A quiet life

It's been a fairly quiet few days.

I'm working a different pattern in September, four days instead of three and Wednesdays off. I am quite enjoying the extra day but I must say that I am looking forward to going back to three days after my holiday in October. I do enjoy being a Part Timer :-D

Last Wednesday Jim and I went into town to do a few things.  We came back to Hill House to find Steve the Horse Man in the bottom paddock. He was trying to catch a mare and foal to take back to his place. He had the mare but the foal was proving to be a more difficult prospect.  In fact, the foal had attached itself to a different mare, Not the Mother. Every time Steve got anywhere near it, the Not the Mother ran off and the foal went too.  Jim went to help. So you have The Mother tied to a tree, stamping her feet, jumping up and down and showing her displeasure at having her baby stolen very vocally.  You have the Not the Mother rushing about with the foal.  The other horses were shut in the top paddock. Eventually they managed to get the Not the Mother into the top paddock too.  Jim shut the gate with the foal on one side and the Not the Mother on the other. Then the foal squeezed through a tiny gap between the gate post and the fence and took off up into the top paddock too.  Everyone sighed.  The Mother mare was released and also took off up into the top paddock.  

Rupert and Hugo had been watching all this from the windows of the house and the back yard.  I was in the front yard patrolling the fence line. The eagles came wafting over to watch from on high.  The magpies and rosellas retired to the relative safety of the trees.  Eventually, the Mother and the foal were corralled together and were persuaded onto the horse float by means of tasty treats. The Not the Mother was extremely angry that her adopted foal had been taken away but eventually calmed down.

Peace and quiet returned to Hill House.  The eagles went away. The magpies and rosellas resumed normal activity.  All was good.

And that was probably the most exciting thing that happened last week. For Jim and me, at least.  We've been up at Hill House all week and had a very quiet weekend. I made marmalade and a passionfruit and lemon curd with some passionfruit that I found in a bag on the kitchen table. The oranges and lemons had come from one of the receptionists at work. We dropped out to Elaine to the farm shop and I went down to our place to make sure all was well.  Apart from that we have done very little.

And now it is Monday morning. Rupert and Hugo have retired back to bed after their breakfast and a run about.  And I should get organised to head to Melbourne.

It's getting noticeably lighter in the mornings and the evenings are getting longer. The trees are blossoming. The ground is beginning to warm up.  Its too cold overnight to start putting tender plants out and it's a bit too early to start sowing summer seeds.  But nearly.  Nearly.  I'll be away for three weeks in October.  I need to decide whether to sow seeds before I go or whether to wait until I get back.  Perhaps I'll do both.  Two sets of sowings