Midnight Demolition.

We have never been people that go to bed early, midnight is the norm for us to start getting ready for bed. Getting ready for bed comprises of dogs out for last run around, then feeding both cats and dogs. Last night was very windy and raining hard, Tess our large Lab can open doors which are not locked, which is what she did last night, she let herself back in to the utility room which is where the dogs sleep, she has not learnt to close them yet.
 On feeding the cats we found that Sparky was missing. Panic, our cats are not allowed to spend the night out, never mind a six month old kitten. Simon duly donned water proof gear and armed with a torch went searching for the missing Sparky to no avail. I thought it rather strange that Sparky would have gone far in such weather conditions, and then the light bulb went on in my head, we had searched all the rooms and cupboards, the one place we had not looked was the bathroom that leads off of the utility room, supposedly off limit to the cats,where we store grain and flower bulbs, plus non essential things, such as iron and  ironing board, tumble dryer, e.c.t ,  (why I ask do we hang on to things like this? ) I tried the door, it was stuck, I shoved the door, no movement at all,  then I heard a plaintive cry. Sparky was trapped in the bathroom and that door was not moving.
 I called Simon in, his first reaction was that we would have to bash the door down. Now they might be able to do this in films, but believe me, the reality is different. You might be able to smash a door down with a heavy sledge hammer if you happen to have one at hand, which at 1 am in the morning you are not likely to find.
Idea number two was to remove the frame work of the door to get at the hinges and then cut them off. Again, not a practical idea as the frame work all most certainly would be pegged into the wall.

 Normal activity at 1.30 am ?

Idea number three, which was in fact my idea number one, cut the door in half making it into a stable door,

Job done.

OK for most rooms in a house, maybe not so good for a bathroom, but hey! what other choice did we have? ( the window was out as it's double glazed and would cost a lot to replace)

Offending item, the ironing board.

Ten minutes later we had two half doors and Simon was able to reach the offending item, yes, the very seldom used iron board, which had fallen onto the door wedging it's self between wall and door. No doubt, Sparky had been using it to climb up when it slipped, trapping him inside.

Duly chastised.

 Sparky was terrified, probably from the noise of the saw, he was then duly chastised by Suzy our other ginger boy who boxed his ears, poor Sparky.

Exhausted after his ordeal.

I think he might be giving this room a wide berth from now on. We eventually got to bed at two am, late, even by our standards.
Now all we have to do is decide what we are going to do about a bathroom door that is now in two pieces.
On reflection it could have been worse, Sparky could have decided to investigate the chimney, we might have found ourselves demolishing a wall in the wee small hours of the morning.
Animals certainly keep you on your toes, you never know what they will do next to frustrate you, however they have got

No dignity in relaxing.

the art of relaxation of to a T, even if they lack dignity in doing so.
We have now had our first light fall of snow,

it didn't last and the trees are still hanging on to their leaves.

Such lovely colours this year, soon we will go out and gather leaves for composting, they add organic material to the soil, although they do take quite a bit of time to compost down.

We will use them in layers in the compost heap.
Today we visited a friend who is in hospital, he has suffered a series of strokes following an operation to correct an aneurysm in his brain, it would seem that this operation was not a success, he is now being moved to a  rehab. unit where he will undergo intensive physiotherapy. We hope and pray that it all goes well for him, he is such an active and positive person. I had done a post a few weeks back featuring his wonderful garden. The one thing that he has been lucky with is his partner who is a very able and practical person, I'm sure that they will be able to overcome the problems which will lie ahead. We send all our best wishes to you both.