A Quiet Weekend

After a couple of weekends having, and being a visitor, this weekend was quieter.

Saturday involved making my Christmas cake, doing laundry, reading the papers and, of course, playing with the kittens.

They have not yet quite worked out how to use the cat-flap - they haven't yet sussed that they can open it for themselves, so I am propping it open for them and hoping they work it out before the weather gets much colder! 

It's only in the last week that they have been allowed out unsupervised - the first day I left for work leaving the cat flap open I felt a little like parents leaving their children at school on the first day must feel!   

(I came home to snuggly cats, with wet feet, so they had obviously been out and about while I was out!)


Then on Sunday there was the thrilling cleaning and vacuuming, a quick trip into Bath to pick up my copy of 'Pictures that Tick:Vol 2., and one of this year's 'Book are my Bag' bags. 

I was also able to admire their lovely, newly decorated  Chris Riddell loo!

Apparently he came in to decorate it while he was in Bath for the Kids Lit. Fest.and personally decorated it! 

I particularly like the pipes, all carefully marked 'gurgle'.

I was very good, and only bought one book apart from the one I had ordered, and it's going to be christmas present, so it doesn't really count as me buying books..

On the way home, I called it at the village hall, where there is an exhibition about the history of the village - it has been part of a bigger exhibition (covering, I think, 3 local villages) at the local museum, and was set up in the Village Hall this weekend. 

It was quite interesting - it didn't, as I had hoped it might, include any old photos of my house or information about when it was built, but I did learn that Samuel Taylor Coleridge passed through in 1794 and write a poem about a spring here (although unfortunately mis-remembered the name of the village). 

Beau Nash had family here, and may have lived here, (although based on what I know of Beau Nash, I suspect his connection may have involved shaking the dust of the village from his feet at the earliest opportunity, never to return) Gainsborough apparently also passed through, although apparently only to see his doctor!

More recently, the village seems to have lowered the bar a little for 'famous links' - Queen Mary visited a soldiers'  recuperation home here during WW2. 

After that, in the 'Famous people' section,  we were down to the local doctor, (retired after a lengthy career, in 2002) who used to make house-calls on horse-back, and who cross-qualified as a vet in order to look after the health of his own horse!.

I knew that the village was a mining village - now I know where all of the mines were - and also where the railway ran, which I didn't know before.

All in all, an interesting way to spend an hour! 
I think next weekend is mostly likely to involve finding out whether or not the kittens are freaked out by fireworks. Tybalt, despite being very nervous generally, was totally unfazed by them. I am hoping this pair are the same...