Amazing August

Look what we´ve got!
The most important news this month came in an unexpected announcement that our granddaughter Lexa Rose Keen was born by caesarian section just after 11 am on Friday 27th August.
We are both overwhelmed and delighted. Jo is doing well after the operation and Richard has been at the hospital all day every day since, with staff having to kick him out at midnight! Hopefully Jo and Lexa Rose will go home today, all being well.
Uncle James arrived yesterday so we had a family toast to celebrate our new addition to the family. He has already been to see Lexa and managed to hold her without fear of dropping her. (I am so envious!) He says he can't get over how tiny and perfect she is and, quote 'her tiny hands, I mean how does that work??'

I just can't wait to get to the UK and hold her myself. Hopefully in a couple of weeks time!Proud Granny and Granpa the day her birth was announced..

Meanwhile back on the ranch here is Fraser's report.
August has been a rather hot month...as was July . Lots of fires, so far none too close - touch wood, whistle etc. Bugsy has become semi aquatic - let him out and he goes and stands in the pond, trying to catch anything that moves,

so far without success, apart from a lizard or two and a slowworm. Scraps joins him when she’s all hot and bothered from her relentless pursuit of a tennis ball. I throw it with a sling I made, as otherwise it gets a bit hard on the shoulder!

Bugs is also an ace swimmer down at the lake - and he swims for the sheer fun of it. Scraps doesn’t. Throw a ball out of her depth and she waits for Bugsy to get it and drop it off to her in passing, which he often does, what a gent...occasionally.

My model building has has rather gone off the boil, as has my painting. I have, however been playing with a model dolphin that I sculpted out of ‘Sculpey’ a polymer clay. The mounting will end up as a glass fronted case. I don’t kid myself that this is the start of a commercial line of work. It took a few weeks of spare time just to get the dolphin right. If I were to get serious about small sculpture I’d need to find a good source of things like silicon for moulding and bronze powder for casting as real Bronze would require a second mortgage.

In an attempt to reduce fuel consumption, and because I hate the noise, smell, dust and getting coated in grass and weed clippings, I bought a Scythe. Found a German made steel tube snath (handle to you, the uninitiated) and an Austrian blade at a local market. I'm now waiting for a tiny anvil, sharpening stone and metal sheath (to be filled with water) from England. The anvil is for sharpening - google scythe sharpening if you're curious. There'll be more to report next month.