Welcome to BBHQ home of Basil and The B Team! We share Feline Enrichment tips, hacks and ideas, Cat Wellness, Adventure Stories for all ages, Book Reviews, Blog Hops, Crafting with Cats, Colouring with Cats, Pet Peeves, Product Reviews, Fashion with Felines, Brain Training with Cats and so much more. So drop by often to catch up on all the fun and remember; the world is way better with cats! Purrs from your hosts, Wing Commander Basil & The B Team
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.
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 beback on Fridaywith 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!
Welcome to another selfie selection, and today's selfie is:
Crystal Keeper Fudge
Fudge really enjoys sitting on the citrine geode in the sitting room. He says it's got great vibes and if mew'd like to know more about citrine crystals, check out our Crystal of the Week. And we've got another lovely crystal to share with mew tomorrow.
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL MEW PAWESOME MUMS AND MOMS CELEBRATING TODAY!
We're joining in the lovelyAthena's Art Hop,so do stop by and show off your pawesome arty-farty skills.
This weeks effect was created with Prisma IOS App: Sailor + colour changes to hue and saturation.
We also turned this fab arty-farty picture into a puzzle, so do stop by the puzzle page and take the Puzzle Challenge, see if mew can beat our time of 10 mins 15 secs.
Anyhoo it's time for us to go on kitty patrol around the garden as it's quite nice today, and then we're helping the P.A. make an Easter bonnet for Nanny, so we'll show mew what did on a new crafting post really soon. In the meantime, we do hope mew have a totally terrific day and look forward to your company tomorrow as we've got a supurr mandala for mew to colour and a new Crystal of the Week to share. Wishing mew lots of snoozy snuggles
Supurr Sunday Purrs
Basil & The B Team
Don't furget to join in the pawesome Sunday Selfies Blog Hop with
Angel Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Angel Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth, Calista Jo, Cooper Murphy and Sawyer ~ visit them at their pawesome blog:
And don't furget while we're all on
lockdown, we The B Team have got your six and can entertain mew for weeks;
there are oodles of colouring pages to download and not furgetting thecolouring books too. There's a page full
ofcrafting projectsto keep your mittens making stuff,
and if books are your thing, check our Amber's Book Reviews for your next pawesome
read!
There are some epically exciting adventure
stories too, so read our thrilling tales episode by epic episode.
We've got some new Brain Trainingposts, just to keep your little grey cells in tip-top condition. And we’ll
be adding extra jigsaw puzzles to the puzzle page.
If mew want to see more of what's been happening
at BBHQ, check out our Instagram feedwhere
mew can see exclusive videos that we don't put here on the
blog.
Don't furget to subscribe to our blog and never miss another post.
Graphics created with paid licence @www.canva.com & www.befunky.com.
Hello and welcome to the crystal room at BBHQ, grab a cushion and get comfy while we answer this week's question.
We got a lovely email from Alli, asking how we cleanse our crystals, so let's dive right in.
How We Cleanse Crystals
There are several ways we cleanse crystals, howeffur we're always mindful of each stone's correct way, as not all methods are suitable for all stones. Hence, it's always advisable to do a little research before any cleansing occurs.
And mew might also be wundering, why do we need to cleanse our crystals at all? Well, that's easy to answer, appurrently some crystals which are used/carried frequently absorb your energy, plus the energy around mew. And at some point that stone which mew carry around all the time and brings mew joy may suddenly stop bringing mew joy and feel heavy, leaving mew feeling suddenly repelled by it, this is because it needs cleansing to return it to its joyful state. It's a simple fix.
There are a few crystals that never need cleansing, see our Crystal of the Week below to learn about one of them.
The main ways we cleanse our crystals are:
Running water, the full moon, sunlight, bury in soil, bury in salt or smudging and in serious cases of heavy-duty cleansing, some or all of the aforementioned.
1. Running Water; hold crystal under running water for as long as necessary. Though, we never use this method for friable crystals such as selenite as they will dissolve.
2. The Full Moon; anytime in the days prior to a full moon, place crystals so they can be recharged by the moon's rays/energy.
3. Sunlight; leave your crystals on a sunny windowsill for a few days, but do be mindful that darker stones may fade under UV light. Amethysts are prone to fading in sunlight.
4. Burying in soil; bury in soil and leave for a few days, while this is a good cleanser we prefer to use a terracotta plant pot for this method as mew'd be surprised how many peeps have furgotton where they buried their crystals in the earth, plus if mew have pets in the garden it's not a good idea just in case of poop or widdle in the soil.
5. Bury in salt; the same as above, pour salt into a large pot, not metal and bury crystals, leave for a few days.
6. Smudging/smudge sticks; smudging is an ancient purractice of using sage or similar herbs wound in a tight bundle held together by twine/string, and burning them while letting the smoke cleanse the crystal. We also buy white sage incense which wurks in a similar fashion. We grow our own sage at BBHQ and make our own smudge sticks, later this year we'll share how we make ours.
We can't think of any more and to be honest, we think that's plenty to go at! MOL
Many thanks for emailing us Alli, and we hope that answered your question.
If mew have any crystal questions; email us, and ask us in the comments below.
Crystal of the Week
See the big, tall yellow ones to the right of Pandora? They are Citrines, and in gemlore are reputed to: cleanse auras, help to detoxify the body, assist with tissue regeneration and also are renowned to heighten creativity. They never need cleansing either, and they are purported to absorb, transmute and dissipate negative energy.
Much smaller Citrines (not the ones in the picture obviously) are an ideal stone for Chakra healing and correspond to the solar plexus chakra point located between the belly button and rib cage.
In ancient and mystical texts translated for the modern era; it suggests that placing crystals on these certain points of the body helps bring balance and harmony into union. In other wurds making mew feel better, whether this is true is entirely in the eyes of the beholder as it were, though many people affirm that this kind of alternative practice is highly beneficial and they feel better for the experience. And there's another school of thought which labels it complete quackery! MOL
We believe at BBHQ if it makes mew smile and feel better, it's a win. Though it's everypawdys purrsonal choice to follow their own road, or as the P.A. says; alwaysbe a shepherd, never a sheep.
So smile, be happy and do what mew love.
Last week we shared a post about amethyst and crystals for stress, so click here to find out more.
Anyhoo, we do hope mew've all have a totally pawesome weekend, and mew're ready fur the week ahead, so let's jump right in and start as always with our little breathing exercise, which we're sure mew all have down paw by now... but if mew've furgotten, stop what mew're doing fur a moment and take deep fulfilling breaths; counting to five on the inhale and five on the exhale:
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out
Breathe in
Breathe out
Smooch is here again to offur mew assistance in getting your OM's on and Zen Harmonies happening, so just press play, close your eyes and follow his instructions.
Don't mew feel better already? I know we do!
All the mandala's featured are created & designed by us, aka The B Team.
Here's this weeks mandala.
Right-click image to save and/or print the mandala.
And here's our finished version... this weeks colour vibe is a soft pastel palette, which we think wurks quite well.
Coloured on the iPad and then transformed in Prisma, this time we chose the effect - Broadway.
Don't furget mew can download** our free Colouring with Cats here:- Books One, Two, Three and Four.
So on that note, we'll say bye fur now and hope to see mew on Wednesday when we're back with the Pet Parade Blog Hop and if mew haven't joined in yet, click here to add your blog link!
Until then Keep Calm and Colour OM! Bestest chilled purrs Wing Commander Basil & The B Team xox
Free Lockdown Activities
And don't furget while we're all on
lockdown, we The B Team have got your six and can entertain mew fur weeks;
there are oodles of colouring pages to download and not furgetting the colouring books too. There's a page full
of crafting projects to keep your mittens making stuff,
and if books are your thing, check our Amber's Book Reviews fur your next pawesome
read!
There are some epically exciting adventure
stories too, so read our thrilling tales episode by epic episode.
We've also added some new BrainTraining posts, just to keep your little grey cells in tip-top condition. And we’ll
be adding extra jigsaw puzzles to the puzzle page.
If mew want to see more of what's been happening
at BBHQ since the lockdown began, check out ourInstagram feedwhere
mew can see our daily diary and exclusive videos that we don't put here on the
blog.