I'm back!

Warning - this is probably going to be a long post!!

After my last post it was all systems go to get ready for a week away with DH and DD. DD had changed her shift for Friday so that she finished at 2pm, with the intention that we left home early. However, it was 4.30pm before we finally left and headed north for the Lake District, and our cottage a few miles south of Cockermouth. It was dark by the time we arrived, and raining, so we didn't really get a proper look at the outside of the cottage. The inside was lovely though - log burners in the conservatory, main lounge and even our bedroom upstairs.

Unfortunately it then rained most of Saturday and all day Sunday, so the furthest we went was a short walk on Saturday afternoon. We still had some lovely views despite the weather .....

....beautiful Ennerdale......and lots of snowdrops.....

Monday we went in to Cockermouth to get some shopping done, then went across to the Lake District Wildlife Park. It's a lovely place if you get there. It's not all commercialised and touristy - just a lovely wildlife park looking after some fabulous animals, including these cute meerkats...

.....two really amazing otters.......

.....a red panda ......

......as well as lots of others animals .....

It's well worth a visit. 

When we got back to the cottage we left DD there and took Oscar for a walk down to Ennerdale Bridge, and saw this on the way......

....a fabulous double rainbow. 

Tuesday started off with blue sky and sunshine so we all headed out for a walk straight from the cottage. We told DD it would be about 5 miles or so.

It was a beautiful day .......

......lots of fabulous views ......

.....some of the forest walk was closed due to tree damage in the storms over recent weeks .....

.....but it didn't stop us enjoying the views. You could even see out to Scotland! 

It was a really good walk ....

..... Unfortunately we had a couple of miles of road walking on the way back which none of us really enjoyed. And poor DD ended up doing 8.3 miles with us instead of the 5 we told her! Oops! I think we miscalculated .......

Wednesday was a bit less tiring - a trip to Muncaster Castle and the Owlery. Sadly there didn't appear to be many owls this time as they were making changes and didn't have all the pens up. So we wandered further round the gardens which are huge.....

.....and then a drive to St Bees (well, it had to be done while we were near....)

Our final day was Thursday, and a day that DD wanted to stay in the cottage with Oscar while we headed off on a longer walk. We were going to walk down the side of Ennerdale but opted to go to Crummock Water and do the full circuit round, heading down to Buttermere and back. 

It was an amazing walk .....

....we had blue sky to start with ....

 

....and it was a fairly low level walk - easy apart from a few very muddy sections when we lost the main path for a while ....

......fabulous views .....

......eventually reaching Buttermere where we stopped for lunch....

 

....and then back up the other side of Crummock Water .....

......meeting a few sheep along the way .....

....and back to the van for a nice cup of tea before heading back to the cottage to pack ready for heading home. 

While we'd been out walking DD had sent me a text to say that she was taking Oscar out for a little walk but he'd started limping. He'd been fine when we left in the morning but by the time we got back he wasn't putting any weight on one of his front legs at all, and was hopping round looking really sorry for himself. He wasn't any better when we got up Friday morning and packed the van. So it was mentioned that we'd probably get home in time to take him to the vets and get him checked. 

We got home yesterday late afternoon after a brief stop in Keswick, and then another stop at Tebay motorway services (probably the best motorway services around). Amazingly enough, after talking about the vets, when we stopped at Tebay and let Oscar out, he'd stopped limping, and hasn't done at all since then!! 

I have, however, had a trip to the vets with Freddie today. DD came to the Cattery with me this morning, and when we got in the pen we could see Freddie clawing at her mouth. So, it was a case of get home, drop 3 cats off, head straight for vets before they closed, agree to an anaesthetic and any teeth removed, a blood test to check everything else is working OK as she's now 13, and then sit and wait until it was time to pick her up - minus 6 teeth. Thankfully she now seems fine, despite only having about 4 or 5 teeth left. All her blood tests came back ok and they said she's doing really well considering her age (and the nurses think she's so cute, which we already know..... but we're biased....). 

So that's the reason for the lack of posts over the last week. Hopefully things will be back to normal now! 

Medication

My poor little Titch went to the vets on Monday to have some teeth out. Apparently he had 6 teeth taken out and has 14 missing! It's a good job they have a few more than that to start with! But he's home now, being the cuddly affectionate cat that he is. Even the nurse at the vets commented on how friendly he is and how many cuddles he'd had. He's on medication for a few days - pain killers and antibiotics. I've to take him back in Friday for a check up, before whizzing everyone off to the Cattery for a week. 

I've been busy painting every day after work this week so far too, trying to get new bits done before 5th March which is my next craft fair. I had another order from my Etsy shop on Monday, and then a message from somebody else asking if I could do a custom order for her, which is very exciting! It might not be a lot to some people, but it means a lot to me. And I love doing it all too. 

And I now have one day at work before being off until 29th February. Yay! 

Vets again!

So this weekend hasn't quite gone how I thought it would. 

Friday was mainly spent shopping, after visiting my mum and returning her wooden pasting table in the morning. Not much crafting done at all. 

Then Saturday we decided to head out walking. With a dry day forecast and possibly some sunshine, we were all set to head up to the Lake District. We were, that is, until DD starting screaming at the top of the stairs that one of the cats was bleeding! I'd just put some meat down for them all, and Titch was now clawing at his face and his paws were covered in blood. So off to the vets. I'd worked out it was his teeth that were bothering him, and this was confirmed by the vet who then gave him an anti-inflammatory injection and anti-biotic to see him through until Monday morning when I'll have to take him back to have some teeth out. Poor thing. So our early start ended up being a very late start! 

We did, however, still go walking. As Titch seemed very settled with no more tearing at his face, we set off north to near Carnforth and new territory. We went east of Burton-in-Kendal to Dalton Crags and Hutton Roof Crag. It was lovely! Limestone pavements and a lovely wooded area to walk in.....

Oscar hadn't been impressed initially with being put in the van, but he seemed to enjoy being out ....

We had some lovely views....

.....and the sun came out too!

It was very muddy in parts, but overall it was a lovely six miles. 

And today has been Valentines Day. DD went to see her boyfriend yesterday and stayed overnight. So just the two of us today. And what do we do? We did a bit of shopping, I spent the afternoon painting, DH cleaned the walking boots after yesterday's walk and did some ironing, then DD arrived home for tea! Nothing like a bit of romance after all these years .........(but DH had bought me flowers last week). 

Roll on another week that will involve at least two trips to the vets - one to take Titch and one to pick him up - a new schedule at work, and hopefully a bit more crafting......