Mother's Day

The weather has started to change, getting cool especially early in the morning feeding the ducks.  At 5am in the dark, during the cold hours I would rather snuggle in bed.  It is definitely starting to be a challenge to go outside with my new massive coat on.  I get my torch, put on gumboots, grumble to myself.  Then trudge outside past the car shed, to the coop with a container of grain.  I fill their food up, go into the nesting boxes, wake everyone up.  They noisily inform me that they too do not like being woken in the cold of 5am whilst I try to feel under them for eggs in the dark.  It is however a joy to see them every day.  I do miss them when I don't go out in the morning. 


Last week was a blur of days containing work, home, cats, ducks, chickens, wedding planning, cooking, also don’t forget cleaning. It slipped past me rather stealthily.
Friday night we went to a friend’s house warming, which was wonderful, we are so proud for them both for taking the leap to buy a house, not to mention happy they have found joy in each other. We couldn't stay as we had an appointment with a wedding venue Saturday morning. 
We woke, rose to do some morning chores, let out the birds to roam the garden.  It was a beautiful day to look at a venue, we drove there in the beautiful morning spent an hour looking around.  It is definitely a possibility, although being me I don't ever like to buy the first thing I see we will look at a couple more over the next few months.


Lazily we tidied the house, did some work in the yard.  I snuggled under a blankey on the couch writing lists of things to do or organise over the next 12 months.  It rained lightly outside for the late afternoon.


Sunday morning I went for a run, only a 5km run though, not my usual 10km,  as my soon to be Mother in Law as well as Brett's brother were coming to visit today, because it is Mother's day.  The ground was wet, soggy, grassy, soon so were my running shoes.  I played zombies run as I did my laps trying stubbornly to continue until my GPS tracker on my phone alerted me at the 5km goal.  Satisfied I went inside for a shower, also to guzzle some water.  I straightened up a little, while Brett went to the butcher to buy some lamb cutlets for lunch. 


They arrived in a flurry of smiles and hugs, came inside settled, then had a look around the house as we pointed out the improvements we have been slowly making.  New kitchen bench, splash back, new shelves in the guest room, new light fittings everywhere.






Outside next to visit with the ducks, chickens, cats, have a pat then wander around the garden looking at the progress of the trees, pointing at plants, flowers, new taps, water tanks, discussing ideas for the future etc.  Brett pointed out our newest plant, the African horned melon that has appeared from nowhere in the garden around the fire pit.  

African Horned Melon

We walked around to the vegie patch which is looking a little empty at the moment, then it started to lightly rain.  A perfect time for lunch.

Brett lovingly prepared lunch for his family, while we sat, chatted, generally caught up, on the couch with some bubbly.  Lunch as it always is when Brett cooks on the BBQ was delicious, rosemary salt lamb cutlets with roasted potato and home-grown pumpkin. 


Lyn and John had come prepared for getting dirty, so as the sprinkling rain eased we took the moment to head outside to the mess of a garden around our gazebo that had recently gotten away from us.  John and I set to work there, Brett with his mum worked on reviving the vegie patch.  They weeded the carrots and planted potatoes. 

The ducks together with excited chickens wandered down to lend us a hand, soon everyone was digging, weeding or foraging for ants or bugs in the gazebo garden.  There were many happy noises from the chickens, lots of joyous tail waggling by all the ducks as we dug through the soil.

Brett with his mum worked together to plant a row of rosemary as this plot of the garden is earmarked for a big herb garden.

The sun moved on, the day wound down.  We gathered some eggs, sweet potato, basil, marigolds seeds, rosemary cuttings also homemade lemon cordial for our family to take home with them, as we are always overflowing with these things, and we rarely let people leave empty handed.

It was suddenly time for more hugs and kisses, we waved goodbye as they drove off down the street.  It was a good day, full of chatter and activity.  There was just enough sunlight left to attend to the ducks, change their water, I quickly gave the chickens nesting boxes a bit of a clean.  As the sun went down I put the chickens on their perch.  I have been trying to teach them to sleep on a perch, being ex battery hens it is something they are not used to, so they generally sleep in their nesting boxes. Oh boy do they make a mess in their boxes though!! So we decided if we can teach them to use a ladder we should be able to teach them to roost on a perch at night.  

The ducks nested together all four in one box in the corner, trilling quietly to each other.  The chickens settled finally on their perch, started purring, I slowly, softly snuck out into the darkness, walked contentedly back to our house to tackle the question of dinner.  All in all a good, happy, productive weekend.