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.

Dogs, cats, horses Repeat, Thornton - May 2025

Back at one of our favourite New Zealand locations with Mt Putauaki (Mt Edgecumbe) in the background.

We love hanging out with Joey, Glitch, Tux and Jess. This is one of our regular sits.

The boys love smothering James 🤣

 Tux and his photo bomber!

Jess enjoying some new growth.

Before, between and after the morning and afternoon walks, there is always plenty of time for snuggles.

Tux liked to hang about and help with Jess's daily chores of moving the break, poop picking and feeding.

Clare indulged in here first (and possibly last! 🤣) ever commission knit for a friend of a friend, who is now a friend. Black fluffy mohair jacket. Lush indeed.

James celebrated a big 0 birthday in the company of friends with our signature Lemon Meringue Pie for pudding.

Clare went to a concert with one of her longest known friends. A celebration of Elton John and Billy Joel. A little disappointed that there was no space for a boogie 💃 but a good time was had by all.

We love this place, we love these pets and we love their peeps!

Zaccie, Pongakawa - March 2025

This property genuinely belongs to this old guy. Zaccie is 15yo. He has lived on this hill with his Dad all that time and had free range of the area. He also spent lots of his time next door at the property we are housesitting. A few weeks ago his Dad died 😢 and this couple (bless their wee cotton socks) agreed to take charge of him. He seems to be thriving on the familiarity and is very happy here. It is such a blessing that he is able to see out his dotage in familiar surroundings with people who love him 🥰

 This is an official grid property that has been set up extremely well with different small buildings with different purposes - bathroom/laundry with a composting toilet, lounge/kitchen and bedroom next to a long drop loo. We were warm and comfortable and happy to be romped around the hill each day by Zaccie. With plenty of rest time.e in between.

The owners run a very cool native plant hire company so we left them an appropriate parting gift.

Jed and friends, Thornton - April 2025

Our next sit in Thornton, Bay of Plenty, was an absolute charm! We had the very good company of Jed and his five cat friends ... Imp, Nova, Millie, Tango and Tigger (the only one to not make real friends). 

There was plenty of shenanigans going on, that's for sure ...

We are always at our happiest when the cats and dogs get on so well together ❤️ 

Jed overseeing  the fam

As usual, with kitties, there was a bit of night-time goings on with ginger kitty, Tango, needing to bring us a couple of mice. One of them he let go and sauntered off, leaving James to catch it in a bucket 🤣

We were also in charge of three gorgeous goats, chickens who's eggs we thoroughly enjoyed, and Luka, the very old and gentlemanly  horse (who actually belonged to our friends and housesitting hosts around the corner who recommended us for this sit).

Luka was a very old guy who had been having lots of trouble getting back to his feet after lying down. Arthritis, general muscle decline ... all the sad outcomes of age. The time came to make the kindest most caring decision when this happened when we went to feed him one morning. Fortunately his humans were just down the road and on hand to make all the tough decisions.  It was very sad though, and we both cried and had a few 'down' days. RIP buddy.

All in all, we were so pleased to make a bunch of new friends in the Bay of Plenty, our favourite NZ destination.

Goodnight, from the moggy crew 😴 😘