Look at this tiny Marmalade Cat.. climbing up onto Boo Nannys head. Boo stays very still and then very slowly turns his imploring eyes to me with a ‘how long can this go on’ look. Long time Boo, sorry buddy.
The Duke of Kupa knows that this warm sunshine is on the wane so he sits. And he waits. For the wane.
I had a friend tell me the other day that he could never trust his pigs around his chickens, he said they hunted them and ate them. Well, I guess my piggies are not that hungry.
Yesterday I rotated the cows and sheep into their clean pastures. This is my favourite part of the week, calling them through, then watching them drop their heads into the long tasty grass and all I can hear is that tear and munch of big happy mouths.
All the girls are back into one flock, Hairy the ram is fighting everyone – including me. This happens with hand reared rams. They get too familiar. So he has gone into solitary splendour. I will probably have to sell him this winter. Or swap him for another fresh ram for the girls. He has repeatedly broken in with Minty and Meadow (with the help of Charlotte that time) but so far we have kept him away from Tilly. On such a tiny farm a big ram like that is hard to manage. I was not paying attention the other day and he head butted me in the back, gave me such a fright. Usually he is such a pet, but you should never turn your back on a ram, especially at this time of year. I know this.
Daisy.
And Queenie.
In Pats Paddock. Eating and Gestating. Everyone gets a bucket of apples each day until I have stripped all the trees. So both cows are lovely and shiny and well fed.
Look at that lovely pasture. We are so lucky it has lasted this long. Next year, if all goes well, there will be four cows on these fields, so it will be a different picture.
Good morning. I am up early, early. 3 am early actually. The Marmalade kitten is fed and back to sleep. Even the dogs have gone back to bed but I cannot sleep tonight. So I am having a cup of tea beside the fire. Our first fire of the year. We heat the whole house with this woodburning stove (though the bedrooms are never that warm – which I prefer) and all winter I will cook on it too.
Soon I am going to pull the fridge out as I can smell a dead mouse. I loathe that smell and I will not be able to settle until I find it and get it out of the house. And they almost always choose to die next to the motor of the fridge. Bloody mice.
You all have a lovely day.
After I have crawled around the kitchen on my hands and knees looking for dead things I might go back to bed too.
Your friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
98 responses to “Yes, that is a Marmalade Kitten climbing onto a BooNanny’s head”
You’re up early and I’m just home from work and off to bed. Happy to see the lovely farmy before I fall asleep.
ni ni darling.. c
My Mudlets really appreciated the kitten picture. Hope you found your mouse and managed to get some sleep.
Could not find the wretched thing but once the fridge was pulled out i was compelled to clean back there, the hunt continues.. c
For a minute there I thought my clocks had stopped! All looking great on the Farmy. Good luck with the mouse hunt. Laura
Morning Laura, I should put SA on my world clock list so i know what time it is over there too! c
A far as I can calculate – SA is 7hrs ahead of the farmy! Your 3am was my 10am …. but this changes with your day light savings which we don’t have.
What a contented post ere I take a book to bed also! Such a lot of news: the green, green grass appetizing to me even . . . Daisy looks pregnant now . . . thought the piggies had departed same time as the meat chickens . . . Hairy has got the ‘desires’, has he? . . . and Marmalade, don’t get too big for your boots, will’ya!! Hope you did go back to bed . . .ni-ni from me . . .
Morning Eha, the piggies have a little growing to do yet, though I need to do a good think about when to send them in.. c
WoW you are early! I, by contrast, am late. That corn looks ready for harvest – the maize harvest has been in full swing for a couple of weeks here, and with all the rain we’ve had the roads are smothered in mud, ditto the cars, but it’s not worth washing them until it’s all over. The field outside my window has not yet been cut, but it’s any day now, I reckon, and then I’ll be able to see whatever’s on the far side.
You watch your back with that ram!
Enjoy your Sunday,
love, ViV x
I bet the farmers are not taking that rain well! Hope you had a lovely sunday ViV. c
Good morning Celi, up even before the lark this morning aren’t you! Some wonderful pictures today, so peaceful and calm.
Know what you mean about the dead mouse smell! Nothing worse. Although a couple of years ago I had a ‘smell’ in the kitchen and searched high and low for the cause. It was a hot June and I had a visitor coming to stay for a friends wedding. I had cleaned the cottage from top to bottom, it sparkled, but there was this smell! It wasn’t until the day after the visitor left I found it – I had roasted a chicken and had put the pan back in the cooling oven to deal with later and forgot about it. The smell was the fat and chicken drippings which was very rank after 4 days in a hout kitchen! Yuk!!
Have a wonderful Sunday my friend and take a nap this afternoon!!
Oh NO! That must have been a smelly disposal.. maybe I should check my oven! Sounds like something I would do.. c
Sweet. ❤
Did you find the mouse? I can’t stand them either, I think they freak me out even more than rats, which rarely come into the house. Maybe Marmalade Cat will grow up to be a mouser for you. 🙂
No I never found it, and now I am afraid that it is dead in the unused central heating conduits, now that would not be good! c
Very early!
Boo and Marmalade are going to be inseparable 😉
They are, now that he is stronger and trailing about the house, Boo just follows him with his head down as though Marmalade is a scent he is tracking.. c
Does Boo sleep inside with kitty?
The kitten still has his own heated room in the basement, he is safe there, he and Boo would roam the house all night if I left them together..and boo still tried to pick him up.. This wee puss only sleeps when i put him to bed by himself.c
Good morning, Celi. Perhaps it was something in the night air? We are up early too. 3:00 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Stayed up and will have an early start on the Mountain. Guess we will all have to be extra cautious so that the lack of full sleep doesn’t catch up to us today. Well, we’re off…
Have a blessed day!
Oh you too! How strange, but at least you get a jump start on your work.. have a good day up there.. c
This post came early enough for me to comment well before my bed time, we had a recent time change for daylight savings and I am normally in bed when you post and I read in the evening after work when it is too late to comment. Everything on the Farm looks glorious, especially those piggies and lovely little Queenie who is looking fantastic. Like everyone else I am charmed by Boo’s relationship with the marmalade kitten.
Last year I found three ginger kittens in a disused nesting box, their Mum, a feral cat, had stashed them there. We have a real problem with feral cats so I took them from her. I took them to the vet who said they were all boys and about 3 weeks old and in very good nick. He sold me some very expensive kitten formula but I was absolutely useless at feeding the kittens with the formula via a syringe as directed. Neiither could not get them to suck my fingers or lap from a saucer and for some reason it never occured to me to try a babies bottle. They were very fast moving and very vocal and I would try to feed one then put it down and try with another but they were like peas in a pod and I couldn’t tell which one I had already tried to feed! In desperation I phoned a cat rescue place, At 1st the cat rescue woman patiently tried to teach me how to feed them but it quickly became apparent to her how crap I was and she said she would take them. So I take my hat off to you for doing everything you could for your wee kittens who were so much more vulnerable than the ones had. It would have been such hard work and It’s good to hear your remaining little kittie now has a fair chance at surviving.
I think he will do well (fingers crossed, touch wood, etc) I found the syringe hopeless too, the ‘bottle is so much better and it won;t be long before I have to wean him to a saucer! c
So he is to be called Marmalade..great name for ginger kitty…. and Boo behaves so well, not sure that I would want cat plus fleas on my head!
I suppose dead mice go into motor area to keep warm ( before they get deaded)
Have a great day and lots o love xxxxxxxxxxx
No fleas yet thankfully, that would not be nice! c
I’ve very curious about the kitten. How large is it? Can you set it in your hand, and maybe take a photo for comparison? A lovely Sunday morning to you all. x
When they first came he fitted into my hand, but in the last few days he has shot up and now overflows like a droopy rug when I am feeding him. Though often I very sneakily feed him over Boo’s back so he sees Boo as him Mum and not me. He will need a protector when he starts to wander about the garden.. c
Incredible that it was so tiny, and yet Boo knew to care for it. It truly makes me wonder about the order of things, that perhaps we’ve over-estimated our place in the scheme of things. If you know what I mean…
Maybe, but Boo would not have fed it and Ton is terrified of it, he runs away when it comes out! But maybe Boo has a special feeling for babies, it will be interesting to see how he is when lambs come.. c
Some pigs will end up carnivorous regardless. But the majority don’t unless they do not have adequate feed. My hogs liked to let the chickens hide and lay the eggs in their pen. Then when the chickens left they would raid the nest. Yummy fresh eggs.
What type of cow is daisy?
Daisy is an Ayrshire. A big Scottish breed that thrives on forage and no grain. She is very tall. c
Hope you found the smelly mouse – the only more-offensive odor in my book is rotten potatoes. Ugh!
Oh yes rotton potatoes horrible and worse is when you put your hand into the bag and touch a rotton potato.. YUCKY! c