Back on deck

I've had one of those days that turned into one of those weeks which stretched out into one of those fortnights.

I'm a little done with it to tell you the truth.

But it's all good now.  Or at least better anyway.  Manageable, deal-with-able.

Hopefully it all settles down and life returns to some semblance of normal.  Whatever normal is.  Normal isn't really a word best used to describe my world and our life.  Odd.  Unique.  Left-of-centre.  Rarely normal.

But the times they are a changin' and while the future is looking mighty bright, the right now is still in shadow and the stairs outta here seem really long and steep from where I'm standing right now.  

That'll pass, I know.

Nothing a good cry won't fix in the right-here-and-now.  

There.  I feel better now.

La Vida Loca

I was going to title this post La Vida Normal but the more I've thought about my day today I came to realise it wasn't.  There is some degree of normality but on the whole it's been a whole lot of busy-crazy - I feel like I've been running around like a headless chook minus the wing flapping and running into things!

It started early with a call from mum who came home from hospital this morning.  All is well - well, as well as can be expected.  The cardiologist has confirmed that her heart is fine - nothing wrong there - so now the hunt is on for the cause of her chest pains.  She has tests, tests and more tests scheduled over the next couple of weeks, plus an endoscopy and a few more tests (!), which will hopefully determine just what causing her troubles.  But her heart is fine and that is some mighty good news!

Monster zucchini and cucumber - plus some normal size ones
from the veggie garden.  Over the back is a watermelon I
found still kicking in the garden. It survived the re-roofing of
the shed so hats off to it!

I then spent most of my day in the shop pricing stock and rearranging displays in the gear-up for Mother's Day (big day for gift shops - second to xmas).  Easterfest is on this weekend which will bring a huge amount of people to town (something like 50,000 from the surrounding districts and as far away as Brisbane and the coast I think the paper was saying).  Needless to say, we will be ready for them and try to convince them that right here, right now is a great time to get mum something special! We can only try!

I have also done all my usual chores at home - unfortunately no magical fairy completed them for me!  Plus baked two loaves of bread (one -cheese and chive - to take to the neighbours tonight for our first French lesson - oui oui!), picked the veggies that have grown to monster proportions from a couple of days rain, fixed up the chook pen fence which had some pretty big chook-sized holes under which they could have escaped (but they weren't that clever!), pulled weeds out of the garden while the ground is still damp and fed my niece and nephew's guinea pigs (Spotty and Milkshake) that we are pig-sitting while they are away camping for the week.  Phew!  

I still have a list as long as my arm to complete (a written list is the only way I remember to get things done!) but the chances of anything else getting done today is slim to none!  No matter, they'll still be there on the list tomorrow!

Right now though, I'm going to kick back on the lounge for 30 minutes before heading across the road for dinner!  Au revoir!

You crazy galah

Yesterday afternoon while I was waiting for the LOML to come home from work, I heard a noise coming from the back of the house that sounded like someone was trying to break in.

No need to tell you I shit myself and immediately started thinking which alternative exit I would take to GET ME OUTTA THERE.  We have a number of...how to put this politely...ferals....living in the next street over so I'm always cautious when I'm home alone.

Eventually I got angry enough (who the hell do they think they are trying to break into my house!?!) to go and investigate.  True, I did so sneakily, tiptoe-ing along the timber floorboards and peering out from behind a curtain.  But investigate I did.

Couldn't see anything from the window so then I had to brave it and go outside.  At least it was still daylight.  If it was night-time, not a chance.

Anyway, this is what was trying to break into my house.....

Note to self: must do something about that mould....

....two pink galahs.

My guess is that they were looking for a place to set up house - a love shack all of their own. 

Unfortunately for them this house is already taken.  And no amount of eating the weatherboards (that's what the noise was) is going to change that.

Bloody nature*.

* running joke in this household - said by the sister of a friend who, after moving to a bushland setting surrounded by native trees, was woken one morning (quite late by any standard) by a number of birds chirping and singing outside her window.  Upon rising and greeting her guests uttered the immortal words 'bloody nature'.  Funny as!

Good Vibrations

Today I heard the Beach Boys on the radio singing about good vibrations....you know the one....

I'm pickin' up good vibrations
She's giving me excitations
I'm pickin' up good vibrations
(Oom bop bop good vibrations)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
Good good good good vibrations
(Oom bop bop)
She's giving me excitations
(Oom bop bop excitations)
etc etc etc

But that's not what I was singing.

Oh no no no.

Thanks to the subliminal power of advertising, this is what is now stuck in my head on an endless (ENDLESS!!!) loop....

Damn you, advertising agencies, damn you!

Show & Share

In this photo - Whitey, Blackie, Crazy & a red one (?)

I have six chickens. They have fun personalities with a few ideosyncracies thrown in for good measure. 

Their names are Big Red (she's the boss), Little Red (she's not), Medium Red (she's in the middle), Blackie (she's the black one), Whitey (she's the white one) and Crazy (she's the little bantam-cross who is the bottom of the pecking order.  And she's crazy). 



 Crazy is crazy - there is no other word for it.  She is very skittish and will take off like a rocket if you even so much as look at her.  She's also the most vocal and is guaranteed to be the one cackling like a....crazy chicken....at six in the morning after laying an egg.  She's also the only one of all six to reliably lay an egg every day (I can tell, hers are smaller than the others').  She's also the only one to get clucky every now and then and find herself in chook jail (so named by my nephew and niece) - the isolation pen without the nesting box.

Big Red is the boss hen.  She'll stand on your feet as you enter the pen, she'll take on my mum's mini foxy if he gets too close and she'll follow me around when they're allowed out of their pen.  She's also the most docile and is happy to be picked up and petted.

The rest are individuals in themselves but Crazy and Big Red stand out from the crowd.

The love of my life says that we actually have seven chooks.  But I am the only one allowed inside the house.  Needless to say, I didn't find that one very funny.

I will understand if he sleeps on the couch.
:)