UK bound - Aug 2025

Trying desperately to find the joy in a 24hr flight

We arrived in the UK at the end of July and in the height of summer.  We headed straight for James parent's place in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

Bury St Edmunds is the very pretty Suffolk town where James grew up.  The central piece de resistance of the town is the Abbey Gardens.  The weather was so lovely that a walk around the gardens was a must.  The story of the Abbey Gardens

Once we found our feet and got over the jetlag we had a lovely time catching up with family and friends.  Soon enough, we headed for our first housesit not too far away.

Flint & Magic

16yo Flint, the wee terrier, is a gentleman in his prime who is not fazed by anything at all.  As long as he can wander down to the pond for a dip and a drink whenever he fancies.  Magic, the Romanian rescue girl, took a little longer than usual to warm up, especially to James.  But boy, once she did, he was her most favoured 'possesion'! Especially when food was involved.

We also had the very good company of mother and son cats - Mrs Cake and Fred.

We were all very happy rolling around the fields together watching the deer an hares.  We saw our first ever Chinese Water Deer, which was very special.

Checking out the flora and fauna with the girls

We thoroughly enjoyed this short sit in the countryside.  It was good to remember how much we love to wander the fields with some canine company.  Priceless.

Clevedon cats - Jul 2025

We spent the month before leaving the country, house and kitty sitting for good friends. 

Lilly .... the beauty, not so much the brains 🤣

The catwalk

And Tinkerbell ... a clever and funny girl

The girls, well Tinky, have brought a skink in from the garden. We try to release as many as we can.

At the very beginning of the sit, by far the saddest thing we have experienced happened. Our cheeky chap, Alfie, got hit by a car on the main road. The vet let us bring him home for the night, but alas, he was too badly injured and his family had to made the heartbreaking 💔 decision,  the kindest decision, to put him to sleep.

Clare was with him while he passed 😔 

It took a while to find our mojo after this extremely upsetting time so we just hunkered down with the girls, all healing together ❤️ 

It was hard not to feel responsible for Alfie's accident. Even though it was just that! An accident. Cats and roads, ya know. Sigh.

Tinky definitely missed him. They arrived at their forever home together as we kittens. We met them even back then. Tinky just got clingier than her normal self and we were happy to oblige.

Lilly and Alfie never got on so she just seemed delighted not to have to put up with him bashing he and she and Tinky got a bit friendlier with each other.

We recovered by catching up with friends and family and snuggling with the girls.

Sigh.

Home is where the heart is - Whakatane, Jun 2025

Back in Whakatane, we were hanging with Max and Ruby while Ollie and Snow made a trip to Australia.  There had been a very special addition to the family to the family. His name is Henry. A 10 week old Springer Spaniel! How terribly terribly adorable!

Ruby isn't so sure .....

We played with our friends 

We went to puppy class and met some new friends

And we visited family for playy dates too.

Meanwhile, Max was busy taking all in his stride and being such a good big brother.

We also kept busy getting ready to leave the Bay and, in fact,  the country! Packing, repacking, practice packing, selling a tonne of stuff we had accumulated over our time in NZ, including the van.

Clare took the bus up to Auckland to start the next sit for friends, while James stayed on a few days to wind things up.

Bye Bay of Plenty. We will be back.