Housesitting and the death of our Queen

Our Queen Elizabeth II 1926 to 2022

It’s been a long time since the last blog, in fact a whole Housesit has passed. Our excuse? The laptop has been in the hospital, in Barnt Green, with a broken screen!

Hot tub delivered, filled and heated - for Millie cat!

We left the cutie Millie cat on Bank Holiday Monday having filled, heated and chlorinated the inflatable hot tub for Sarah’s birthday party, and returned to mum for a few days. Bit of shopping, and gardening, which did then lead on to getting a man in to cut out half the buddleia tree! I know buddleia is normally a Bush, but this one is not normal! We also met up at the Weighbridge for a drink with Fiona and her husband Dan, from the CWG. Nice to finally meet Dan after hearing so much about him.

The tree in Jackie's mum's garden before culling. It's now very much smaller!

Looking after Oscar cat in Leamington Spa for Fiona & James

Friday we came over to Leamington Spa to sit for Oscar, Fiona and James (daughter and son-in-laws) Cat. He’s a real softie, and loves company, so it’s been a real pleasure to care for him. It’s the only sit we’ve been on when the phone has rung, and it’s not to talk to us, but for Fiona and the girls (Abbie, Becky and Jenny) to talk to the cat! I have to say, he took no notice at all!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here, our usual mixture of seeing the locality, seeing what has changed in Leamington since Brian lived here some 30 years ago, a couple of odd jobs and a bit of catching up. Here's a walk we did round Leamington with a few photos included. Click here

Lovely Royal Leamington Spa

With Denise and Paul in Birmingham

Monday we got the train into Birmingham, picking up Denise and Paul as we passed through Solihull. We had a great day, PoliNation in all its glory was amazing, seeing Ozzie the bull, decorated to match, before he gets put away for the winter also lovely. Coffee and cake in the Edwardian tea room of the art gallery before visiting the library with its two gardens and Shakespeare room. Down to the canal for a bit of an amble and a late lunch, timed perfectly to avoid the rain.

The PoliNation exhibition in Victoria Square, Birmingham. This area in front of the beautiful Council House building is normally clear, but it has been transformed into this amazing planted area with giant tree sculptures

Tuesday was the annual ‘board meeting’ with Brian’s ex colleague Terry, and his wife Sue. Lots of chat, eating and drinking is the general way, and this was no exception.

Tea and cake in the Edwardian Tea Rooms in Birmingham. A curious thing I've noticed about this photo: both Jackie and Denise appear to both be speaking at the same time. There is no shortage of conversation when we see them, getting a word in edgeways is usually the challenge

So what with seeing the financial advisor, also based in Leamington, and booking flights to the USA for the 25th September, it’s all been very busy. It’s not going to get any better either, tomorrow we move to our last Housesit, in Studley for a week, we also plan to visit Simon and Diane in Harrogate before we go. Are we mad?

The Commonwealth Games bull with a flower decoration to celebrate the PoliNation exhibition. He's apparently going into storage on 23rd for the winter while they try to find him a permanent home

In the rooftop garden of the library

It’s now Saturday and the intervening very sad news has been the death of our Queen, Elizabeth II, after reigning for 70 years. Not surprisingly things have been a bit unusual here with lots of sedate, quiet music on the radio and many TV programmes covering her life. For all our lives and many others we have only known the Queen on the throne, but we now have to get used to saying God save the King and our monarch as King Charles III. We arrived at our Studley sit on Friday, handed over and pottered with Indigo cat, before popping to Alvechurch to see mum and then Richard and Helen and John. He shouldn’t have been there, but not surprisingly the football in Leicester has been cancelled out of respect for The Queen! With the laptop collected from the hospital a new blog can finally be done. Though he’s going to be busy, looks like cooking the lovely looking Barnsley chops we’ve treated ourselves to from the local butcher will be over to him as I’ve burnt my thumb and finger, quite badly, and stubbed my little toe and ripped the nail off! What will be number three?

Looking down over Birmingham from the top of the library. There's Commonwealth Games bully in Centenary Square down there. Hard to think he's 10m (30ft) tall from up here

Lunch at a bar in the very pleasant Gas Street Basin

This bridge in Gas Street Basin is called the Black Sabbath bridge and here they are commemorated on a bench overlooking it.

Oscar cat doesn't seem too bothered by all of this though

His main task is to try out all the best sleeping locations 

And to keep guard, of course. He's very happy since I managed to fix the patio door after Fiona broke the handle off meaning she had to go into the garden to open it from the outside for him

Jackie's main task was to brush him, which he seemed to enjoy and made him look much better. The pile of fur in the background was one of many she got out of him 

We had a day trip into Stratford-Upon-Avon too, which is just a few miles away from Leamington. Here's a statue of The Bard himself 

And here's Shakespeare's birthplace and childhood home

And no visit to this area can be complete without a visit to Warwick and it's iconic castle, originally built by William the Conqueror after 1066

Up close to one of the towers as seen from Mill Street

This is Eastgate, one of the two Medieval gates that protected the entrances to the old town

And this is the Lord Leycester Hotel and Westgate that protected the other entrance to the old town

So now we are in Studley for a week and this is Indigo cat, a very friendly girl who seems to like lots of fuss

It never takes Jackie long to get round a cat!

I went for a ParkRun this morning to Arrow Valley, about 4 miles from Studley. Happy with my time of 27min 37sec for 5Km. Photo finish at the end too as one chap tried to sprint past me at the end but I accelerated and kept of with him over the line. We had identical finish times, but he did lean forward to be placed in front of me. It's not a race! So why on earth did I feel competitive like that?

We've bought our dinner for tonight from the local Bespoke Butcher in Studley. He comes highly recommended. Barnsley Chops we've got. Quite expensive but we're expecting them to be very good. We'll report in the next blog! We intend trying out a few of the many highly regarded local pubs, restaurants and shops in Studley, we've already had our dinner in the family owned Nepalese restaurant, The Mount Everest, which was also very good