05

We are blessed in that the local Newspaper has a cheaper on Tuesdays advertising column (Items under $100, pets free), so I bunged in the ad today. I hope someone will take them all. The Council bloke was seriously worried about our goats getting out on the road and causing an accident, and so are we. We cannot afford the type of fencing that will keep them in. So it goes.

One of our chooks is finally laying where we can get to the eggs before anything else does, and that includes Caution, our daschund female. She loves eggs. She's a daschund, she loves anything vaguely descriptive of food. Only dog I know that drools if you rustle paper.

Brian found a really nasty weed out in the paddock. It's about a foot high, the green of grass in colour, swollen seed heads with nasty (really nasty) thorns on them. I took it into the local Department of Agriculture (or whatever name they are going under this week), and the incredibly knowledgeable expert there told me it was a Thorny Apple, highly toxic, as is, don't even breathe the smoke if you decide to burn it. It is related to the Castor Oil Plant, and animals won't touch it. Speaking of which, if you do, wash your hands immediately, it exudes a highly corrosive sap, and even if you don't actually get the sap on your hands, it can still lead to eye problems if you just touch it and then your eyes.

A couple of days ago, I was feeding Porgy and Bess, the piglets, when Porgy decided to object to my touching him, rearing up and spattering me with the worst smelling liquid it has been my dubious pleasure to have ever had assaulting my nostrils. It actually stung my skin. Praise God it was only mud. Alice, for some reason which escapes me, didn't want a kiss whilst I was thus daubed.

I'm still working on a Hardanger needlework pattern I started a year ago. It's a table runner and a very big project, but very satisfying. One has to be precise with Hardanger stitches, or the arithmetic pattern won't work out.

The hawk is hanging around the chookyard, so I have to try and remember to scare it off around breakfast and sundown.

Our dumped cat had kittens, I found them this week. Four of the "please find me a home before I turn feral" types. Little spitfires so far, but I think I will be able to change that given time and food. Only way I could give them away. Two are like Mum- short-aired, light grey tabbies, but have blue eyes instead of yellow. The other two are darker and longer in the fur.

Supposedly, El Nino has broken officially today, and we are forecast to have rain. The last few days have been absolutely spectacular in the their mildness and warmth. Even the sunsets have been fantastic opals.

A Mother's Day poem (feel free to use it)

You were worried about me before I was born

Your greatest regret is that not more people are like me

You loved me when I felt I was unloveable

And held me when no-one else would

You made me understand the beauty of wrinkles

And the wisdom of saying "No"

I see you in a thousand things I do

And I am proud of that

Thankyou for being my Mother

Thankyou for caring, and loving

Thankyou for teaching and sharing

Thankyou for the sacrifices, only some

am I beginning to understand.