Enjoy this nice weather - before the thunderstorms come back!!
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The human who types this for me is away next week, so I am sending out my Easter Greetings early.

I hope you all have a lovely Easter, and enjoy the break.  Looking forward to a spring and summer of easing of restrictions and hopefully allowing us to all socialise again come July.

​Trudi and I have been enjoying the slightly milder weather and have been relishing our outings to Richmond, and across the road in Chiswick House grounds.  There are lots of new smells and sounds to investigate, and we’ve been busy checking them all out.

I was slightly surprised by the heron – but we’re keeping a  close eye on him and I hope he stays away from the ducklings and chicks that should be making an appearance soon.

The magnolia tree on the corner of Corney Road is looking wonderful.  I hope you enjoy it when you come in to visit us.
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The garden is blooming too, which is very welcome, and once the weather warms up a bit, we’ll begin doing activities in the garden for the residents again.  We’ve all been shut up long enough.

Today we’ve been celebrating two anniversaries – the 50th Anniversary of Sr Cynthia’s profession (she celebrated by doing an extra KM on the bike!) and one of those 0 birthdays for our chef (and our great friend) Chris.  The nice thing about days like this is that there is lots of cake!
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Happy Easter everyone – and I hope your Easter egg hunts are successful.  This is a picture from our Easter egg hunt last year.

Hard to believe but it’s about a year now since the first Lockdown started.  During this time we’ve mostly been restricted in our outings to Richmond Park and Chiswick House grounds.  Last weekend it got a bit warmer, and I couldn’t resist a bit of paddle….  I thought I could give the ducks a bit of a lesson in doggy-paddle.

​And now it’s Lent, already.  Lent is a period of waiting and anticipation.  Certainly this Lent, we are not just anticipating Easter, but also a relaxing in restrictions, and as the vaccine rollout gathers apace, the hope of a return to normal come the summer.  Trudi and I are particularly looking forward to some time away from Chiswick – hopefully somewhere with big beaches where we can run about and paddle in the sea.  I think Sr Jennifer and Liz could do with a bit of a break too, I try my best to give them a bit of exercise each day, but really we all need a good holiday.

​Visitors will be coming back into the home next week, which will be nice.  It may be Lent – but you never know I may pick up a few treats from some of them – especially those who have dogs of their own -  and often find the odd doggy treat in their pockets.  Spring is certainly springing in the garden.  Here are some photos

​Well, Happy New Year!  We are all fervently praying that 2021 will be an improvement on 2020. 
I haven’t updated this for a while.  Sadly, with the lack of opposable thumbs, my typing is not very good, so a kind human in the Office types these out for me.  She has been really rather busy for the past 8 weeks or so, and I haven’t liked to bother her (here I am peering in her office to see if she’s free), but we felt that we should get something down before January was gone.

With the Lockdown that started just before Christmas, it meant that our Residents couldn’t go out to visit their families, and families couldn’t come in and join in the fun and games we usually have going on here.  However, Christmas Day was passed in merriment with plentiful food and some beverages that didn’t look like tea…..  We also had a lovely family come to us on Christmas morning and sing carols for the Residents from the garden.  Some of us braved the elements to listen and other from the safety and warmth of indoors.

I’m pleased to say I didn’t notice any lack in treats and titbits over the festive period; my friends in the kitchen and the various offices and bungalow I visit were all very generous.
With the restrictions on travel, I haven’t had as many trips to Richmond Park as I normally have.  Trudi says she’s grateful for that, as she’s not as limber as she was, and gets tired.  But I just know that those rabbits and foxes are up to no good with out me to keep them in order!
We’ve enjoyed meeting our friends in Chiswick House grounds – both human and four footed.  Although I nearly gave Sr Jennifer heart failure the other day, as I was accosted by a very cheeky fox across from Burlington Road, and in a moment of distraction I raced across the A316, without waiting for the green man to appear on the pelican crossing.   I was thoroughly told off – and I fear I deserved it.

​Elia is doing her usual winter trick of pretending to be very pious, and spending her time stretched out across the shelf in Chapel, which just happens to be above a radiator, or else snuggled in Trudi’s bed.  She says her eyes are closed in prayer….  she doesn’t fool me!

​We enjoyed the brief snow on Sunday.  The garden was looking very pretty – but brrrrrrr – it was so cold the following morning, we didn’t go for our early morning walk.  We felt it wouldn’t be fair on Sr Jennifer and Liz to drag them out in the freezing, icy conditions.
I hope you are keeping safe and staying indoors.  We all want to get back to normal as soon as we can.

Well, it’s been a long time, but finally I was able to lure Liz and Sr Jennifer away on holiday to Norfolk.  As you all know this lockdown business rather got in the way of our holiday earlier in the summer, and our last holiday seemed ages and ages ago.
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Despite dire weather predictions, we had an excellent time and our walks were mainly in the dry.  We were staying at Scratby, and we could walk to the beach every morning from out of our front door.  

​​We revisited some favourite haunts – Backton Woods, Holkham Hall, Winterton Dunes, and those lovely long, sandy Norfolk beaches.  Bartie got lost amongst the sheep – and it was hard to spot him in the middle of a flock - he got some sideways glances from the sheep themselves, but we managed to extricate him.
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We visited Felbrigg Hall, and the church in the village was dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch, so that was a nice surprise.  Not many churches around with that dedication.   

It was nice to come back to the cottage at the end of a tiring day and fall asleep on the sofa, one each for me and Trudi – don’t know where Sr J or Liz sat…
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Sr Jennifer and Liz made the most of the fresh fish on offer for their suppers, and we managed to get in a few treats of our own too.

Back at the Convent Elia was missing Liz but was being tended to by Sr Cynthia, equipped with a new packet of Dreamies, with essential tickling behind her ears carried out by Jane Trigle and Sr Jane Olive.

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