Meet Thelma and Louise (Lulu)

After standing at the doorway looking longingly at the outside world for a couple of days now, Lulu finally took that first brave step.

I have to admit that it might well have been me, raking the straw and doing a general tidy up that made it happen. There was a lot of squawking and wing flapping and then off she went.

Naturally the other two, who were already outside, had to come and see what all the fuss was about and I thought that they might just chase her back inside again. But no, they just wanted to have a sticky beak.

They all love this little lemon tree here, next to the plum and apple trees. The baby tree right at the front of the photo is a small Bay tree that I planted last year. It has more than doubled its size and M always remarks on it. They are meant to be slow growing but I can't complain with this one. The chooks spend hours scratching around under the lemon tree and then just resting, letting the breeze ruffle their feathers. The cat, Fiddle, is probably under there too. I think he's keeping an eye out for mice and rats. He did get a rat last week and left it as a present for us to find! The disposal of dead rats, I informed M, is definitely a "boy" job. With that he picked it up by its tail and buried it - somewhere. I didn't stay around to look.

We have the local skate park behind our yard, to one side, and today was the "Big Southern Skate Off". It has to be in capital letters as it has been very loud all day. The local council had a lot to do with it so there's never any trouble and one lucky skater will go home with the first prize of $500. I was almost tempted to get the grand kids skateboard out myself.

There's been an assortment of music, luckily not too much "doof doof" and only a sprinkling of four letter words, but I do wonder about the eggs that might be presented tomorrow. Eddie had created another shell-less egg today and after some discussion with M, I decided to follow his advice and boil it very slowly. Well, it looks like a hard boiled egg now so he can try it first!

Our street is still unsealed and the dust being created by passing traffic is horrendous. I was walking back from the shop and saw an approaching ute being driven quite fast by a young bloke which was throwing up clouds of dust behind it. I actually had to stop and turn my back to the road with my hands over my face for about thirty seconds. I think the blokes at the local garage saw what happened as about thirty minutes later, a water truck came along and sprayed the whole area about four times to try and settle it. Oh well, better late than never.

I'm feeling rather guilty today, M is outside working in the sun, laying pavers. He never seems to stop. I've just flitted about washing dishes, collecting veggies and apples that have fallen, fed the chooks etc. Definitely nothing too strenuous. I just don't like working outside in the sun, it's very fierce here in Tassie and it's easy to burn. We're all hoping for some rain soon.

Well it's time for the daily wheat snack for the girls so I'll go and shoo Eddie off my milk crate and try and encourage her to share the wheat with the others. She doesn't mind them eating it off the ground but they're no allowed to come and eat from my hand - yet!

Enjoy the weekend.... I am.

J