"THREE! TWO! ONE! LAUNCH!!!"

I'm playing catch-up with my pictures... Verity's birthday just passed and I've got to get her shots up - as well as a bunch of La and a bunch of other stuff. I've been very slack when it comes to jotting down the important stuff I want to have a record of - like for example, La's finally weaning from his beloved bibi a few months back. Remarkably easy really... not at all like I thought it would be and he's never looked back from it. Something to be said for the child-led/waiting for indications of them being ready theory of things. Two years and seven months was a nice little milestone for us.

All the funny little day-to-day stuff with the dogs and La, I keep meaning to sit and write but it seems we're just too busy living to really sit and compose my thoughts properly most days. Which is good because it means things are getting done but a bit sad because it's getting lost in the tumble of hours, days and weeks until many precious moments just melt into the general fabric of life.

Another "little" thing I should have mentioned ages ago - my visa finally (FINALLY!!!) came through. I am officially now a permanent resident and wow does that feel good to not have that shadow of worry (however unlikely it was) hanging over us!!!!

The one month anniversary of Cade's passing has already been and gone, simply doesn't seem possible really. I was set to write a long, rather rambly, emotional post of all the emotions on the anniversary and when I sat to type, it just flew from my fingers how to put thoughts into words that'd make sense.

On a happier note, the other minor, little, teensy, weensy detail I might have neglected to mention... a second rather long awaited little bubba should be arriving sometime in late March or early April. Very, very, very, very over the moon with this! ^_^

Pics snapped while waiting for the car mechanic to finish servicing the car - joys of living in a teeny-tiny town, you can walk the 2k from the mechanics house to the town to putter around for a few hours and instead spend the majority of the time just chatting to people on the way! LOL

Whispering Wishes

Very Funny Geese and Ducks

"Mum DUCKS ARE SPLASHING!"

"Mum, how da clouds stuck up there?"

Some pics from the day

The whole gaggle of geese and two of the Aylesbury on the dam.

Earliest daffodils sprouting... little paperwhites.

THE WORLDS MOST TOLLERANT CHOOK HOPS UP FOR A CUDDLE
"Mum, I love Sidney. He's a good chook. He has eyes and a mouth and eats corn. He likes tickles. But mum, he likes bugs eatting! I don't eat bugs, tastes yucky. (I do NOT want to know how he knows bugs taste yucky... I just don't!) I eat soup, broccoli and bananas."

The ever adorable fluffy puppykins playing queen of the mountain.
(Of rocks brought in to build the retaining wall.)

Shark-baby has finally stopped teething on us (ow ow ow... baby needle teeth!) and with a mouth that isn't sore she's now discovering the joys of the tennis ball. Funny little pupplet thinks it's just too much fun and after chasing it and prancing around to show off her trophy, drops it to bat it around it like a kitten.

Not quite the day I planned...

The fence is in, except for the one end bit where the gate will be so, I'd intended to go to the Mountain District Poultry Show today but after feeling under the weather yesterday we ended up giving it a miss.

Instead we spent the day scouting around a plant centers with both child and puplet in tow. Miss Fuzzy Puppy manages to play Aussie Ambasadorwherever she goes and is well mannered in the garden shops and nurseries so is always welcome. The attention usually doubles when La insists on walking her - two little cute, wiggly toddlers off on an mission. LOL

We managed to locate a timber gate-house for the fence that we rather liked - very different style than my original plan which was much more formal but this should be quite suitable for training climbing roses up still. Since I was given cuttings for Squatters Dream, Crepuscule, Perle d’Or, Agnes, Rosa brunonii, a Rambling Rector seedling grown by the lady who kindly gave me the cuttings, Veilchenblau and Buff Beauty roses places to train climbers will be good!

Another place we found some lovely rocks for our retaining wall, which should arrive sometime in the next day or two.

Looked at several statuary places hoping to find a little greyhound sculpture to put in the reflection garden where we buried Cade and couldn't find one but did find something that really was very appropriate - a bronze statue about knee-height of a little cherub kneeling and touching a what looked like a camellia blossom. A tad pricey though, so will have to save up a bit.

Last visit was to one of my favorite nurseries, where I picked up some nice bare-rooted stock for loganberries and another variety of strawberry, another chorizema cordatum and some interesting variety of seeds by a company called Erica Vale which sells rare and unusual seeds - double white french marigolds (v. 'french vanilla', F1 gen) and bi-coloured lisanthus called 'rainy orange'. As I was exiting something caught my eye... the ceramic house number tiles I'd spotted months back on a house and wanted but been unable to locate in any store! Too much luck for one day! The numbers surrounded by paintings of bottlebrush and wattles.

Tomorrow we'll continue to lay the road base on the front path, screed it even, get a "whacker" to compact it (Aussies have such logical names for things...), lay the brick edging and whack that, put in the rock edging in the front beds and build the retaining wall.

Once that is finished, I'll turn up the veggie patch properly, bring in some of the cow manure and other goodies and get it underway for planting the next crop. I'm hoping to add a number of fruit trees and native bush food sources as well, so very eager to get going!

wire

The wire arrived a bit early and got started on putting it in, almost to the mailbox. :-)

From the road, toward the house. It's looking soooooooo nice! Especially compared to the old fence - rotted out unpainted nasty rounds with rusty nasty utility wire. Excuse the red bucket in the left bottom corner.

fence almost done...

After the weather finally decided to cooperate, it's taken 3 days to get the fence full painted. That's not too bad bearing in mind it's about 90+m long all up and requires 2 coats of primer and 3 of paint done with the "helpful" and hyper 2.5 year old. So here's what it looks like atm...

We chose to go with a eucalyptus green for the posts which corresponds to the roof colour, a camel colour for the plinth and top rail corresponding to the house-colour and the wire when it goes up will be a pale cream like the trim on the house. Wire will go up Saturday. You can also see the gorgeous camellia in full bloom.

Close up detail so you can see the posts and colouring better. I'm undecided if I should add detailing to the top of the posts... not sure if it'd make it look too busy once the wire is up so will wait till that's done to decide. The ground in front of the fence is bare atm but will be a thin little nature strip eventually.

And last but not least, my little green house with some of the cuttings I'm trying to strike. The white box is dozens of rose cuttings... hopefully they will take and be lovely!

Pllleeaasseeee mum, can I have some of that sandwhich?????

Up to my ears in adorable little creatures

About the only thing par for course with fuzzy puppies and cute toddlers is baby birds... meet one of my two new Aylesbury, hatched 6 July and literally larger than life in this picture!

It should go without saying anything small and fuzzy gets well loved here.

And for me... I got my lovely new geese from Dr. Hamish Russells bloodlines Sunday. They are a breath-taking pair, lovely birds. They cost more than I'd care to admit but worth every penny and between the two pairs I should have some gorgeous goslings. Picture of the male below, more pics on Fowl Play blog.

I keep starting to write and ending up stopping as it doesn't want to form itself into any sort of coherant, interesting little anecdotes.

In between getting totally drenched (I must be the only person in Australia who wishes the rain would go away for awhile...) we've been just going about the business of daily life.

Laurent is continuing to grow into an alternatingly adorable little person who makes me crack up, melt and occasionally make me want to tear my hair out. The things that pop out his mouth continue to surprise me as he pulls new developments out of thin air instead of gradually easing into them. At the moment, we're starting to see a lot of consideration to others feelings, interesting to see in that previously he's been as subtle as a freight train and tactful as a red leather mini-skirt. If I'm hurt, he'll ask if I'm okay and if I want a "ai band" (bandaid) or "tiss-oo" and it's almost always followed by, "mum you need a cuddle?" and a kiss or thirty. He wants to know how to do everything and is absorbed by explanations of how things work, the mechanics of various items, helping to grow things in the garden, watering them, picking them, helping to cook (usually by mashing, mixing, adding handfuls of prechopped foods or offering his opinion on if the dish needs more of something), set the table, put things away. "Why" is the favorite word and is applied to absolutely everything he wants to know about... which, fortunately or not seems to be absolutely everything.

The fencing is slowly getting done. It's had primer and the first coat of paint. We're still waiting on the roofing contractor and electrician to be able to agree upon a new date as the previous one (which took about a month to line up) was rained out.

The birds are maturing nicely and I'm considering how to go about adding to the Wyandotte bloodline I have which isn't easy as I found out tonight the person I'd hoped to be able to aquire further bloodstock from in the upcoming season hasn't got them any longer. I was however able to secure a pair of Brown Chinese from Hammish Russell's bloodlines which I am VERY pleased about, as they were his personal breeding stock from his flock dispersal as he's retiring from geese. They represent the result of decades of work. I also added two adorable little Aylesbury ducklings to my little flock, which have quickly bonded and think I'm mum now. LOL Miss Cami got to visit all her BYP friends as well, who met her last month as she came also.

The dogs are about to start bouncing off the walls from spending so much time indoors - they don't mind the wet and cold but I certainly DO and apparently it's not half as fun to run around like mad if the humans aren't joining in!

Cami is growing like a weed and her quiet-sleepy days are firmly over! I hope Rogue is up for a rowdy good time, because I have a feeling little missy will be willing to provide it! LOL She is a funny little soul, very easy going in many ways when you're dealing with her and for about 90% of everything you ask of her just a cruisey little pup... the other 10% of the time though that stuborn streak is a mile wide! With the girls, she's starting to want to assert herself and is going through the stage where her puppy-liscence is expiring and the girls are repeatedly putting her in her place and teaching her doggy etiquette. Several times a day, puppy sass overides good manners and a quick glance reveals she's latched onto someones jowls or ruff and is dangling muttering little puppy cuss words. To be fair, even Hope, who is a soft natured girl went through this bratty phase at about the same age before I make her sound too naughty! It's actually pretty funny to watch because she thinks she is just tough as they come and the girls flatly don't believe a bit of it... if they were people they'd be exchanging glances in bemused exasperation and rolling their eyes at the little kid in a superhero costume attempting to flex muscles that haven't yet developed. LOL

I've also been planting and propagating and snipping and dipping up a storm the other day. I was very kindly given a whole bunch of cuttings, seeds and plants by a fellow member of BYP who is a garden lover as well and now have them all tucked in, watered and in the little greenhouse thingie. Will get pics up tomorrow. I hope I did everything right - I'm far from good at propagation and have very little experience with anything that would be considered even remotely difficult to propagate and my information is cobbled together from two books - one of which is in French and required a bit of dictionary checking to ensure I understood some of the mroe technical words - and google trawling. LOL

With appologies to Kipling - "WHY MUM????"

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men.
But different folk have different views.
I know a person small-
Hhe keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!

He sends'em abroad on his own affairs,
From the second he opens his eyes-
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!

From The Elephant's Child

The Picture of Confidence

A couple hundred kilos each but she's sure she can handle them!

She trots past the sheep staying near me and the only interest in ducks is when their feed hopper is being filled but cows... she reckons those look like something suited to a rough tough powderpuff like herself! LOL

On one of the forums I frequent, a lovely soul named Inge had read my story about Cade and contacted another lovely soul she knows on DOL called Harminee Creations who makes memorial art for those who have lost their furkids. It was a total surprise to me, when I first saw it I just couldn't believe how perfect it was and words still fail me in that it's very much a reflection of him. Inge had asked me if I could believe that his story had touched someone who'd never met him. I have to say, I really can... it was just a very him thing. Having known and loved many dogs, he was one of a kind in his ability to touch people. (A trait he quite often shamelessly exploited for cuddles, being tucked into someones coat to avoid the wind (leaving them 'pregnant' with an IG head sticking out the neck of the jacket periodically) and gain sharesies in whatever they were eating.

Even knowing he was special though, I've been very humbled by the number of people writing or calling to talk about him... some 400+ people in 6 different countries who knew him at some point or 'knew him' online. It's a remarkable legacy for one little Pointy Red Dog. He was an amazing soul and I was very deeply privileged to be able to walk though his life with him.

I think in a lot of ways I'm still very much in shock as it doesn't seem really real at times. Of course, I'm also reminded with the wild and wooly mob I've got here still that dogs and children are creatures of the present moment.

It's not the lesson they were intending (actually a lesson was the last thing on any of their minds - they were busy romping and wrestling) but sitting and watching them, it occurred to me that if I am to do honor to his memory and the gifts a dog gives of being fully with you in whatever the moment you are both in, I will also remember to draw closer and truly be with those who are here with me, soak up the moments with them as well and truly appreciate every moment I get with them to the fullest.