Other people's places, other people's pets

When we mentioned to our friends Roger and Christine that we were coming down to Yorkshire for the Tour they told us they would be away on holiday and asked if we'd like to stay in their house and look after Panther, their elderly adorable cat who likes to eat little but often and needs medication every other day.  We had planned to be away for only a few days but after discussion and some bumped up security here agreed that we could stay for just over a week to give continuity of care to Panther and have a jolly good time ourselves.

We loved being a proper North Yorkshire village with a river running through it, village green, walks from the doorstep onto the Moors, a smart pub and a small bakery that opened now and again. Further afield were pretty market towns, farm shops, family, everything we needed but we did spend a lot of time just lazing in the house. We watched stages of the Tour in the afternoons, Panther stretched out on the sofa beside us became quite addicted though sometimes distracted by my knitting.  We walked round the village, ate in the garden, relaxed in the conservatory and generally enjoyed someone else's property.  We even had friends round for dinner one evening, just two of them, no wild parties, we were responsible tenants.

Roger and Christine have a pretty and interesting garden, they insisted that we should not cut the lawn but I kept the tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse watered, tended out summer pots, did some light weeding and dead heading, all the fun without much responsibility.

We are hoping we might get asked again to undertake these house and cat sitting duties, Panther may be 19 but he seems to have plenty of years ahead of him, bless.