Arran

      Arran

“Arran of the many stags, the sea reaches to its shoulder; island where companies are fed, ridges whereon blue spears are reddened.

Wanton deer upon its peaks, Mellow blaeberries on its heaths, cold water in its streams, mast upon its brown oaks.

Hunting dogs there, and hounds, blackberries and sloes of the dark blackthorn, dense thorn-bushes in its woods, stags astray among its oak-groves.

Gathering of purple lichen on its rocks, grass without blemish on its slopes; over its fair shapely crags gambolling of dappled fawns leaping.

Smooth is its lowland, fat are its swine, pleasant its fields, a tale to be believed; its nuts on the boughs of its hazel-wood, sailing of long galleys past it.

It is delightful when fine weather comes, trout under the banks of its streams, seagulls answer each other round its white cliff; delightful at all times is Arran.”

Blwyddyn Newydd dda, pawb!!

I hope you had a great festive season and new year!

Can’t wait to see you all back at yoga classes. The plan is to get back into the yoga swing of things throughout January and then…February…the 10 minute challenge….

Sign up to the ’10 Minute Challenge’: put your name down to do 10 minutes of yoga every day for the whole of Feb. It’s easy: all it takes is a decision, and you will be amazed at your practice at the end of the month. Check out the 10 min plan section here for suggested sequences (I’ve added 5 over the last year of two) and I’ll be adding mor over the next 10 days. Give me a shout at your next class if you’re interested.

The second big plan of the year is to get the whole allotment cultivated this year and to keep the blog up to date. At the minute, I’m turning over beds, and aiming to put in permanent paths and slightly raised beds in time for the spring planting…there’s more in the planning, but I shouldn’t talk about it until there are some signs of progress in the ground, its all a lot of hot air

Right. That’s all for now. Website will be updated as soon as I find my log in details for Wix. By the way: I’d love to hear your thoughts on the website – presentation, use of flash, lack of non-flash alternative.

Nos da

Betterway2be website

the Great Outdoors

Or, at least our back garden – but that’s how the kittens see it.

We were hoping to have them out for 15/20 min every day. We got them harnessed up (one pink and one blue) and took them out on Monday. B got Neira to climb the 1m fence in the back garden. Merlin couldn’t grasp it – he kept jumping like a Thompson’s gazelle but right into the middle of the fence, hitting it like a sack of baby potatoes. Very funny.

We also have a mound of architectural grass at one end of the garden and Merlin took it into his wee head to nonchalantly walk away, down the length of the garden before turning round and belting headlong into it…repeatedly. Oh and he chased a hornet, and to his misfortune caught it – and went mental – adrenaline over load. Like he was having a fit, but no evidence of a bite of a sting: I just think he got the shock of his life when the little critter fought back. If he had a voice, he’d have been yelling ‘get it off me, get it off me!!’. That’s exactly what it looked like.

And after that, it rained the rest if the week. Until today – we had them out in the sun for an hour. And took the leads off them – they were still cautious (him more than her – altho he might just have been tired).

And tonight, when we got back from the allotment at dusk, we let them out the front with no reins. They seemed to suit the half light – most confident they’ve been yet. Happy to be around us. The plan is to take them done the back first thing tomorrow while they’re still in their mental morning phase.

One small step for kittens…

Today was their first day outside. They have all their jabs, but aren’t yet chipped, so we want to keep a little bit of control…so we bought a couple of harnesses…

They weren’t happy with them until they got out and forgot about them in all the excitement. Neira was initially more cautious and Merlin was off exploring the grass and pointing (fascinated with all the flies). We gave them lots of encouragement and a few treats (not really interested). Showed them the outside litter and let them explore the flat downstairs. All in all, out for about 20 min. They were hyper after – they’d normally settle, but they were cleaning, fighting, chasing, sitting on the windowsill and looking out. But all the time in our company…wherever we were, they were!

They are sleeping now. No doubt they’ll be braver next time!

More Kittens

Will he ever grow into those ears?

10 - 12 Weeks

10 -12 weeks

Everything's an adventure:

such big paws:

Fight! fight! Fight!

Explore, explore, explore

Stretccccch

aaaaaaaaaand sleep

and a bit more sleep

a spot of tennis

and a nap...

Hidden agendas – 8 weeks

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Echoes of Belfast…

The sleep series – 8 weeks

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8 weeks – The shoe series

8 weeks…and counting…

We had a lovely bed prepared for them: all soft and warm. Then they chose their own spot on top of the shredder, under the desk. We tried to persuade them a few times and in the end (cos they were so adamant) we put a blanket on their chosen spot…they slept there for weeks:

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