Furbies make every day fun

I just realised that I haven't written a blog post for a while about the wonderful furbies we share our lives with. Animals are such an important part of days of fun and we wouldn't be without them. 

Any post about furbies has to start with Tiddles - she was my lovely cat that I got when I was 9 and she lived to be 16. She was such a lovely cat - a real cuddly cat who drooled when she was happy. These two photos were taken just before she died so that's why she's looking a bit scruffy around the edges.

The year that I worked in Saudi Arabia my friend Elaine and I sort of befriended a can whom we called B.C - the C stands for Cat, you can decide for yourself what the B stands for. Just to say he was a little bit temperamental and used to get very crabby with us when we were treating a wound he had with an aromatherapy cream that Elaine had mixed up.  He did have his moments and could be very friendly - I wished I could have brought him home with me.

The next furbie to feature has to be Bertie - our gorgeous springer spaniel who died in August 2014. He was such an important part of our family and we still miss him a lot.

So now onto the brats that are our cats - Cookie (grey tabby) and Muffin (black). They're now 12 years old and are a constant source of comfort and lots of moments of laughter. We've just bought them this new bed to try and pacify them for bringing a puppy into the house, and I've already had to order a second one as they keep fighting over this one.

Now to the said puppy. This is Bramble, or to be correct, Bramble Jelly Sassy Pants! She has a boring kennel club name but we prefer our version of it. Bramble is 11.5 weeks old and is growing rapidly. She has very sharp teeth and as she's teething she's trying to chew everything including our clothes and fingers. My beloved is really having his dog training skills tested. It is lovely having a dog in the house again though I don't think the cats agree with us yet. Bramble is a little slow on the uptake in that she still hasn't quite realised that if she didn't chase the cats she wouldn't end up getting boxed on the nose by them.

The brats think they own the place and Muffin's latest little foible is drinking out of Ken's glass when he leaves it unattended (it's only water). We normally stop her but I couldn't resist getting a photo of her doing it.

If we leave our bedroom door open the bed becomes the brats property as well - they usually sleep under the duvet but Cookie also likes to sleep right in the middle of the bed as if it's hers. I obviously need to by a third pillow that says 'Cookie's'.

When we were getting ready to bring Bramble Jelly home we had set up the puppy crate and bought beds for in the crate and outside it, and I think Princess Cookie and Muffin Monster thought we were really spoiling them - we were lulling them into a false sense of security. I made sure I sprayed lots of pet calming essential oils around before they met their baby sister.

When we first met Bramble she was only 3 weeks old and curled up with her two sisters and one brother. We were the first to get a pick of the litter and we both were drawn to her straight away - she's the one on the right of the picture with the white stripe down her face. At that stage we didn't know that she had white on her paws or belly as we weren't allowed to pick her up. We did get to meet her mum and she is such a lovely dog.

This was our visit to her at 4.5 weeks old and finally we could give her a cuddle - look at that face, how could we not fall for her.

With all this talk of our furbies I thought I'd just show my beloved being a hero again (if you read the previous post you would of seen him rescuing a bunny rabbit). We live underneath a rookery and lately the babies have all been fledging, with varying degrees of success. This silly bird decided that a good place to sit was on the road outside our cottage so Ken caught it and put it in the woods - hopefully it will survive.

I hope you've enjoyed meeting the furry members of our family and my challenge for the rest of the year is to try and get a picture of them together - wish me luck.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and say hello to the next animal that you meet.

Pamela & Ken
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Royalty, rabbits, and a faithful servant

At the weekend we headed out to explore part of the area known as Royal Deeside - the countryside and towns around the River Dee. Our destination was Braemar, which hosts the Braemar gathering each year (highland games) in September and members of the royal family always attend. To get there we had to go through the Cairngorm mountains, and as you can see from the pictures below the clouds were very close to the top of the mountains. It gave it a really eerie feel as we'd left home in sunshine and drove into this.

We'd stopped by the roadside to allow other faster cars to go past when we spotted a rabbit sitting by the side of the road looking a bit stunned. My hero (Ken) went to check on the wee bunny and discovered he'd been hit by a car, with obvious damage to his face. To give him the best chance possible to survive, Ken put him in the field, under a bush and near to a rabbit burrow. When we came back a couple of hours later, we stopped to check on the patient and he was nowhere to be seen - Ken awfully suggested that a buzzard was enjoying a free meal, whilst I prefer to picture him warm in a burrow with his bunny friends providing him with the care he needed.

We stopped at a lovely cafe/gift shop in the middle of nowhere and they had this very fine looking metal stag on their verandah.

Now I know it may seem quite early in our journey to have stopped for cake, but we couldn't resist stopping for sustenance. We were sat in big squishy leather chairs looking out at the incredible view, so it was a really lovely place to spend some time.

As we drove alongside the river Dee we passed lots of buildings that we call fixer uppers - we always joke that with a little tlc they'd be perfect to move into. The example below might need elbow grease, some spit and polish, as well as tlc but we could see potential.

The roads in the highlands are very popular with motorcyclists, and we always pass or get passed by loads. The two below are not typical of the types of bikes, these are obviously tourists who like their creature comforts.

The river Dee as it passes through Braemar.

Here's a few pictures I took around the town including some very lovely cottages and gardens. It's a really picturesque spot.

Two of my favourite beings in the world, my beloved and the cutie pie that is Bramble.

Our first attempt at a selfie with our girl - I think this might be a challenge for the future, to get her into the picture seeing as she rarely stops moving.

The Braemar war memorial - such a beautiful Celtic cross in a really peaceful spot overlooking the river.

Below is the engine of the RAF Vickers Wellington bomber that crashed on a training flight from RAF Lossiemouth in 1942 at Dubh-choire. The crew consisted of 3 Brits, 2 Canadians, 2 Aussies, and 1 Kiwi - the youngest was only 19 (I think that's a song) and the oldest was 25, so basically babies. They're buried in the Old Dyce Graveyard so when we're over that way we'll go and pay our respects to my fellow countrymen.

As you leave the town you drive past Braemar castle which was built in 1628 - that's a long time ago. It is open to visitors throughout the year so that may be another day out in the future.

This a view of the Old Brig of Dee (that's Bridge for the non Scottish amongst you - I know, they speak strangely) which was built in 1748.

This is Crathie Kirk (church) near Balmoral castle - this is the church that the royals attend when they're in Scotland, especially at Christmas. The foundation stone of this church was laid by Queen Victoria in 1893.

Beautiful allium near the church, and it's my favourite colour. There are lots of plants in Scotland that produce flowers in glorious purple, including heather and the Scottish thistle.

More bunny rabbits for you - in the picture below there are at least 30 bunny rabbits, some quite near to the camera, but they are camouflaged very well in the grass.

Lovely flowers that were growing beside the lane - probably weeds but still pretty to look at.

We walked from the new kirk down to the graveyard and ruins of the old kirk. In this graveyard are many of the graves of staff that worked for Queen Victoria.

We're not sure what's going on with this grave, it looks like it's a table waiting for diners to arrive - very, very strange.

Whilst we were wandering around we came across John Brown's grave - if you don't know who he is think Billy Connolly and Judy Dench in the film of the same name. John Brown was Queen Victoria's servant who was a great support to her after the death of her cherished husband Albert. I love how on the gravestone it says 'Devoted and faithful personal attendant and beloved friend'. Imagine, where we stood, Queen Victoria my have stood over 100 years ago.

We then went on to Ballater for something to eat and ended up at the Deeside Inn. We left Bramble in the car as we weren't sure if we would be allowed to take her into the hotel, but after we'd been there for a while a couple came in with a labrador and a german shephard. When we spoke to them they said that the hotel is very dog friendly, so next time we'll know to take Bramble in with us and hopefully by then she'll have grown out of the excitable toddler phase.

The food was scrummy and yes we both had fish and chips - I may have forgotten to mention that I've made the decision to give up meat (for too many reasons to go into here) and my beloved is being as supportive as always and has joined me, but fish is definitely still on the menu.

Hope you've enjoyed this visit to Royal Deeside - somewhere that we'll definitely be returning to in the future.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and do something nice just for you this week.

Pamela & Ken
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