Hi Everyone
 
Hope all is well with everyone and you are all full of the joys of spring!
 
Although we are not sure what has happened with the spring weather. As we type we are sitting huddled in the shop with the door shut and two fan heaters running flat out and we are still freezing. It wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t just received a huge box full of sarongs and strappy summer tops. We are not convinced that we will be selling any of those for a few weeks yet.
 
Does anybody have any idea what has happened to our climate because the Met Office don’t seem to know. One minute we are being told that Global warming is heating the planet up, then we are told that Global Dimming is cooling it down. Then we are told that the Global warming is causing the ice caps to melt and sending more cold water south which is going to stop the Gulf Stream flowing our way and that this heralds the start of the next ice age……… Confused?….. we are. We were told that Global Warming was going to mean wetter winters and hotter dryer summers and then we had the wettest Augusts in living memory 2 years ago. This winter was the driest Cornwall has ever known and they are predicting of a drought (There isn’t a word in the old Cornish language for Drought. However there 47 words describing different types of rain) This has been followed by the coldest spring in living memory. Come on you guys at the Met Office Sort it out……
 
Mind you we should know better than to rely on the Met Office. We used to look at their website for local weather forecasts but soon came to the conclusion that they don’t actually bother doing a proper forecast for the St. Austell/Mevagissey area. Every time we look, it says Current weather "Mostly rainy" – 10 day forecast "Mostly rainy" and this just never changes, it says exactly the same in August when there hasn’t been any rain for weeks and temperatures are up in the 90s. We think they just sit there in London and say "Oh Cornwall…. It rains most of the time there doesn’t it".
 
Our cat Slinkbat is a much better guide to the weather. He sleeps on the bed with us all night and slips out the cat flap at about 6am to perform his cat type ablutions and patrol the boundaries of his territory. He jumps back on the bed at about 7am and screams "Breakfast" (in cat speak obviously). We put a hand out from under the duvet and feel the cat……….. If he’s warm we know it’s sunny. If he’s cold we know it’s a bit chilly. If he has a Mohican we know it’s windy. If he’s damp we know there has been a heavy dew. If he’s wet it’s raining. If his fur is hard and spikey there has been a frost. If there are icicles hanging off his belly fur there has been a heavy frost. If he looks like a deformed Mr Whippy it’s snowing. If he’s black and crispy there’s a thunderstorm going on. If he’s back on the bed and sitting with his legs crossed and a pained expression on his face at one minute past six…… we don’t bother getting out of bed.  The Met Office obviously needs a cat. 
 
Our other cat Pasty is no use for weather prediction. She spends 95% of the day on the bed or on the sofa and the other 5% eating….. consequently she is too fat to fit through the cat flap. Lots of people ask us why we called her Pasty…… We think the two photos below should provide all the explanation needed.
 

 

 
And before anyone reports us to the RSPCA for ill treating our cat…… we should point out that she was a rescue cat and she was a big buxom lass when we first got her. We think that she is getting a bit too old to change her ways now. In our defence, our other cat Slinkbat is a skinny little thing as you can see from his photo below..
 

 
Anyway, on to the serious stuff. We have once again had so much new stuff arrive in March that it has had to spread over two pages on the website. http://www.lavenderpillow.co.uk/Whats_new.html    &    http://www.lavenderpillow.co.uk/Whats_new_2.html
 
Or if you want to have a look at the whole site go to www.lavenderpillow.co.uk
 
As we had such a good response to the section on our "fun stuff" page where Bazz added amusing captions to Ancient Egyptian Papyrus paintings, He has been at it again and there are lots more (for those of you who share our warped sense of humour) to chuckle over http://www.lavenderpillow.co.uk/Fun_Stuff.html
 
We have also made a few changes to the site to make it easier to find your way around. So we will leave you to browse at your leisure.
 
Until next month, Bright Blessings from
 
Bazz & Rose
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