Sif took a picture of the sunset on the last day of July and wrote a gorgeous post about the new month and the end of winter hearlding in better days for us all. When I saw it, I hoped she was right and seemed to get a bit of a sign the next morning. We had a tremendous wind storm and lost all our power from about 8pm to 6am, so it was a rather cold and very dark night. The morning revealed that all around the valley there was plenty of damage - one of our neighbors apparently had one of their cows panic and bust through the big wood fence.
Cow was AWOL and fence was in small itty bitty pieces. Our own rear boundary fence was smashed - posts in splinters, barbed wire split and broke, electric stand snapped - after a large dead tree crashed down pulled up from it's roots! Our neighbor locked his cows into the adjoining pastures but we've had four escapes into our paddocks anyhow, including one heifer today whose momma spent the night bawling LOUDLY for her lost "baby". The tree is chopped into firewood and the fence being repaired but in the midst of all that, while driving Nic to the train station we saw a very faint but beautiful double rainbow and a gorgeous king parrot flock scattered across the lawn like red and green jewels.

Wednesday at PG Laurent was VERY excited to see Bryn, asked for him the *whole* way there and pretended to call him on his toy mobile chattering away in toddlerese. He's also attempting to say Bryn's full first name (Byrnjar) I think as I heard twice "Bwyn... yahr" with these wanna-be Frenchish R's. So apparently he's been paying even closer attention than I thought!

We've also added to "one, two" with "fwee, fowh" or "three, four". We muck around on his little wood abacus counting beads and bits of fruit or whatnot but today we're in the post office and I'd just gotten a bag of jellybeans - aka La Treats. I handed him one in response to the request (demand!) for "Bean? BEEEEEAAAAAN???" complete with pointing to demonstrate where it was in case I'd forgotten. I gave him one. He held out his hand for more and I said nope, finish that one first. "Nooooo...." he wailed like a soap opera diva, tossing his head back and finished with, "Fwee!!! FOWH BEANS!!!"

BTW you'll note the beans and bean-slobber are what else - GREEN!!! LOL

Another interesting moment... Nic's mum, who passed away in 14 August 2003, was very crafty and made gorgeous hats and baskets. We have the hats up on display. Laurent reached up to touch one very gently with the tip of a finger while I was carrying him walking by the display and queried, "Gamma?" Nic and I were both quite shocked... Laurent never met her of course and had no reference for who she is or way of knowing that she made the hats.

My little big-man was getting such long hair I decided it was time for a trim and got out the thinning shears. My dog friends will understand and cackle at this... my bubba friends will puzzle why my mentioning using thinning sheers on a child is funny. ;-) He looks so much older to me now... amazing what a difference a bit of hair can make! All of the sudden a lot of his chub is thinning out and he's stretching from toddler to little-boydom. We are firmly in the land of Boy. The day involves running like mad and whomping things with sticks while giving mighty war cries. We are fascinated with "things that roar", "things that go WHOMP", "things that go VROOM!" We like soccer and cricket even though mum has no idea how you really play those things. We are trying ever-so-hard to convince the sheep of the virtues of playing fetch with a tennis ball.

The sheep are steadfastly uninterested.
Last pic I snapped before the trim... little whispy haired bubba. (Sif, recognize the hat? He actually WEARS it when it's cold enough! It's "GEEN! GEEN HAT!") It's SO hard to get pictures of him lately. Literally every pic I take of him turns out crappy, blurry, poorly framed, out of focus or he's just plain not even in the shot as he's zipped off elsewhere between the time my camera focused and the clicking of the pic. It's driving me NUTS... I've snapped literally about 500 photos (thank gods for digital) the past week and these are the only decent ones. The only two that are actually clear are the first - where he's STRAPPED to the carseat and the last where he's STUCK in a tree, wedged in the V of a trunk before he could move. So much for a pic for World Breastfeeding Week! *sigh*

As much as this week has been good on an emotional level and relationships level, it's been a rough one on the poor pocketbook. A ton and a half of firewood - $480. Verity's behaviourist appointment, $350. Washing machine is broke and flooded the laundry... first fix didn't do the job, waiting for the second, really hoping the poor washer hasn't carked it. Car needs repairs. Extra lawyer fee for paperwork $1900. Fence. Gas, phone, electricity, food. Got the paycheck Wednesday, won't get the next for a fortnight and ye olde account is much slimmer than I'd like atm. Meanwhile I've had to forgo an auction I wanted to go to very dearly as the laundry machine ate the money I'd saved, postphone getting the two chooks (ditto) and Verity's health screen (which is precautionary only, for my vet to have a baseline for her bloods) and her socialization classes are $60 each, so $240/month. I understand it's specialized but eep!

Still... very cool note... I found out I've actually got shows this month I didn't know I entered! (That sounds awful I know!) One the 11th and one the 12th, the Bendigo for the Wyandotte thingie the next weekend. We're building a new chicken coop to go in the pens as well which is neat, we're using all recycled materials from old pallets! LOL My first real building adventure! LOL