What a Week!

And it's only Thursday!
Everything started out okay. Monday was a national holiday, so Mikey, David and I went to my mother-in-laws house to start cleaning out all the stuff that has been dumped there.  During my 29 years here all the stuff that I didn't need got boxed up and put in the storage place.  That is a lot of stuff.  I was determined to burn as much as possible but as I was climbing over boxes I twisted my knee and have been in pain since then!  I should of guessed that it would be down hill from there!
Wednesday my washing decided that it has finished working for me, I begged it hold out for a few more months until I got a few more students but no luck. The wash cycle is alright but it won't spin at all.  I have taken all the clothes out and put less in but makes no difference!  The big problem is Hannah school shirts, she has two, one to wash, one to wear.  I've ordered a new machine but it won't come for two weeks.  Of course I don't really have money!  I guess the next two weeks we will have to use the coin laundry!
Then just to add to my misery the O key is missing from my key board, I'm using a pencil to push the button.  And of course I've found that the O is used a lot!
I really hope nothing else goes wrong!

Hannah's school has it's graduation ceremony on Sunday.  Usually the 2nd graders attend but because of this corona virus only the graduating students and parents will attend.   Hannah is happy about that.

David made some lovely pancakes for Pancake Day.

Really nice and light with cream, strawberries and peaches!

Snow

We have had a very mild winter this year.  Last week the temperature was similar to mid March.
Sunday saw a high of 18C, which is very warm for February.  But that all change on Monday.
Started with a drop in temperature, then cold winds and icy rain by the evening that had
turned to snow.  Came down all Monday night, woke up to a covering of snow Tuesday morning!
Looked nice but by lunch time it had melted!

See, just a bit of snow.

Hannah was happy as her school started late today, first class was 10am.  This week is end of term tests for her school.  Hope she does okay!

Cats...Again

I know I've written about our cats before but they are such a big part of our lives.
A lot of my day is taken up with caring for them.  There are the not nice jobs of cleaning the litter boxes (I can't do it as the smell makes me vomit), then there is cat pee when they just can't be bothered with using the litter box and cat vomit.  Also scratches as cats seem to have a need to hang on with their claws!  They make work out of nothing, even as I began writing this two of the older cats started to fight, so I have spent 5 minutes chasing them, good exercise!  We now have 7 cats and
 Mama is pregnant again.  We saved money to have her fixed but Steve (our white cat) got sick with kidney stones so the money we saved went to pay for his vet bills.  We tried to keep her in but she escaped and we are now looking at her having more kittens!  Bother!
There is also an abundance of cuteness with them!  Just looking at their faces melts my heart, even when I am getting cat pee out of my carpet!  The older cats are fighting a lot, I think they need more exercise so I bought a cat harness to take them for walks!  Not really working!  Put it on Alan  and he acts like he can't walk, just lies down!  Poor thing had such a pitiful face, like we were torturing him!

We only got him to the entrance and he wouldn't move!

One of our kittens doesn't like to held, every time she is picked up she crawls on to your shoulder.

Fluffy on Mikey's  shoulder, completely relaxed!

And feeding time is crazy.  To hear them you would think we starve them!

Hannah trying to feed them!

Life with cats is crazy at times, messy all the time and lovely when they settle for a nap on your lap.  Would I take in Mama cat if I had known how much work cats are?  Probably! 

Coronavirus Part 2

I am very confused about this coronavirus.
The media hype seems to be rather too much.  Watching Sky News, from the UK,  the other day I was
rather surprised that they knew exactly how many people had this sickness, at that time 4 people, all of them were in hospital.  The news also stated that the staff at a pub had been asked to quarantine themselves because it was believed that a customer that had become sick had been in there. What about other customers?  Also how serious is this illness.  I know people are dying from it but why?  Were they already vulnerable because of previous problems or age, did they get adequate help when they went to the hospital, did they get to the hospital in a timely fashion so that life saving support could be offered.  There are too many questions!  What I want to know is how safe is my family?  We are practicing basic hygiene, washing hands and face and gargling after being in contact with other people.  I use an alcohol spray on my tables after teaching.  Also eating as healthy as possible so that if we do get sick our bodies have the energy to fight it!  I have found this video to be helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YscZRozTN9s   He has a no nonsense approach and helped me to understand more.  He also suggests checking with the CDC or WHO to get the best information!

The past few weeks I have been on a baking binge!  Yesterday I helped Hannah make a chocolate pound cake,  last week she had a go at choco chip cookies!  Both turned out nice!  David made  a lovely sponge as well.

David's cake

And of course some cat photos to finish!