It’s been a stressful few days courtesy of cats and their leaping menagerie. No.1 son didn’t apply flea treatments to the two Freds over the past two months until we noticed Winnie was scratching a lot and I found a flea on Wilf. No.1 bought the treatments and I applied them, treatments that are new to me and he had explained he could no longer order the usual Advantage treatment on-line from our usual supplier. I checked and he is correct, they can still be bought over the counter from supermarkets and ordered on Amazon but not ordered from the usual supplier unless a new vet prescription is provided. I had read several weeks ago about pressure on the government to stop the sale of flea treatments apparently based on ‘environmental concerns’ and I wonder if this is part of this. I will look into it further but we have liberally sprayed various areas of the house and I have reminded No.1 son about his responsibilities for his cats. I wonder why environmental concerns never apply to wars…

Wilf has responded well to the treatment but Winnie needed a second dose and several times a day we have combed her fur. All in all a very unhappy cat as we have also kept her in the house because of the escalation in the stalking and harassment of her by Mindy. The latter has now emulated her mother Maisie and refuses to come indoors unless it is for food. Rather than chase her about to come back in we now leave her to it because when the weather changes, she will soon come indoors, again emulating Maisie who does this every year. Wilf, bless him, has discovered he likes to sleep in our bedroom at night and every morning at 4 o’clock I awake to find him purring happily away on top of me! 

The on-going build of the Boulton Paul Defiant Night Fighter is almost complete. I have glued and taped a clear plastic to the port wing landing light and once that has taken, I will finish any touch ups and weathering plus an aerial. I have some photo etch parts to apply for radar antennae but, given that the resin guns on the turret have broken off several times I am loathe to add any further fragile parts. We shall see what happens next…

I have had a few new kits for my birthday and I am now only six months away from the state pension and a free bus pass. I like driving for its convenience and freedom of use but I now struggle with long journeys. This could be ideal for trips out but I guess I will do a combination of both. Given the current international lunacy I wonder if there will be any diesel for public transport next spring. Horse drawn omnibuses might make a return or bicycle rickshaws.

Otherwise my birthday was a quiet one, no alcohol but I did have some cake and a Cherry Bakewell Scone which was delicious. I was also up until 02.30 dealing with cat shenanigans so I needed an afternoon grandpa nap! Currently, it is a bright, sunny day with blue skies and fluffy white clouds and it is peaceful. Strange to experience this whilst the world is going mad. Take care folks.

TTFN.