Happy New Year to all my faithful
readers! I hope the holidays were as good to you as they have been to myself and my subjects.
What a busy month for all of us! We have
moved the whole household and the business to a new location. It is a very nice place. The Duchess has had to give up her
beloved garden – but now we live only 6 blocks from her father and sister, so she can garden down there all she likes
(and grow lots of herbs and greens for us bunnies).
The new place is very interesting. For one thing,
it is much larger than our previous house. It is on Grand Avenue, so it is right downtown. Now, to paraphrase Eloise: I am
a city bun.
The very front of the building will be the Chancellor
and the Duchess’s new shop. It is quite a nice large room, with about 740 square feet, so there is plenty of room for
looms and yarns, and spinning wheels, and swifts, and spinning fiber and all sorts of things like that. They don’t plan
to be open full time until August 1st, but they are happy to open for anyone who will call ahead. They have lots
of plans for classes and such as that, including another visit from Mrs. Natani this summer.
They are spending a lot of time out there, painting
the walls and supervising the installation of two ceiling fans and a chandelier that they brought with them when they moved
from Dallas to Oklahoma four years ago. I am very proud that they “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” It is an important
precept and it is an Edict from my Royal Self. Fortunately I have not had to train them.
The Chancellor has recycled for years, taking things to the local recycling center and having the Duchess haul recyclable
plastic all the way to Tulsa to be recycled because there is no place nearby to take it.
They have a great deal to do before they open for daily business! They say that will be in August so they can get everything
done just so.
At first there was some discussion about where
our Palacio would be located. I rather wanted to be out in the shop area so that I would have ready access to my many admirers.
William is a bit shy and he voted to stay in the living room area. We appealed to the Duchess, and she wisely pointed out
that until the shop is open there would be few people to adore me in person. So, at least until the shop opens for good, we
will be staying in the living room.
The living room is very nice. It is quite large,
although long. The Duchess and the Chancellor have arranged it in a very nice fashion, with both their living room and dining
room furniture and space left over. The Chancellor has her own office, which I can easily see from the top floor of the
Palacio. Juby the Sparrow, the Royal Jester, lives in there and I can hear his sweet song, which fills the whole place with
lovely melody.
There are also two large bedrooms just off the
living area. I heard the Duchess tell the Chancellor that is the largest bedroom she has had since she lived in the house
her father built for the family when she was a girl. The Chancellor’s bedroom is so big that they plan to build a closet
for them both to share and her bedroom will still be 165 square feet! She says it is the largest bedroom she has ever had!
They no longer have to come downstairs to greet us (and give us our pellets) first thing in the morning, which I find to be
very convenient indeed.
Behind the living area are a kitchenette and
a “half-bath,” whatever that is. I cannot fathom why any one would willing get all wet – even if it is only
half of them. The “full-bath” is beyond the kitchenette. I suppose it has water in it all the time. It makes one
simply shudder to think! The only place I want water to be is in my bottles.
There is a great big storage area behind the
living areas, and, of all things, a vault. (Apparently the building was once
a jewelry store.) At least we will be safe if any of those awful tornados threaten us! Anyway, my subjects will have lots
of storage and shipping room, so that should be a good thing.
Our “Summer Palace" is out in the storage area for the time being,
so we are making do with our indoor playpen, which is nice, but not so nice as being outside. Just how the Duchess plans to
work out time for us to be on grass is still a mystery, but I have confidence that she will work out something. It isn’t
as bad as it might be as the weather has been quite cold and rather wet, and I would rather be inside just now, anyway.
The Duchess
has begun the final completion stage of work on the Palacio Grande. I fully expect to have pictures to show my faithful readers
by next month. In the meantime, I have found that William (whom I have begun to call Billy) is very nice to snuggle up to
on these cold winter nights. I especially like it when I am sitting up and he lays on his side to wrap as much of himself
around me as possible.
Even
with all the changes, life is good.