Girly Weekend

I've just come back from a nice weekend away in The Kingdom of Fife. I thought our camera was in the front seat of my car when I took off on Friday, but I was mistaken. I've had to use stock photos pinched from other websites about Fife and the seaside town of Ellie.

A dear friend of mine rented out a lovely cottage for three days and invited a bunch of women friends to join her there.
This is Golf Cottage in Ellie, Fife (sleeps 8, pets allowed)


I've never spent any time in Fife before this weekend. I must say, It's beautiful! I'll go back there again. No bother!



In case you didn't know, this is the portion of Scotland where the game of golf was invented.

These are the links that were just outside the front door of our weekend cottage. We walked the dogs along that wonderful beach. By the way, while we were walking we heard and saw larks singing. There were lots of Eider ducks and gannets swimming in the bay and parking themselves on the rocks. To top it off, I saw my first swallow! They're back! Henry had reported seeing a swallow two weeks ago in the next village over, but I didn't see one until Saturday.

The oldest style of golf course were created on these areas of coastal dunes or seaside links. There really isn't enough grass there for grazing livestock, there is too much salt spray and sand to grow a crop so what do you do with vast, unusable tracts of land like this? Invent golf! By the way, in St Andrews, just a few miles up the coast from where we were, local people still have the right to dry their laundry out on the links, the only other use for this scrubby, windswept area.

Now of course, the area near the scrubby land is prime real estate for seaside cottages. I wish I could afford one. The area is so pretty

My friend Kim who was the one who planned this all did ALL of the cooking! She is a generous and talented cook. I think that if I am suddenly deprived of food, I won't be hungry until Wednesday.

It was a perfect girly weekend that included good weather, lots of food, wine, gossip magazines, a chocolate fountain (!) some babies to play with (Annabelle 6 months and Carys 2 years old) and two incredibly well behaved dogs to induce us to take walks!

Brave Soldier

Because George is my natural son with all the inherited imperfections that go along with that, yesterday morning he got braces on his teeth. Sorry kid.
He's going to have them on his teeth for a couple of years, from 13 to about 16. Welcome to the beginning of the awkward years my son.


There was no point in telling him that in three years he will have a set of beautiful straight teeth because yesterday and today, it hurt. It was scrambled eggs for lunch and dinner and lovely oatmeal porridge for breakfast this morning. To add insult to injury he is no longer allowed fizzy drinks, toffees, caramels and other sticky sweets. He has also lost the ability to bite into an apple.

His next appointment is on the 6th of June. I don't want to tell him that even though the next appointment will be sore, it won't be as sore as these first days. He won't believe me.

ANZAC Day

Yesterday was ANZAC day in Australia and New Zealand. I was going to post this but I never seemed to get any time in front of the family computer. Busy day.

ANZAC Day is a national holiday commemorating all the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who landed at Gallipoli in World War I. It is also a national holiday in Fiji. The poor buggers that were sent half way around the world were mowed over.

On a cliff overlooking the Dardanelles where the most gruesome battles of Gallipoli were fought is a monument to the fallen soldiers. On it is a quotation from Attaturk who some say is the founder of modern Turkey. I can't read it out loud without my voice cracking. I still get a lump in my throat when reading it silently.

“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives. . . You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace. There is no difference to us between the ‘Johnnies’ and the ‘Mehmets,’ where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. . . You, the mothers, who sent your sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.” -- M. Kemal Ataturk


We don't have any ancestors that fought in that particular theatre of war during the First World War but if we had then this memorial would be very comforting to me.

My Favourite Time of Day

It's morning.

Looking out the back window of Whitelees Cottage last week, a big cock pheasant was seen sitting on the fence. The sun hit his plumage just so that it made the feathers almost glow. You can see how close we are to our nearest neighbour, Charlie. The pheasant had just finished crowing (or calling - whatever pheasants do) and was just settling his feathers back down. We get lots of pheasants visiting the garden.

The photo of the hills was taken later on in the day. On the left of the shot you can see the end of Charlie's barn.

There was a heron taking off from the front garden two days ago, but I didn't have a camera at hand. Herons seem so big when they're this close up, almost like a pterodactyl. I'm sure the heron was making certain that we don't have too many frogs in our pond. There are a few heron nests in some tall pines up near the duck ponds where we walk Polly. The nests are well back from the paths and can't be seen from where we walk. I'm going to go look to see where they are later on in the year after the young herons have flown the nest. I don't want to disturb them just now.

Lake District Walk

On Sunday George and I went for a walk near Newby Bridge near Lake Windermere. The annual Northern Staffordshire Bull Terrier Rescue fundraising sponsored walk. It was a nice 2+ mile ramble. It did seem that most of the walk was uphill. How can a walk be uphill BOTH ways? Oh, and it was raining. By the time George, Polly and I finished our walk, we were soaked!

The thing about the Lake District is that even in the rain, it's gorgeous! We were driving into this part of Cumbria from our northern home and the first thing that we see is this huge perfectly formed glaciated valley. Glaciers rule! I was wishing for a wide angled lens. Our ordinary camera lens can never do justice to sweeping vistas.


I did manage to take some pretty stuff on a smaller scale.


Here are some recently emerged larch needles. The green was so intense next to the rain darkened branches.

George and Polly at the dam.



Here are the other walkers sitting on the dam at the end of our walk. We walked to a place called High Dam. So pretty! The little placid lake that is created by this dam had two Canada Geese floating across the glass-like water. They sure didn't like the fact that almost 100 Staffordshire Bull Terriers had visited their lake with their families in tow.

I tried to get a good photo of the geese, but they were rapidly decamping to the other side of the lake plus the camera lens was a little damp. You'll notice that none of the photos have particularly sharp focus.

This little man I believe was the youngest Staffie on the walk. He also found the best stick and was very pleased with himself.

These are Herdwick sheep. They are rarely found outside this small part of England. On days like yesterday, you have to look hard when looking at the hills to find them. They're the same colour as the rock! The little lambs were very young but weren't gamboling about as it was too damp for any of that nonsense. Somebody planted some beautiful flowers near the road. George took this photo of them. You can't see it but there is an old railway line behind and below this flower garden. We were delighted to see a STEAM TRAIN puffing along the tracks not once but TWICE. The engineer tooted the whistle once too. It turns out that there is a regular steam train that runs up by Lake Windermere. I have already put in a request for a family hike, picnic by High Dam and a ride on the steam train some sunny Sunday this spring or summer.

The bluebells are almost in bloom. The flowers are up, but the blossom isn't open yet. I'd say that they'll be at their peak next weekend. So, all you friends of bluebell woods, you should pencil in a walk in the Cumbrian Fells next weekend.

Polly was amazingly well behaved yesterday during the walk. George and I got a bit damp while walking but we dried off at the Newby Bridge Hotel where we had a wonderful pub lunch during the other fundraising events (auction, raffle, etc. . . ). I had Cumbrian sausage and mashed potatoes!!! (I saved a bit of the sausage as a reward for a very well behaved dog.) George had homemade tomato soup and chips! I don't know why there aren't more pubs in the world. Go for a nice pint (I skipped the pint part as I was driving) and a wonderful home cooked, rib sticking lunch after having had a walk in some of the most beautiful countryside around. Its not a bad life really.

Country Mouse

Everybody knows the children's' story about the town mouse and the country mouse.

It has been plain to me for a number of years that I am most definitely a country mouse. I prefer the quiet pace and low light pollution that country living affords.

One of the things that I really value about our life here is that I have developed friendships with people who are not my own age. I love that I have made some good friends of retirement age. In addition, now that George and his friends are getting older, I can start to relate to them on new levels. It is wonderful to see how the relationships mature.

Today as I was driving through our village, going out to work I had to stop and talk to three people. One was a woman, same age as me who is also a mother of three. The other two were retired gentlemen out being early morning civic minded people.

For so long, all my friends were people of my own age group and that was it. I wish that I had cultivated multi-generational friendships earlier! Think of all I have missed out on!

This evening, I was watching the movie You've Got Mail. Although the acting can be a bit wooden in areas, I love the homage it makes to life in New York City. One of the earliest lines Meg Ryan has is, "I love New York in the fall". This line has followed a scene of her walking through a beautiful autumn morning in New York with a sound track by The Roches. The voices of the Roch sisters make for great NYC sound tracks. They feature in another of my favourite New York movies, Crossing Delancey. ( Suzzy Roche has a speaking part in this movie)

These and other movies have made me think that perhaps if I had to live in a city, specifically New York, things wouldn't be so bad. I would find things about life in a big city to which I can attach sentiment. Certainly there will be much more culture in a big city as opposed to life in the country. I love museums, cinemas and restaurants. These things are in very short supply where I live and I would have much better access to them in a city.

The seasons would be marked differently. In the autumn, instead of noticing the disappearance of the summer birds, I would see that school supplies are being promoted.

Summer would be heralded by young girls wearing short skirts instead of what's in bloom in the hedgerows.

Never mind. I don't think I'll swap. I'll stay out here.

Today, I rescued a couple of Small Tortoiseshell butterflies. The Man of the Place had the hatch to the attic space open this afternoon and there must have been some butterflies overwintering in the beams. They saw the light from the open hatch and made their bid for freedom. Their escape was hampered by windows and they flapped about, desperate to get out into the sunny day and get on with their butterfly business. I grabbed them as carefully as I could so as not to damage their wings and re-released them outside.

The other sign of spring is that Billy, the dairy farmer between us and the village has let his dairy cows out into the fields this morning for summer.

The cows' first day out is a joy to behold. They've been in the dairy barns all winter, eating silage and pellets. Now they're let out onto the new season's grass and open air. You should see them leap about in the first few hours. They skip around like they're calves again.

Naturally this means that if I don't time things right, I'll be stuck behind my neighbor moving his dairy cows to or from the milking parlour. I actually don't mind this too much. If I get any cow slobber on the car, it comes right off. Sadly not everything comes off easily. Cow dung, dried onto your car is a real tough thing to get off. It sticks like glue!

Before The Man of the Place and I were married and he was looking for a house to buy for us, I said that I didn't want to live more than five minutes away from cows. It's not that I'm really nuts about cows, but it was the closest guideline I could think of for measuring how rural a house might be. If I was under five minutes away from cows, that meant that I wasn't in a city. It was a very telling statement. I could have said that I didn't want to be more than five minutes away from a museum or the house had to be within pizza delivery zones, but not me, I had to gauge my accommodation by proximity to cows.

Fine Day for a Drive

It was one of my days to go across to Arran yesterday. As ever, this means an early start. Polly and I were out of the house by 04:30.

Sadly with roadworks, I was late getting to Ardrossan and the ferry terminal. I should have given myself a little bit more time. When at the top of the hill above Adrossan, I could see the ferry in port. Nuts! When I got to the ferry terminal, the big doors in the front of the ship where the cars roll in and out were just closing. OK - There is nothing we can do about this. I decided that I'd go seek out some breakfast and wait for the next ferry.

In the UK, there really aren't any doughnut shops. You know, sometimes I could really murder a nice fresh doughnut and a cup of weak coffee. (note to self : STOP thinking about doughnuts)

It was too early for the cafes to be open. The only places available to eat were the coffee shops attached to large chain supermarkets OR McDonald's . I went for The Golden Arches.

After picking up my mcbreakfast in the drive up window, I took Polly down to the seaside. The tide was out and the beaches were empty. This meant that if I walked along the waterline, the dog could have a nice romp about. The beaches at Ardrossan are of the shallow sloped sandy variety. When the tide is out, they are really out. Strolling along, trying to keep my exuberant dog somewhere nearby, I noticed three different varieties of seaweed. There were long swathes of detached kelp that had washed up. There was this very green lettuce-y stuff that looked nice enough to eat and this interesting seaweed that was covered in little air bladders.

Exuberant dog

Sea weed with little air bladders.

Sand castle.

It is the sort of beach where cockles live. There were thousands of old cockle shells strewn in the wet sand, exposed by the low tide. Lots of little indented holes in the sand showed me that cockles would be living under the sand. In addition to cockle shells, there were razor clam shells and mussel shells. No wonder wading birds like coming here. There's lots of food.

Here is a shot of oyster catchers.

The sky was a cloudless blue but the air was a bit hazy. Arran wasn't very visible from Ardrossan yesterday morning. Some mornings, it looks close enough that I could swim there.All the windmills at the top of the hill overlooking Ardrossan were spinning in the very gentle breeze. I like windmills. I like the way they look. I think they're pretty.Polly and I caught the 9:20 crossing to Brodick. The ship was jammed full! I forgot that it was still the Easter break. Schools both in Scotland and England don't go back until next week. I should have just left the dog below decks in the car, but I wasn't to know that the upper decks would be filled with children running around and screaming those excited I'm-on-holiday high pitch screams. I spent the bulk of the crossing calming her down. She wanted to play with all those nice children and make friends with all the other dogs on board.

We arrived in Brodick on Arran right on time. I still had a bit of time before my twelve o'clock appointment, so I went to get all my regular island visit things accomplished.

First off, over to see the seals. No seals again this trip. Nuts! Not even a hint of a flipper.

I headed back towards town and into Arran Aromatics where I picked up a number of bottles of my favourite bubble bath. I only ever find the Honey and Orange Blossom scented stuff in the factory shop on the island so I stock up when I get there.

Then it was over to James' Chocolate factory. I picked up a box of treats for The Man of the Place and a box for me to nibble on the way home.

The weather was gorgeous. Brodick Bay was a still and smooth as a lake. The water was crystal clear and very inviting. If I didn't know that it was freezing cold, I would have been very tempted to go for a swim.

Brodick Bay - As smooth as glass

Bicycle hire, souvenirs, ice cream and mini golf

I've never seen the little island so full of visitors. This must be a taste of what the island is like in the summer. Things are so busy in the summer that the doctors won't make appointments to see sales reps. We only see the doctors outside the main tourist season. Because I only ever go to Arran from the autumn through to the spring, the sky has never been cloudless. This is the first time I've ever seen the island on a day when it's warm and cloud free. It is nice to see little girls running around in summer dresses, people eating ice cream and hiring bicycles. Having said that, I don't think the island's natural beauty is at its best on a sunny day. I prefer the dramatic lighting of a partly cloudy day. Goatfell looks much prettier with a light dusting of snow.
When I begin my appointments on the island, there is very little time between them. This keeps me focused on my job. By the time the last doctor has had the benefit of my dazzling promotional skills, it is time to head back to the ferry terminal.

I made my return appointments before leaving the island. I'm not back there now until mid-September.

The Handbook of Style

The Handbook of Style by Francine Maroukian and Sarah Woodruff!

Woo hoo!!!

Buy it here on Amazon!

Sarah Woodruff is my own dear sister. (Sorry to have outed you like this Sal, but I'm so proud of you!)

I didn't want to announce it until she had sent me MY copy. Now that my own copy (1st edition AND signed by the author) has arrived. I can tell you how wonderful it is! OK, so this particular book review will be biased. Those who know me wouldn't expect anything less.

The book has been divided in to two parts, beauty advice and fashion. Sally and Francine didn't mess around. In each chapter advice has been gleaned from top people in the chosen area. e.g. How to Find the Right Moisturiser by Evelyn Lauder of The Estee Lauder Companies

In the beauty section there are wonderful chapters covering advice about hairstyles to fit your face, trimming your own bangs (fringe), how to apply self-tanner and the best way to a home pedicure.

Fashion covers topics like; How to Travel and Arrive in Style, How to Tie a Scarf Like a French Woman and How to Buy and Care for Cashmere.

Each chapter ends with a small interview with the expert. Examples of the questions asked are: What is the best style tip you ever got, and from whom? What is the worst fashion faux pas? What is your favourite fashion scene from a movie?

It is a delightful book. I'm grateful to have it. Now I know how I can bundle up against the weather without looking like a walrus AND I can spot a shoe that will be sexy and comfortable.

Thank you Sally, not only for the book, but for writing it in the first place.

Red in the Face

Thank you for all the wonderful kitten name suggestions. This afternoon at 4:30 when I was taking the kittens in for their first check up we had decided on Jack and Daisy as names.

It was almost Jack and Meg (a nod to The White Stripes). Also close was Cecil and Emmy Lou (Gram Parsons & Emmy Lou Harris). In the end, the musical theme was ditched in favour of names that George just plain liked and we agreed to. Lots of cute names didn't make the short list. Fred & Wilma, Ike & Tina, Richard & Karen and even LaToya & Michael.

We got to the vet clinic and was completely embarrassed to discover that we didn't have one male and one female kitten. We had two males. Sheesh! Talk about feeling stupid. I did really look, so did Henry and the woman who gave them to us. This means that the name Daisy wasn't going to work. Thinking fast, Daisy was changed to Julio.

Jack & Julio

Too Cute to Ignore

This is The Man of the Place watching his team go to the top of the league with a goal in the last few minutes of the game.

You can see how tense he is as there are a few minutes of injury time left. Anything could happen.

He is trying not to shout too loudly or bounce about because he has a kitten asleep on each shoulder.

Aww!

New Editions!

Pets sure do come and go around here. We're still keeping an eye out for Miles Davis, but I suspect that some mama fox has had him.

They haven't been given names. Brother and sister kittens that were born on the 22nd of February have arrived at Whitelees.

The female kitten is on the left (lots of white on her face). The male kitten is on the right.

The boy kitten. "I is so seepy"
The girl kitten. She has amazing tabby markings. The markings are almost tiger like.

Fun under the chair legs.

The female kitten on the shoulder of The Man of the Place. The male kitten is in his lap. Nap time.

The reason we wanted cats from the same litter is that they'll be friends.

On a more serious note: My mother is ferociously allergic to cats. If she or any other cat allergic visitor to Whitelees are expected, these fluffy cats will be put in a cattery (posh cat hotel) and all cat allergens removed from the house. The cats will remain at the cattery until the allergic guest have departed.

What would you guys name brother and sister kittens?

Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody!

These are my favourite daffodils, the pale yellow ones near the mailbox in our driveway.

This is the tragedy that has befallen us. When I went out this morning to feed all the animals, there was a gaping hole in the chicken wire of the rabbit run and beautiful Miles Davis was nowhere to be seen! Polly had been barking a lot yesterday. I suspect she was trying to tell us that the rabbit got out, but we only told her to shut up. By the way, Polly is the one who made the hole in the first place. We caught her at it a while ago. I patched up the other hole that she made, but then she went on to make another. Before I discovered this hole, the rabbit had escaped.

It could be that Miles Davis is the true Easter Bunny and he had to get out so he could attend to his Easter duties.

He was a beautiful rabbit and I liked him. I'm mad at the dog for making the holes. Maybe the rabbit isn't dead and he'll come back.

These are today's eggs and the chickens who have produced them.
This is what it looks like when you get four or more eggs a day. They start to stack up. I've already started giving them away to our neighbours who love our eggs.

I hope everybody has a nice, relaxing Easter Sunday because that's what we're having here.

Return of the Sparrowhawk

The Sparrowhawk has returned to try to eat the songbirds in our garden. I would resent this if it wasn't such a beautiful creature. Even Sparrowhawks gotta eat. I'm afraid the shots I got were blurry. I really needed to prop against something firm like a window ledge but I feared that if I moved too much, he or she would be off like a shot. It was trying to get a male blackbird. The blackbird was no fool and was staying inside the densest part of the hedge. You can just make out the sparrowhawk at the top of the hedge.

Inside the house, I have my aquarium all set up. I have lots of fish in there, but they're all very young yet and therefore quite small. Many times throughout the day, I can be found in that chair, mug of tea in my hand watching "fish tv" as the Man of the Place calls it. The plastic tube you can see is an air line for the treasure chest. The lid of the treasure chest is powered by air bubbles from the air tube. It still looks a bit bare, but I am hopeful that the plants in there will grow and make it look a bit more lush.

One of the bonuses of sitting in this room is that the whole place is filled with the sweetest perfume at the moment. The lemon tree on the windowsill is in bloom again.

Good Friday

If you will all turn your minds back to the winter and our Miss Polly was getting fairly regular visits from the neighbourhood border collies. In particular, she was visited by Old Bill. I wanted to report that in the past week Polly and Bill have had a play date. I was up at The Farm where Bill and Rab live and I let Polly out of the car. They had a great time running around. Bill now sleeps inside the back hallway of the farm house at night. It is warm and dry in there and his arthritic joints have gained great benefit from it. It also prevents him from his late night wanderings down to our place.

There are three dogs up at this farm, two working border collies. Rab and Bill and a Jack Russell cross named Mick. Polly has made friends with all three of them.

The Man of the Place has taken George and Gordon (the neighbour boy who lives at The Farm) down to The Lake District. They're hiking Scafell Pike today. It's about five hours up and four hours down. The weather report for Cumbria is perfect for walking and they should have a perfect day.

I didn't want to go and I don't have to go out to work today. Yippee! That doesn't mean that I can sit around, picking lint out of my navel, watching Animal Planet and drinking tea. I've already spent an hour cleaning windows. I still have roughly two more hours to go on that job, but I got sick of it and decided to come in and play on the computer for a bit. I've got loads of housework to do, but I am NOT going to bust my ass cleaning this place while everybody else is swanning around the countryside having a jolly old time. I'll do the work, but I won't be nuts about it.

If you were wondering about the eggs that my fish laid earlier in the week, they are safe in the kitchen aquarium. I don't hold out much hope for these eggs. I think they are infertile as they are still as white as the day I found them sticking to the glass. I did a search for online forums about how to care for these eggs. It seems that the fertilized eggs will have a yellowish tint to them and infertile eggs will remain white. Mine are all white, but I am not giving up on them until Easter Sunday, they start to go fuzzy or hatch.

Drat! I wish that I had the camera! Henry took it to go up the mountain with the boys. A Bullfinch has just showed up in the garden! They have such a beautiful rosy breast. It's gone now.

Bullfinch - not my photo

Today's News

I have just spoken to my sister Sally who has traveled from New Jersey to Washington to be with Mom for her cochlear implant activation. I called her on her cell phone during a time I thought would be after the appointment.

The big news is that my mother's implant has worked!

She can hear sound but it will take a while for her brain to make sense of all the new sounds coming through the formerly disused auditory nerve. Mom says that the everyday sounds of life are quite musical. Mom had popped on to Sally's phone to speak to me for a minute. She couldn't hear what I was saying back, but we got the gist of the conversation through help from sister Sal.

As previously reported, I set up my aquarium over the weekend. Yesterday I started putting fish in it. I had thirteen Cardinal Tetras and added in five Bronze Corydoras - (Bronze Corys). The water temperature in the new bigger tank was still a few degrees cooler than the tank in the kitchen, but I figured that if I had a long enough acclimatizing period (over an hour) the fish could stand the change. A more patient person would have waited a day or two longer, but I have never claimed to be a patient person.

I had a little surprise in the new aquarium when I came home today after work. It wasn't fish belly up, they had laid eggs! It turns out that Bronze Corys, triggered by a drop in temperature will spawn!!!

Here they are - eggs stuck fast to the side of the aquarium.

I'll wait until the eggs are a day or two older and then I'll place them in the smaller and now empty kitchen aquarium. The eggs can hatch in there without fear of being eaten and I can fuss over them, feeding the hatchlings special baby fish food.

Turn On Day

This particular blog entry is about my momma.

When I was 14 months old, the same age I was when I was given a sister, my mother started to lose her hearing. Mom has pointed out, I never really knew her before she lost her hearing. It's just that when one is a small child, you can be quite unconscious about that sort of thing. I don't remember when I became aware of her hearing loss. Perhaps around the age 11 I would have noticed the hearing aids but at this point I can't remember when I became aware that my mother couldn't hear well.

Regular readers will remember that last month my mother had a cochlear implant installed. My mom has documented her journey to date over on her blog. Go have a read if you're curious. She has not only covered any technical questions people might have, she is writing about her own personal experience.

Well, today they turn the thing on!!! We will know if all this fine technology will work. All signs point to it being a success. Ma can hear it when she scratches her head on the right side (the side where they've implanted things) and the implant goes bonkers when she taps on it lightly.

Ma knows that I'd like to be there today but I can't. I have to make myself content with waiting for an e-mail or for her blog to be updated.

Good luck today Mom!!! I love you. XXOO

Sunday Night

Here we are again. It's Sunday night. We've had a glorious two days here. Lots of sun to dry things out. We actually haven't had any rain since the window fell out. Good thing too because the window place was out of glass on Friday and they can't make our window (special double glazed unit) until Monday. There is a bit of plywood in place of the window, but I'd rather have the glass. Fingers crossed that the rain stays away until after the replacement glass is in.

The Man of the Place and I got a lot of little jobs done. Yesterday H finished painting the stand for my aquarium and the skirting boards that will be inaccessible once the thing is set up and filled with almost 100 gallons of water.

The lawn was cut, some of the huge pile of logs that was delivered was moved to where logs are supposed to be stored. I really couldn't do a lot of stacking as it hurt my finger after a while. Maybe we'll finish that next week if we have the weather.

I repaired the rabbit run. This means that Miles Davis, our pretty velveteen rabbit has moved out of the greenhouse and into proper rabbit quarters. Miles Davis had a wonderful time this weekend. Yesterday and today, I put him in with the chickens in the chicken run and he had a great time bouncing all around. The chickens didn't know what to make of MD but they didn't peck him. Both the chickens and MD enjoyed the fresh lawn clippings that were tossed into the chicken run.

The repairs to the rabbit run have been made with a bigger gauge wire and it will be more difficult for the wire to break. Now, I have to clean out the greenhouse and remove all evidence that a rabbit has been living in there. Another job for next weekend.

In closing, this is what George thought was a pretty good thing to do on the 1st of April.