Since February 2011 life has been very busy.  

Here is a brief update:

• Logan turned 2 in April and is very robust - most of the time.  His hospital checks show he is progressing well.

• All other grandchildren are doing well – had to mention them as they feel left out otherwise!!

• Valerie is now in very good health and was signed off from Addenbrookes Hospital in April.

• Norwich City were deservedly promoted to the Premiership – not a family thing but just wanted to mention it!!

• Julie, Nik, Olly and James moved to Mayfield Rd in Ipswich – just around the corner from the house they were in on Rushmere Rd. We helped with some of the moving–in and decorating.

• The gardening year at Hopbines was rather mixed because of the dry spring and autumn but still very worth doing. Potatoes did very well but sprouts were poor.

• The allotment was kept fairly tidy with some excellent carrots, turnips and beetroot.

• Visited the Museum of East Anglian Life, Duxford, and Walton-on-the Naze with Alan, Michelle, Amy, Katie, Liam and Logan and Sutton Hoo with Amy and Minsmere with Katie. Amy went to Sheringham with Valerie and John for a few days in October.

• Valerie and John went to Sheringham for a few days in June. Visited Felbrigg Hall and Blakeney.

• In August, 15 of family and friends went to the Lake District to celebrate John’s 60^th birthday.  The weather was good most of the week and everyone seemed to have a good time. Activities included Fell walking, Rock climbing, Abseiling, Canoeing, the Whinlatter Activity centre, games in the yard, eating and drinking.   
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• John took early retirement on 1^st September and had a Garden Party for work colleagues in August.  This was well attended and we hope everyone enjoyed it.

• Since September John has been working at the Hopbines garden and Stowmarket Allotment like a dervish!! Summerhouse and sheds have been painted so has some of the fencing. All the allotment has been dug and weeded and all the borders at Hopbines have been weeded and tidied up. A start has been made on tidying the rough area near the Summerhouse – this is bordering on miraculous.
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• The lounge has also been decorated at Hopbines as well as the bathroom at Leabridges. Incredibly the garage has been tidied, although most of those who have seen it can’t see any difference!  Will John keep up this relentless pace in 2012?

• Christmas Eve and Day was spent with Julie, Nik, Olly and James in Ipswich and New Year’s Eve with Alan, Michelle and family at Hopbines.

Since New Year at Sheringham, James had his 1st Birthday party at  Rushmere Rd on 9th January.  He had enough presents to keep him occupied until he is two! Olly was happy to help him try everything out.

Valerie has started back at W.I. for the first time since her operation last year.  Everyone was pleased to see her.

We are trying to get out more now Valerie has recovered and we went to Felixstowe on 16th January and had a very good walk to Felixstowe Ferry and then went to the Dock Viewing area for a while. 

On 29th January we took Katie to Wicken Fen Nature Reserve. It was very, very cold but we walked round the boardwalk and into a couple of bird hides. Katie ate a big lunch, very quickly, in the cafe.

The first weekend of February was mild and I managed to fork and tidy all the vegetable beds and "rockery" near fish pond at Hopbines.

Well, I’ve missed another 6 months!!  So what has happened since June 2010?  

Here is a brief update: 

• Logan is progressing well and more than holding his own with his brothers and sisters.

• A cheque for £550 was presented to CLAPA by Alan and Logan in the summer following the Garden Party in June.  What great support we had for that.

• Valerie and I went to the Lake District in early September, although Valere was not really very well.

• Valerie had an operation in late September to try and cure the Trigeminal Neuralgia she has been suffering from for a number of years.  Thankfully the operation went well and she recovered quickly coming off all the medication by mid-November.  The site of the operation still has to heal properly and she has to visit Addenbrookes again in April 2011.  Thanks to all the medical team at Addenbrookes who performed the operation and the nurses on the ward.

• We gave up about a third of the allotment as it was becoming too difficult to keep going.

• We postponed the Victorian Christmas because of Valerie’s operation but all the family came over on Christmas day and we had a great time.

• Valerie and I joined Julie, Nik, Olly and James at Sheringham for New Year.  Julie and I took the train to Norwich to watch Norwich play QPR.  A great match and result.

Logan had his check-up recently (a follow-up to the January operation) and is doing very well.  He will not need another operation for a while.

As mentioned in an earlier News Item the story of a rat called “Bat” would soon be published on the website. However, what I didn’t know was that Valerie had kept the very original story written in August 1988 (made me feel like Michael Palin recently revisiting the crew of a dhow he travelled on across the Indian Ocean in his Round the World in 80 days voyage in 1988– but a lot less exotic and exciting).  So, with as few changes as possible – some of the grammar was terrible – here is the original rat called “Bat”. As all good stories start …………  

Once upon a time, down on a farm in southern Belgium, there lived a rat. The rat was called “Bat”. Why was he called Bat? Well, it all began a few months before that August day when he was named. 

Bat himself was probably very young when an ordinary English family decided that it would be nice to go abroad for their holiday. It was actually the husband who really decided, because he couldn’t bear the thought of his son going abroad – to France with his school – and he had never left Britain. 

So he and his wife started to look at holiday brochures.  It had to be self-catering and preferably within a reasonable drive of the mainland Europe ferry port.  The family lived in an English ferry port. Their original choice was around Bruges in Belgium but when they looked at the prices they were rather high. Checking the prices further south they discovered it was much cheaper near the Ardennes. 

Eventually a holiday company was located in Scotland and they booked this family on a Castle Farm in southern Belgium for two weeks.  The family then organised the ferry and all the other necessary items for a carefree holiday. 

All this time Bat was living a good life on the farm in Belgium.  Winter was turning into spring. The cold snows were melting and the sun was gaining in strength making the farm courtyard warm.  The winter had been relatively mild despite some snow and the food in the barn where he lived was plentiful. As long as he avoided the farmer’s pitchfork, which was thrust at him if he came out of his home when the farmer was around, life was easy. The dogs, who might have chased him, were either chained up or too fat to catch him. But he enjoyed teasing the dogs which were chained and he stood just far enough away not to be caught. The dogs barked wildly at him. 

Spring turned into a glorious summer with long hot days and warm nights. New baby rats were born in the barn. Bat enjoyed training them, once they left the nest, to do all the things that rats do. He taught them how to steal grain, the dogs food, the cows food, the chickens food and how to get the milk from the dairy. Most important of all he showed them how to avoid the farmer’s pitchfork. Sadly one or two weren’t quick enough. 

Then as summer was subtly changing into autumn the family from England arrived. Nobody on the farm could really understand what they were saying as they spoke a strange language. Bat sat in the corner of the courtyard listening and watching. These people were making strange noises and making signs with their hands. After a few days the people had settled in and the two children, and some others who spoke another strange language, spent evenings playing in the farm courtyard, watching the cows being milked, playing in the sand and on the swings. 

Bat was keeping a close eye on these small people and, although he did not see them as danger, he was fascinated by them so much he almost got caught by the farmer’s pitchfork on three occasions.  The small people seemed to be playing a sort of game. It reminded Bat of the way he had to try and escape the farmer’s pitchfork. Bat would get as close as he dare to the farmer then turn and run. These small people seemed to be doing the same in their game. 

When they tired of this the small people went and sat at the table with sticks of wood in their hands and pushed these over white things, chattering all the time in their strange languages. 

Being ever such a quiet rat Bat could creep across the courtyard and sit under the table, near the small people’s feet, without being seen.  He listened very carefully to all the words he could hear. Some of them were; eleven, wolf, Sylvie, Julie, what, time, Hello, Alan, Karel. 

When the small people had gone inside their house Bat would creep up to the door and listen to the big people talking.  It was more difficult to pick up the words the big people used as they did not repeat the words so much. He did pick up a few like, post card, pardon, Valerie, wash up, John, match, tea. 

Anyway, to get on with the story as to how Bat got his name. The two young English children were arguing one evening about bats. The boy said he had seen bats flying around the farm courtyard earlier that evening, the girl child said “no” they were swallows from the barn where there was a nest. 

This argument was taking place quite late one evening when the children should have been asleep and hearing all the noise the father went up to the bedroom to see what was going on. He told them to stop arguing as it was quite likely that there were both bats and swallows flying around the farm. It was that sort of place. In any case he had just seen a rat fly across the courtyard and this rat was called Bat. This amused the two children so much that they fell about laughing totally forgetting their argument. That night they went sleep chuckling to themselves about a rat called Bat. From then on the big rat they saw scuttling around the farm was called Bat.

Now we know how Bat the rat got his name the story should end. But Bat was a clever rat and he had other adventures that must be told. 

The small rats that Bat had been training had now grown to adult size. One of these rats was particularly clever and he looked so much like Bat that he could have been his twin. Bat and his “twin” spent a lot of time together around the farmyard.  One day later in the week that Bat had been named and while the English family were still there, Bat and Twin, (as I shall call him from now on) were teasing the dog that wasn’t chained up. This brown dog seemed to Bat and Twin so plump that she couldn’t possibly catch either of them. They got closer and closer but the dog took no notice of them. One of them got so close his nose was touching the dog’s paw. Slap! Too late!! The dog had struck the rat and pinned it down. Now barking furiously the dog would not let the rat go. 

The farmer hearing the commotion came out of the barn into the courtyard. Seeing that the dog had caught a rat he grabbed a large stick and with one blow dashed the life out of the rat. The poor rat was left lying by the barn wall.  But was it Bat or Twin?

 SEE THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE OF: “RATS AT LA FERME DE LA LAITERIE”

 COMING SOON

CAN RATS SEAK ENGLISH?  -  SEE NEXT MONTH (or the one after or even 2010)

By popular demand, well it was mentioned a few weeks ago by one of the family, a Rat called Bat will be appearing soon on the News page. This is a children's story of a Rat who lived on a small farm in rural Belguim and appeared regularly while two young English children were there on holiday in the 1980s. 

Watch the News items for the first story soon.