Happy Birthday Alice
09-03-03

What a week!  An emergency funeral over in Adelaide, Brian staying behind, Alice spending her ninth birthday away from her Father, then back for the Birthday Party the next day, which would have been rained out but for the Salvation Army, our second family, kindly loaning us their Hall, on the proviso that we clean up afterwards.  A cheap party, we even made the fun bags out of brown lunch bags with sprigs of synthetic flowers and bits of ribbon for wrapping presents.  Each bag had three lollies, a sparkler, a page of stickers from a cheap book of same, a party popper and an Australian flag from a cocktail pack.  The food was a sausage barbecue, with tomato and barbecue sauces available, yesterdays cheap bread, and Neapolitan (chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice-cream in one container) in cones, with sprinkles if desired.  The children only had two organised games, one where they had to eat an apple in a bowl, on their knees and with hands behind their backs, and also the same position for the other game, blowing a balloon (inflated, of course!) using a straw down to one end of the Hall, and back again.  I even had a brief cooking school, showing children and adults who were interested, how to make the Birthday Cake, which took around ten minutes, including cooking.  We had three "Grannies" there to oversee, hug and help.  All of the children were incredibly polite, I am hoping because they go to a Christian private school, but that may be just coincidence.  They even helped clean up.

 
It was so clean that when Sunday School rolled around the next day, none of the children picked what had gone on, at least not those who had not been informed by my daughter!
 
It turned out that the whole party would have cost around $50, which for twenty people, including adults, is not bad value.  And there was plenty of food left over.  Curried sausages, yum!
 
We have successfully had binfuls of fruit and vegetables from Materia Brothers, bless 'em.  The pigs are ecstatic!  It is such a variety.  We are really blessed in Australia, having a wide choice in every season.  Currently, they have had strawberries, cabbage, carrots, corn, pears, apples, bananas, potatoes, avocadoes, oranges, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, basil, ginger, and some things which I have not investigated too closely.
 
Today, Brian was given a huge amount of very large carrots, cauliflower (nearing seed head time) and I think there may be some cabbage in there as well.  This is from a wonderful couple who are neighbours to my Mother-in-Law.  They have been away for a holiday for the past month (even visiting Coober Pedy, one of my home towns). Things went a bit wild in the veggie garden in their absence, and we have been blessed enough to profit by it.
 
So now we are getting fruit and vegetables for free, milk for free, lamb meat very cheaply, bread and muffins for free, and plants for free.  I am also brushing up on home cleaning recipes, like vinegar and bi-carb., so that they will cost next-to-nothing.
 
If anyone has any information about why a peahen would be displaying for a chicken, please let me know.  I am very curious and am not sure why Belle is doing this.  What a crock of a glorified chook!

08-29-03 Update 

I have checked it out, I believe it was the dogs, Fred and Mowgli, probably, getting through the backyard fence, and then digging into the Feathers Pen.  It looks like the daisies around the backyard fence have been recently disturbed, and no fox would come so near the smell of three dogs, especially hunters.   I found dog poo near the old kennels side of the Feathers Pen.   Also, the boys (Aaron and Nathan) were up until quite late last night, in the caravan near the Feathers Pen.  Hopefully, I am some way to remedying the problem with a bit of creativity, some white tubing, a large pot and a bed spring base.
 
Death toll is two chooks, with a third struggling, and our drake, so handsome and so protective of his missus.  I love my ducks, and am extremely peeved that he died.  We are now down to one duck.
 
I think the long-term solution will have to be Brian putting chook wire around and underneath the Feathers Pen fence, concave, so that nothing can burrow in successfully, including the canine marauders.  Either that, or the dogs will have to go.  Then we will know if anything further happens, that it is a fox, or perhaps someone else's dog.
 
Found some broken egg shells in the peafowl enclosure.  Not sure who is cannabilising amongst the feathers.  Might scoot them all out and leave just Beau and Belle.
 
 
Flying
 
I live for the take-off and landing
that stomach-left-behind feeling
the miniature landscapes, like
a toy shop, so detailed
a million lives, in great colour,
a hundred thousand backyards,
each a differing lifestyle, a diverse ecosystem
 
But oh!  The incredible beauty of strafing rain
as we swim through clouds of cold comfort
highlighted by flashing wing lights.
 
The deep, dark sea of a nighttime landscape
Just Out There.  Scary.  If you let it.
 
I can't wait to go up again.  I bags the window seat!
 
 
 
 
Dominus tecum.
 
Leonie