Gotcha!

 He's hooked.

No hope for him now, mwahahahahahaha!

Climb every Mountain

 Early doors saw yours truly finding a different route up the North Face of the Bonsai  Mountain

 and naturally I had a few Berners to help me as pathfinders.

 We didn't make to the top this way but it was fun trying.

 I also found one of my shoes, thanks K-9s!

 Talking of not making it, Longtown Mountain Rescue were in town which gave the boys a chance to see in the Land Rover and gave me a chance to chat about the time I had to call them out to a fat friend who gave up and sat down to die. In the farce that followed he ended up being carried off the mountain by the team, including this bloke who says that the rescue is one of 6 legendary ones they always talk about. We chucked some money in the bucket and promised to attend the BBMC 17.

 When the kiddies were tucked up in bed yours truly took off to see The Darkside, a Pink Floyd tribute act playing at the local flea pit.

 It was far better than I hoped for, some vocals were a bit dodgy

 with the exception of hers, she did a brilliant job doing the wailing song from Darkside of the Moon.

A bit more cash and they could give Aussie Floyd a run for their money.

Welcome back

 Last time yours truly was in this very spot all this was fields, well not quite, all this was run down farm buildings with not a lot going for it other than some builder trying to stop the rot by fitting a roof.

 Whereas now its 8 lovely houses with a communal play area and good weather to match.

 So why am I here in the sunny region of west Wales, why to welcome back into the Red Kite fold some lovely people and so securing the furthest outpost of the RK empire.

It had nothing to do with project motorbikes. Honest.

Lunchtime special

 some people are lucky enough to have somewhere quiet to go and eat their lunch

 others are chained to their desks

 A few sit in coffee shops

 others a park bench

Yours truly found a lunch spot that was a bit better than average.

Water world

 We had some rain.

 Not much.

 But enough to change our walk.

 It almost became a swim.

Rio is getting used to life with us.

A developmental milestone

 This is the apprentice concentrating hard as he is about to reach

 a developmental milestone

 having just built his first Airfix Spitfire.

 The look says it all.

 And who can resist the temptation to spin the prop and go

Weeeeeehooooooooow!

Its a mystery!

 Somehow Summer, our little pygmy goat, managed to escape Goatanamo and head off into the wide world yonder only to find herself in a cage labelled "Flammable Gas" which is about right for UXG. The story as we know it is that the security guards at the quarry 1.5 miles away saw Summer frolicking amongst the gravel so they caught her, eventually, and to quote, she took some catching. They then caged her and pondered what to do. One took a shine to her and wanted to keep her, one wanted a curry and the other thought they should find her owners. Unfortunately the last guard won so they phoned the police and asked what they should do with a stray goat. Curry it was the obvious response but the kindly 3rd guard persevered and phoned the local vet who knew who to call in the event of a lost goat. Not us as it turns out there's another nutter who keeps goats locally and when she discovered it wasn't hers she phoned us (I don't know how she knows us) but that's how yours truly found himself following a security vehicle all lights and klaxons through the maze of quarry workings to be reunited with his UXG.

 To make sure there were no further dramas she was held thus

for the short but smelly ride back to Goatanamo.

He shoots! He scores!

Apollo goal hanging. Literally.

Friends reunited

 Long ago at Rock HQ a young horse arrived called Will.I.Am who wandered lonely until Trevor the pocket rocket shitland joined him and two mucked about endlessly until their ranks were swelled by the addition of Apollo the wonderfoal. Things were happy and settled, life was good, but there came a point where Will.I.Am et al were taking all our time and there was no time for rug rat MkII and his older brother the apprentice. Over in the land of the Stable Sprite a horse was lonely and needed a friend so Will.I.Am joined him, cutting some of the work at Rock HQ and giving Will.I.Am the chance to be ridden regularly while my beautiful and oh so patient wife was unable to.

 Tine marches on. Three years in fact and its now time for our lovely boy to return to Rock HQ where we kept our word and cut down on the amount of animals and really haven't got two more horses, two donkeys and 8 goats not to mention 19 dogs. No!

 So after three years being pampered and kept in luxury cathedral like sized stables Will.I.Am said his goodbyes and fare-wells to Mr and Mrs Stable Sprite and returned to his former residence.

His return was greeted with great excitement and enthusiasm by his previous stable mates but unfortunately there are no pics of Will.I.Am and Apollo going all soppy on seeing each other for the first time in over 3 years as the camera stopped working. So no pics of Apollo leaning on Will.I.Am and following him nose on shoulder all afternoon. Friends reunited.

Happy Birthday

 Noel and Sven's birthday was spent sharing us with this dog, Rio. Rio is a Romanian dog, abandoned, critically wounded by a car by the motorway and left to die in a drainage ditch. He was starving, mangy and hopeless. Thankfully Amicii Dog Rescue found him before the grim reaper which is why yesterday

 he arrived at Rock HQ greeted by Apollo and culture shock.

 This is Ann who was one of the many who helped him come to the UK.

 We are used to big dogs but Rio is in another league!

 He's a placid lad and likes to keep an eye on us.

 He's also very helpful

here he is helping us clean out the parrots cage. All this meant that Noel and Sven's birthday wasn't all about them, but they had a nice walk and the compulsory Jaffa cakes.

Time flies

Its a whole year since this fine young Berner was born. Sven and his litter mate Noel are one year old today. Lots happened today, more later in the week when the pics are found.

Meantime here's Mrs Bear pondering the future.

Getting closer

This isn't Kilimanjaro. The Kili trip is now a done deal, no going back, all five of the climb team have now paid for it and ordered in flight meals from an astonishing array of choices. Nobody in the team is superstitious which is a good thing as we fly out Friday the 13th of January 2017. Plans are afoot to conquer this peak, the highest in South America. The highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayan range. Answers on a postcard please.

Feed me!

 With so many critters at Rock HQ feeding time is both very important and very chaotic given the personalities involved. Take the rampaging Ryelands for example, not content to wait for breakfast they try and gain extra calories by breaking and entering. Daffodil looks like she is about to steal a bike but is in fact in the process of tearing open some horse feed bags.

 Meanwhile horse, namely Apollo the wonder foal is where he shouldn't be, the wrong side of the fence for a start, obviously has a sixth sense when it comes to this type of shenanigans

 and comes to the aid of yours truly in evicting naughty sheep from feed store.

On the other paw here are 6 of the Berners who are on the first sitting for dinner, 2 more sittings to go.