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 ~ Paint My Furkids Collaboration, Melvyn is Obsessed with His Toy and More BBHQ Haunted Happenings & Paranormal Activity - Giant Glowing Orb Caught On Camera **REAL GHOST STORIES**

Epic Wednesday Greetings Furiends

Welcome to the BBHQ midweek news round-up.

Happy December the 1st, and the Catmas Countdown begins #soexcited!

This week, as we only got the computer back late yesterday, sadly there's no hedgehog update to share. But they were here last night munching away, and they did visit several times as the P.A. realised one of the outdoor cameras which covers the area under the gazebo just captures where the food bowls are placed, and they seem to visit at very regular times throughout the night, but more on that next week.

Furst up in the news today.

A couple of months ago the pawesome peeps from www.paintmyfurkids.com asked if we'd like a *digital pawtrait of the B Team, of course, we said yes and spent a few weeks pinging photo's to them, we did send pics of 7 of us, although they could only fit 5 of us on the canvas! MOL So me Basil, and Amber were bumped #oops!

We think the final product is EPIC, just take a look at these!

WE LOVE THEM!

We got to download the high-res images, so we can have them put on a canvas here in the UK, but mew can also opt to have them printed/painted on a canvas too for an additional cost.

Currently, www.paintmyfurkids.com are having a flash promo of 1 pet portrait for USD$10, 3 pet portraits for USD$20 - digital files only.

Here's the direct link: https://paintmyfurkids.com/digital-pet-portrait-flash-promo

They do ship worldwide too, so if mew're looking for an epically epic pawtrait, we'd highly recommend trying them as we are delighted with ours, totally top paw! These would make a wonderpurr Catmas gift.

Visit @paintmyfurkids on Instagram to see oodles of fabulous pawtraits, and they also do lots of different themes too, we especially love the Royal Pet Portraits.

*FYI ~ Disclosure: Even though this is a collaboration our review is completely honest and reflects our own experience/s with the product/s.

Next up in the news this week.

Melvyn is completely obsessed with his toy. It usually lives in the small cupboard on the opposite side of the room and Melvyn sits and meows at this cupboard until the P.A. gives in and gets the wand toy out. Watch him asking for the toy and getting the toy on TikTok.

The other day, getting tired of the pitiful pleading and incessant meowing, the P.A. decided to be sneaky and hid the toy in this drawer - see the photo below.

 

It didn't take long for Melvyn to suss out where it was, he really does take aftur me, his Great Uncle Basil, a propurr chip off the old block! MOL

The P.A. has to find some Melvyn proof paint to refinish the cupboard too, did mew see what he did? The chalk paint can't take any more abuse or Melvynation.

Do mew have a toy mew're completely doolally about? 

The P.A. has never experienced a kitty in over 25 years who was this obsessed for months with something; never ever has a B Team memfur been so fixated, desperate, and bewitched to get their murder mittens on the same toy day aftur day. The P.A. plays with him for about an hour during the evening where he literally somersaults and triple back-flips through the air while playing, sadly we haven't managed to capture him performing these incredible gymnastic feats, but we're trying.

We'll keep mew posted on his obsession, though the P.A. has said he needs to go to Toys Addicts Anonymous and ween himself off this toy. We've got a feeling there could be an intervention on the horizon.

BBHQ Haunted Happenings ~ 

Giant Glowing Orb Caught On Camera

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 again lovely friends, in last weeks spooky installment I spoke about one of the poltergeist incidents which was quite scary and did unnerve me, and if you missed it, just click the link above to catch up.  

Last week I asked if you'd like to see a huge glowing orb, and you said yes, so read on as I share the events of what happened leading up to the capture of this strange phenomenon, and give you a bit of background information regarding this room.

This particular room in the barn used to be the blacksmiths forge way, way way back in the day aka the 1800s and early 1900s, and the back wall behind the sofa had a huge door that opened out directly onto the main street, so it was easily accessible for the coaching inn 50 yards away. You can still see the wooden doors from the outside, although it is bricked up on the inside, and under my wooden floor are the original blue cobblestones, and no I couldn't keep them as the floor, because they were set straight into the ground/dirt when the barn was originally built and there's no insulation and it was very cold and damp, so I had a floating floor placed on top of them with plenty of insulation.

Anyhoo, I converted this room in 2001 and used it as an office and snug aka cosy sitting room, as it's got quite a low ceiling because when my uncle converted it, he made a bedroom above, and left the old forge as a junk room/garage/storage area. 

My desks were placed opposite the sofa, and I sat with my back to the sofa. I would write my books in that room and one evening in late August 2004 I was sat working away on something and I suddenly felt/sensed something in the room behind me, and given past experiences, I sat for a moment hardly daring to breathe as the hairs literally quivered on the back of my neck and goosebumps engulfed me.

I don't know what made me pick my digital camera up off my desk. And I remember picking it up very slowly, and I was so careful to not turn around or make any sudden moves as I lifted it over my shoulder and snapped a couple of pictures, there was no flash on it just in case you're wondering.

Still not daring to look back over my shoulder I checked the camera to see if it had picked anything up, and this is what I saw on the small digital screen.

The photo on the left was taken about 2 seconds before the photo on the right.

When I say in the great words of Wing Commander Basil; you could have dipped me in treacle and rolled me in catnip and I couldn't have been any more surprised! In fact, I think my eyes were like dinner plates as I stared at it and realised the glowing orb was about the size of my arm, as you can imagine I was holding my breath and I still refused to look behind me. I think in that moment I was utterly terror-struck, given the other incidents which had happened in the barn over time.

It did take a while for me to compose myself and pluck up the courage to turn around, and when I did there was nothing there, surprise surprise.

I did take several more photos just to make sure it wasn't something in the room which had caused a light refraction, and I checked that there was nothing on the shelves that could have caused such an anomaly, there were no bugs or flying insects in the room either, and for the life of me, I couldn't duplicate that first picture no matter how I tried. Therefore I was left with only one conclusion, it was one of those mysterious orb ghost-thingy-ma-doodles, which really creeped me out to the point I found the best Psychic Medium in the county and arranged a home visit stat.

She came the following week and obviously, I was very vague about what had been happening prior to her visit as I wanted her to tell me what she thought and to see if she could pick up on anything in the usual hot spots of paranormal activity. She was basically entering my house under the guise of; I wanted a personal reading, not knowing that paranormal activity was in full swing like a perpetual Spook Party, Ghost Fest or Poltergeist Central.

As we entered the office, I had said nothing about this massive orb to her, and immediately she told me there was a huge shadow, a presence in there and after she'd tuned in her psychic antenna, her explanation was this; the orb is the spirit of an old black shire horse called Brutus, he was apparently about 18HH (hands high, the height at the horses' withers) so a big, big cart horse who had worked on the farm and he had died in the forge, nothing nasty, he was just old and it was his time to go. This made me very sad and rather relieved all at the same time, and then she went on to tell me there was another piebald (brown and white) shire horse called Lady in the room which would eventually become my crystal room, the psychic didn't know where this room was, she just said; there's a duplicate of this room on your property with another horse spirit in. I knew exactly where she meant, and she went on to tell me the horses had been bonded, they were besties and they were still together in the afterlife which I was delighted about.

Then as we walked into my kitchen she told me there were three soldiers looking in the kitchen window from the courtyard, her explanation was this; they had fought in the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487, obviously 300-ish years prior to the barn being built of brick, though there was a settlement/village here and it is mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086, there are even records and evidence dating back to 1AD and Romans in the area.

Anyway back to the soldiers, she said they'd fought in the last battle of the War of the Roses to unseat King Henry the VII at East Stoke. The psychic said they were all gravely wounded and were seeking shelter/help as they fled the battlefield, or the Red Gutter as it's known in history because it was that bloody. The poor soldiers obviously didn't make it as apparently their spirits hang around here a lot, so they must have died very close to the building. And no, I don't know if there are any bodies buried on the property from centuries ago.

She did tell me quite a few other things, but today sadly we've run out of time, so let me know in the comments if you'd like me to continue the psychic's stories before I move on to the exorcism?

And let me know what you think of today's revelations, and have you ever seen an orb like that before?

That's us done for today, Amber will be back on Friday with another fab book just for mew, and sorry we didn't get to post on Monday or yesterday, but if mew want to do our regular mindful breathing 

exercises, click the link for last weeks Colouring with Cats post and our fab crystal series.

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