There is nothing as satisfying as a cold something or other at the end of a mowing session on a warm Sunday afternoon. Unless it's being able to have it sitting in the sunshine and listening to the bird song in the near distance and D in the office area tapping away on his computer putting the final touches on his thesis. The great news is that he is not, as we had thought, a vegetarian so there will be a roast for dinner tonight. Yumm. It doesn't get much better than this,
There is activity in the swallow's nest although it doesn't appear to be swallow tails that we see hanging over the side of it. Or perhaps it is and someone fails on bird identification as much as they do on facial recognition. Thank goodness S has that otherwise I would not have seen J's eldest daughter and her boyfriend at the markets this morning - or her brother. It turns out that he is the potato man that S has been buying from since we arrived. Small world hey?
It was M's last markets before she flies out tomorrow. We managed to resist the temptation to wrap a shoebox for her to deliver for us. It would have been fun to see the look on her face - especially as we had previously assured her what we were sending with her would be "small". I wish we could say that we chose not to play the trick because we knew it was mean - actually it's because we suspect she can give as good as she gets and we don't want to be on the receiving end of that particular exercise.
We visited the meat market at the roundabout earlier today. That doesn't sound very good does it? It is of course the butcher and S was very pleased that she finally got to go there because she had heard it was good. Shanks are now on the menu for us - and Pearl. But not eggs - or at least not the egg that was laid in Sydney in the last couple of days. It is apparently four times the size of an ordinary egg - and 8.5 cm long. The owners think they will take out the Australian record for the biggest egg - and then they'll be selling it on EBay.
L popped in this afternoon to bring the 4WD back and to make sure we had enough hay! He missed seeing S do the face-washing thing with Hermes. How brave is she! C was with her while she was doing it - keeping an eye on things (I hope she realized I turned the electric fence back on after I finished the mowing). Which reminds me - I thought I was doing well being in the paddock with Hermes who seemed much more sociable this afternoon and then I realized that I am only incredibly brave with him if he is incredibly far away. I'll mow the rest of that paddock next weekend - and truly there isn't a lot I wasn't able to do - he did move around a bit and when he did, I mowed.
The kids obviously like D because they are all in in time for the ABC news (special election report -no change/decision yet) - or perhaps it's the cold - very chilly here at Latimers now the sun has gone down - or maybe they want to see what all the election fuss is about. Or maybe they all just want to make sure they get their seats since there's another person here tonight who will want one. No, no, they are not spoiled at all.
The markets were good - especially when Fl and S started dreaming out loud about what roles people would have on the Latimers kibbutz - although she didn't use "kibbutz" except to tell me in the car that she had managed not to say it. It was interesting to see that they (since they were the only two there at the time - well, I was there but only to take notes) had cast people in roles that weren't that far from those they currently have - she and F would garden, O and M cook, Sy and F would do repairs, I would be the tech person, and M and An would be in charge of investments. What was that old Russian saying - "From each according to their ability ...". I liked the thought of people driving to Latimers from near and far (and maybe even on motorbikes) to see the set-up.
Vote counting is set to continue in the morning. Tr reckons Labor will end up forming alliances with enough of the independents that they will be able to govern. Maybe we will know more tomorrow.
