May Days

Happy anniversary Scraps. She has been with us for a year now and is probably about 16 months old and slowly growing up but still adorably nuts.
Bugsy had his big operation last week and also had a rogue dew claw removed while he was under. He was really good about wearing the anti reach collar and despite a lot of noise and his low pain threshold has been a brave boy.The weather has gone ballistic now and both dogs are learning to like the water more and more although they don't like suddenly being out of their depth. This is so useful because it is a good way to cool them down in the 30 plus heat. This is Bugsy's first summer too so he does tend to feel it more.The river is the highest we have ever seen it and our usual walkways around the shore have disappeared so we are looking for alternative routes for our daily walksand at the dam the water is 10 metres higher than the maximum limit. A bit dodgy we think but apparently the powers that be are going to release the water this weekend. Surfs up!!!
The tadpoles are now tiny toads and the gorse and heather are out.Still doing repairs after two winters of heavy rain and frosts. The concrete flashing between the veranda roof and house wall has been leaking for two years so we decided to replace it with zinc flashing. So Steve and Fraser spent two days on the roof trying not to break too many of the old tiles since we have so few replacements, putting in the flashing sections and replacing leaking tiles.In the meantime Vanessa continued to re varnish the veranda woodwork that I started at the beginning of the month..and since she is as light as a feather and less likely to break the tiles than me she also gave the upstairs windows a much needed external coat too.We all finished off re-varnishing the rest of the veranda and I brush-painted the front wall. Couldn't use the rollers and tray because an enterprising Redstart had a brood of chicks in a nest on top of the tray, hanging on the wall in the baracao! They were just so cute. Anyway the veranda now looks the biz. Hammocks are back up and ready for hot afternoon siestas.

We put in more staggered steps down to the garden gate using up some of the old wood from the barn. Eventually they will be gravelled.

The weeding contines and we have masses of poppies this year. I think one of the bags of compost that I bought must have had a load of poppy seeds in and the back terrace is poppy city.
The pond is looking great and we are just waiting now for the waterlilies Final jobs of the month are to rebuild our front wall and put in a new metal fence and wooden gate and to sort out our water pump house once and for all.
The wall is down and the rain has come!!! so delays all round so I guess that will be part of next month's blog.
I am off to the UK on Friday for 10 days to meet up with family and friends and use up my transfered BA flight from Christmas. Volcanic ash permitting!

Abundant April

Well it's all happening now that the rains have stopped (yeeehah!) and the sun has come out to play. Must have been the effect of our boules and darts party which was great fun and everyone really joined in the spirit of the day.
Rules were adhered to (kind of) and there were trophies for the Boules and Darts champion teams. Thanks to everyone for bringing great stuff to eat and drink and for making it such a great day.
Another celebration was Fraser's birthday and our 25th year as a couple. Had lunch with a few friends and Fraser bought me a wisteria that actually flowers to stop me moaning about the one we currently have that is huge but flowerless!!Fraser has been busy again since we decided to completely replace the field fence as Bugsy was using it as an escape ladder so now we have this very sexy fence and gate and it looks great. Next job is to redo the front wall and fence. Watch this space. He also put in some steps up from the pond to the terrace above which look really cute and make it so much esier to water the Liquid Ambers on the terrace, and we now have graduated steps down the slope to the field gate too which will be graveled eventually. It has been a great way to use up the old beams from the barn and outbuildings.
I did some spring cleaning of the car which contained enough dog hair to build a new one from scratch
We took an afternoon off to visit Harry and Seana at their lovely new, Hacienda style house which isn't finished quite yet but we had lunch on the veranda anyway. It was a lovely break! Thanks guys.
But mainly this month has been all about burgeoning nature!!!! Everything is growing like blazes. Our kitchen is full of the scent of jasmine and the irises are out! Fraser continues to make a record of the flora and fauna around us.The bass that we put in with the goldfish are growing to a good size.

The carp in the lake are in close to the shore spawning we thinkand the tadpoles from the toad spawn fringe the entire line of the lakeshore. Nothing seems to eat them!!Bugsy continues to grow up but still needs a lot of training, but not as much as Scraps who continues to be blonde and a bit bonkers. But we love them both.

On the down side we have discovered a huge crack in our chimney, since a small chimney fire and the rain have done their work. So this needs to be sorted and luckily we are insured! But the mess is going to be horrendous!!
Best news for last.....

I AM GOING TO BE A GRANNY!!!!!!!!!!

Richard and Jo are having their baby in September. We are all so happy for them.
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