genialgemsandothergabblings

Well while I have been here at Wigan  in the role of carer and head cook and bottle washer...as they say I have at least had some visits from my two little furry pals that live close by. Kitty the tabby lives just across the street from mum and we have become good pals as he often pops in for a cuddle and the odd treat. He gets a bit fed up as his owners are out at work, but there are risks involved in venturing here as mum has been known on a couple of occasions to somehow lock him in the garage for a few hours......! The little black cat was in a bit of a sorry state when she first appeared and I took to giving her handfuls of biscuits whenever she came by thinking that she was a stray. It turned out that she was left behind when her owners moved... how cruel... and luckily for her a lady in a house close by has taken her in now and she is looking lovely. She is the sweetest little thing and runs over to see me as soon as she spots me and we share a stroke and a ...

Well  this is the sight we found to greet us down at the marina this morning when we went to check out the boat. Never have we seen it  like this although it has been icy on the cut' before ,just not this  bad! However it did look glorious in the winter sunshine with the frost and ice twinkling away. Poor old ducks were all confined to one small patch of free water and were waddling ,slipping and sliding over the surface. I expect they are having a hard time at the moment like a lot of things. Last January we were out on the canal for a trip as it was so mild but I think that it will be somewhile before we can do the same this year. We have a bit of  a turf war going on in the garden at the moment as  two rather large Mistle thrushes have moved in on the apples I was putting out, much to the disgust of my resident Fieldfare , who up until now had them solely to himself. So there has been a lot of charging and chasing going on. Why can't they just share,.....