Career choices

PJ loves monkeys.

She wants to work in a zoo, with monkeys.

We"re all very sad to hear that Ricky the Natureland zoo monkey has died.

I talk alot about how important it is for monkeys and other animals, to grow up in their own environment. Hoping I guess that one of the kids might grow up to be a radical environmental campaigner (because I didn't.)

Whoops we shouldn't live vicariously through our kids should we?

But my goodness it wouldn't be a bad idea for her to be a vet either. So far I have spent at least one weeks food bill, at the vet, on the dog who has earache, for goodness sake!!

RIP Ricky.

And Willow, the drops I'm putting in your ear will help you get better soon ( the least you could do is co-operate)

My partner L now lives and works 3 1/2 hours drive away from us coming home for three day weekends. Because we're all in summer holiday mode it hasn't really sunk in yet as the kids and I are sleeping in, going to the beach and spending time with friends and family. I have noticed I'm alot more tired. I didn't really give L much credit for doing stuff around the house but have certainly noticed the subtle ways in which he helps in his absence. He's happy in his new job and hopefully the family (mainly me) will adapt OK. I think I may have to concentrate less on my hobbies and work though as the kids will only have me to turn to. I am a bit nervous as to how this whole thing will turn out. For me having alot more money doesn't necessarily mean being alot more happy, in fact I think it may turn L into a carbon omitting consumer judging by his weekend spending spree. He doesn't get it though.

Life in the backyard on the other hand carries on as it always has. Beautiful poppy seed heads ripening, promising delightful little black seeds for topping bread and baking.
Garlic drying well in the hot weather. Enough here for the family, pets, seed for winter and some to barter or sell.

This plant is new to me a friend gave it to me for Christmas she calls it "lambs quarters". Apparently the pink powdery leaves rub on as a pretty eye shadow or lipstick. I love new plants and this one is fun.

One more thing we had a killer hedgehog! One morning I went out to feed the chicks and found one with it's head eaten off. My thoughts were cats or stoats, but my neighbour popped her head over the fence later and told me her husband had heared the chooks making a commotion in the night and shone the torch over the fence, where he saw a hedgehog in our chook run chasing after the chickens. The next night he caught it after his chooks and did something very not Buddhist with a nine iron!

Rats!

Look away if you don't like rats! A couple of years ago "skatey boy" was asked what he wanted for his birthday. Axolotls is the answer he gave me and "NO WAY" was my swift reply, have you seen these dreadful creatures? I saw one as a kid and had nightmares about them for years, "absolutely anything except an axolotl" I foolishly said. "OK then rats" Oh dear I did say anything else didn't I? Damn it! Surprisingly though they've quite grown on me, I wouldn't hold them but I do enjoy bringing them in things to eat from the garden. Ralph became a $130 rat last week, I knew I should have stuck to my plan of being a vet. He's recovering well from having a lump removed from his face, I know it is extravagant to spend that much on a pet rat but I couldn't break my kid's heart.

The last few weeks have been full on, I spring cleaned the house and had a garage sale on Saturday it didn't really go to plan though as the "red head" spent most of Friday night screaming, revealing at about 3 in the morning that his ear hurt. Suffering from sleep deprivation I decided to go ahead with the garage sale anyway as I couldn't stand the boxes of stuff around for another week. It went OK but I didn't set things out as nicely as I could have and packed up in a hurry to get the "red head" to the duty Dr. Ouch there goes half the profit. I'm glad the week's over, the "teen" goes to school camp tomorrow so I get three days break from being "so mean". His friends have been making some really stupid decisions lately and getting into trouble it's only been sheer luck that T has been away on the weekend's that they've got into mischief, so I have said they can come here and hang out instead of him going with them. Mean Eh!? I've always trusted him but that pack mentality is pretty strong, I'd rather know what he/they are up to at present. I hope I'm doing the right thing, L and I aren't quite in agreement about how to deal with it all but are just trying to keep him safe and out of trouble. I hope they're too worn out from kayaking and tramping to do anything silly at camp.

Absolutely no sewing or knitting happening in these parts, a wee bit of gardening. I have harvested the first zucchini from the garden and am using my spare moments to get little things like tying up tomatoes, mounding up potatoes, weeding and watering done in the garden. L's clothes drying rack is getting put to use to dry flowers for the garlic plaits. I think it will look cool as it fills up and will be great because I won't have to wobble on a stool when I hang things up.

Some sewing

Sewing day actually produced some results today. It took me several goes at getting the sizing right for some spring t's for my red head but I'm pretty pleased how they turned out. He's not at all keen on wearing the colourful ones, it might be the hood or perhaps he's been watching the way his sister behaves over clothes. I'm just happy the overlocker behaved itself for once and I didn't have to do any unpicking. If everything goes to plan I might even get in another day sewing tomorrow!
Garden's getting up to date: tomatoes in the glasshouse, peas and carrots planted, pruning finished except for one hairy boysenberry and at least halfway through the weeding.
Best achievement over the weekend: I got an assignment finished that I've been putting off for months. In the post today.

The chooks are rocking the boat a bit, flying over the top of a 1.8 metre fence to create havoc amongst my seedlings. If they weren't laying so well some of them would be shipped off to new homes. Bees have appeared and are busy in the plum tree. !!!!!!! SPRING!!!!!!

In my garden

So far the plan to seperate work and craft days is going OK. Tuesday was a craft day but my dear old angora rabbit "Snuggles" died. He was very old so it was a relief that he didn't have to endure any more of the cold weather, I will miss him though he was always there to talk to when I was in the back of the vege garden and loved to eat dock and chickweed while I gardened. He was a good listener too. Luckily a friend came by for a visit because I couldn't have concentrated on sewing anyway.

After work today I got about an hour in the garden to plant seeds and have a good poke around. The small children helped to sow pea, corriander and rocket seed and skatey boy covered a path with mulch. My old asparagus patch is getting some new babies this year, I was delighted to see these tiny spears poking up in a seed box. I've just about had my fill of winter veges and am dreaming of replacing brassicas and root vege for asparagus, salad greens and tomatoes.A peek at my new favorite bag. I fall in love with about one in every three bags I make, the lining on this one started life as a shirt, it looks much better in my bag. Somebody's getting all the vintage and retro fabric around here lately and it's not me. I'm getting withdrawal from the buzz you get having got an op shop or garage sale treasure. I settled for some fruity prints from the interior design shop today. They sell off bits from their sample books usually they're pretty awful but I found some with potential. Watch this space for fruity bags.

Huts and Pups

When I asked my son who's 10 to stack some wood in the wood shed his creativity got the better of him. It happens alot, he's the dreamy creative type who get side tracked by a better idea. Often they are marvelous like this, but sometimes when he's supposed to be getting ready for school and is building a city for his cars I get a little bit snotty. Just as well we live close to school as he often doesn't get there till 5 to 9. He rushed in to get the camera after about an hour "just in case it falls down" then when it was finished called us all out to have a look. He suggested to me that it was big enough for him to sleep in!I guess it will remain in the garden as a sculpture until the wood is required. The nights are definatley getting colder and I'm waiting for the Autumn rains so I can collect mushrooms in the country and plant bulbs and do some weeding again. The ground is as hard as rock and although my back is getting better I daren't attempt any digging yet. You can see Willow's puppies have grown, they are very amusing to watch play now and the whole family watches them after tea instead of the TV which is nice. They know my voice, my walk and all come running out of their box when they hear me coming. It's been a great experience but I look foward to them going to their new homes now.

Cluckky

The ladies at the op shop are just wonderful, I'm kind of a regular and they exclaimed "Gilly do you have some news?" when I picked this beautiful handmade baby gown out. No I don't have any exciting news but must admit I'm ever so cluckky. I'm sure it's a case of wanting what you can't have more than anything. I just can't resist handmade and antique baby clothes especially gowns. Before my Grandma died she and I would go through baby clothes she had made 60 years ago and choose things for my babies. When she died I picked out some items that were destined for the dump because they were falling apart, the buttons, smocking and embroidery inspire me and when I have the skills I want to create a memory quilt to remind me of our days spent waiting for my babies, knitting and talking. Marcie at the op shop said "what are you going to do with it?" Save it, hang it, show it. Maybe give it, one day when I let go of the thought of having any more babies. Talking about it to my friends, it's a hard phase of life to leave behind. A totally different kind of cluckky, mummy chook has nine babies. I still spend most of my free time visiting all the babies but have managed to pot up some seedlings and prune the hedge.

New additions

Willow had a pretty hard time with her babies. After going through the first stage of labour through the night she finally started having some action at 8.30 in the morning. I had been on the internet from 5am making sure everything was normal. I discovered a new blog after I'd assured myself everything was O.K.http://muppinstuff.typepad.com/my_weblog/ clicking here shold get you to it, there are some lovely garden photos you'll have to look for "rainy day gardening" as I havn't got the hang of linking to the right page. I was having a walk at the school when she popped out the first puppy, wishing I was still a smoker and enjoying a ciggerette to calm my nerves. I definatley wasn't a calm support person. She popped out 3 puppies o.k but was exhausted and rested for an hour then she got into trouble the vet was called (public holiday just my luck) and we raced her to town yelping. I think two were trying to come at once because she got one out at the vet then another one came 5 mins later. I nearly vomited and had to leave the scene. The X-ray revealed only one more to come and the cleaver wee girl did it on her own, despite it going blue all six of them survive at this stage. Whew. No more puppies my nerves can't handle it. What will I be like when my daughter has a baby? We're besotted with the babies and nothing much is getting done around here except baby gazing.