It would appear that we are currently in a 'temperate' (ha ha) belt with no snow: there have been problems in Scotland and then south of us in the Midlands and the South, but the only problem here is cold temperatures and hence ice. At one point my in-laws were telling us that the forecast for our area for Wednesday night was -21, but having looked at the forecast this morning it's now saying -2: quite a difference, fortunately. 'Light snow' is forecast for Thursday: last time the forecast stated 'light snow' we got about 15cm.
Carlisle appeared to have had a sprinkling of snow which we missed in Brampton, but a dusting was all it was. The pavements were a bit icy though and I was careful walking around. It would be a pity to have got to almost 38 weeks of pregnancy and then for something to go wrong because I fell over.
The baby feels really low. He has done all along really: I've been far more conscious of my bladder with this pregnancy than I remember being with either of the others, but at the moment with the cold air as well I constantly feel as if I want to go to the loo. He's also squirming around quite vigorously still, in a pushing/shoving sort of way: besides the fact that I look like Mr. Greedy in profile, my stomach is then sometimes quite lop-sided when the baby sticks his bottom out on one side or the other. It's all very odd but I'm sure I'll rapidly forget what being pregnant felt like once he's here. Less than two weeks to go, which is a little daunting: it's so long since I last had a newborn baby to deal with, and of course I didn't actually expect to have to do so ever again.
Talking of looking after small creatures, one of the ferrets is living in the utility room at the moment. In some ways I hate it. There is ferret poo over the floor - mostly on newspaper (and it turns my stomach clearing it up, partly as I feel nauseous at the moment anyway) - and dregs of food, but also it limits my access to the heating control, the washing machine and the hoover (which is badly needed as the dining room carpet can only cope with my children for a day or two before needing a major clean-up). However Harry has now been to the vet's about 3 times about his manky tail and Husband says that the tendons are showing. He's on his second lot of antibiotics and has also had some fungicidal cream. Husband persuaded me to take him to the vet on Wednesday, but I found it quite upsetting as one of the potential scenarious was that he would have had to have been put down. When I started talking to the vet about Harry, I got a bit tearful, and then felt really stupid for having done so.
Harry's fur is now looking better and he's beginning - somewhat belatedly - to put on a winter coat, and he also seems more sprightly: but his tail is still not good (and we're not quite sure whether it's even functioning properly any more, or whether he can feel anything with it). Husband was saying we'd need to take him back to the vet, but I've put my foot down this time: I particularly don't want to take a ferret to be put to sleep who is looking healthier than he was, so any vets visits are going to be made by Husband, not by me (especially as now the children are on holiday I'd have to take them with me). On the other hand I can also understand Husband's point that Harry is only a ferret and that spending hundreds of pounds on him, particularly when we don't have hundreds of pounds at the moment, is an unnecessary expense: especially as we think he may well have been older when we got him about a year ago than anybody realised.
Maddie, our baby and very small ferret, on the other hand, goes from strength to strength. We brought her in yesterday to keep Harry company for a while (apparently ferrets can get depressed if they spend too much time on their own) and she was in a very playful mood and making the funny little noise that ferrets make when they're happy. I'd never seen her so lively and happy before: she seems less afraid of us now, and as Husband said, we also think that she might not have been very healthy when we got her but that now she is. She seems to have a stunted back so she's short (in length) even for a jill, but she's not at all nippy, has a cute little pointy face, and is like a little ball of fur. The only thing she was attacking yesterday was my pair of furry slippers!
Daughter is particularly fond of Maddie and looks on her as her ferret: Son considers Harry to be his, so there are doubtless going to be tears if Harry does get put down. Husband has said we'll get a baby ferret for Son at that point.
I also found out just the other day that Son has started a 'Ferret Club' at school. I think it entails him and his friends playing at being ferrets most play times!
Daughter and I are off to the pantomime of Sleeping Beauty this evening. I feel more inclined to stay at home and read a book or watch a bit of television with Husband (the entire family sat down and watched Edward Scissorhands last night, followed by Monty Python and the Holy Grail - except Daughter fell asleep and I went up to bed feeling sleepy. Apparently Son loved the latter: we had wondered if it might be a bit old for him. It was really nice all snuggling up together while the temperature outside dropped).
We're about to have roast chicken for dinner prior to going out: that lovely roast chicken smell is wafting up the stairs, accompanied by a roast rosemary scent as there was a spray of rosemary on the chicken. Yum!
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