Scritches for Fenway

Everybody must send scritches- and mice, lots of mice. My little black cat has had to go into to hospital with a poorly tummy. His symptoms are, rather disturbingly, very similar to the ones that landed me in hospital a few weeks back. They don't know what is wrong with him either at the moment though he is having a endoscopy done this lunchtime which might give us some clues. That and the rest of his blood tests that are due back as well. The vet has ruled out poisoning and 'foreign bodies' which is the little bit of good news. The current working theory is that he has some form of gastroenteritis. I'm going to visit him at the vets later to see how he is getting on. There is a good chance that he may be in for a few days so I'm going to take him one of the little cat blankets that I knitted for the cats when they were little tiny kittens so he has something that smells like home.
Hoshi of course is completely loving the fact that her pesky little brother isn't around to steal all the attention and pinch the best snoozing spots on the sofa. I keep telling her that she shouldn't be looking so smug as Fenway is very ill but it's not making any difference. I insisted that we take her up to bed with us last night (kitties normally sleep in the kitchen) and she spent all night moving around our king size bed and purring in our ears. I think she will start to miss him after a day or two though as they have always been together. The longest that they have been apart for before now is a day. Anyway, it's extra fish and cream in our house for a bit.
Looking after sick kitties has rather taken the fun out of my week though. I had a lovely weekend in Devon last week. The sunshine was glorious (I burnt the back of my neck though which was exceptionally irritating. I much prefer to remain out of the sun and be pale, as does my skin), the bees where buzzing in the hedgerows and we got lots done- including lots of fantastic shopping. My mum took me to Spin A Yarn in Bovey Tracey where I tried not to get carried away and buy up all the shop. We also went to a fabulous little sewing shop that I hadn't ever been in before despite having had ample opportunity. They had a whole shelf full of beautiful Japanese print material that I would merrily have given my right arm for. We also visited the wonder/abomination that is Trago Mills. I can't even begin to describe what it is like but imagine a factory outlet rolled into a theme park, sprinkle it liberally with every cheap advertising trick and cunning retail ploy you can think of and top it off with a little junk shop wonder and you're getting close. Trago is one of those places that proves that you can love and hate something in equal measure and at the same time. It is my very favourite place to go for people watching as sooner or later, everyone walks through the doors.
We also visited Burnham Nurseries which is a specialist orchid center. I love going there- it smells wonderful and the flowers are just so beautiful- it's out of this world. The best bit was that they had a lot of orchids out ready to go to the Chelsea Flower show which I looked into going to this year but couldn't afford the ticket. Seeing all the flowers in store was like a mini flower show just for me which went some way to making up for not being able to go to the big show. The orchids were what I wanted to see most anyway. I bought myself a spider orchid (can't remember the species) as a special treat. All but one of my other orchids are in flower at the moment so I was feeling a bit chuffed and confident in my skills so I stretched and got a slightly more expensive plant for once. It's a new kind to me though so I hope that it is easy enough to look after. Also something else to hope for is that the plants are still in bloom when I get my camera for my birthday. Not long to go now... :D