Welcome to The BBHQ Midweek News Round-Up ~ Melvyn Finds A Sunspot, Parsley Checking Quality Control and Pandora Practising Her Skills **PLUS** Haunted Happenings Update ~ BBHQ Gets Exorcised and Blessed

Epic Wednesday Greetings Furiends

Welcome to the BBHQ midweek news round-up!

How's your week going? 

We can't believe it's Wednesday already; where does the time go? We've still got to get a post ready for our Valentine's Crafting with Cats 2022, luckily we know what we're making, but will we find the time? Mew'll know next Monday! MOL

First up in the news this week

Melvyn found a sun puddle, it was brief and somewhat weak, but nevertheless he got some warms through the patio doors.

Luckily no one else was in the room, so he didn't get ousted from his hot spot, and apparently, the weather is taking a turn for the worse later this week as we read there's a cold front 1,500 miles across heading down from the arctic which is bringing -5 C and a lot of snow, whether we'll get any here remains to be seen, we hope we don't!

Roll on Spring!

Next up in the news this week

Parsley was in the library just doing a bit of quality control on the catnip crop. 

He looks purretty blissed-out here, so all indications are this years crop is GOOD!

And finally this week

Pandora's Practising Her Magical Deflection Skills!

Check out her epically epic video on TikTok; she's got the moves! 

She's getting the P.A. prepped and purrpared for writing Mogwarts, as we're only 3 years behind schedule - OOPS! MOL

BBHQ Haunted Happenings ~ BBHQ Gets Exorcised and Blessed

And finally this week the P.A. is back with some more spooky tales, so get your cup of tea or coffee, sit back and relax! Muwahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa!!! 

FYI for new readers: These are real ghost stories and true-life events which have happened to me at BBHQ, or other events in our village, they are not made up or fictional tales for effect. 

Hello again lovely friends, in last times spooky instalment, I revealed that BBHQ isn't the only haunted house in Mewton-Clawson; click the link to catch up.

As I've mentioned in several posts, the poltergeist activity was quite often and seemed to really amp up when anything was being done to the house.

I remember one particularly strange week; first, my vegetable paring knife disappeared, then my flour sieve vanished a couple of days later. And then a couple of evenings after that, I walked into the kitchen from the sitting room to find a ring on the electric cooker hob turned on full. No one was in the kitchen; Josh and I were both in the sitting room, the cats couldn't have turned it on, and no one could sneak in and turn it on as a prank.

Yes, the spooks were probably trying to whip up a meal and were using my knife and sieve for something! 

So at that point, when the hob was turned on, I didn't like that at all; I didn't like my knife or sieve going missing either, but the hob where the cats could jump up and get burned really easily was the reason I called the local Diocese and was put in touch with the vicar who's in charge of the Mewton-Clawson church.

After explaining on the telephone what had been happening, I did actually feel a bit stupid, like a bit of numpty telling tales, but the vicar was sympathetic enough and said he'd come round to the house in a few days.

When he turned up, I showed him all the places weird things had happened, and we spoke a little about the history of the property; then he asked me if I'd ever used a ouija board on-site or used black magic in an attempt to summon spirits; I said, "Fluff no dude, we don't summon spirits or demons here, or anywhere else for that matter!" 

I didn't need a witch hunt coming for me; pitchforks at midnight and a nice stake to get tied to, with a really toasty fire to keep away the chill on a cold winters eve. 

Anyhoo, the vicar had brought his bible, lots of holy water and an incense burner on a long chain, like they have in churches, and so it began, and the vicar blessed every room in the house, he chanted and prayed in every room in the house. The Incense was wafted in every room in the house, and a couple of hours later he left with a nice donation for the church.

I know it's probably not like an exorcism or the dramatic stuff you'd see in the movies, but it was pretty full-on.

Things quietened down after that, and the hob never ever turned on again. So at least I got a result with that.

And life continued as normal without any strange phenomenon for quite a while after that, but you know I'm sitting here typing this. I've got a key missing for my locked filing cabinet that I've been searching for ages, over 12 months; I know the keyring it's on, I know exactly where I put it, yet it has vanished. That's not the only missing item; before Christmas, I was under the stairs, and I saw a pair of tan UGG boots I'd forgotten I'd left there, they are like new. Two weeks ago, I went to get those boots off the shoe rack at the back of the understairs cupboard, and they were gone. I have subsequently been through every room, every cupboard and wardrobe in the house looking, and I can't find them anywhere. Seriously I cannot find them, and no, they haven't been thrown out by mistake, so now it makes me wonder if things are about to ramp up again. Oh joy! Let's not speculate or will it to occur by thinking about it! 

So that was the BBHQ exorcism and house blessing. I think the cottage down the lane needs doing next, but when you think about it, what's to stop spirits just house hopping and going to cause mischief elsewhere and then come back after a while? That would make sense, they go off to torment the occupants of another property and then return when you least expect it.

What do you think about spirits house hopping?

*     *     *

Eric & Flynn asked if there were any battles on the site of the village?

 No, not that we can find, only the one we know of was a few miles away as the crow flies the other side of the river, I could have sworn I wrote about it in one of the ghostly episodes, but I can't seem to find it today! 

The village is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. There is historical evidence to suggest there was a settlement before the 1st Century AD when the area was occupied by a tribe called the Coritani, then the Romans arrived, causing a bit of a hoo-ha for a few centuries. Then in the 5th & 6th centuries, the Angles and Saxons moved in, followed by the Danes in the 8th & 9th centuries. They were ousted by the Normans, and the conquests began.

I don't think there's really anywhere in Britain that hasn't seen bloodshed and death throughout history.

That's us done for today; Amber will be back on Friday with another fab book just for mew, and click the link if mew missed Monday's post click here to catch up on Part 8 of Fast, Furry & Dangerous. And if mew missed our very first review of 2022, check it out and see what we thought of Cool Cat Collars.

Epic purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team 

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post! 

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

Welcome to The BBHQ Midweek News Round-Up ~ Melvyn's New Afturshave, Psychedelic Smooch Tastes The Rainbow and Fudge Gets A Crystal Recharge & More BBHQ Haunted Happenings & Paranormal Activity - BBHQ Isn't The Only Haunted House in Mewton-Clawson **REAL GHOST STORIES**

Epic Wednesday Greetings Furiends

Welcome to the BBHQ midweek news round-up!

How's your week going? It's fluffing freezing at BBHQ this week; it's that bone-chilling cold and damp vibe, and the birds are scoffing bucket loads of seed. We need to purchase some more supplies soon, and if mew'd like to see our greedy feathered furiends, mew can watch them on our Bird TV for Cats on YouTube.

Furst up in the news this week, Melvyn smells different. 

The other day at BBHQ, Fudge ambled into the kitchen, jumped on the island and proceeded to sniff Melvyn.

He said, "Dude is that a new purrfume mew're wearing?"

Melvyn replied, "No dude, it's my new afturshave!"

"Ahhhhhh, that explains the bald patch then!" Fudge laughed.

And the moral of the story is, mew don't need to shave to wear afturshave. Fudge did explain this to Melvyn, who now feels somewhat embarrassed because he said. "Thanks for telling me that dude, as I didn't really want to be covered in little bald patches to wear my fragrance!" MOL

Next Up In The News

Smooch literally tastes a rainbow, though it does have catnip in it.

He loves his catnip rainbow, especially when he's reclining in his observatory, in fact there's no better place for it!

Check him out on Tiktok, we're going to call him psychedelic Smooch from now on! MOL

And finally in the news this week

Fudge gets a crystal recharge, he loves the citrine geode in the sitting room.

He swears by the power of crystals, check out his video on TikTok.

And speaking of crystals, our Colouring with Cats posts will resume once the rerun of Fast Furry and Dangerous concludes, we're working on some new mandalas and have got a few new crystals to share too.

BBHQ Haunted Happenings ~ BBHQ Isn't The Only Haunted House in Mewton-Clawson

And finally this week the P.A. is back with some more spooky tales, so get your cup of tea or coffee, sit back and relax! Muwahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa!!! 

FYI for new readers: These are real ghost stories and true-life events which have happened to me at BBHQ, or other events in our village, they are not made up or fictional tales for effect. 

Hello again lovely friends, in last times spooky instalment I revealed how many spooks reside at BBHQ, click the link to catch up.

Many apologies for taking a break, but you know how life gets, anyway I've got new a ghost story for you today from one of our neighbours. When Josh and I were putting up the outdoor Christmas lights at the beginning of December just as the light was fading at teatime, one of our neighbours, let's call him Jerry, ambled by and decided to head over for a chat.

He's lived in the village for a long time and is currently building a new house. After the usual pleasantries and some chit chat, Jerry glances over his shoulder rather furtively both ways, which I thought was really odd and then he says, "Oh my god, you won't believe what's happening!"

Josh and I glance at one another expecting some village-life bulls**t, and then he says in hushed tones. "I'm renting the little bungalow down the lane next to the first home I bought here, and all this weird stuff has been happening!" 

Back story: Jerry bought a lovely old house from an elderly nun and her sister, and they'd built a small bungalow in the side garden and moved in there. 

I remember my uncle telling me about the nun, she was about 5ft tall and walked around the village in her habit doing whatever nuns do.

Anyhoo, the elderly sisters died and Jerry built a new property in another part of the garden and moved into that a few years later.

So last summer Jerry and his wife moved in the nun's bungalow on a six-month lease, and it's been a hotbed of poltergeist activity.

He said the internal doors kept opening and closing; he was in his bathroom one evening and could hear really loud moaning and groaning, he went to investigate, finds his wife in the other bedroom getting ready to go out and asked, "Why are you making all that noise, what's wrong?"  She replies, "I thought it was you!"

The groaning and moaning featured throughout their stay, and then other things like the fridge door being opened began. Windows that were left securely closed were found open. Taps were turned on in the bathrooms and left running, and a lot of this activity occurred while Jerry was in the property.

He'd hear the tap running in the bathroom, then discover a window was open, he'd close the window, turn off the tap and return to the kitchen to find the fridge door wide open. He said several times there was a strange perfume smell in the bungalow which he couldn't explain, and lots of odd little occurrences such as small objects being moved, or not where they were left.

He was really freaked out when telling us, and then it made sense about the furtive glance, as obviously, he didn't want anyone else who could be walking by overhearing. I then realised he must have told others and they'd dismissed his observations as rubbish. Which to be honest unless you've actually experienced paranormal things first-hand, you are more likely to be more sceptical and dismissive about these events.

Josh and I looked at each other after Jerry had finished and grinned, not because he was distressed but because it's not just our house.

I said, "Oh wow, it's not just here then, Spook Central must have expanded to other parts of the village!"

Jerry looked so relieved that someone actually believed him, and I explained some of the weird stuff that happens here. 

I offered to go and cleanse the bungalow with sage and my spook kit, but he declined as he said they were moving out in 2 days, as they couldn't stand all the strange things happening all the time.

And as to who or what is causing the disturbances is still unknown; is it the nun and her sister, or is it someone or something else?

This bungalow is only about 50 yards away and is generally used as a holiday home or short-term let. And I can tell you, I never liked the look of the place, it always made me feel a bit icky when walking by, you know that uggghhhh I wouldn't want to go in there vibe. 

I can't imagine what it's like for holiday renters or new tenants. Horrendous! 

So that's the good news, we aren't the only affected property in the village, and the bad news, there are more spooks and poltergeists than before.

Next time I'll share what happened at the exorcism if mew're ready?

That's us done for today, Amber will be back on Friday with another fab book just for mew, and click the link if mew missed Monday's post click here to catch up on Part 6 of Fast, Furry & Dangerous an adventure story so exciting it will blow your fur off.

Epic purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team 

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post! 

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

Welcome to The BBHQ Midweek News Round-Up ~ Part 5 of The Hedgehog Update & Scooter Goes Off-Roading, Melvyn & Parsley's Reaction to Bite Sized Bird TV and More BBHQ Haunted Happenings - The Poltergeist Strikes Again **REAL GHOST STORIES**

Epic Wednesday Greetings Furiends

Welcome to our weekly news round up!

Furst up in the news 

In Part 5 of the BBHQ Hedgehog update; Scooter goes off-roading through the undergrowth and Wriggles has seconds. Snuffles and Prickles have gone into hibernation, leaving the youngsters to fatten themselves up for the big sleep.

                        Nicely camouflaged                      The entrance                       Inside is full of dry leaves                                                                                                                        to make a snuggly nest

The hedgehog igloo is now fully insulated. The instructions recommended placing approximately 5cm or 2" of natural insulation such as leaves and twigs on it. We used the pine needles from the Scotch pine as they created a lovely thick layer with was incredibly dense, and then we placed some small conifer branches on top to prevent any wind from blowing anything away. Plus as it's already halfway under a tree it should be nicely protected from the elements, and inside if they choose to move in, is filled with dry leaves which they can burrow in to make a nest.

And guess what? Last night a third hedgling appeared, who's a little smaller than Scooter, and in next weeks update mew can meet Zippy!

AND

Scooter bit the P.A's slipper in the next episode.

Yep, there was a hedgehog attack at BBHQ! MOL MOL

Bite Sized Bird TV Episode 3 

Next up in the news, Bite Sized Bird TV Episode 3 went live the other day.  

Mew can see the other episodes here:

Ep 1: Catch The Pigeon

Ep 2: Tuneful Tweeters

Watch what Melvyn and Parsley thought about episode 1.

Melvyn loves it, even Pandora has been watching it, so we'll make a few more videos over the coming weeks to add a bit of variety, as we have some fun footage of jackdaws, starlings and magpies up close from the new wildlife camera. 

Wildlife Camera Update

And speaking of the wildlife camera; we finally got it to wurk, the SD card wasn't being recognised so aftur a quick format it was good to go.

It's now placed in front of the hedgehog igloo, to see if the youngsters decided to move in for the winter and we'll check in a few days to see if it captured any footage.

BBHQ Haunted Happenings ~ The Poltergeist Strikes Again

And finally this week the P.A. is back with some more spooky tales, so get your cup of tea or coffee, sit back and relax! Muwahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa!!! 

FYI for new readers: These are real ghost stories and true-life events which have happened to me at BBHQ, they are not made up or fictional tales for effect. 

Hello fabulous friends, you may remember in last weeks haunted happenings when I spoke about the bed moving all on its own?

Today I'm going to tell you about the time I'd made new curtains for the same room. To set the scene, I commissioned my cousin to make a solid wooden pelmet for the window. He screwed a thick wooden baton to the wall and made it the pelmet so it would slot behind the baton, enabling me to remove it for cleaning. 

The wooden pelmet sat snugly on the baton for several weeks before I made the curtains, and I would randomly test it to make sure that there was no way it could fall or come loose, and it was solid as a rock.

I made the curtains and matching fabric pelmet to hide the wood and hung the entire thing on the baton, using a small hammer to knock it firmly into place, I gave the curtains a tug etc just to check it was secure and went downstairs to put away my sewing machine and supplies.

I'd just stepped into the kitchen when I heard a god awful crash from upstairs. My first thought was, oh fluff the cats as I raced up the stairs and along the landing to find the entire pelmet in a heap on the floor, and luckily no cats in sight. 

Replacing the pelmet/curtains, and hammering it even harder into place, then checking that it was solid, I left the room again and had just got back to the kitchen when there was another god awful crash

Running back upstairs I found the entire thing on the floor again, and the curtains were splayed across the floor like they'd been dragged and several curtain hooks had come loose and flown across the room.

I was feeling quite annoyed and a little bit freaked out as I replaced everything, hammered it back and replaced the curtain hooks which had mysteriously come out, and anyone who's hung curtains knows how difficult it is to remove them. Satisfied it was firmly in place and wasn't going to move, off I went downstairs.

I didn't even make it to the bottom step before, 

CRASH!!!

Hurtling back upstairs, the pelmet was halfway across the room like it had been ripped off the wall which such force, and as I stepped closer I saw that most of the brand new curtain hooks had snapped clean in half. Curtain hooks don't snap like that, not in my experience anyway, I was really freaked out at this point as I noticed how the curtains looked like they had been grabbed, twisted and wrenched, the fabric was pure silk and the curtains had been ironed to within an inch of their life before hanging and now they looked like crumpled rags.

I didn't hang the pelmet and curtains again, I put everything on the bed, shut the door, locked it (yes, I know a locked door wouldn't stop whatever it was, but it just made me feel better in that moment), and went back downstairs until Josh came home.

Josh used No More Nails and several screws to secure the pelmet to the baton a few days later, and it never moved again until it was removed in 2019 not too long before my accident, and yes that was the same room where I fell through the floor/kitchen ceiling.

I've noticed over the years that stuff only happens when work or renovations are underway, and no, I'm not planning on doing anything at the moment!

How does it make me feel knowing there is something unexplainable/creepy/scary/spooky in my home?

It did use to really freak me out, and I noticed that the more I paid attention to it, the more stuff would happen, so over the years I began to ignore things and they have lessened to where most of the time I'm oblivious to the spooks. I did have the local vicar come to perform an exorcism on the building, if you'd like to know about that, let me know in the comments, and would you like to see the monster-sized orb I captured on film in my office? Let me know and I'll share more spooky tales next week.

That's us done for today, Amber will be back on Friday with another fab book just for mew, and if mew missed Monday's post, our latest mandala on Colouring with Cats is ready to download. And Fudge shared an epically startled selfie on Sunday and a really fun puzzle.

We look forward to your company again soon.

Epic purrs

Wing Commander Basil & The B Team 

Don't furget to subscribe and never miss another post! 

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com