Happy Birthday Lily.
Well lack of blog entries for the last few days is a direct result of the time-waster on 4 legs called Dusty. As I type she is sleeping on Eric's chest as he is laying on the sofa telling her what a good girl she is for poo-ing in the litter tray and generally being so cute. Every stretch, purr and movement is being relayed to me. God he's such a softie! The older friends amongst you will remember that the reason we had Stumpy (not Stompi Lu, he was a S.African murdered, reportedly by Winnie Mandela's mob!!) is that when I bought Sols home I had to go back 2 hours later to get another kitten as I had not got a look in!! He who even then said we would never have cats! I had to rescue Dusty from the jaws of Inca this afternoon - literally, who has not quite established in his mind quite what the point is of this bundle of fluff that has completely upset his position in the pecking order!
So, apart from coo-ing and ahhh-ing over Dusty what have we been up to? Friday I was typing in my office (Harri's bedroom) when Alice came rushing in and relayed to me with great excitement that an Olympic hockey player had been to the school. Apparently this was planned diversionary tactics so that Eric could bring in caged kitten and all the bits without me seeing. Work obviously stopped at that point as we all fussed over the little one. She is VERY cute. Harriette had been invited to Ellice's and out with her family to a college 'It's in the bag' evening, so there was one person less saying 'it's my turn'. In fact she stayed overnight so Alice had almost unfettered access to the kitten. Next morning was netball. Because Alice and Harri are now at different schools they have different Saturday morning slots. This means that rather being on the courts for one and half hours it's more like 3 and half hours! I have suggested to Robyn that we swap a child on Friday nights and just do the early slot on alternate weekends!
After netball and getting the girls home for quick showers we went up to Juliet and Kev's. They are about 1 1/4 hours north from here at Glen Murray. The reason for the visit was this....
and to see the humans of course! Had a good afternoon there. Hannah (their 8 year old,or is she 7?) had an op on her nose on Wednesday so was a bit precious. They actually played nicely, which is an real exception. For 4 girls who are supposed to be friends Boy can they argue!! It was like a nursery there with puppy and Dusty. Of course she had to come, I couldn't abandon her at home less than 24 hours after getting her could I! Puppy is the only one produced by their blonde lab (as opposed to their black lab) Bella. They are going to be heartbroken when she goes but has already been sold.
Sunday I was woken by Alice bringing in tea - bless her. I had complained that last year they behaved no differently on Mother's Day to any other and Alice went out of her way to rectify this. I helped Eric with the feeding out as he had to move a silage bale from on top of the pile and this was quite dangerous. As I think we explained before we could not get the grass cut for hay as it was too wet so we had silage. The bales are much bigger, and being wet, an awful lot heavier. We really need a tractor but as we don't have one we have to go through the palava of wrapping a strop round the bale and using the winch on the Safari to pull the bale down onto the trailer, ensuring that it lands in the middle so as not to tip it. We then have to move the strop and Safari to position the bale properly. I hope that cows b---dy appreciate this. Harriette came down to 'help' and got to drive the Safari and trailer back to the house. She'd have done more 4 wheel driving than 2 wheel by the time she gets to do her test, at 15.
On Saturday I invited Richard and Robyn to pop in for a coffee on the Sunday but some dramas at the farm altered arrangements slightly and we went up there, and stayed for most of the afternoon. Come hometime we drove off planning to collect our girls on the way down the drive as we thought they were with Millie, their horse. However they weren't and there was no sign of them near the calving sheds. On looking as far as we could see Richard said that he thought he saw movement down at the hay barns. So we drove down the race (which we would not have got back up if we had not been in a 4x4, and found them. Moral of this story? There is a disadvantage to this rural life, calling th kids in for supper when they have a 150-200 acre garden to play in!!
Eric cooked the roast dinner but at least Harriette had helped in the morning with preparing the veg. I had got some daffodil bulbs from Alice, which I planted that day and seeds for a Kakabeak tree. H. gave me some pigskin gardening gloves. No, bought not home produced! Did I mention Eric gave me a kitten?!!!
Today I went to the polytech to do a session on immunisations for the midwifery students. I was a little apprehensive as there is a significant anti-immunisation lobby amongst NZ midwives but nobody heckled me so I reckon things went OK.
Alice came home in tears this afternoon. Now don't laugh but someone put a live mouse in her lunchbox!!! I started off being outraged and did my motherly consoling bit while Eric and Harriette fell about laughing (Carol I'm sure you can picture the scene!) but have since decided it was quite funny! Mousey had eaten some of her sandwiches so I ushered her in to give her some noodles. She had again gone to school with nothing but sandwiches as she again had not got her lunchbox sorted. Harriette has since being calling her 'Mousey Lou' in place of her usual nickname Licey Lou! She had also been teased about her weight and a teacher had made her run an extra length during fitness so I think it would be fair to say that she did not have a good day. Bless her.
Well Eric has moved into a sitting position and relinquished possession of the cat so I best go and check she's OK!!
Night night
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