Friday 19 April 2013

MORE CAT BLANKETS & EVENING VISITORS

Well, I'm back again - AT LAST!!!
 I've had a real problem with being able to download/upload photos to the blog, basically, I couldn't.
I kept getting a message that 'Internet Explorer has stopped working' so that was that. Sarah, my youngest granddaughter at virtually 22, came last night and spent ages clicking here and there and finally decided that Internet Explorer was the problem. She downloaded Mozilla Firefox and - touch wood - it seems to be OK. I can't get to the top of the page, though...stop grumbling!

I'm still making cat blankets for Blackberry Farm at Quainton, the RSPCA homing centre about 6 miles away from here. This is the latest batch of blankets I took up about 3 weeks ago. They are 'cat size', depending on whether the animal is stretched out or curled into a ball! So far I haven't repeated a pattern - any ideas?
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 The harlequin blanket at the top of the page took the fancy of the lady I liaise with so sent her the pattern when I got home. It takes 20 minutes to make a diamond and a very small amount of wool.
 The one above is using up random oddments and just attaching them in the middle of a row rather than at the side, which is the normal thing to do.
 This one is rows of garter stitch with every 6th band in black to break up the long run of colour.
 And this measures about 12". It's a pattern I found on-line, just changing colour but knitting 'in the round', if you can say that about a square object. It's one section of a much larger blanket but I won't make it again, it takes too much wool of one colour as the square gets larger. It's a kitten blanket, I think!
These are my nighttime visitors - 4 badgers taken from indoors by the light of the security light. I don't normally get this many but last night there were four again, squabbling noiselessly right outside the patio door. I put out three or four handfuls of peanuts plus (last night) pizza crust left over from our supper. Usually the oddments include cake-y bits, ends of a loaf, ancient biscuits, anything that's cereal based and it all goes. Peanuts cost the earth - £40 for 25 kilos - so what with feeding Brock and the jays and tit families I get through that amount in a short time. How many sacks have I bought this year? I've lost count. I'm lucky because the people in the village who supply them take them down to the shed, tip them into the bin and relock the shed for me, no heaving heavy sacks around.

The warmth of the last few days (if you ignore the biting wind) means the daffodils have suddenly appeared - they look more impressive in actuality - and a cultivated primrose plus a blue hyacinth from long ago, still managing to produce a flower. A different colour, at least.
 Whoops, I haven't put out any bird seed yet this morning...
I seem to be also feeding the little fieldmouse which appeared (I'm guessing it's the same) in a previous post. I had thrown out broken up pieces of a kind of Garibaldi biscuit. The mouse appeared, taking a piece probably as big as itself. It threaded it through the gap at the bottom of the shed door then flattened itself and slid into the gap as well - imagine a human picking up a fence panel and managing that first time of trying!!

I'm going; since I don't have focusing computer glasses any more my eyes are beginning to hurt trying to see what I'm doing...


7 comments:

Bernard said...

Firefox? Wow! Well good for you, as anything is better than IE.
Your garden is looking very tidy.
Mine is all behind this year - I haven't even bothered one photo - I'm a bit ashamed of it to be honest.
I've never seen a live badger. Do they travel far from their set to reach 'Sylvie's Peanut Cafe'?
Cheers....B

Sylve said...

I wish I knew where their sett was - there are several 'near' here. I think the set of 4 is a family group which is why they sometimes get irritated but don't fight. They're a bit like kites - 'old hat' to me and such a treat to other people who don't have them rolling up every evening. I think you're right with the name, Peanut Cafe is a very good choice. Thank you.

crafty cat corner said...

Hi Silve
I use Firefox all of the time and find it really good, hope things stay that way for you.
I love the picture of the badgers, how lucky you are to have them visit.
We have foxes that visit each night and had one the other night that didn't have a tail !
I can appreciate how much the peanuts cost, we buy dog food and bird seed each week as well as feeding our 5 cats, we just live on sandwiches, lol
Good to see you posting again.
Have a pleasant weekend
Briony
x

Kath said...

Wow, I love the badger pics!

Sylve said...

Hallo Briony, I haven't seen any foxes this year so they must have moved on. I know what you mean about living on sandwiches!

Kath, you should put out some bread pudding, that would bring badgers to your garden where they'll dig up bulbs, lawns and anything else...

Bernard said...

If there's any spare bread-pudding going, I know a much better place than Mr Badger's belly.....Mine!

Sylve said...

Ask Kath!!!