Well it's about time I hear you say!!!

Sorry folks it has been some time since my last confession (blog) ... where has the time gone - where do I start??

I feel like I'm back at the beginning of our journey - as again all the leaves on the trees are almost gone and winter is already upon us ... but much has also happened in 12 months!

We have decided to make Walcha our home for the time being - almost a year to the day. We've bought our house (well almost, we settle on Tuesday) and already dreaming of the changes and updates it requires ... The girls are back at school - Ella enjoying her first year - and school work (where does that come from???) Miss G enjoying all the social activities school brings her way .... and a bit of school work here and there (only a bit though!)




Autumn has come and gone - the leaves on the tree's which were beautiful when green, and magical when yellow and red, are now littering the floor, brown and dry, a couple of inches thick and the bane of my existence ... bloody leaves .... no really, they've been lovely - but there is SOOOOOOO bloody many of them! Shit! I'm over raking .....

Animal info

Charlie (the cow) ... is very wooly but bit lonely in our neighbours paddock. He still likes the occasional banana (who doesn't) - but happy being a 'real' cow and ignoring us ....

Lola (the lamb's) location ... is well  .. mmmm ... perhaps on the dinner table ??? .... Fairly early on in the piece, Lola escaped our paddock to join Charlie, some cows, and a flock of sheep ... which was a silly thing really, let's just say she got "absorbed" into the fold and even though our neighbour assured us "he knew which one she was" - it would seem that the flock has moved to greener pastures??!!??

Chickens ....
Chickens I hear you say?? Yes Graham (uncle) turned up in March with a incubator and 6 eggs in it.  2 eventually hatch - Mish and I nearly divorced in the first week of chicken rearing - it was intense .... The first chicken to hatch was sadly fairly "physically challenged" ("a complete and total mongy" would be a better term but probably not very PC) - he had turned in feet and a crooked neck - not a good look... Things had looked promising at the start but he deteriorated fairly rapidly ... Mish "helped him" out of his misery - not sure how (and don't want to know) - but with a few tears and the last of the flowers in our garden (picked by Ella) we wished him/her farewell ....

The trauma of the rearing, and our marriage on the line, we sort help .... where do you ask? from a mumma hen (sourced from the classified section of the local newspaper) ... Thanking the lordy, "Lotta" (lot'a'eggs) joined the clan and took over rearing duties ... Clancy (chick 2)  continually pecks "Lotta" and she tolerates it - god know why??!? The 2 make an usual pair - Lotta is red and passive, Clancy, who is going through an ugly teenage stage (her b/w feather are half chick / half adult), darts around like she's on speed/cocaine and uppers all at once .. and yes 'she' is a girl or that is what we (and she) is praying for - because life is a lot more "lengthy" if you aren't a rooster!! Knowing our luck ... yep ... she's a he.

Some of you have already had news of our latest architectural addition's. Firstly, a new double sink and lovely new dishwasher was installed by Nige and Mish - many thanks for this - who would have thought that such a simple improvement would have profound effects!   Secondly was a architecturally designed and constructed chicken coupe - named the "Egg Factory" ... Whilst Dad, Nguyen and Claudia have been here from Thailand - Dad went about constructing a permanent chicken abode. 2 levels of the finest egg laying accommodation ever seen in Walcha. Painted black and white in tribute to the first of our chickens. It sits proudly on top of our defunct veggy patch awaiting more arrivals. 4 of which arrived on wednesday .... another mother and 3 chicks. We have named her "Jimmy"" in honour of my great uncle Jim who sadly passed away on wednesday too. "Jimmy" the chicken, like her name sake, is white in appearence with a lovely qwoff of white feathers on top - not dissimilar to Jims white qwoff too. Although "Jimmy" is obviously a girl - it was well known that Jim was not adverse to a bit of cross dressing at the Oak Park races -so we decided he wouldn't mind giving his name up to a "lady". The other 3 chicks are yet to be named - will keep you posted. The chicken lady has also conned us into another mother and her 2 chicks - who might join the clan next week - will keep you posted on this also.

We'll that's it for now - the fire is burning brightly keeping the cold outside at bay. Mish is off acting in his debut performance tonight ... what I hear you say! Acting??? Ahhh but that is a tale for another blog - watch this space!