Walking into the Weekend

 A few photos from a walk up the lane will accompany this.  My camera has been "fainting" recently and not focusing properly, and I suspect I have worn it out with all the scenic photos I take!  I am going to take it to the Camera shop in Carmarthen and see if it's fixable (it still takes good close-ups), but I need to replace it with something that is spot on for scenery. It was never as good as my old Fujifilm S1000 in that respect. I am calling this my Christmas present in advance and will ask for "donations" nearer the time, instead of wrapped gifts this Xmas.

The patient, along with Best Buddy Little Whale.

Well, I have had a VERY expensive week or so.  My poor credit card doesn't know what's hit it.  Firstly Theo to the vet with his sinus problems again (bill of about £70), then two days later Ghengis (ditto), who then had to be booked in to have his teefs descaled.  He went in yesterday (Friday 13th!) and had to have his top fangs removed due to pus at the roots, and another back tooth, and a further back tooth came out with the tartar.  He is quite elderly - at least 14 and possibly more.  The removal of teeth, and being on a drip, and having a blood test first, of course added significantly to the bill, which was over £300. The pre-med and anaesthetic cost as much as the actual descaling. He goes back for a check-up on Wednesday and has to have another blood test for kidney function, so there will be another bill again.  Beans on toast for the foreseeable then!

Poor chap was a bit spaced out still when I picked him up last night, but he is stoical, and the vet said he was the best-behaved cat they had ever had.  They had offered him food but he'd turned his nose up.  When we got indoors, he went straight to his food bowl, so I opened a sachet of the Sheba Select Slices for him (nice and soft and hardly needing chewing). I just put a mouthful out but that didn't touch the sides, so he had more and then had to be dissuaded from going to the other bowls and hoovering any leftovers up!  He spent the night on the sofa - they all did I think, as doors were left open - and he's back there again now.

This time, after a steroid jab and more anti-biotics, Theo is a bit better, but they said if he wasn't completely cured, then the next step is an X-ray (another 3 figure bill). There may be something (grass seed?) in there. We will see how he gets on - he's just a bit snuffly still.

Meanwhile, K has an appt. to see a Neurologist privately, but we have to drive for 2 hrs to get there as he's not at Hereford now.  Once we had discovered he wasn't still at Hereford Hospital, we decided to bite the bullet and go further to see him, than start over with the Hereford bods.  The MRI scan has been put back another fortnight, despite being urgent, but they have just one scanner working, so we will just have to go with the flow.

Glad to report that we have 3 House Martin nests in varying states of construction. That makes up for us being bereft of Swallows this year. I can see them flying over and around us, but they aren't nesting.  The two males have thrown their lot in with the other stable Swallows, who nest on the slope in Barron's old stables.

Have a good weekend all.  Sunshine here, so I will get out in the garden.