permitting and DD is away this weekend at her boyfriends. And just one more week to go for us before we're off work for a whole week! Hopefully lots of walking for us :)

Pancakes!

Yay! Pancake Day! I love pancakes. I say it every year but I really must make them more often. We only have one slight disagreement in our house about them - I am the only one who considers them a meal rather than just a dessert. I suppose I find them just too filling to be anything other than a meal. DD had hers with raspberries and choc chips in some. 

We only had them late as DD was working until 8pm. Poor DH didn't get any as he's working away as usual. I might have to make some more when he gets home. 

Tomorrow I'm off to the vets again with Aveline and fingers crossed she'll be ok to be without her collar after that. 

And hopefully more crafting soon. I've added my new earrings on to my Etsy store, so fingers crossed that somebody likes them ....

Aveline update

Just a quick blog tonight to give an update on Aveline. I took her to the vets today to have her stitches out and to hopefully have her collar off so she could have a good wash and get back to normal.  The collar came off and the nurse took the stitches out. All looking good. Until she went back in the carrier to come home and started scratching and made her scar bleed. Not good. So on went the collar again for another couple of days and another appointment at the vets made for Wednesday. 

This was after managing to get some crafting done today as I've had a day off work. 

So tomorrow is going to be my Monday.... but with DH's early Tuesday start. Very confusing! 

Valentine's Day Walk

Today didn't start out quite how I thought it would. Setting off at a decent time to get to the Lake District I thought we were on track for an early start to a walk. That is until we opted to take a side road to Far Sawrey instead of keeping on the main road to Near Sawrey. What a road! Ordinarily I would have enjoyed the twists and turns, but knowing we had to park and knowing that daylight is still limited at this time of year, it was really frustrating! Especially as we couldn't find anywhere to park and ended up heading for the carpark in Hawkshead instead. 

So, we finally set off. Not quite the walk we'd planned. Heading out of Hawkshead we walked up towards Claife Heights, ending up at Moss Eccles Tarn for lunch. 

We had lunch looking out over Moss Eccles Tarn after finding our second Geocache of the day. It seemed a good place to stop before heading up towards High Blind How via Three Dubs Tarn. 

We opted to take the high path overlooking Windermere. Except we couldn't, thanks to forestry operations in the area. 

What was really annoying is that this was about half way along the path and there hadn't been any sign saying that the path was closed!! To turn round would mean retracing a good 3 hour walk, something we didn't want to do. So we had to try and find a way through branches and felled trees until we managed to get back on a good path. We even helped out another couple who were trying to do the same path! 

So, back on track and off to Latterbarrow. Finally. With views over Windermere. 

Then the final leg back to Hawkshead and the van before the light disappeared. 

Not quite the walk I thought we were going on, but a good one all the same. And home for steak and chips 😊

www.etsy.com/uk/shop/catztaylcrafts    www.facebook.com/catztayl

Crafting madness

First of all an update on Aveline. Considering what she has been through, an operation to take an eye out, I can't believe how well she is! She is obviously feeling so much better, to the point that she was walking around on the bannister rail at the top of the stairs on Monday, and turning round on it! Talk about scaring me! So I don't think we need to worry about her too much. 

As for the crafting - I have so many ideas for making jewellery at the moment, and, as usual, not enough time!! I've been busy doing a lot of networking online to try and get people to see my Facebook page in the hope that it will then encourage them to go to my Etsy store. I have to keep reminding myself that these things take time, and not to give up. 

I've also had another Ladies Lunch today with a couple of friends I used to work with and who I haven't seen since before Christmas. It was lovely to have a catch up and try one of the new pubs in town. 

Then when I got home I had a bit of fun with some flowers and glitter .........

I quite like them, but I'm biased! I tried an oval shape too ....

I'm finishing work at lunchtime tomorrow so I'm hoping to get some more of these done and made in to earrings. That's once I've done the washing, and ironing, and given Aveline her medicine, and made some soup ............

Sunday wanderings

Knowing that Aveline was ok meant that we managed to get out walking today. If we'd have been in any doubt about her we would have stayed in to watch her. 

We weren't out too long but had a fabulous walk in quite bleak weather! It was foggy on the way and never really cleared up, but it made for some amazingly eerie views! 

This was High Dam, not far from Newby Bridge in the Lake District. We walked round High Dam and then carried on up to Stott Park Heights where we had lunch. 

And something to look forward to when we got back the van - Christmas cake!!  We've finally finished the stollen, so time to tuck in to my scrummy Christmas cake! 

Aveline update

After taking Aveline to the vets on Tuesday and managing with the eye drops, I took her back to the vets yesterday. I knew that her eye didn't look any better, but I wasn't really prepared for what they said. The ulcer was looking worse and they wanted to keep her in for a second opinion. That part was ok. So I left Aveline at the vets and went home.

Just before I was going out for a Ladies that Lunch meal the vets rang me back. They weren't happy with Avelines eye and our options were to get her referred to an eye clinic or they would put her under anaesthetic and have a look to see if they could do anything. I trust my vets so agreed to them having a look, and then spent the next 3 hours waiting for a phone call with an update. 

Unfortunately the news wasn't good. The ulcer was so bad that the only option was for Aveline to lose her eye 😢 I couldn't believe it. Of all our cats she is the one with the biggest, prettiest eyes. People have always commented on her eyes. Sadly, she now has just one. The operation went ahead and I was told later on last night that she was doing fine and they would keep her in overnight, and they would ring me today to let me know when we could get her. 

The vets rang while I was out shopping this morning saying we could go and get Aveline at 1pm. So she's now home. Purring away. And seeming quite settled despite what she's been through. 

My pretty Aveline 😊

I also managed to get some crafting done with some new beads 😊

I've put some of them on my Etsy shop, and will get the rest on soon. Why not have a look on www.etsy.com/uk/shop/catztaylcrafts or www.facebook.com/catztayl

Mid week mayhem!

Ok. I'll not say the inevitable ...... but......Wednesday already!  Again! Heading towards the weekend though, that's the good news 😊

So this week so far at work has not been one of the best. Having moved desks I've found myself sat on my own due to two people being off on leave and another in training. With one day to go, and my long day at that, I'll be glad when it gets to Friday when I can hopefully get some crafting done. That's after my second trip to the vets this week. I had to go yesterday with two of my cats - one's losing weight (although for 17 years of age she's doing ok otherwise), and one had a rather unpleasant looking eye. Turns out she has an ulcer on her eye which needs eye drops two and three times a day - two different kinds of drops. As I go out quite early in a morning, dealing with two lots of eye drops at least 20-30 minutes apart was a bit manic, as well as fitting in letting the dogs out, feeding the dogs and getting myself ready to go out. And all before 7am! Roll on the weekend! 

I tried to make some jewellery tonight too, but had very little time and so it didn't quite work out right. That's when it gets frustrating - when I know how I want it to look but haven't got the time to do it properly. Ah well. The joys of home life....... Hopefully I'll get some done soon and will post pics. 

In the meantime, if you fancy having a look why not go to my Etsy shop to see what I've made so far.......

www.etsy.com/UK/shop/catztaylcrafts

Another weekend ......

Happy February!

Sunday night already, getting closer to the dreaded Monday morning..... 

However, I seem to have packed quite a lot in to the last few days. I managed to spend time crafting on both Friday and Saturday. After doing the standard weekly shop on Friday morning I finally got round to making some cards again. I used to spend hours making cards a few years ago, so it's really good to do it all again. 

Then yesterday I made some more jewellery pieces and even managed to get some on my Etsy shop! It seems to take me a while to get them all uploaded properly - taking photos then getting the descriptions and pricing a done. Fingers crossed it's all worth it. 

Today could have gone one of two ways - either have a lazy day at home and take advantage of some time out, or head off out in the cold but sunny weather for a walk. Those of you who read my blog will no doubt guess which option we chose ..... to head out in the (very) fresh air! 

We didn't want to go too far as we were a bit late setting off, but somewhere for a good walk with good views. Arnside Knott ended up being our destination. We've driven past so many times but never stopped to climb up. I'm so glad we went today. 

We headed up to the Pepperpot first .....

...then carried on to Arnside Tower ....

....before heading up to Arnside Knott itself .....

There were some fabulous views from the top ....

.....and although it was chilly, it wasn't as cold as we thought it was going to be. We didn't see as many people out and about as we'd imagined there'd be either. And I'm not quite sure where we were at one point in the walk ......

......looks like we were in No Mans Land! 

A lovely walk to end a busy weekend 😊