There was no sign of R and his whipper-snipper today, and it was all we could do not to ask L who was busy doing the fence lines up and down the lane, to come in and have a go. It doesn't look like a dangerous tool in his hands, but we know better and were pleased to see he was wearing safety googles and boots. There's nothing quite like seeing a man whipper-snippering in silhouette against the setting sun. It makes sense to do it in the cool of the evening as well, as I was surprised at how quickly he works - he'd done both sides of the lane by the time I'd taken the rubbish and the recycling up - although to be fair M did wave me down for a chat to ask if we would pass on news of her Mum's passing. Those folk are not having an easy trot. But at least they have a trip down south to look forward to in a couple of months, and M confirmed yesterday that, after he had been reminded a number of times, L had finally booked Lacey in to the stud for while they are away.
Otherwise it was a fairly quite day at Latimers ... especially since there was no blasting at the dam site today - as there was late last week. At first S thought it was thunder, until she realized it was fairly regular ... but she had to reassure the kids nonetheless.
The baby sparrows are flying! This is good ... but it also makes it difficult for S to count them to see if all of them are okay. She found some feathers below the nest today - just feathers, nothing else, well, except for the copious amounts of droppings on the newspaper which has been laid for just that purpose - and wasn't sure whether Tink had successfully lured one of the birds down low enough to "play". Hopefully this wasn't the case. We'll keep trying to do the head count - as long as they don't decide to fly off too soon.
It was a fairly quiet day in the office as well with the non-appearance of the auditors. But, they will be here tomorrow and this time there will be five of them. We almost have to put a new wing on the office to accommodate them - or would have if so many of our folk hadn't been farmed out to other sites as we wait for word on whether the project is proceeding.
We sat down to dinner tonight and S wanted to tune in to "Junior MasterChef" which launched last night with a massive audience of 2.2 million. Alas, the Obamas were on instead ... it seems the JMC is only on once a week, which makes sense when you think the kids have an education to pursue and just can't take months off at a time. (S was saying that she'd had a text from the other S of Molendinar asking if we were going to tune in ... we haven't heard that much from her lately, possibly as, according to her message, she is currently working two jobs.) We were glad we did tune in - the kids were absolutely amazing ... cooking quite complex dishes without recipes! There are 50 in this part of the competition - chosen from the over-5,000 who applied - and they are taking part - 10 at a time - in heats, with the top 4 from each going through to a final 20. They did two heats last night - international dishes and desserts - with the kids for each heat chosen based on their individual cooking preferences (and age it seemed). Someone wrote that the best part of the program was seeing the looks on the kids' faces as their names were called, for them to take a step forward as they were through to the next round; the worst ... the looks of disappointment on the faces of the kids who didn't make it through. I can't remember what the prize for the winner is (and there can only be one JMC) but every child who participates gets a range of cooking goodies including ScanPan knives, pans, a stick blender and ... a heap of other stuff which I can't recall at the moment. It did take a little of the suspense out of it, though, when they had previews for next week's show ... including close-ups of some of the kids who were still competing in the heat!
Tonight was the first time taking the rubbish up over the new road ... and what an absolute joy it was! If it hadn't also been recycling night, I think I would have brought the rubbish home and taken it up again. The hard part now is listening out for the wheelie bin to make sure it is still affixed to the tow bar - the ride is so smooth there's hardly any bin clatter! It will be interesting to see what they do with the leftover gravel and bituminous material which is currently piled beside the road near the gate where the trucks used to go down to drop the fill. Maybe they'll take it away (and this would be amazing since it's been there since they finished the road) tomorrow.
