12th July
As I mentioned last week, Spencer was driving us all to the Hampton Court Flower show. The park and ride arrangements all went surprisingly well, as did the collection of the tickets from the entrance, (I had paid by credit card earlier in the week). We dashed, rather like the start of the M&S January sales, to the Marquees and managed to get round most of them before the crowds arrived. We enjoyed the flower arranging marquee and I made some notes about what I might do for the flower arranging classes for the Village Show. I also managed to “reserve” a number of plants from the outdoor gardens to pick up later on at the big sell off at 4.30pm. All in all, a good time was had by everyone.
13th July
Violet-Elizabeth has been arranging a sleepover at anybody’s house who
will have her since breaking up from school last week. “Have sleeping
bag- Mum will bring me over” seems to be the current mantra.
Spencer meanwhile has been working ridiculously long hours on his Job of
National Importance. I hardly ever seem to see him, let alone talk to
him about what needs doing in the Manor gardens (and the Manor itself for
that matter). It is just as well I have Pablo to keep me
entertained! He has to be kept indoors for 3 weeks until he has had
all his injections, and this is proving to be a bit of a struggle. He
continues to delight us with his kitten like antics, although I must admit
we were both rather annoyed when he bit clean through the cable for Marcus’s
headphones last night.
Violet-Elizabeth and I have successfully trained him to use the cat flap from the kitchen to the garage (where Spencer has put his litter tray). We managed this by tempting him with copious amounts of cooked chicken fillet, with one of us sitting in the garage and one in the kitchen. Spencer is concerned that Pablo is being spoilt, but as I pointed out, if a treat now and again produces the desired effect, then why not? Shame it doesn’t work on Spencer- I should know- I have been trying for years (25 to be precise).
15th July
Took Marcus to the hospital for his “pre-op assessment”, as next week he is having his tonsils out. This has been a long ongoing saga, as he has had recurrent tonsillitis for about 18 months, and has been on penicillin for the last 4 months. Marcus seems remarkably unconcerned about it. Personally I think he is looking forward to spending even longer in bed, as the Consultant told him that it would require 2 weeks bed rest after the operation. Mmmmmm! We shall see about that.